...Professional Portfolio: The Importance of a Professional Portfolio to Teachers Polly Anne Bell Grand Canyon University: SPE-529N August 13, 2014 Professional Portfolio: The Importance of a Professional Portfolio to Teachers A professional portfolio is a valuable tool for use by teachers as a reflective instrument to plan and chart professional growth. It is an equally valuable tool for teachers as they engage in job searching (Campbell, Melenyzer, Nettles & Wynan, 2014). A well developed portfolio can help present the teacher as being professional, organized, and a serious member of the teaching profession (Hom, 1997). A Personal Growth Tool When used for personal growth, the portfolio can provide the teacher with a schematic design for structuring, implementing, and advancing professional development. It can help her to link her professional goals to requirements of school districts, state and national standards (Hom, 1997). Additionally, by capturing her experiences in the portfolio, the teacher is better-able to self-evaluate her academic growth, professional development and teaching experiences (Hom, 1997). An Interview Tool A professional portfolio is also valuable in ensuring a smoother and less stressed interview (Campbell et al., 2014). With the portfolio in hand, the teacher is readily able to refer to talking points. When the interviewer poses questions about the teacher’s knowledge, experiences, or how she approaches teaching a certain concept,...
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...com/ESE-697-ASH/ESE-697-Week-6-Final-Paper Throughout the course, you have been demonstrating your understanding of differentiation and lesson planning for children with mild and moderate disabilities through the design of lesson plans in various content areas. For the Final Project, you will demonstrate competency in planning instruction for students with mild and moderate disabilities by developing a lesson plan portfolio that you can use and share with other colleagues, for work interviews, or for personal use. Your Lesson Plan Portfolio will consist of the five complete, original lesson plans that you designed throughout this course. Each week, you received feedback from your instructor, and possibly from your peers, to continuously improve your differentiated lesson plans. Below there is a description of each part of the portfolio that you will submit this week as your Final Project. Part 1: Introduction to your portfolio Provide a brief introductory paragraph that explains the purpose of your portfolio and the competency you are demonstrating through your five lesson plans. Part 2: Lesson plan portfolio Use the feedback you received each week, along with what you have learned throughout the course, to revise each of the five lesson plans to ensure each component sufficiently addresses the required areas (below). Combine the lesson plans into one document to present your revised five lesson plans that reflect your competency in this area. Remember, each plan needs to specifically reflect the...
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...------------------------------------------------- Episode 4 ------------------------------------------------- Guiding Principles in the Selection and Use of Teaching Strategies * ------------------------------------------------- My Target In this episode, I must be able to * Write evidence of the application of some guiding principles in the selection and use of teaching strategies. * ------------------------------------------------- My Performance (how will be I rated) Field study 2, Episode 1 – principles of learning Focused on: Application of the principles of learning in the teaching- learning process | Task | Exemplary (4) | Superior (3) | Satisfactory(2) | Unsatisfactory(1) | Observation/ Documentation | All task were done with outstanding quality; work exceeds expectation | All or nearly all task were done with high quality | Nearly all task were done with acceptable quality | Fewer than half of task were done; or most objectives met but with poor quality | My Analysis | -Analysis questions were answered completely; in depth answers; thoroughly grounded on theories-Exemplary grammar and spelling. | -Analysis questions were answered completely-Clear connection with theories -Grammar and spelling are superior | -Analysis question were not answered completely-Vaguely related to the theories-Grammar and spelling acceptable | -Analysis questions were not answered-Grammar and spelling unsatisfactory | My Reflection | Reflection...
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...TEACHING METHODOLOGY AND PRACTICUM 3B (SUBJECT METHODOLOGY FET LIFE SCIENCES 3B) Dear Life Sciences Methodology student, In the week of 31 August to 04 September 2015 you are expected to attend compulsory work related learning as explained to you by the WIL coordinator. During this period ALL Life Sciences students are expected to develop a teaching portfolio (resource file) based on their experience. This portfolio must be submitted to the lecturer on the September 11, 2015; no late submissions will be accepted. Your portfolio (A4 lever arch file or similar) must be divided into the following section, using appropriate file dividers. Section 1: Introduction [25 marks] Include in your Section 1 the following, each starting on a new page. Cover page The cover page must provide your full details, including name, surname, student number, contact details, module name, the subject that you are teaching, mentor teacher’s details and mentor lecturer’s details. Also indicate the WIL session (i.e. First semester, 2 nd semester, etc. with specific dates) School details Name and contact details of the school, details of school principal, number of learners in the school, type of the school etc. School timetable Copy of the Life Sciences Caps document Outline of personal teaching philosophy (maximum two pages) A teaching philosophy statement is a narrative that includes: your conception of teaching and learning a description of how you teach justification...
