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Tag: evidence

  • Teaching Portfolios: Example of My Portfolio

    Sometimes the best way to work out what you need in a portfolio is just to see what someone else has done.

    So I’ve taken a series of whole screen screenshots to show off what I’ve done. It’s not necessarily the best portfolio in the world, or at all what you do. But, it is what I have done, and have been adjusting and trying different things with time.

    Introduction
    Title Page

    I’m not sure why, but I made a title page for my portfolio. It just seemed like something that I could do to include some of my graphics design skills.

    Table of Contents
    A Table of Contents with all the pages for my portoflio listed

    I used a downloaded macro that creates a list of the pages in an indented list.

    In 2018 I focused my registration efforts into Inquiry, and through that Inquiry made links to the standards / criteria. I then collected additional evidence that I wanted to keep a record of.

    Evidence example 1

    This is an outline of the week plan for the student teacher in my class.

    Evidence example 2

    The Inquiry cycle we used as a school staff complete with some of the questions we would be asking ourselves.

    Evidence example 3

    A mid year review using ‘SWOT’ as a focus. I won’t go into details with these as they are merely serving as examples of the kind of evidence I collected for my Inquiry and portfolio. The key here is doing ONE thing but getting two uses out of it – as well as not doubling up on any work!

    Evidence example 4

    The record keeping of the interventions I carried out for one of my priority learners in my Inquiry.

    2019 contents page

    In 2019, I began keeping my portfolio in a slightly different method, with more focus on evidence than on Inquiry. Essentially, the Inquiry became just another piece of evidence, rather than using the Inquiry to show the standards being met.

    You can see on the right hand side that all the evidence has just been added into one big folder, and then in the Contents page it has a list of the tags being used using the standards as each tag.

    Evidence Example 5

    Another piece of evidence from a PLD session. Check the list on the right side; everything is in one big folder. I’ve attempted to keep it in chronological order.

    Evidence Example 6

    An example of anecdotal notes taken on one of my priority learners.

    Evidence Example 7

    In this piece of evidence, you can see three benefits of using OneNote for collecting evidence. Firstly, the ability to add in screenshots easily means that you can use other documents and then import them straight in. Secondly, I am able to add my own explanation and description of the evidence in the text above. Thirdly, you can see the three coloured box icons at the top of the page – these are the tags of the standards that this piece of evidence meets – meaning that one piece of evidence can fit into multiple standard categories without having to copy and paste or duplicate evidence.

    Evidence Example 8

    More evidence I’d taken from notes at a PLD workshop. Note the tags used at the top of this evidence.

    Evidence Example 9

    Finally, as mentioned, I had kept my Inquiry as a separate piece of evidence from my portfolio. Here I’ve made a link to the document (so that I could access it from OneNote and my portfolio) and included a quick screenshot as well as other notes and links that are relevant to the inquiry as the year went on.

    So hopefully that has been a help to those out there that are looking for ideas, or just want to see what others are doing with their portfolios. Remember to check out my other posts about teacher portfolios and ways that you can maintain and keep a portfolio of this kind.

  • Teaching Portfolios: Standards Based Portfolio

    One way in which you can build your teaching portfolio is to use each of the six standards as a different ‘category’ for which to organise your evidence into. This can be done easily in both hard copy portfolios as well as online or computer based portfolios.

    Whichever way you decide to go in setting up your portfolio, you should consider each of the steps in this guide.

    Hard Copy Portfolio

    For hard copy portfolios, use a set of file dividers to break your folder into sections.

    You could also use an expanding folder and set aside six pockets to put the evidence into.

    Keep the front divider page and use this as either a title for each section, or as a contents / index page for what you put into each section.

    Computer Portfolio

    If you plan on using Google Drive / OneDrive / Dropbox or even just Windows Explorer / My Documents, simply create a folder for your portfolio, then inside it, create six folders – one for each of the six standards.

    You could also use OneNote and create six sections along the top for each of the standards. Then each new piece of evidence just becomes a page within that section.

