How To Construct Your Educator Portfolio On-line
How to create your teacher portfolio online
By creating your own teacher portfolio, you can prove your competence as a teacher both qualitatively and quantitatively. It enables you to present yourself as a teacher and educator much better than a resume can. It is also very beneficial when you apply for positions and promotions. Hence, a teacher portfolio can be much more productive for your teaching career than any resume.
Building an online teaching portfolio is even better because you don’t have to take your materials with you everywhere or send them to every job advertisement. You can just link your online portfolio website and that’s it! So how do you build your teaching portfolio and which areas should a teaching portfolio cover?
Let us guide you through 10 helpful tips to get you started:
1. Look at other portfolios of educators
This is always the first thing to do when building a portfolio. As a teacher, you should know that one of the best ways to learn is by example. Your colleagues can help you get an idea of what a teaching portfolio is and what it should look like. Try talking to your friends and co-workers and asking if you can take a look at their portfolio websites. It is always best to look at the online teaching portfolios of educators who are in a similar discipline and teach at the same level or experience as you. If you’re a special education elementary school teacher with five years or less of experience, a college philosophy professor’s portfolio isn’t going to be of much use to you.
2. A portfolio is more than a résumé
Your teaching portfolio isn’t just a resume. A resume is a simple description of your degrees, certifications, and experience. A teaching portfolio covers and proves your teaching competence not only quantitatively but also qualitatively. It provides a context for demonstrating your teaching skills. This includes not just a list of degrees and previous jobs and education, but also a comprehensive overview of why you teach, how you teach, and how effective your teaching is. Make your portfolio descriptive and personalized. Take the opportunity to present yourself not only as a job seeker, but also as a passionate trainer.
3. Keep it clean and simple
Always make sure to keep it clean and simple. Overcrowded, cluttered lecturer portfolios are unattractive and difficult to read. Keep the font consistent and simple. The font size should be legible and there should be sufficient line and paragraph spacing. You should use white space to even out the contents of each page instead of cramming everything in one place. Make your teacher portfolio comprehensive without using too much filler material. Everything you add to your teaching portfolio should add value and be constructive. When creating an online portfolio website for your teaching portfolio, make sure you use sleek, minimalist, and eye-friendly templates.
4. Always incorporate your teaching philosophy
Your teaching philosophy or teaching statement is your perception of pedagogy and education in and outside of the classroom. This is the place to talk about why you are an educator and what kind of education you believe in. This section will allow you to use some creativity and storytelling skills. Talk about your teaching techniques and the philosophy behind those techniques. Discuss how your teaching is going in and out of the classroom and what results you have achieved and are trying to achieve. This is often one of the most important elements of your teaching portfolio.
5. Show, don’t tell
Don’t tell us you are a good teacher, show us! Don’t just list your credentials and accomplishments. This is a statement of your qualifications as a teacher, not your qualities. It can be a good idea to talk about your students and your experiences with them. Was there a particularly difficult student or a student from difficult backgrounds? What is your experience with them? How did you overcome the challenges of teaching them? Talk about the respective learning outcomes and how you have set yourself an excellent pedagogue. This will help you provide both evidence and context for your teaching experience and skills. Again, remember that your portfolio has to be more than your résumé.
6. Format matters
When it comes to an online teaching portfolio, the format certainly plays a role. A website offers endless possibilities for multimedia additions that could spice up your teaching portfolio. Take advantage of these features. You can add a short video profile or bio for yourself, add photos of yourself, your students or workshops you have run, and much more. Do not limit yourself and take full advantage of the possibilities and functionalities of modern technology. Creating a comprehensive and unique teaching portfolio will help you stand out from the crowd.
7. Add testimonials and recommendations
Testimonials from students, parents, former employers or colleagues can be a very constructive and fruitful addition to your portfolio. While your potential employer will likely be asking for references anyway, include an additional section for testimonials in your teaching portfolio. Often times, when previous employers are asked for references, they tend to give a neutral answer for legal reasons. Because of this, it is better to get recommendations for your portfolio. Referrals are real testament to your teaching ability and your ability to maintain relationships with students and colleagues.
8. Showcase your growth
Show how you’ve grown. Your teacher portfolio is a great way to illustrate your growth as a teacher. Talk about the certifications you received or the workshops you attended after you started work. This shows that as a teacher you are constantly looking for ways to learn and improve. Talk about things the experience taught you. Perhaps you weren’t very good at online teaching or remote teaching when you started your career, but now you have grown well at managing them. Talk about the experiences that brought you to this point. Always remember that a teacher who can both learn and teach is the greatest asset of any educational institution.
9. Keep your portfolio current and complete
Make sure to regularly update your portfolio to include all of your latest certifications, promotions, and job postings. Nothing is more useless and potentially more harmful than an outdated and / or incomplete online teaching portfolio. Your portfolio website is the first thing prospective employers see, and you could miss a lot of job openings if your teaching portfolio is out of date. You may think that if you have a steady job and aren’t currently searching, then you can leave things alone and not regularly update your online portfolio website. However, you may be missing out on some excellent mentoring or public speaking opportunities that may have crossed your mind. Never get lazy when it comes to your teacher portfolio!
10. Create a personal portfolio website
Creating a personalized online portfolio website gives you the ability to format, edit and create your portfolio the way you want. This also allows you to show your portfolio to potential employers by simply forwarding a single link instead of having to forward all of the materials separately. A website supports multiple formats including images, audio, and video. This helps you to create a comprehensive portfolio with little effort. You can also add a link to your portfolio website on your LinkedIn and other social media, as well as on your faculty page for maximum reach and exposure.
The central theses
Creating a good teaching portfolio is an absolutely crucial part of building your career as an educator. It is not always easy to explain why and how you are a good educator, because many of the skills inherent in a good educator are not quantifiable. Soft skills, listening, the ability to make sure no student falls behind, and dealing with the complicated backgrounds that many students come from are not skills that are easy to describe. This is where a good portfolio of lecturers comes into play. We hope these tips help you find a good place to create or edit your teaching portfolio online!
