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.
I'm really glad we had an assignment just to set up the portfolio. Even though it is pretty basic, I think this will help the rest of this portfolio project to run smooth. We will have to do less adding and deleting of sections due to the fact we saw other portfolios and added only what was relevant to our portfolio in this cohort.
ReplyDeleteI think that it is easy to loose focus of your mission when the stress of day-to-day school issues get in the way. I liked that this assignment made us re-focus on the reason we dedicated ourselves to teaching and helping students. It was difficult for me to condense all of my thoughts into a couple of sentences and ideas. I think you are on the right track with your thoughts – being a life-long learner is crucial for the betterment of not only our students, but also society.
DeleteI like that basic mantra of "improve every year". I am sure that if you reflected on previous years, you would notice these improvements. Those previous accomplishments might help guide you with the decision for your future goals. Good Luck!
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