Author: Manuel

Parada
Teaching
Practice
I

Teaching
Portfolio
Running Head: TEACHING PORTFOLIO

nd
March,
2015
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TEACHING PORTFOLIO

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TEACHING PORTFOLIO

Introduction
Teaching is a profession that demands a lot of responsibility for us as
future teachers, and all these responsibilities are carried out to obtain
good results in learners. To know about our responsibilities in teaching and
made us conscious in fact that teachers must be continuously improving
their weaknesses, and looking for a way of solving conflicts during the
teaching process. Being a teacher is the way of facilitate the connection
between knowledge and learners, this way is built through a series of task
and structures that must be chosen specifically for a certain group of
learners, and based on ethic principles to have a complete guide during
the teaching process. We must create such guide with many tools and
structures to follow step by step all the process of teaching during the
course, and do the teaching process easier but productive; in that way, we
can achieve settled goals to accomplish successful our role as teachers. As
in all process, there exist possibilities to face problem in which our
professional ethic will be applied to solving this problems in the better way.
Our stands and belief as teachers will be helpful to lead with all kind of
conflicts presented in our teaching process. The creation of a teacher
portfolio is very important, because it will be a guide to follow during
teaching process, we must keep it always updated, and organized
correctly to gain positive results, and also look at it as a very important
tool that must be respected. The teaching portfolio is also a binnacle that
allow us realize about things that we did in our past to know if we have
improved or not, and follow a procedure of possible solutions or
improvements. It is also a cover letter for us as future teachers in which
we present our expectations in teaching, the way we teach, and how well
we teach. The teaching portfolio is purely a description and a compilation
of all that will be carried out in the teaching process. The best tool that
represents us as future teacher is our teaching portfolio, so that is the
importance of creating our own.

What is a Teaching Portfolio?

There exists a broad vary of definitions in literature about what is a
Teaching Portfolio. The most confident source I found to support and
understand that important question will be exposed in this answer. The
definition proposed by Peter Seldin that says: It is a factual description of
a professors teaching strengths and accomplishments. It includes
documents and materials which collectively suggest the scope and quality
of a professors teaching performance. It is to teaching what lists of
publications, grants, and honors are to research and scholarship. (Seldin,
1997). In other words, Seldin summarize a teaching portfolio is a summary
you compile to demonstrate your commitment, major accomplishments
and strengths in teaching field. It is a compilation of documents and tools
you will use in teaching. Those documents in your teaching portfolio also
serve as base of reference for evidence improvements in your teaching.

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The teaching portfolio also serve as a binnacle in which we evidence

our teaching methodology, strategies, techniques, and many more
documents that we provide to our students. Through this dossier we can
compare with our results in teaching to identify the contrast, and find
possible future improvements into the teaching process. Teaching
portfolios capture evidence of ones entire teaching career, in contrast to
what are called course portfolios that capture evidence related to a single
course." (Hutchings, 1998). A Teaching Portfolio serves us as a source of
review and reflection, because it prompts us to engage us in a
comprehensive self-assessment of different aspects in our work and reflect
all about what we do it? Why we do it? And how we do it? At the time we
recognize our strengths and weaknesses.
There are two types of Teaching Portfolios: a Working Portfolio and a
Showcase Portfolio. A Working Portfolio contains items that show how a
teacher has progressed toward meeting a particular goal (as implement),
and a Showcase Portfolio is designed to show the teacher his or her best
(as reference). Through preparing a Teaching Portfolio facilitate the
process during the teaching practice, because it provides us all the tools to
work successfully if it is well prepared.

Self-evaluation and Reflection

I consider teaching as the most sophisticated process in all learning,
because it involves lots of process into one action that determine a vary
results in learners. That profession involves important tasks such as
facilitator, assessing, observer and so on that made complex the
profession in all sense. The creation of a teaching portfolio is a task that
serves us to link everything that made us teachers to show our
expectations as teachers. As teacher we should know what our student
necessities are as priority, because we need to know their weakness in
their learning in order to build it into strengths. It is our responsibility
facilitate learning in students through tools we pretend use during the
teaching process. I aware that being a teacher demand lots of
responsibility and capacity, because a teacher is the model to follow by
students, so everything we do as teacher no matter if it is wrong or right is
our responsibility.
I agree that is really important firstly to know who what kind of
teacher we are, so I will identify my positive and negative background and
follow changes to accommodate myself to my students. My personality
and attitude will define my stands to deal during the teaching process, I
think that a positive personality create confidence for developing the role
as a teacher as well as possible; personality is something we can keep
improving to do our work much better. The attitude I take in front of
students will define the quality of my teaching, I believe that a good
teaching depends too much in teachers attitude, because when we adopt
a comprehensive and sensitively attitude we create a confidence
environment with students, and hat opens door to a good relationship and