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...Induction and mentoring programs are a structured form of support for beginning educators. The two programs are linked together and complement each other for the security of lowering the attrition rate in beginning teachers. These two programs are offered to new teachers for a combination of support, new development and opportunities. Mentoring and induction programs are very similar, but their differences set them apart and each one can offer knowledge and experience for every new teacher. More and more school systems are creating quality induction and mentoring programs for new teachers with great success and this process is invaluable. Across the country the need for more quality teachers has been recognized and the support from successful induction and mentoring programs can make that need a reality. The New Teacher Center reports working with “teachers, administrators, universities, and other educational organizations to build induction and mentoring programs not only designed to support new teachers, but to have a lasting impact on classroom practices and the school communities.”(NTC, 2009) For an induction and mentoring program to have longevity, strategy and constant feedback are two vital components. When an induction and mentoring program are successful, teachers can easily integrate into the culture of the school full of confidence to respond to their own induction and mentoring plans. How does a mentoring program differ from an induction program? The induction...
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...Critical Reflections on Teaching What is reflective teaching? Reflection defined | |[pic]|recognising |[pi| | | | |+ |c] | | |Reflection means | |examining | |the way we teach. | | | |+ | | | | | |ruminating over | | | This involves more than just describing what we do or what we have done. As individuals, each with our own background and experience, we bring certain beliefs, assumptions, knowledge, attitudes and values to teaching. Our teaching takes place in a social setting that has its own unique characteristics, opportunities and constraints. Reflective teaching means exploring the implications of all these complex factors with the intention of understanding and improving our practice. A good place to start is by considering our own pasts, as learners and teachers and reflecting on the beliefs, knowledge and values that we have developed from our experiences. Levels of reflection In a sense, we reflect constantly as we teach, responding to ongoing situations in the classroom as they arise. This is sometimes called reflection-in-action. Reflection-in-action usually happens very fast, perhaps even intuitively...
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...run. In 2000 Black and Decker Corporation was still reeling from the financial and strategic problems stemming from the company's acquisition of Emhart Corporation in 1989. In late 1998 Black & Decker management celebrated the completion of an almost decade-long effort to divest nonstrategic business gained through its 1989 acquisition of Emhart Corporation and expected the company to enter a long-awaited period of growth as its entire management refocused its attention on its core power tools, plumbing, and security hardware business. Archibald believed that "This portfolio restructuring will allow us to focus on core operations that can deliver dependable and superior operating and financial results." However the portfolio restructuring did little to improve the market performance of the company's securities. Yet Archibald and the management continued to express confidence that the company's streamline portfolio would allow Black & Decker to achieve revenue and earnings growth that the market would find impressive. So far the 1998 divestitures have not produced steady increases in the company's stock price, but look promising for the future due to the efforts to refocus efforts on the successful power tools line. Strategic planning team evaluation Over the years, Black & Decker has branched off into many different directions in order to gain as much market share as possible. The diversification program in the 1980s produced mixed results for shareholders, and later...
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...work and needs to plan accordingly. One main question that is always a difficult one to answer is how long one needs to work before they can comfortably stop working and rely on their financial portfolio to take care of expenses after work. In order to analyze these questions, a deterministic model of an investment portfolio was created and stochastic modeling was used to determine the likelihood of being able to accumulate the necessary finances over the desired period of time. Quantitative Analysis: 1. Using the given deterministic model, the annual outflows were estimated from the retirement portfolio over the retirement years and the estimated return on the account was also calculated. It was determined that under these basic assumptions of salary and portfolio growth rate the portfolio could expect to grow to $452,900 within thirty years. However, this assumed a fixed salary growth rate of 5% as well as a 4% annual investment rate. Given the high rate of inflation and the projected expenses after retirement, it was calculated that if this money was to last for the retirement, then even pulling out $50,000 per year in expenses would cause the account to run out after just a few years. 2. Adjusting the annual rate to 8% from 4% had a major effect. Although the portfolio fell short of the one million dollar goal by only reaching $853,633, this was a major effect as it allows the individual the ability to pull $100,000 each year from this account and still sustain...
