Mod. 5.1 - Filling The Gaps of Your Learning Portfolio

To begin, I’d like you to carve our time to browse through your portfolio and make a list of what’s missing, and take time to import any missing major assignments and reflections into your portfolio. If you have been keeping up with this work throughout the year this should not take much time. The goal here is to make sure that you fulfill the first requirement of your learning portfolio, which is that it is a space that helps document your work and progress through this program. Ideally you will have all assignments imported into your portfolio and all reflections written by the end of the week. If you are quite far behind on this and need to create an alternative plan, reach out for a one-on-one meeting. If you have been doing this work already and do not have many missing assignments, feel free to move on to the next assignments or simply to spend time tweaking and polishing what is already in your learning portfolio.

---

Provide a link to your portfolio: https://www.benapkar.com/blog

Reflect on the platform you are using and how satisfied or not you are with it: I chose Wix as the platform for my portfolio because I had previous experience with Squarespace and wanted to use the portfolio as an opportunity to learn a new web platform. If I had to provide a grade on how satisfied I am with Wix, I would give it a B-. There have been some learning curves as a result of clunky user experience that is intentionally designed to minimize the ease of experience until the person pays to upgrade their website. At the time the program began, I had intended to use the website both personally and professionally, so I opted to pay for the website platform. In hindsight, I would have probably selected a different platform.

Convey any issues you are having / help you could use from the community / Diane / IT:

None of the issues I’m experiencing can really be supported by the Mackerels, Diane or IT. It’s simply a matter of how the platform is designed. Bringing someone else in would probably create frustration for them.

Provide an overview of what you’ve been working on these past few days/couple weeks;

I’ve made good progress in drafting and uploading my past assignments to my portfolio, but I still have a long way to go. I’ve spent the last few days focusing on copying all of the past assignments that were made available in Canvas over to my Google Drive to ensure I had access to them moving forward. I completed the smaller assignments in Module’s 2,3, and 4, and I spent a considerable amount of time on my Community Capstone Project to advance the Search from the Quarterfinal round to the Semifinal round.

Outline the work that remains to be done in terms of gap-filling (i.e. importing key assignments and writing reflections on them);

The area I need to spend the most time in is in my reflections. While I have some existing material from which to build these reflections, I echo the sentiments of my fellow Mackerels who have shared that they feel too close to the coursework to be able to genuinely reflect on them in a meaningful way.

Articulate goals for completion (what it will take to complete the gap-filling and when you will have this done.

This past week was an intense week of travel (BWI-FLL; FLL-CLT; CLT-BWI; BWI-PIT; PIT-BWI) that put me a bit behind in some of my goals. During the week I also began labor negotiations with the local musician’s union to craft a new CBA for the Orchestra, and I attended the League of American Orchestra’s annual conference. Lastly, I have to complete the company’s end of fiscal year donation appeal to ensure we meet our end of year giving goals and also draft and approve the company’s FY24 budget. These projects require much of my undivided attention, but will be completed by the end of the month after which time I will be able to devote more time and energy to completing the various elements of the capstone.

Reflect on whether the portfolio, as it is shaping up, is becoming a resource that is valuable to you and, if not, what it would take for this to be an ongoing resource that is valuable to you.

I am unsure what value the portfolio will serve for me beyond the MACL program. I intend to keep the website live and use it as an ongoing resource for reflection and as proof of my coursework, but I am unable to think creatively at the moment about how I might synthesize the portfolio elements alongside other elements that would be beneficial to me long term.