    See our article on OneNote portfolios for more info.

    Evidence

    As you collect evidence of your teaching practise, simply take a copy (photocopy or Ctrl+C) and put it into the relevant section. If it fits under more than one of the standards, then put additional copies into those sections. In Computer based portfolios this is very easy, as you just continue to paste each file into each relevant folder as many times as you like. For hard copy portfolios you’ll need to make additional photocopies.

    Don’t forget to date each piece of evidence as it comes in. Computer based portfolios will do this automatically for when the file was created.

    Keep Track

    It is a good idea to keep a contents page of what has been placed in your portfolio. There are several ways you could do this, but the simplest way would be to draw up six columns and each time a piece of evidence is added into the section, you add it to the column / columns that pertain to each standard. You could also use the index card of the dividers set that you purchased for your folder and add each piece of evidence as you go.

    It is also interesting to keep track of how many pieces of evidence you have in each of the standards. A simple file count in each folder will tell you in a computer based portfolio. A tracking sheet could be used for both systems as well so you can see what areas you might want to work on or focus on for the next term or two.

    This is a tracker from a bullet-journal, but one could easily adapt something like this for keeping track of the number of artefacts you have in each of the six teaching standards.

    This is just the beginning steps of setting up your Standards based Portfolio.

    Another way would be to set up your portfolio using dates as your organiser. You can see how this is done in the next article.

  • Teaching Porfolios: Date Based Portfolio

    One way in which you can build your teaching portfolio is to use each of the years for your registration as a structure for folders and dividers for your portfolio. This can be done easily in both hard copy portfolios as well as online or computer based portfolios.

    Whichever way you decide to go in setting up your portfolio, you should consider each of the steps in this guide.

    Hard Copy Portfolio

    Essentially you just need a divider, or section, or entire folder for each year. You could choose to group your years together for the three years of your registration, though this is not necessary.

    Then its just a matter of putting each piece of evidence into the relevant year as you teach. I would keep each one dated and keep them in the order they happened in. Then at the end of the year, close it off, and open up the next section ready for the new year.

    Computer Portfolio

    In Google Drive / Drop Box / Windows Explorer / Finder create three folders inside your portfolio. Label these as the years of your registration. Obviously, you could just continue, or keep your registrations together in a folder themselves.


    One big melting pot

    Obviously if you just add each piece of evidence into a folder for each year it will begin to resemble a dumping ground of teaching stuff or one big melting pot of evidence rather than a well organised portfolio.

    One could merge the standards based approach outlined here into each of the year folders in order to add another layer of structure to your portfolio in an effort to keep it more organised. But this would require six folders, all named the same, created three times for each of the years. It would work, but it wouldn’t be very elegant. But, if this is how your brain works, then its a viable option. However, a better way would be by using tags.

    Tags for each teaching standard

    You can create a set of six tags, each one relating to a standard.

    Tags can be used throughout most file systems, but in particular if you use OneNote I would highly recommend this. If you set up a blog for your portfolio, categories or tags can be used for this purpose. I believe both Windows and MacOS have the ability to tag files. I’m not sure this is possible in Google Drive or Drop Box, but I could be wrong.

    If you’re building a hard copy portfolio, then stickers are your friends! Choose six coloured stickers to use, make a key of which standard each colour relates to, and then in the corner of the piece of evidence, place a sticker for the standard or standards that it relates to.

    Multiple Standards

    The biggest benefit to using tags is that it becomes very easy to attribute multiple standards to one piece of evidence. This is something that happens more often than not. Using tags saves on the doubling up of evidence as you copy a piece into multiple standards folders of other systems. Instead, you merely add as many tags as is suitable for the evidence, and it is “added” to those standards straight away.

    OneNote is free to use. Whilst the online and app version is very good, I find the OneNote 2016 software to be the best.

    For syncing, you will need an Office365 account, which costs. However, it is free for all schools thanks to the Government schools agreement with Microsoft.