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a participatory class. The effective attitudes and actions employed by

teachers ultimately can make a positive difference on the lives of their
students.(Gourneau)
I realize that in teaching profession we must keep improving and
innovating day by day. Since I was studying in basic school I got interested
in teaching field, but it was not until few years ago that I wanted to learn
English for teaching. I remember my first English teacher in school, she
was a good teacher but English field was not her strength. She could have
a correct methodology, good strategies, and vary of techniques but she
did not have a good English proficiency. It was the reason that motivated
me to learn English for teaching, I actually think that I do not have high
English proficiency, but I have enough knowledge about English and
teaching for being able to introduce and familiarize that new language to
my students.
I trust in all knowledge I got during my preparation for teaching, and
I think that I can implement a new process of teaching for students in
which student can improve their English knowledge and skills as well. I do
not pretend compare how I learned English in order to teach in that way,
because each student has different kinds of minds and therefore learn,
remember, perform, and understand in different ways according to the
Theory of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 2010), so I believe that we
should adapt our teaching methodology strategies and techniques in a
way that we can succeed with all students learning.
I think about experience as major in all teaching, because it is
through experience we realize what are our weaknesses? What are our
strengths? What we should improve in our methodology? And many more
questions that will help us to find out a possible improvement of teaching
we provide to students. I agree that my teaching experience as too short,
but it is necessary carry out my teaching practice in order to gain
experience what is important for me as it is for students. "The four pillars
of education: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together,
and learning to be. (UNESCO)

Why do I need a Teaching Portfolio?

There is a wide vary of thoughts suggesting reasons about the
importance of developing a Teaching Portfolio, Sally Wijesundera form
University of Western Australia staff, suggests the following reasons why
staff may need or want to develop a teaching portfolio:

Evidence in applications for grants, appointments, tenure, promotion,

or consultancies.
Self-evaluation, reflection and improvement.
Planning for Staff Development Review discussions.
Fostering discussion about teaching.
Evidence of work quality. (Wijesundera, 1995)

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They help document what has happened in the classroom over months
or years, and can provide valuable evidence for hiring, tenure, and
promotion committees. But they also help teachers reflect on changes
made in teaching over time, as new materials, improve technologies are
incorporated into courses or as the curriculum changes. Such year-end a
Teaching Portfolio reflection helps an instructor evaluate whether students
are learning from current teaching strategies or whether other kinds of
assignments or activities could accomplish the same goals more
effectively. And finally, keeping an up-to-date file of teaching practices also
may come in handy when applying for specific kinds of grants or teaching
awards.
According to (Seldin, 1997), Teaching Portfolios has two main purposes
of using. Firstly, it is a summative statement of what you have achieved,
that is, a document that presents your teaching achievements. This
information will be necessary when you apply for new positions, probation
and promotion or when applying for grants, consultancies or teaching
awards. Secondly, a teaching portfolio can be used as part of the
formative assessment of your own performance, that is, to reflect on what
you are trying to achieve and how you might improve upon it.

How should I structure my Teaching Portfolio?

The structures of you can choice for creating your teaching portfolio
might differ significantly depending upon the purpose for which you intend
to use it. In some circumstances you can focus your structure applying for
a new job or a position in which you should emphasize your Teaching
Portfolio in academic background. If you consider adapt your structure to
the needs in institution you want to work for, you should focalize your
Teaching Portfolio in academic development from this institution. Probably
you want adopt a structure in which you need to evidence your work for
improving your abilities, so you should structure your Teaching Portfolio in
your personal expectation to succeed. Whatever your purpose, you should
also structure your portfolio to highlight what you consider to be your
relative strengths in teaching and learning, "Competencies required for
good teachers" (Simpson., 1995).
There is no correct structure for a teaching portfolio, but most of the
literature indicates that it should at least address the following aspects of
your teaching:

Your philosophy on teaching and learning.

Documentation for current teaching practices, self-reflection on current
practices and plans for future improvement.
Evidence of your performance as a teacher.

