Teaching Portfolios

Why Make a Portfolio?

A portfolio is a collection of your qualifications, accomplishments, and work that shows what you are capable of as a teacher. It is a place where you can gather all your most important work, showcase your skills, and write out your philosophy. A portfolio should be a work in progress, but not a collection of everything you have ever done. Keep adding things that are important to your teaching career, qualifications and changing philosophies as you grow as a teacher.

Parts of a Portfolio

You will be creating a portfolio on https://www.teacherportfolio.cambridgeesol.org.

It contains the following parts:

Profile – Here you put your personal information, language proficiency levels, and details about how to access you

Teaching – This section highlights your experience in teaching. You can include your qualifications, courses you’ve taught, teaching and learning samples and action plans (assessments from observing teachers etc.).

Reflections – This section is where you can document and reflect on your beliefs about teaching and learning.

Achievements – Here you document your employment record, training and certificates. Assets – Here you store files that provide evidence of your teaching. You could include sample

lessons, photographs of your classroom, feedback from trainers, letters of reference, or even links to webpages.

Referees – This is where you keep a list of people who could provide a professional reference for you.

The first step you need to take in creating your portfolio is to go to the website above and create a portfolio. On the bottom right side you will see a log in. Register yourself as a new user, and begin to create a profile.

Add your personal details.

Next you can work on creating your profile. Click on the profile box and follow the prompts.

One important part of your profile is your languages. You’ll enter any languages you are proficient in, and your levels. There is a self assessment tool if you’re unsure of your actual level.

Once you have filled in as much of your profile information as you can, you should go to the section titled reflections. Here you can start with you teaching beliefs.

It works by you first filling in a question, such as What do I believe is my job as a language teacher? You then type your answer to the question in a paragraph or two, and then you choose a goal or two for the future regarding this question (like how you will improve your skills). Answer this question first, and then come up with one or two more to round out your beliefs sections, such as What do I believe about the importance of cultural sensitivity in an ESL/EFL classroom? And What do I believe about the importance of professional development as a teacher?

Now you can start entering your qualifications entering your qualifications, and other sections such as teaching experiences, assets, and referees.