Learned

"L"- This week has been very stressful both with finishing out the school year and wrapping up my masters class. I continue to learn a lot of new things. This week, I have been able to compile a few professional developments that I would like to work on in the following months/year and have learned several different routes/avenues I can take in order to acquire these professional developments. I have also learned that even though I can use my knowledge while attending Rio Salado and some of my past teaching experiences, I still have a ton of work ahead of me in order to create and complete a professional put together portfolio for PSU by the required deadline.

KNOW/WANT TO KNOW

"K"- I know what my portfolio for Plymouth State University should now include as far as the artifacts that will show my different course competencies. I also know how my portfolio will be evaluated by others and what professional development opportunities I will include as part of my portfolio to help strengthen different areas I have identified in my portfolio. I also know what factors I will be including in my professional development plan.

"W"- I still want to know how I am going to put my portfolio all together once I have all the artifacts completed, I am mostly concerned and confused as to what technology format I should use to compile my portfolio. I am not very tech savvy so I would like to be able to use a format that is simple, user-friendly but will still have the professional appeal as a finished product.

Week 7 "L"

This week I have continued to learn what I need to do to complete my portfolio for Plymouth State University. I have also started to learn how to demonstrate my competency in different courses without having access to my Signature Assignment that I created while attending Rio Salado. Also, this week I learned that I can take EPD233 through Rio Salado which is equivalent to EDU251 and will complete my SEI endorsement requirements. To be honest, the most exciting news was hearing that with being able to take EPD233 there was not a midterm nor a final required in that class.

"KW" Week 7

K- I am starting to know and understand a lot more about what is required for my Portfolio for Plymouth State University. I know what artifact I will be using for EDU285AA and EDU220. I also now know that I did not take EDU251 through Rio Salado but will take EPD233 which is comparable to EDU251 and will add the artifact for that class into my portfolio at a later date (hopefully by September or October at the latest). I also know that I will have to recreate my artifacts and try and use something I have done in my current or past teaching to satisfy what was required in the Signature Assignments. I have also learned that it is best to use your "best" work in the portfolio for Plymouth or if you use an artifact from the past but it does not necessarily demonstrate your best practices you will need to add on or revamp the artifact to be at its best. Finally, I know that each artifact needs to have a reflection piece attached that includes such things as the who, what, where and when surrounding the artifact, why you selected the artifact and how it demonstrates competence/knowledge for the course and how the artifact can promote changes and growth to improve teaching.

W- I still want to know what artifacts I will be using in place of the Signature Assignment for EDU285AC and EDU251. With EDU285AC, there is a CD needed to observe observations in the Beginning Weeks of School in the Primary, Middle and High School levels and since I finished this course over a year ago, I no longer have the CD’s to view. For EDU251, I am going to take EPD233 but I will need to find out when I can take that course and how I will then submit the artifact for the course after the final portfolio has already been submitted.

"L" for Week 6

L- I know understand the competencies I need to demonstrate when submitting my portfolio to Plymouth. I believe I will be looking at both the professional teaching standards as well as the Rio College Course competencies to complete my portfolio. I did finally update and complete a new resume. I am not 100% happy with my resume and will probably made some minor adjustments to it but it covers all the basics for now. My dad always told me that when he received numerous resumes for a job opening he only kept the one-page resumes and discarded the rest. I am not sure if this is correct but I have always tried to kept my resume concise, to the point and one-page in length.

Week 6 "KW"

K- I now know that reflection, organization and appearance are all crucial aspect’s to having a professional portfolio. These are also all relatively easy things to accomplish but are things that are also easy to skim on or forget about when working on your portfolio. I also know that as far as academic standards are concerned, Arizona has their own set of guidelines that are specific for each grade level and include such things as standards and PO’s. I have been working with the Arizona standards for a few years now but I am still learning how to interpret and teach to the different strands, standards and individual PO’s. For me at times, this can be more challenging because I teach a mix 7/8th grade ED class. I also know the true meaning of a portfolio and that it entails a purposeful collection of artifacts based upon a set of standards rather than simple a scrapbook of teaching memories.