Those basic aspects are meaningful as a base in the structure of your

Teaching Portfolio, it depends on the purpose you want to focalize you will
have modify and adapt it in the way you consider. What we have looked

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for, but not seen, in advice for developing portfolios is advice on how to go
about a concurrent process to understand and express what constitutes
excellent teaching in the academic unit in a way that reflects actual
teaching practice. (Richlin, 1995)

Teaching Responsibilities
Its very important to know what the responsibilities for teachers are,
because it shows an engagement with teaching profession and students
learning as well. My teaching responsibilities are focused in creating a
dynamic environment into the classroom applying a variety of techniques
in which student participation is taken into account. I use a blended of
writing, lecture, discussion, and solving exercise in my lessons because
this kind of activities awake and put students mind in working status. I
assign individual, pair, and groups work to allow students discuss,
comment, and solve problems for creating lessons in which studentstudent is evident.
I make frequently use of short periods of time to make students
reflect and comment on behaviors, improvements, and some necessary
facts for creating confident relationship teacher-student and vice versa. I
plan and improve my lessons structures constantly because students
need change and it is necessary adapt everything to success with
students learning in all my lessons. I respect the syllabus provided by the
educative institution and I follow it using all the technological resources
the institution posses to make interactive and interesting my lessons. I
engage my professionalism to assess students equally and being
considerable giving special support when students present a deficit in their
academic performance. Using a multitude of teaching approaches, I guide
students to appreciate the complexity of every topic. My aim is to
introduce and familiarize the English language in students through a
dynamic environment in which they can develop the language easily by
using their experience and rewarding them with motivation eventually.

Statement of Teaching Philosophy

I recognize that teaching is more than a profession, I think in
teaching such a life style in which I must enjoy every moment. The
purpose of teaching results widely in many aspects, but I am really sure
that one of them is the ability to change behaviors in students through
knowledge acquired from teachers. During my preparation in teaching
field I have coursed by many teachers with different ways to teach, and I
have collected most part of attributes from them for giving my best in
teaching. I believe that everyday a student is exposed in front a teacher
will have something new to know. But I realize that teaching imply
experience for teachers when it is giving a lesson. Through my short
experience with students I have learned a great amount of things that
makes more interesting this profession.

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I keep my ideology that experience with students is gained a long

time, and as teacher I have something new to acquire from my students.
But as English teacher my labor is not only teach the students how does
the English language works, I care the way my student learn. I consider
that a teacher must focalize in facilitating the way of learning from
students in order to create better learners. I not only pretend internalize
the practice of the language inside the classroom; I motivate students to
become English language in a generalized practicing. I am a believer of
teachers are models to be followed inner and out the classroom, thats the
reason to be carefully about our behaviors because it affect or contribute
our teaching reputation.
My expectative in teaching is student centered learning. I consider
that this approach make students works in their autonomy and
independency by putting responsibility for the learning path in their hands.
Thats the reason I based my teaching in the constructivist learning theory
in which learners construct their learning through their own experience
(Jean Piaget & Lev Vigotsky, 1978). My approach change the traditional
teaching in which teacher is seen as primarily the active role and students
are seen as secondary passive role into the classroom. Within this
approach I pretend keep active students and emphasizes them the critical
role in constructing meaning from new information and prior experience. I
try to create in my students a good image of my role in teaching and I
want to be exposed to gain experience from them too.
I consider strongly that students motivation influence enormously in
their learning, that is why I keep a comprehensive posture with students
giving them support of motivation and improvement, because learning a
second language involve lot of stress and frustration for some students.
The way of measuring the effectiveness of my teaching will be based
through the improvement of my students especially when the course has
finished. My statement of teaching philosophy will be susceptible to
changes for improvements along time; the experience I acquire will be
exposed continuously for improve my teaching role.

Teaching Methodology, Strategies and Objectives

It result difficult define a perfect methodology for teaching a second
language in which learners present a completely success in learning this
new language. Each teacher has a different methodology for teaching
English as a second language according the theories they follow. I base my
teaching methodology in the theory that learners construct their own
learning through experience (Jean Piaget & Lev Vigotsky, 1978), so I apply
this theory in a sense to learn by the process of using and being exposed
to this new language. To be exposed(perceiving) implies that students
will develop the reading and listening skills, and using it
(communicating) in the other hand will develop writing and speaking skills,
so students will have a complete develop of four macro skills.

