Building my Professional Portfolio

As I continue to build onto my professional portfolio the biggest obstacle I find is choosing which artifacts to add under each standard. Although all of the standards are incredibly important I have been really focusing on the third standard which is instructional planning. The standard is "the practitioner plans instruction based upon knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, curriculum goals, and state curriculum models. The three artifacts that I have decided to include in this particular standard are my Level II Teacher Work Sample, a student interview that I did for my Level I experience and an in-depth lesson plan that I also created for my Level I experience.

I believe that my teacher work sample shows my ability to base my instruction on the personal needs of the children. Within my TWS I have two case studies of two different students. I describe each student in detail and give instructional implications of each student. I believe that if any of my future employers were to read through my TWS they would know immediately that I am competent in planning my instruction around my students' needs.

The student interview is an interview that I did with four individual students. Within this interview I was able to recognize which developmental stage each student was at and why I believed him or her to be at that specific stage. This will show my future employers that I am able to classify students developmental stage and also my students' cognitive abilities.

My Level I lesson plan that I created briefly says what I will do during the lesson and the rest of the paper describes the physical layout of the classroom, teacher-centered instruction, student-centered instruction, different modes of learning, modifications for special need students and gifted students, and assessments. Future employers will be able to read through this lesson plan and realize my ability to create and break down lesson plans while addressing all curriculum needs as well as student needs.

My professional portfolio is only half done right now however I take a lot of pride in it! I am looking forward to having a complete paper portfolio and then creating an e-portfolio. I really like to look through it to see the progress that I have made as a pre-service teacher and hope to be able to add a lot to this portfolio as I continue throughout my teaching career!

More to come...