As I
thought about creating a digital portfolio I was filled with quite a bit of
trepidation and anxiety.
I have
purposefully not wanted a large footprint online because of being a male high
school teacher.
Yet, as I examined
different hosting sites I began to become truly excited about the possibilities
that this type resource could provide.
I
have carefully thought about each type of document and resource that I have
included on this portfolio to show the best of what I as a teacher have to
offer.
I choose to use the website
About.Me to host my digital portfolio, because
I found it to be very easy to use and provided the information I wanted to
include in a clean and simple format.
My page showcases a number of
lessons, units and projects that I have created throughout my teaching
career.
This page, I hope, will become a
digital resume for me as I look towards my future.
The
first choice I made on my page was to not change the background image. I experimented with different images of
myself, but none of them conveyed the message that I wanted or distracted from
my true purpose of the page. Each of the
links that I included was very purposefully chosen to highlight some aspect of
my teaching. Each unit I included, United
Nations PBL and World War 1, provide anyone access to all the resources
necessary to teach the unit. These units
show the emphasis I place on higher level thinking and the scaffolding that I
provide throughout units to allow all my students to achieve to the best of
their ability. I did not provide editing
privileges to these documents as I really just wanted people to view what I
could bring to an educational team, not change the materials to fit their own
classroom.
I next
included two projects that I differentiated for students in my class. The first is based on the abilities of the
given student, and is the more traditional way to change an assignment for
students. The second project is one that
I changed based on the students interests, and where based off of students
responses to an interest survey that they took.
I found that with both assignments, the differentiation that I provided
allowed for me to more accurately assess the student’s level of understanding and
receive a higher level of participation.
The project based on interest provide amazing feedback as students were
working around areas that they were really passionate about and put forth more
effort than is typical on other types of assessments.
Finally,
I included two assessments that show the type of work that I expect and how
they allow for a genuine overview of students understanding. The leveled assessment clearly demonstrates
how students achieve and demonstrate their knowledge on a traditional
test. The video project was the
culminating activity in which the students presented information in an
interactive and creative video that was then sent to their parents. This allowed for what was occurring in the
classroom to be shared with others, and contribute to a community of learning.
At the
bottom of the page is the more traditional resume type information that
employers or others would already have.
While obviously an important part of this digital portfolio, the main
purpose of this site is to showcase my units, lessons and projects that
actively engage students in diverse learning situations. I really appreciated this opportunity to
focus on building a dynamic site to showcase more of who I am as an
educator. As districts and companies shift
more to Web 2.0, sites like this will perhaps become more common place and
expected as people try to distinguish themselves and their abilities.