Preparing and Presenting a Teaching Portfolio

2014

PREPARING AND PRESENTING A TEACHING PORTFOLIO

Teaching Practice I

SONYHER ONEIRA MEJA HERNNDEZ

ELMER JORGE GUARDADO MaT.

MARCH 3RD 2014

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A teaching portfolio is a tool that supports to teachers to structure their own teaching style, although, allows teachers to organize and have documentated their efforts and results in education as experiences, methodology, and strategies. In recent years have been developed new ways to evaluate teaching objective, but at the same time, it has been developed more ways to reflect teaching practice and can be measured more easily. That is why using a teaching portfolio nowadays is more important for teachers due to classify the evidence of teaching practice and provides reflective thoughts for improving the quality of teaching. Also, allows to get a clear idea about what a teacher is doing well and what a teacher is doing wrong, this effect can be compared like a mirror that is showing all those things that a teacher really has for teaching to do a better work. Moreover, this material explains about what teaching portfolio consists of, how should be structured, the aspects that should contain and how it can be developed. On the other hand, managing a teaching portfolio has many purposes and benefits that presents about how a teacher approaches his work and also, it represents how much effective and useful are the methodologies in the classroom. In it, through a teaching portfolio a teacher follows a process of reflection that describes and analyzes the quantity and quality of their activities and supports their conclusions with documents and materials.

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What is a teaching portfolio? According to: (Vandelbilt, 2012) teaching portfolios can offer a look at development over time, helping one see teaching as on ongoing process of inquiry, experimentation, and reflection. In others words, a teaching portfolio produces a reflection about how a teacher describes and analyzes the results of their teaching, also identifies and recognizes through the experiences what is success or failure of their activity and how can be defined the areas of improvement purposes. This teaching portfolio presents you as a professional, as you look yourself while you are in the learning and teaching process, that is indicating you who you are, where you are, and how you accomplish your plans. So this tool makes you do a selfappraisal to have an idea about how much you are working in it and if you need to update or revise your documents to keep a continuous improvement. The role of the teaching portfolio is to check the accuracy of the results of teaching and promote the systematization and exchange of experiences with other teachers. In others words a teaching portfolio determinate a teaching process that include all those goals that a teacher wants to achieve for demonstrating to others their professional quality, backs to competitions for other jobs or participate in processes of recognition and promotion. The teaching portfolio is an effective way for teachers to reflect upon, describe, and document their teaching philosophy, goals, and achievements.

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Self-evaluation and reflection When we are doing our teaching process without any reflection on it, we can take the risk of turning it into something mechanical and routine, with serious consequences for both student learning and teacher development. Having a purpose for teaching is the main element for reflecting about why is important a teaching portfolio due to we can so know ourselves and know more specifically our strengths and weaknesses, I know it's not an easy work, since we must be committed to each of the activities and have time to meet with each of them and share all the learning that we have to start our purpose that is teach. So creating a teaching portfolio is an excellent ways to look inside of us about how is working our teaching methodology because of this we are innovating more strategies and techniques that could not work in a determinate moment but we still have a plan for improving all those methods, how? By structuring a teaching portfolio that gives us tracks to follow and this allows to be prepared for every time. However, for being a good teacher is necessary to define, what are your principles for reflecting about teaching English? For reaching a high expectation in the classroom, a teacher needs to classify and organize all those methods that could include a spirit of sharing learning with the students who want to perform their abilities. on the other hand, a English teacher is a model for the students who are expecting all those movements that the teacher will do and if a the teacher is

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wrong or make some mistakes and the students realize about that, they are getting confused for those mistakes, owing to their teacher is not ready for teaching and that is why a teacher need to approach a method which is develop between the training and the experience. Moreover, is necessary to consider that teaching is far more than simply a set of techniques that we have learned because of a reflection is about how much we want to contribute in the students, indeed, teaching extend beyond the classroom in consideration of teaching that is a professional development, which is rich in apply different skills for improving the environment in and out of the classroom. The students live with different kind of influences and one of them is the teacher who is a protagonist that is related to that motivation for learning and this motivation is successful justly if the teacher has really defined his teaching style. (Peter, 2004) Why do I need a teaching portfolio? As has been mentioned, a teaching portfolio is necessary not only as a teaching tool but also a way to emphasize how you are determinating your teaching style. Although, using a teaching portfolio allows us to be modifying our classes whenever is necessary. Indeed, a teaching portfolio allows thinking critically about how to change future classes for the better. So, when I was doing my social services I could realize about is necessary to manage evidences that

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demonstrate what are you teaching and how are you teaching even though you really know what you teach but nobody tells you what you need to improve for it. That is why a teaching portfolio is necessary because of this, you can reflect about what do you need to improve you teaching methodology and how much creative and effective will be your classes, owing to is easy to stand in front of the class just speaking and giving recommendation but is not easy to teach when you do not have a clear idea about how you are going to teach and mostly if you want to change future classes for better. Indeed, I do really need a teaching portfolio due to allow me to think critically for keeping updated the classes. In fact, when we are relating with the students we can note about how much motivated they could be and we as teacher enjoy those aspects that make happy, well in my case I get really happy when I see in the students different positives attitudes because of they have found motivation in the the classroom, so, that is why is interesting manage a teaching portfolio owing to you really are satisfied about you work and if you are not, you can improve through your artifacts that are supporting you to become you class more dynamic. How should I structure my teaching portfolio? The nature of the portfolio depends on the discipline and context that concern in the teaching and learning process. Creating a teaching portfolio is a great way to document and reflect on your growth as an educator. Also, this is an

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excellent resource for managing your work in the classroom. So it is useful to divide the process into steps. In any case, the most important of portfolio must be your ethical and moral dimension, actually, to be considered as portfolio, you should at least have two essential components, which I have already divided in the following precedents: 1. Your thoughts about teaching

reflective

teaching

statement

describing

your

personal

teaching

philosophy, strategies, and objectives (see Teaching Philosophy).

A personal statement describing your teaching goals for the next few years Documentation of your teaching

2.

A list of courses taught with enrollments and a description of your responsibilities

Number of advisees, graduate and undergraduate Syllabi Course descriptions with details of content, objectives, methods, and procedures for evaluating student learning

Reading lists Assignments Exams and quizzes, graded and ungraded Handouts, problem sets, lecture outlines

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Descriptions and examples of visual materials used Descriptions of uses of computers and other technology in teaching Videotapes of your teaching Teaching Effectiveness

3.

Summarized student evaluations of teaching, including response rate and relationship to departmental average

Written comments from students on class evaluations Comments from a peer observer or a colleague teaching the same course
Statements

from colleagues in the department or elsewhere, regarding the

preparation of students for advanced work

Letters from students, preferably unsolicited Letters from course head, division head or chairperson Statements from alumni Materials Demonstrating Student Learning

4.

Scores on standardized or other tests, before and after instruction Students lab books or other workbooks Students papers, essays, or creative works Graded work from the best and poorest students, with teachers feedback to

students

Instructors written feedback on student work

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5.

Activities to Improve Instruction Participation in seminars or professional meetings on teaching Design of new courses Design of interdisciplinary or collaborative courses or teaching projects Use of new methods of teaching, assessing learning, grading Preparation of a textbook, lab manual, courseware, etc. Description of instructional improvement projects developed or carried out

(Vandelbilt, 2012)

Teaching responsibilities The essential role of teachers is to help students develop their intellectual, moral and social skills within the context of their aspirations and possibilities. As some of the most influential role models for developing students, we as future teachers are responsible for more than just academic enrichment. If you want to be a great teacher, you must connect with your students and reach them on multiple levels, because the best teachers are committed to their students well-being both inside and outside the classroom. So this commitment will be forging strong relationships, between teachers and every aspect of their students lives, teaching them the important lessons although applied in their lives will help them succeed beyond only term papers and tests. (DEE , 2013)

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In fact, a great teacher has the responsibility of making fun learning, as stimulating and making the classroom an exciting environment for learning, this aspect will hold the fascination of students, and they will learn best, so when as the teacher too students are both challenged and interested in the learning and teaching process. Its part of motivating students, which may not be easy, but which will benefit students immeasurably in the long process. Another responsibility of teacher is to be a good model for your students and how much you will be inspiring your students due to is integral to ensuring their success and encouraging them to fulfill their potential. Students who are inspired by you as a teacher can accomplish amazing things, and that motivation almost always stays with them. Moreover, it is not an exaggeration to say that a great teacher can change a student learning style. There are an endless amount of stories that attest to the benefits of a strong relationship between an educator and students. Aside from teaching them on the hard facts about dropping out, teachers can also help assess the problem and figure out an alternative. In such situations, teachers undoubtedly have the ability to change the learning process of students. Indeed, students become more confidence with teacher who are involved with them and this is an advantage for teacher because of this you can arise the motivation in them by how you are thinking of their problems and how do you expect about their learning process, so

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is a really good experience share with the students learning that can also focus in their own lives. Statement of teaching philosophy Every teacher can identify which will be his teaching philosophy due to teaching practice will train through the experiences of teaching English, so in this case, teaching English stimulates communication that refers to a communicative approach to teaching and learning languages, principally English, which inspirits students to participate actively in the process of learning. In fact, my principal goal is to help students to communicate their needs and ideas in the language that they are studying. When I think of what is my teaching philosophy I cannot stop to think about two people who have influenced me in my life: my mom and my English teacher from high school. They are teachers who have dedicated many hours to break with traditional school and teaching, because I knew they could change things, because they really knew the potential of teaching. Moreover, I grew up attending to public schools and most of the time I was watching and listening to my English teachers whose have been teaching by the traditional methods and I supposed that they were teaching well but they were not due to they could not inspired me to learn in different ways, so the time went by and I grew up considering teaching as a key point in the development of people and as a tool to help change the world better. That is why teaching is having

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passion. Passion for transmitting new leanings to the students, students who do not always want to listen to you or be in the classroom for their own decision. Teaching is trying to awake in the students the passion that you have, although let the students awake you the motivation for teaching because we must not forget that classes are for them. I consider some aspects that are keys for my teaching philosophy: Leaving the traditional language teaching The students as the main focus of teaching- learning process Exploring new technologies

Leaving the traditional language teaching During my years of study, I have lived two different faces of what it is to learn a language. On one hand, I have had teachers who create their own materials, which valued the communication and participation of all students above objectives that a textbook could focus, on the other hand, I have seen teachers who cannot change the program established by the editorial books. For my classes I do not want to see my students filling sheets on grammar or vocabulary exercises, and as I said at the beginning of this paper , I want participatory classes , I want to create a free environment of participation and communication, because at the end is the reason that is why I am preparing for.

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The students are the main focus of teaching- learning process As the experiences that I had during my teaching process, I realized that listening to students and including the elementals material in the English class create an effective environment in which the students can enjoy learning a new language and I know perfectly that is not easy to catch their attention even though when they are teenagers but if we are pretending to teach them as the main focus in the classes we are directly preparing our lesson classes and our plans specifically for their learning process. Their motivation can increase significantly if we are trying to do our best job. Also, respect is a great key in the society in which we live due to talk about teaching, being a teacher today is not only gain money as a profession; is important to get clear that being teachers infer of having the advantages of preparing good people for the future. Exploring new technologies When we are talking about applying new technologies in the classroom, in my opinion, is critical issue today. Learn to take full advantage of these resources, taking into account when they can be more or less useful. In my teaching process I have had experience; students were very receptive when the whiteboard is used for activities. Even though when they were using simple slide shares, they can learn easier owing to we are catching their attention, so is very simple using technology nowadays because of the schools are increasing their recourses and the

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students most of the time live with the technology around them, indeed, the learning and teaching process increase positively through it. When a teacher uses technology the methodology turns accessible for teaching due to is a way to innovate and improve methods for making more dynamic and interesting the class. (Eberly, 2010) Teaching methodology, strategies, and objectives In this section, I will focus about my teaching methodology, strategies and objectives. My methodology will be defined about what will be my principle, in other words, my principle is the way how I will involve my beliefs through methods and one of this principles is share information, share my experiences and learning, also how I will deal with philosophies of teaching. With the

communicative approach that focuses on the learning English as a second language , I will try to develop a personal approach, taking from my educational preparation ,also taking in mind how the new generations learn now, and some inspiration that produces on me my teachers in this process. What I get as an English teacher is to have participatory classes , making students lose their fear of speaking English language and to value both their own as they are learning, as a means of transmitting knowledge , culture, customs, history , and a door different from their everyday realities.

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Moreover, I will try to achieve my goals and complete my English profiency as a teacher performer. I pretend that my classes will have active learning environment, focused on the student, with activities that generally require group discussion, pair work and critical thinking. Approaches are general in nature. They involve the belief and principle underlying our methods, but are less about proscribing the specific methods. Methods are the way we teach, approaches explain why we teach that way. During my teaching practice I will be training for improving my English teaching style that it had provided me throughout my experience because most of time principles come from train and also come from experience. (ipedia, 2013) In conclusion, preparing a teaching portfolio is an important step for start a professional tool that requires to define what will be my teaching style and how am I going to structure my methodology and strategies that will clarify my goal in my career owing to be a teacher as I mentioned before is a responsibility that makes us encourage an ability for teaching. Indeed, a teaching portfolio reflects us about how much we are doing in our teaching and learning process.

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References
DEE . (8 de 03 de 2013). Recuperado el 3 de marzo de 2014, de

http://www.de.gobierno.pr/definicion-y-responsabilidades-del-personal-docente Eberly. (22 de may de 2010). Technology for education. Recuperado el 3 de 3 de 2014, de http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/technology/ ipedia. (29 de july de 2013). teflpedia. Recuperado el 25 de february de 2014, de http://teflpedia.com/Approach,_method_and_strategy Peter, S. (2004). center for teaching. Obtenido de http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-subpages/teaching-portfolios/ Vandelbilt. (22 de august de 2012). Center for teaching. Recuperado el 2 de march de 2014, de http://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/teaching-portfolios/#what