Week 2 of Class 555

During this week's lesson, we've started to take some of the information that we've gathered, and applied it to the initial construction stages of our own portfolios.  As I was deciding which categories that I would have for my own, I noticed that although I had initially selected portfolios that were educationally relevant, they needed a little bit of tweeking for my purposes.  For example, as this portfolio is not designed for an active job search, I may not have as many categories dedicated to resumes, work experiences, or references (although, having a resume posted on the site wouldn't hurt anything, as you never know what will happen in life).  This portfolio, which will showcase my technological artifacts, goals,etc., is an excellent professional example of what I stand for as an educator.

We also took a look at mission and vision statements that best exemplify our personal/professional viewpoints.  Whereas the vision focuses more on the professional, concrete desirable outcome, a mission statement is more personal, describing a general, yet specific philosophy that an educator should try to follow.  As I've always tried to improve as a teacher, an example of my personal mission has always been to "get better every year."  Now, I know that I have to retool this mission, making it more appropriate for my portfolio, but I still firmly that believe that at the root of my mission should be a desire to continue to become a more well-rounded educator.

How Have I Used ePortfolios?

The most extensive work that I (and realistically the school district that I teach at) have done from a personal/professional standpoint with ePortfolios is the preparation of my Professional Development Plan.  As renewing your teacher's license in Wisconsin no longer requires the simple accumulation of credits, I have had establish certain goals that I wish to attain as an educator.  I have also had to provide proof of completing these goals, in the form of an ePortfolio.  This has been a long five year process of gathering information, implementing strategies into my classroom, and then tying it all together.  Much like this class, I have had to collect artifacts and state how they have proven fulfillment of my goals (I assume that this time around it will be picking artifacts that verify standards).  I have thoroughly enjoyed the online format, helping me contain all of my information in a convenient location.  This also allowed me the added perk of being able to email my PDP to review team without having to "snail mail" a copy, wasting valuable time.  For anyone who is not familiar with Wisconsin's PDP, here's a link to the website that I use to house my online portfolio that should answer some questions you may have about how it is run:  https://qei.wisconsin.edu/index.cfm

My second example is mainly personal.  As I have been trying to figure out how to create a website for my high school baseball team, I have been looking at others, deciding which format best suits our needs.  As a baseball website is essentially an online portfolio for the accomplishments of my team, I see many similarities.

I look forward to using my knowledge from this portfolio to increase the effectiveness of my Graduate School Portfolio.  It's hard to believe that we're this close to the end, to be talking about a final, cumulative piece!