Teaching Portfolios. Do you have one?

[Sandy Hirtz]

Do you have a teaching porfolio?  Should they be mandatory?

 

The teaching portfolio is an effective way for teachers to reflect upon, describe, and document their teaching philosophy, goals, and achievements.

 

Teaching Portfolios have been initiated at McGill because they are useful in:

• focusing professors' reflection on the quality of teaching;
• providing a framework for documenting teaching effectiveness;
• expanding the ways in which good teaching and the complexity of teaching can be documented;
• fostering ongoing dialogue about teaching and teaching improvement;
• emphasizing McGill's commitment to teaching as a highly regarded, valued, and rewarded scholarly activity that is an integral part of the reappointment, tenure, and promotion process.

Examples of teaching portfolios can be found on the McGill University site. The most common items found in a teaching portfolio are:  

• A philosophy of teaching  
• Sample Lesson Plans
• Sample Unit Plans
• Classroom Management Philosophy 
• Evaluations of Teaching
• Honors or Recognitions

What else could/should be included in a teacher portfolio? Do you have one to share?

[Ramesh Sharma]

1. Reflections by students can also be included as they are best evaluators of teaching and can provide excellent feedback on improving teaching. To protect identity of students, personal identification may be removed from such comments by students.

2. Tool or methodology of teaching (which the teacher feel has resulted in increased effectiveness of instruction) can also be indicated so that others can learn and make use of them.

[suehellman]

Hi Sandy -- here's the link to my e-portfolio (http://suehellman-portfolio.yolasite.com/). Needless to say it's a work in progress.

[Aaron Mueller]

I have a teaching ePortfolio that was done as a final product of my Masters of Educational Technology at UBC (The MET program).

 

The process of producing this portfolio was fantastic and the embedded reflection on my current teaching practices and pedagogy was very useful.  I would recommend having a website and portfolio as part of every teacher's toolkit.

 

My ePortfolio can be found here:

 

http://www.aaronmueller.com/ePortfolio/

[Sandy Hirtz]

Alec Couros and colleagues have collaboratively written a great list of writing prompts related to technology & media in teaching & learning. Not only could responses be added to a portfolio, but each one would make a great blog post. The list is on a google doc that invites your ideas.