W- I am pretty clear on what needs to be included in my portfolio but I still want to know how to demonstrate course competencies for the Rio classes in which I did not do a signature assignment in. I also want to know if I should be looking at the professional teaching standards or the Rio College Course competencies when completing my portfolio strictly for Plymouth or will I be using a combination of both to complete my portfolio. Finally, I am looking at starting to create an updated resume as the one I currently have is ten plus years old and was wondering if there is a program available that will help me create an updated resume.

"L" Week 5

After week 5 instruction, I have learned how important reflection is when teaching. I still don’t know if there are certain things that rank higher in the field of education for teachers to reflect upon but I am going to start by reflecting on the bigger things in my classroom and concentrating more on the "big" picture to start. Based on what I have learned about reflection and being a reflective teacher I would say that I am at the advanced beginner/competent notion as far as reflection is concerned. I recently have been concentrating more on long-term goals and become more effective at conscious deliberate planning. I have also learned that it is extremely important to reflect on your experiences and then decide what you can do to improve your teaching and your student’s learning. Another aspect I now understand and have learned in regards to reflective practice is the different practices there are such as, self-reflection, assessment of student learning and being able to make connections.

Week 5

K- I know as a third year teacher that there is a significant amount of importance as to reflecting upon experiences within the classroom. The reflection can take place and should take place on a number of different things such as daily lesson plans, student assessments and just day to day activities, just to name a few. I also know that one of the first things other people notice when reading written communication no matter who is the sending or reading the communication. As a teacher, I always try to communicate via email when possible to eliminate the penmanship problem but this can then create other issues if I am not careful. Some things that need to be watched when communicating via email are what font size is being used, are capital letters being used appropriately, is any of the font in color/what color and is any of the writing in bold. I also know there are many purposes for reflective practice. Some of these purposes include things like self-reflection, assessment of student learning and being able to make connections.

W- There are several things I want to learn with regards to reflection. I guess my first big questions is, are there certain things a teacher should reflect more upon than others or should a teacher really try and reflect upon each skill/activity/assessment they teach to on a daily basis. I was also wondering if there were certain tools that could be used to track specific reflections made by a teacher throughout the school year and would doing something this detailed be necessary to becoming a "reflective teacher". Finally, I know I am constantly reteaching, revising, adding and deleting materials on a daily sometimes hourly basis due to students academic and/or behavioral needs, does this imply that I am on my way to becoming a reflective teacher? In general, what other things can I do overall to become a better reflective teacher?

Week 4 L

K- Once again, I learned a ton this week about portfolios. I learned that there is a lot to consider with regards to student safety when creating a portfolio. I do think having a smaller class can make creating a portfolio difficult at times especially if you can't use a majority of the student's identities in your portfolio but as long as you use the students you can in your portfolio as effectively as possible you can still produce a high quality portfolio. I never learned if there would be ramifications for identifying a student in your portfolio in which you did not have permission to do so but I'm assuming there would be some accountability on the portfolio designer. I also learned about the ePortfolio tool called carbonmade in that this tool is user-friendly, easy on the eyes and there are no HTML requirements but I am still not 100% sure that this is the tool I will use to create my portfolio.

Week KW

K- I now know that student safety is something that needs to be considered at all times when building your portfolio. I also now know how safety at times can be harder to instill in a digital portfolio vs. a hard copy portfolio. Up until this lesson, I never really thought about what others could get from a digital portfolio. I was really only thinking about the educator or the potential boss that was viewing the portfolio and not about the possible parents of the students in the portfolio or of anyone else who may have interest with regards to a student in the portfolio and is now about to see everything online.

W- As always, there are new questions I have with regards to portfolios that I would like to learn more about. First of all, what if you teach a very small class, say 5 students and of those 5 students you are not allowed to use anything in your portfolio that would give away the identity of three of the students. Would this constraint make your portfolio less effective as you would only be displaying two student’s interactions/work within the classroom? Also, if some rare mistake I were to put something in my portfolio that identified one of the students I shouldn’t have what would be the ramifications against me for that mistake? Finally, is there one ePortfolio tool available that is easier to use/navigate through for individuals like me who are still a little fearful of the technology requirement skills required for an effective digital portfolio.