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...Kochman’s and Badarinathi’s mathematical case for upside deviation deals with portfolio upside deviations being divided by a market’s upside deviations to so show the resulting ratio and how it facilitates other tests for positive or negative skewness. The article discusses how CAPM is inappropriate for the evaluation of portfolios given that is not only assumed that the returns on distributions are symmetrical, but that the beta (performance and return-to-risk ratios) underestimates the risk of larger numbers of mutual funds. Kochman and Badarinathi needed to answer two questions; can upside deviation be the means for portfolio evaluations and can this be done by taking the upside deviation of portfolios and divide those figure by the upside deviation of the market? Kochman and Badarinathi believe that to make a case for upside deviation as a means for portfolio evaluations is to take the upside deviation of the portfolio(s) and dividing it by the market(s) upside deviation. This would result with a ratio that facilitates another test of positive or negative skewness. To test whether the ratio of portfolio-to-market upside deviations as a success, a test on fund returns would need to be conducted to ensure a meaningful difference between upside deviations, portfolios, and markets. The overall findings showed that the relationships between low betas and low upside volatility appeared to be weaker than the relationships between high betas and high upside volatility. In addition...
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...Rock, Paper, Scissors, and Other Investment Techniques (UOP) FIS 240 Week 5 DQs (UOP) FIS 240 Week 6 CheckPoint: So Many Businesses, So Little Money PART 1 OF 2 (UOP) FIS 240 Week 6 CheckPoint: So Many Businesses, So Little Money PART 2 OF 2 (UOP) FIS 240 Week 6 Assignment: Analyze This (UOP) FIS 240 Week 7 DQs (UOP) FIS 240 Week 7 CheckPoint: Income that Sticks PART 1 OF 2 (UOP) FIS 240 Week 7 CheckPoint: Income that Sticks PART 2 OF 2 (UOP) FIS 240 Week 8 CheckPoint: Lifetime Investment Matrix PART 1 OF 2 (UOP) FIS 240 Week 8 CheckPoint: Lifetime Investment Matrix PART 2 OF 2 (UOP) FIS 240 Week 8 Assignment: Living the Easy Life (UOP) FIS 240 Capstone Discussion Question (UOP) FIS 240 Final Project: Investment Policy and Portfolio Evaluation (UOP) ____________________________________________________ FIS 240 Week 1 CheckPoint: Is Time on My Side (UOP) For more course tutorials visit www.tutorialrank.com Resources: Appendix D and the Time Value of Money multimedia (enter into the Axia College student webpage first then copy and paste the link into the open browser) TUhttps://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/UBAM/Libraries/Flash/TVM.swfUT. Due Date: Day 5 [post to the Individual forum] Complete your responses to this week’s CheckPoint in Appendix D. Post the completed...
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...Most important, to be actively involved, students must engage in such higher-order thinking tasks as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Within this context, it is proposed that strategies promoting active learning be defined as instructional activities involving students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing’.Students and their learning needs are at the center of active learning which makes it very effective when introducing this pedagogical approach in any lesson. Some active-learning techniques are easier to use in your class and some are harder when it comes to teaching. Teaching methods are constantly changing with teacher and school introducing new pedagogical approaches to teaching, but time and time again active learning producing a much higher sense of achievement and accomplishment in comparison to the old didactic methods of route learning in school. Teaching is becoming more practical nowadays where students are becoming actively more and more involved in their learning. There is a big emphasis on relating the material students are covering to real life examples. Geoff Petty (2004) states ‘We learn by doing. Research shows that active learning is much better recalled, enjoyed and understood. Active methods require us to 'make our own meaning’, that is, develop our own conceptualisations of what we are learning. During this process we...
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...years. Mrs. Molosky is very knowledgeable and has had much experience in teaching both subjects. Mrs. Molosky challenges the students to think independently and to come to know the world through its marvel and its ancestors. The classes in the school are crowded and full of diversity, therefore not only was I able to observe the higher level classes but I was fortunate to observe the lower classes which consisted of Learning Support and ESL students. The science class was very enlightening and attention-grabbing to say the least because Mrs. Molosky had to differentiate instruction to meet the needs of the different levels. Every 2-3 weeks the teacher replaces one subject with the other depending on the depth of the information within the chapter and the rate at which the students grasp the material. At this time Mrs. Molosky was teaching a unit in Science called “The Solar System and Beyond”. During my observing of this unit of instruction, I was able to compile the information needed to respond to the questions within the module. The following is the information: Were other content areas such as reading, writing, math and technology integrated into the science lesson by the teacher? Yes, the teacher did integrate the content area of Reading by using compare and contrast, sequence, categorizing and classifying information, and drawing conclusions. The subject area of Math was applied through teaching how to calculate the distance in astronomical units in the Solar System...
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...1.1 Explain the role of initial and diagnostic assessment in agreeing individual learning goals. Initial and diagnostic assessments should effectively diagnose learners’ strengths and weaknesses. Learners who know what their strengths are and which areas they need to improve are more likely be motivated and “know what is expected of them” (Gravells, 2012, p.50) to progress and meet the requirements of a course or programme. In order to determine “the level and which specific aspects learners need to improve on” (Gravells, 2012, p.50), teachers should administer initial and diagnostic assessments to them before or at the start of a course or programme. The results of initial and diagnostic assessments can be used to help learners agree on Individual Learning Plans specifically designed to meet their learning needs. Some learners might have expectations of making rapid progress within a course or programme but unexpectedly experience difficulties due to a lack of personal or functional skills. Initial and diagnostic assessments should help teachers identify problems early relating to their learners’ personal skills. In certain circumstances, results from initial and diagnostic assessment might indicate that some learners do not have the requisite skills to have any realistic chance of progressing within a course or programme and they should be referred to a course or programme which more specifically meets their learning needs. On the other hand, some learners might have very...
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...Teaching Philosophy Statement I am not yet a teacher but have had a strong desire to be one ever since I was a child. I recall playing with my sisters and I loved playing the role as a teacher. I grew up in a bilingual environment. As a child I knew how to speak and read Spanish but, I was lacking grammar skills. I wanted to know my home language fluently in all aspects. Therefore, I want to facilitate my future students to be able to learn a second language. My drive is to pursue a higher education to my students that way they could become successful life. I am going to act like a guide to them and promoting respect to all my students. It is my life aspiration to be an excellent high school teacher who motivates students to achieve the highest level of education. Not only I am pushing myself but also, I want to be a teacher to push my students to excellence. Perseverance is my motto, and I want to pass that on to my students. I want them to see my example: I’ve worked hard and never once gave up on what I wanted to become –their teacher. I believe that my role as a teacher is to give my students the tools necessary to be successful. In order to accomplish this goal, I will find ways to teach each student based on their needs that way all my students will feel capable and successful. Another way that I would help my students is by incorporate themes, projects, group work, to make my students active learners. I want to inspire Spanish and English speakers to ascertain their...
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...FIELD REPORT: Observing Electronic Devices Usage in Class and Discussing Whether College Teachers Should Allow Students Use Laptops In Class By Bingqian Zhou Reporting Period: Autumn 2012, October 9–16 Abstract As technology become more advanced and widespread, people are able to purchase various personal electronic devices at a lower cost. It also leads to the trend that more and more students bring their personal electronic devices to class. I observed the use of electronic devices in three different courses, and I also interviewed two instructors with unique teaching styles and asked them their opinions about whether should allow their students use laptops during lectures. The reason I did this report is that I have seen many students bring their laptops to class for different purposes, and also realized that college teachers have different policies on the use of personal electronic devices. I observed student’s behavior in several classes, 70% of the students brought electronic devices to class, which only 20% of them actually used them for class related work. I also interviewed two instructors about their attitude of using laptops during class. One of them believed that it was helpful and convenient for students take notes on the computer and follow up with course materials. The other teacher argued that it was distractive to others if some students use their laptops to do non-class activities and was also disrespectful to the instructor. The conclusion of this report...
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