What should go in an educational portfolio

Share on linkedin. Share on twitter. Share on print. What is a Professional Portfolio? Here are a few considerations to keep in mind as you are compiling your portfolio elements: Your portfolio should highlight your current skills and focus on the future of your career. Choose to keep your portfolio digital when possible. You can use a WordPress site and keep it password protected, or you can create a site using Google or Adobe. Make your portfolio organized so that it tells the story of your career, including where you want your career to go.

When there is doubt, pare down. If you are an experienced teacher, your portfolio can quickly become overstuffed with information that could encourage hiring administrators to skim instead of thoroughly read. Skip your college lesson plans and experience, if possible. If you are coming right out of college, you will want to include your college experience and projects. How to Make a Professional Portfolio Your professional portfolio should be easy to navigate so that administrators can find what they need easily and efficiently.

Here are items you can include in your portfolio: Your teaching philosophy: keep it short and sweet. Also, use your philosophy as the foundation of your portfolio; include other items that support or enhance your philosophy statement. A reader should not have to search through your portfolio to find the pages that are listed in your table of contents. If you think of how your portfolio will be evaluated, and try to translate that into a clear and detailed table of contents that is easy to navigate, your portfolio will probably make an outstanding first impression.

Your resume is important and complex enough that describing it could take an entire section of its own. However, for now, keep these ideas in mind when developing your resume. The standard rule of a single page does not apply in this case. If they are organized correctly, readers can easily select the information they need, and get a whole picture of your qualifications.

Where the teaching portfolio provides a total picture of you as a teacher, the resume provides a total picture of your teaching qualifications. All items should be focused on that. The teaching philosophy must be completely original and written entirely by you.

Copying and pasting any portion of a teaching philosophy from another source is plagiarism. When someone reads your teaching philosophy, they should learn three things: how well you can write, how well-informed you are about your profession, and how well you can intellectually integrate educational theory and practice. Thus, you must write and think carefully about this. Some readers may not be interested in your educational philosophy. Some readers may turn to that first.

Securing letters of recommendation is a time-consuming process,but it is well worth the investment of time. At least three letters of recommendation should be included in your teaching portfolio. Those letters should be from people who are qualified to speak to your potential as a teacher. Field experience instructors and on-campus instructors are some of the best choices. Students, parents of students, and former supervisors in other positions you have held might also be good choices under certain circumstances.

Plan in plenty of time to request the letters and expect some delays in receiving them. It may take from a few days to a few weeks for someone to write and send your letter. Start asking for letters many weeks in advance. All items added should be appropriate to your teaching level. Graphics, font size, ink and paper should reflect either an elementary or secondary focus.

Too many or the wrong kind of graphics for your grade level can be a distraction and reduce the overall effect of your portfolio. This includes the way youshowcase your letters of recommendation.

Keep things simple. Build a professional teaching portfolio one step at a time. Marine Biology. Electrical Engineering.

Computer Science. Medical Science. Quotes and Endorsements: Words of gratitude typically say more about you than you could yourself, so include quotes from students and staff. Keep them in your bulb. If you are taking an online course, you may ask the professor or course admin to share a few words about you as a student as well.

Exemplars: Any time I am teaching or leading professional development, I love to take pictures. If I am working with students, then I ask permission to photograph their work.

If you have a lesson that went really well, type up a few notes about the lesson and include a student exemplar. Some parents are fine with the work, but not a picture of their student. Others are okay with the work as long as their full name is not listed. I always try to err on the side of caution, and asking permission instead of forgiveness should be the way to go when sharing student work online. Your professional portfolio is evidence of your lifelong learning.

As educators we spend so much time creating for others and often, we forget to create, document and archive our own work. Being architects and promoters of our own lifelong learning is powerful and important to your continued growth and success. Having one will give you better perspective. If this process still seems overwhelming, start building with information you have or with topics of highest interest.

Still feeling stuck? To learn more about these topics and many others, follow her on Twitter , Facebook , and Instagram. Explore the Resource Center for more helpful resources.