    The Best Method

    The best software I’ve found for building a portfolio is Microsoft OneNote. In particular is the ability to use tags. These can then be searched for, and using different macros it can also build a contents / index page for each of these tags.

    I used to use a blog type approach, with each post being a different piece of evidence, but with some privacy issues being that it was online, as well as the fact I was having to create posts as a piece of evidence, rather than just using the file, it became cumbersome and extra work with the doubling up. I did however appreciate the use of tags and categories to be able to organise the evidence while still maintaining a date based approach.

    I will write an in-depth article about setting up your teacher portfolio in OneNote soon.

  • Teaching Portfolios: Making them Work

    Even though they are not required by the Teaching Council, many schools use Teaching portfolios to show evidence that a teacher is meeting the criteria and standards for registration, and therefore can be signed off when their registration comes up for renewal.

    The format of appraisal and the keeping of portfolios has been a bug-bear of teachers for a while now, with the increase of workload in collecting evidence and putting it in a portfolio for something that is not actually required.

    However, I argue that portfolios are a good way of keeping records of your teaching career and can help make you a more reflective teacher in the process. I think that they would be worth maintaining even if they are not required.  While I acknowledge there is a bit of work required to keep it, there are several ways in which you can streamline the process so that keeping a portfolio is no longer a burden or a time-sapping exercise.

    The following are several keys to success that I’ve found along the way so that keeping and maintaining your teacher portfolio.

    Rule 1: Make it work for you; instead of you working for it…

    The number one thing you need to do when making your portfolio is to make it work for you.

    What does this mean?

    Put simply, choose a system, a method of keeping evidence, resources, materials, artefacts that is natural to you. If you’re a hands on person who prefers hard copies of things, then use a clearfile or lever-arch folder, or even a cascading folder.
    If you keep a lot of your teaching work in Google Docs, or use Google Drive a lot, then create a folder for evidence and put all the files in there.
    If you put a lot of your teaching work online, then you could set up a blog or website.

    Choose a system that works for you

    • Clearfile
    • Lever-arch File
    • Cascading Folder
    • Cardboard Box
    • Google Drive Folder
    • One Note Notebook
    • Google Site
    • Website
    • Blog

    You can find out more about each of the main ways to organise your portfolio at the following articles:

    Date Based Portfolio

    Standard Based Portfolio

    Organise it how your brain works

    Following on from the previous point on making it work for you: Setting up your portfolio in the way that your brain operates means that organising and maintaining your portfolio will be second nature to you rather than battling with yourself internally each time you come to update it.

    There are two main ways in which you can organise your teaching standards portfolio:

    • Date Based
      This consists of folders or sections labeled by date (ie. 2018, 2019, 2020). In each folder you put evidence of your teaching practise as it happens.
    • By Standard
      This consists of creating a set of six folders or sections, one for each of the six teaching standards. As you create each piece of evidence, simply put it in the folder that it best suits.

    Obviously there are other ways as well. I’ve found the best to be a combination of these two ways. It doesn’t matter really how you choose to organise it, as long as whichever way you choose is how your brain best processes a portfolio of this kind.

    Robust yet Flexible

    It wouldn’t be a blog about teaching without a bit of an oxymoron in it. When you set up your portfolio, make sure whatever system you choose to organise it in is robust. Stick to it, and keep it consistent. At the same time however, be flexible enough to adapt it to fit your needs as you go. Don’t be afraid to try new things, reorganise it or adjust it as you need to. Remember, the first rule is key: this HAS to work for you. As soon as it doesn’t, you’re working for it and it become cumbersome.

    Tags Are Your Friend

    One thing I have found the more and more portfolios I have made over my years as a teacher is that you need a way to tag or categorise each piece of evidence. Regardless of whether you go with a date based or standards based approach, having a system of tags will save you a lot of time. Using tags avoids the problem mentioned next.

    Avoid doubling up

    There is nothing more demoralising to a teacher (or anyone for that fact) than having to do something twice.

