Welcome to TiPPS! To get an overview of the series and how it will operate with the TED-Ed lessons, please make sure to start by viewing Module 1, Lesson 0 below. View all 3 lessons to complete Module 1.
NOTE: If you go to the TED-Ed lesson and the Watch video does not immediately appear, wait 15-30 seconds for it to load.
Module 1, Lesson 0: Intro to the Teacher Portfolio & Preparation Series (TiPPS)
Content: Jim Yoshioka
Presenter: Jim Yoshioka
Module 1, Lesson 1: Putting Together a Teacher Portfolio
Content: Kenton Harsch
Presenter: Jim Yoshioka
Module 1, Lesson 2: Intro to Electronic Portfolios
Content: Kenton Harsch
Presenter: Jim Yoshioka
What Is a Teacher Portfolio and Why Is It Important?
A teacher portfolio serves as a collection or record of your professional background and experience as a teacher and documents what you believe about language learning and teaching and how you teach. Items often found in a portfolio include a statement of your philosophy of teaching, your curriculum vitae, examples of materials, activities, or lesson plans you have developed, video clips of your classroom teaching, samples of student, peer, or administrative evaluations of your teaching, and so on. Increasingly, employers are asking for various portfolio elements before, during, and after the interview/hiring process. By putting together an organized, cohesive, reflective, and ever-growing portfolio, you better prepare yourself to show who you are as a teacher and what you offer to a potential employer and to make a good impression.
In TiPPS, we cover essential information and strategies for conducting a job/information search, preparing necessary job application materials (effective CVs and cover letters), and gathering examples of you as a teacher (teaching philosophy statement, activities/materials), so you can put your best foot forward for that fateful interview. We cannot possibly cover everything, however, and that is why we include a lot of resources for TiPPS participants or the casual web surfer for further reference. Aloha!
TiPPS HANDOUTS ON TEACHER PORTFOLIOS
Suggested timeline for putting together and developing a teacher portfolio (revised 2016)
ARTICLES ON TEACHER PORTFOLIOS
Wolfe-Quintero, K., & Brown, J.D. (1998). Teacher portfolios. TESOL Journal 7(6), 24-27: A good place to start – we often use this article for a quick overview of teacher portfolios, their contents, and uses in our workshop. However, it is no longer readily available. A good alternative is the following article, which is a precursor and contains much of the same content:
Journal on Excellence in College Teaching – Volume 6, No. 1: An issue totally devoted to a variety of issues regarding teacher portfolios.
WEBSITES ON TEACHER PORTFOLIOS
Teaching Portfolios (Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University): An overview of all the major steps in putting together a teaching portfolio
Teaching Portfolios (DePaul University): Helpful guidelines, plus sample portfolios
ARTICLES ON ONLINE TEACHER PORTFOLIOS
Offering a good set of guidelines for getting your electronic portfolio started:
Edutopia: Do I Need a Digital Teaching Portfolio?
Education World: Get Started with a Digital Teaching Portfolio
6 Steps to a Professional Online Portfolio for Teachers
WEBSITE BUILDING SITES
Weebly – easy drag-and-drop website builder (with templates)
Wix – intuitive drag-and-drop web editor (with templates)
WordPress – build a blog, a full website, or a combo. Step-by-step guide can be found at https://wordpress.com/learn
OTHER RESOURCES
Hanaoka, S. Websites – Your 24/7 Salesperson: This guide is more from a sales perspective, but the information about layout, comparison of different tools, and so forth are all very helpful.
Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa – For UH Mānoa faculty and students, a good resource for professional development and feedback on your teaching
SOME TEACHER PORTFOLIO EXAMPLES (ELECTRONIC)
The websites that follow were found via an internet search and are designed for you to review and learn from (we’re not saying that any of them are exemplary – nor are we saying that they are not exemplary). As you look at some of these portfolios, here are a few things to look for:
- Do you get a clear idea about this person as a teacher? Are there sufficient and varied documents/examples to give you a fairly full picture?
- Do you get a clear idea about what the teacher believes about learning and teaching and how they carry it out in the classroom?
- Do aspects of teaching that are not included feel like they were omitted as a result of informed choices or as a result of a careless oversight that you feel should be rectified?
Portfolios at Penn State: See samples in the Gallery section. The site also contains tips for both teachers and students for putting together a portfolio, including tutorials.
University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Department of Second Language Studies BA program: Sample professional portfolios: More samples of teacher portfolios
Electronic portfolios of former TiPPS participants:
Used by permission