While you are student teaching, you will prepare an electronic portfolio demonstrating that you meet each of Lawrence’s 13 Teacher Education Program Standards.  You can also use your portfolio to support a job search by e-mailing a passcode that allows a potential employer to view your portfolio online.

The portfolio typically includes the following sections that illustrate your teaching:

Each section contains sample materials (documents, images, videoclips) with comments that introduce each item and explain briefly what it is meant to demonstrate.  You can also link materials to individual standards.

Your portfolio must also include the following two sections:

Reflective Essay – This essay satisfies a course requirement for student teaching; required topics are described in the student teaching syllabus.

Teaching Standards – This section lists multiple indicators for each program standard, identifies where in the portfolio they can be found, and explains how they demonstrate mastery.  See Program Standards for a list of standards and possible indicators.

You will be introduced to the portfolio software in the student teaching seminar and will submit your completed portfolio at the end of the semester.  Throughout your student teaching you should gather materials you might want to include in your portfolio.  This includes saving lesson plans, handouts, assignments, and assessments; scanning and saving copies of student work (with names removed); having your cooperating teacher photograph you teaching and working with students; and videorecording your favorite lessons so you can extract clips that show your teaching at its best.

Preparing an Effective Portfolio

An effective portfolio is rich and viewer-friendly.  It includes simple navigation, vivid images and examples, brief clips that load quickly and show dynamic highlights, and clear annotations that provide context and explain what each item shows.  An effective portfolio also provides clear evidence that you meet each of the 13 Lawrence Teacher Education Program Standards and demonstrates that you would be an effective teacher.

Here are some general tips to help you build a good portfolio.  Sample portfolios will be shown in the student teaching seminar.

Guidelines

1. Make sure each page has real content: text and images.  Make sure the most important content appears directly on the portfolio page and attach supporting documents (handouts, resume, etc.) as PDF files.
2. Introduce every item and explain what it is meant to show.  This helps the reader and demonstrates that you are reflective about your teaching.
3. Remove any identifying information from student work.
4. Keep videoclips under 3 minutes so they load and run quickly.  For each clip, provide a still image (linked to the video) and introductory blurb with the length of the clip in parentheses (2:00).  Show only highlights, making the clip a powerful advertisement for your teaching.
5. Review your portfolio from the reader’s point of view.  Remove anything that is extraneous or distracting and edit the rest for maximum impact.

Technical Notes

All attached files should be in a final printed format: PDF for documents, JPEG for images, and MOV (QuickTime) for videos.  Convert all Microsoft Word (DOC), Excel (XLS), and PowerPoint (PPT) files to PDF format before attaching.  Scan paper items in PDF (document) or JPEG (image) format and crop to the appropriate size before placing them in your portfolio.  Sample student work can be scanned or photographed with names obscured or removed with Photoshop.

Before you submit your portfolio, try loading it from another computer (such as a home computer) to make sure all the images and videos run properly over the internet.

More information about electronic portfolios and how to create them can be found on the Instructional Technology website.