    Therefore, ensure that you only have to enter evidence into your portfolio once. The use of computer based portfolios certainly helps with this, especially with evidence that fits under multiple standards.

    Avoid doubling up

    There is nothing more demoralising to a teacher (or anyone for that fact) than having to do something twice.

    A very good portfolio will find a way in which you can keep your work organised when you create it AND enter it into your portfolio at the same time. This is somewhat of a pipedream, though definitely possible. Essentially this is where flexibility of your system is key, as this wouldn’t be possible for every piece of evidence, but definitely a possibility for some.

    Keep an eye out for more…

    We will be adding more Teacher Portfolio ideas, tips, tricks, and how-to guides in the near future. Check back here for more!

  • Moving Google Sites to a different Google Account

    ePortfolio on Google Site

    When I first thought of a way to gather all my evidence as online documents, rather than print outs and photocopies that gradually fill up a clearfile every year, I knew that Google Sites was going to be the way. It’s seemless link into Google Drive allows for me to create an “Evidence” folder, and then link to any document inside those folders. Using the Practising Teacher Criteria as a guide and a structure, I created folders inside the ‘Evidence’ folder, and began collating and sorting the evidence appropriately.

    However, at a NZEI cluster meeting where I shared this with other teachers in the area, many were concerned that hosting this on the school’s accounts would be problematic should one leave that school and move onto another. They mentioned that being able to somehow host this themselves on a personal site would be better.

    Luckily, this isn’t too hard to do, even if you’ve already set up your site on your school account like I had!

    Gmail or Google Account

    If you have your own personal Gmail account, you essentially already have Google Sites. Next to your account name, there is the Google Apps ‘9-square’ button. Clicking on this will open up the available apps, including Google Sites (hopefully!) If you haven’t already created your site, you can create a new one by clicking on the red ‘Create’ button.

    However, if you need to move your existing Google Site to your own domain, or your personal account, then you’ll need to complete the following steps. These can be found at E-Portfolio Apps. I have added to these to match the current Google Apps UI.

     

    Moving a Google Site out of an Educational Domain

    Steps to take place under the Educational Domain:
    1. To begin, open the site from within the educational domain.
    2. Go to More Actions () -> Manage Site.
    3. Select the “Sharing & Permissions” (or select this from the More Actions button in step 2).
    4. In the section titled “Invite people:” type in the email address of the personal account.
    5. Select “Is owner” from the drop down box. 
    6. Click Invite these people. This will send an email to the account listed above which will include a link to the sites current location under the ed domain.
    Steps to take place in the personal Google account:
    1. Open Google account and Gmail to view the link to the account we just shared.
    2. This will take you to the Ed Domain log in page. At the bottom of the sign in section there is an option to “Sign in with a different account”. Enter the personal account log in and password here.
      Note: To avoid all this, try opening the link in a different browser.
    3. Once you are logged in, open the site and click the More Actions –> Manage Site options.
    4. Select the General option.
    5. In the middle of this page, there is an option to Copy this Site. Select this. 
    6. Type in the site name and take note of the new URL which should read:
      http://sites.google.com/site/(new site name here)

    7. Click the button to Copy Site.

    To remove the school account as an owner of the site:

    Go to More Actions –> Sharing & Permissions and remove the school account as an owner of the site.
    Note: I didn’t do this as I still wanted to have access to this from my school account at this stage.
    At any point the school site can now be deleted.

    Instructions written by Heather Stafford, Technical Communications Instructor at E-Portfolio Apps. These have been edited by Al Ingham to match the current Google Apps layout in August 2015.

    Conclusion

    And that’s all there is to it. Easy ay!

    I even went a step further, using my alingham.com domain to create a sub-domain for my eportfolio to sit in. Editing this is relatively straight forward by following this article.

    It is also important to remember that, unless you want to go through all your evidence and black out student names, you should keep your eportfolio as ‘private’, and never publish the site as ‘public’. This means that any sub-domain you’ve created will simply point to the sites.google.com url, but the information will remain private to you and anyone that the site has been shared with.