Week 3 "L"

L- I have learned a lot this week, especially with regards to digital portfolios. I have learned that one digital portfolio can look totally different from another digital portfolio and this does not necessarily mean that one of those portfolios is better than the other. Also, I have learned that adding interactive features, videos, links to outside websites and other technological features can really make the difference between an okay portfolio and a portfolio that would definitely stand out in a group of portfolios. I learned that simple things like the quality of pictures you put in your portfolio and the background color you choose for your portfolio can make a difference to those viewing your portfolio. In addition, I learned that if you construct your portfolio appropriately it can be some what easy to have a print portfolio in an instance where you may need such. Finally, I learned that there may be some similarities in my portfolio as compared to other portfolio but in general my portfolio should be very specific to my teaching values and background.

KW Blog Week 3

K- I now know that there are benefits and disadvantages to having an electronic portfolio. I know that some of the benefits to an electronic portfolio are that it is easy to maintain, edit and update and that it makes sharing your portfolio easier. Some disadvantages to having an electronic portfolio are that it can take more time to develop than a traditional portfolio, it can be stressful and by creating an electronic portfolio professional learning/growth can be overlooked during the portfolio process.

W- I want to know how to correctly complete an electronic portfolio without overlooking or not be able to gain professional growth during the process. I would also like to know if I should have some sort of a traditional portfolio in addition to an electronic portfolio for situations where the electronic portfolio is not accepted.

KWL Week 2

K- I now know what a teaching portfolio should include with regards to things like academic qualifications, courses I have taught and my teaching philosophy just to name a few. I know that there are different portfolio requirements for pre-service and in-service teachers. I also know that a teaching portfolio should be a "working" portfolio, meaning that as the teacher I should be consistently updating/adding new information to my portfolio (this should be done at least twice a year).

W- I still want to know some more specifics about a teaching portfolio such as how my student’s growth should be documented in my portfolio. I am also curious as to how a Special Education ED teacher’s portfolio can look in comparison to a general education teacher’s portfolio, maybe a math general education teacher. Would there be any notable difference between the two portfolios? Can some parts of the portfolio be harder for a special education teacher than for a general education teacher to compile?

L- I learned just how much having a portfolio could benefit me as a teacher. I learned that how a portfolio is presented is almost as important as the content within the portfolio itself. I also learned how it is very important to be original, to showcase unique insights, creativity and skill when writing about your teaching philosophy. Finally, I learned that my final product should be printed on quality paper and having it bound with a plastic comb binder along with taking time to prepare a professional document that reflects my skill, experience and my unique approach to teaching and learning is very important.

KWL

"K-Know": I come to this class with not a whole lot of prior knowledge with regards to portfolios. The one thing I know about portfolios or have some experience with has to do with a modeling portfolio. I did some modeling a few years ago for a short period of time and had to get a portfolio created in order to get modeling jobs. My portfolio was not very extensive and entailed only about three different photo shot pictures. My husband and I also have a financial planner and I know we have an investment portfolio through him but it is sad to say that I could not tell you exactly what that portfolio holds. I know we have our money invested in different areas of the market and most of it is in conservative markets while a small share of our funds are in moderate to aggressive markets.

"W-Want"": There are several things I want to know about in regards to portfolios. I want to know what a "good" portfolio entails/looks like for a teacher. I would also like to learn what a teacher/educator should include in their portfolio and what is okay to exclude or leave out from your portfolio or should you try and include as much as possible. I want to also know if there comes a point when too much information had been added to a portfolio and at that point can the portfolio be considered less effective.

"L-Learned": From the information presented in the lesson and the readings for the week, I learned that an education portfolio is much more extensive than I originally thought it would be. I would have never thought about including photos of my class in action to represent the lessons that are actually included as part of my portfolio. I did learn that keeping it simple is important and that overloading your portfolio with lengthy page after page could cause your portfolio to loose its overall effectiveness. I also learned that it is very important to review your portfolio at least twice a year in order to keep it update and relevant in regards to your teaching experiences.