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My methodology is not focused in the use of one single method, one

single strategy, neither one single technique; my methodology is based on
handle more than one because I want to vary the teaching style constantly
and do not be monotonous. Despite my teaching approach, the Syllabus of
Tenth & Eleventh Grade provided by Ministry of Education (MINED, 2008)
suggest the use of Communicative approach, it based on the development
of language competencies essential for communicating and properly
interacting with the environment. So, following this requirements I will
make use of Direct Method in which students can be exposed to the target
language by receiving the class in English. They also will have the
opportunity of communicating in English during the class and change the
traditional Grammar Translation Method in which learners cannot develop
their communicative abilities because the use of target language is not
allowed, in that way learners not only have theory about how to use the
language, they will use the language applying grammar and structures in
real context for developing their communicative abilities. The purpose of
using the Direct Method is to reduce the use of L1 during the class and
create the habit of communicating in the target language in my students
(Larsen-Freeman, 2008).
I will also apply in my teaching practice the use of Audio-lingual
Method because this method is also based on Communicative Approach. I
want to use this method because it will allows to students practice the
target language through exposure of real situations, they will learn
grammatical structures by conditioning helping them to respond correctly
to stimuli through shaping and reinforcement, and the last one method I
will apply is the Community Language Learning. This method is applied for
teenagers and adults who are the most exposed to feel fears in performing
a new language. I will see all my students as whole-person I will not focus
only my students intellect because it necessary focalize what is behind the
improvement, I will consider reduce fears in student to participate because
it could block their learning, so I want to focalize generalize the class in all
my students (Larsen-Freeman, 2008).
The strategy and techniques I will use with my learners are selected
carefully to develop competences in student according to each method
that I will apply. Techniques are important because these encourage
flexibility, agility, strength, and endurance in learning. Warm up
techniques are important because it gradually sets the mood to engage
students in learning and it also gets the student's language schemas
activated to connect with previous classes and with what is about to
happen. Wrap up techniques in the other hand, it can be used to celebrate
the fact that the group is together and to prepare students to leave the
classroom in a relaxed stated with the desire of having more of it. I will use
strategies using all technological tools the institution offers me to work
with students in individual work, pair works and group works in which I will
apply techniques for developing competences in students. Some of
techniques I will use in individual work will be questioning, reading aloud,
fill in the blanks, transcriptions and puzzles because these kind of
techniques will help students to improve their pronunciation, acquisition of

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vocabulary, put in practice grammatical structures, and also develop their

speaking skill. In pair works I will put in practice techniques that involves
communication such as dialogs, translations and scrambles in which
students will develop their comprehension, perception, getting syntax
abilities and communicative as well. In group of work as last one of my
strategies, I will make use of role plays such as round tables, group
discussions and conversation groups for creating a collaborative learning
and a mutual interchange of vocabulary in which students can put into
practice what they learn.
Through these tools I want to create better students, and achieve a
proficiency Intermediate Low & Intermediate Mid in students, following the
objectives of the Syllabus. This is my methodology, my own way of
teaching my students, I consider we all follow the same objectives in
teaching English but we all have different methodology to achieve this
objectives, but it is my guide to teach English and that makes my
methodology different from others.
REFERENCES
Gardner, H. (2010). Howard Gardner. Retrieved February 22, 2015, from
http://howardgardner.com/books/mi_new-horizons/
Gourneau, B. (n.d.). Five Attitudes of Effective Teachers: Implications for Teacher
Training. Retrieved February 21, 2015, from University of North Dakota:
http://usca.edu/essays/vol132005/gourneau.pdf
Hutchings. (1998). The Course Portfolio: How Faculty Can Examine Their Teaching
to Advance Practic. American Association for Higher Education.
Jean Piaget & Lev Vigotsky. (1978). Contructivism Theory. Retrieved February
2015, 27, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructivism_(philosophy_of_education)
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2008). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. New
York: Oxford University Press.
MINED. (2008). ENGLISH SYLLABUS HIGH SCHOOL. San Salvador, El Salvador:
Ministerio de Educacion.
Richlin, L. (1995). A Different View on Teaching Portfolios: Ensuring Safety While
Honoring Practice. In L. Richlin, A Different View on Teaching Portfolios: Ensuring
Safety While Honoring Practice. (pp. 161-78). Journal on Excellence in Teaching.
Seldin, P. (1997). a factual description of a professors teaching strengths and
accomplishments. . In J. E. Peter Seldin, a factual description of a professors
teaching strengths and accomplishments. . 2nd Ed. Anker Publishing Company,
Inc. .

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Simpson., S. K. (1995). Validating Teaching Competencies for Faculty Members in
Higher Education: A National Study Using the Delphi Method. In S. K. Simpson., A
National Study Using the Delphi Method (pp. 19:223-34).
UNESCO. (n.d.). UNESCO. Retrieved February 22, 2015, from http://en.unesco.org/
Wijesundera, S. (1995). Teaching portfolios - what are they and how do I create
one? . Edith Cowan University.