Essential concepts, tools, and practices  (Page 12/14)

Traditional portfolios in the form of folders, boxes, or 3-ring binders hold papers, pictures, cassette tapes, and more. With anelectronic Teaching Portfolio, known as an "E-Portfolio," information can be stored digitally, taking up little physical space, and is easilyaccessed from anywhere in the world.

Teachers Without Borders is pioneering E-Portfolios for teachers, and we have provided a way to for you to create one. Yourelectronic Teaching Portfolio will contain the following elements:

• Professional Statement - My view and approach to teaching
• Questions - My thinking about theory and practice
• The Imagined Classroom - School in 2010 through the eyes of the learner
• Bringing New Thinking into Classroom Practice - Evidence of how what's new becomes the standard
• Highlights from Certificate of Teaching Mastery - My best, most challenging, and growth-oriented work
• My Students' Work - Samples of how planning turns into outcomes
• What Students Say - About their work and the process of learning
• My Service Project - Learning that serves my community
• Expertise I Wish to Share - What I can offer other teachers
• What I Need - Skills and resources I seek from others
• Reflections - My life as a learner, teacher, and world citizen
• Picture of My Classroom - A photo that tells a story
• Resume / References / Letters of Recommendation - Support for my future in teaching

You will be able to complete all of the E-Portfolio elements by completing your assignments within each course as you go along.

To view the electronic Teaching Portfolio, click here .

Save

Be sure to keep your assignments for all of the courses saved on a disk and have an extra back-up (either another disk or on yourcomputer's hard drive). Several months from now, you'll need to access these same assignments to create your E-Portfolio. During Course 5, you'llhave time specifically set aside to revise your work and assemble your E-Portfolio. You can only do that if you have taken great care in saving yourassignments and have "backed them up" along the way.

Plan Ahead

Another important note is this: In order to do the "My Student's Work" section of your E-Portfolio you'll need to collect and savesamples of your students' work right from the beginning and keep collecting and saving students' work as you go through the Certificate of TeachingMastery. If you do this along the way, it will be much easier to complete this section of your E-Portfolio several months from now. Plan ahead.

Posting documents to your e-portfolio

Mostly, you will post documents to your E-Portfolio as part of your work in Course 5. However, if you wish to post a digitalphotograph of yourself, now, please follow the directions below. Make sure the photo is saved as a jpeg file and it is 300 pixels in size. Post it in thesection called "Photograph of the Teacher." If you do not have access to a digital camera and would like your photograph posted on your E-Portfolio,send a physical photograph to us (black and white or color) and we'll post it for you. You can send your photo to: