The Teacher Portfolio: Part A

For some, it's a dusty binder on the shelf that hasn't been opened since undergrad. For others, it's a hackneyed website hastily put together for tenure with an overabundance of now-broken links and dated lesson plans. For me, I believe the teacher portfolio is a resource full of untapped potential.

Last week I had the opportunity to present the most current version of my own portfolio. The portfolio-building process began for me in my college classes. As part of our teacher licensing, my education major friends and I were required to put together a portfolio showcasing everything we had learned through our coursework and practicum experiences.

Later, I put together a digital teacher portfolio during my first three years as a teacher to help me keep track of what I had learned and showcase what I had accomplished. While switching schools I moved back from the front lines of technology to a more traditional paper and file system. It was those paper files that I organized and presented to my tenure committee last week.

After piecing together snippets of my work over the last decade, I have developed a great appreciation for the possibilities portfolios present. I would like to think of a teacher portfolio much like an artist portfolio. As a teacher, I want to be able to share the good work I've done - examples of what's worked and reflections on what needs to be improved next time. Portfolios can capture all of that, and I believe they should as dynamic, living artifacts of my efforts and experiences.

I am confident that maintaining a portfolio (in some form or another) is something that I will continue to do through my teaching career. (You can check in with me in a decade or two to see if that commitment still rings true!) What I'm not confident about is the best way to organize a portfolio. After having taken both paths, it is clear there are pros and cons to both traditional paper portfolios and their digital counterparts.

The Traditional
Pros	Cons	Examples
straightforward to assemble and organize artifacts and exemplars stay true to form	bulky and often unwieldy not easy to carry around	three-ring binders hanging file folders

The Tech Noveau
Pros	Cons	Examples
easy to share/link can highlight digital work easy to incorporate audio/visual elements	may require more time to create viewers may need more time to navigate some artifacts may look different digitized	Google Sites Weebly Wix Padlet

Whatever you choose, make sure it is something you are comfortable and confident sharing with others. Think of your portfolio as a reflection of your professionalism and keep saving artifacts that demonstrate your growth as a teacher. For me, I will probably settle somewhere between the two options, with a mix of digital and traditional organizational methods that makes sense to me.

For more information about what to include in your portfolio, please stay tuned for The Teacher Portfolio: Part B!