Follow these teaching portfolio organization tips to showcase your passion, personality, and education experiences.
To find the right position, you need to have enough information in your teaching portfolio to present to the interviewer, if requested.
Not only will you need to supply an outstanding resume and relevant teaching experience with accomplishments, but you’ll need to show how your teaching methods are beneficial to the students.
How to Start Organizing Your Teacher Portfolio
Start creating your teaching portfolio from your very first educational position. Experiences as a student teaching practicum, teacher’s aide, camp counselor, librarian, or assistant teacher contribute to your expertise.
Updating your teaching resume and application letter is a key component. You will want the resume or CV to be concise yet detailed enough to communicate your value as a teacher. If you are a teacher just starting, don’t miss this in-depth post on writing a new teacher resume.
Incorporating academic resume writing tips effectively will make your portfolio stand out from other teachers.
What to Include — Besides the Resume
Keep a collection of the teaching methods you used during the year and comments on how they worked. Retain a detailed report on some teaching methods you may have introduced yourself that seemed to benefit and help the children learn.
Maintain a good record of any school activities that you helped with or took part in. If you received any certificates of recognition or awards for your teaching abilities, you would want to include these. Include letters from parents that provide testimony to how you helped their child or how their child responded positively to your methods.
Complete all of these steps for each year you teach. Include any new classes or seminars that you attend on newer methods of education. Give a small explanation of how you incorporated any of these methods into your classroom environment.
Assembling Your Portfolio
Decide on how you want to organize your teaching portfolio. You can choose to do it chronologically according to each teaching year or organize it by priority. You can list the planning and preparation you did for each class year, the environment you tried to create in the classroom, the instruction methods you used, and what your responsibilities were.
If you choose to create your teaching artifacts chronologically using the list above, then at the end of each year, you can insert your certificates, awards, letters from parents, and references or remarks from other teaching professionals and administrators.
Other Methods of Organization
If you are a grade school teacher, you may choose to set up your portfolio in a scrapbook form, with pictures and other items you have gathered over the year. If you teach in a higher grade or that of a University or College, you may want to include a table of contents page.
You can add categories such as a cover letter, your resume, teaching methods, classroom environment or atmosphere, student response to your teaching abilities, certificates and awards, references, and remarks from work associates and superiors, letters from parents and comments or letters from students.
Other Items to Consider For Your Portfolio
You may even want to include a few pages that list your students’ accomplishments while under your tutelage. If their grades improved significantly, their attitude changed, they became more interested, or they became more involved, include it. Including how you overcame hurdles trying to reach your students may be appropriate.
It’s wise to include copies of some of the students’ work, showing where they were initially and how they learned and advanced by year-end.
Don’t include test scores or results, and don’t single out any student as being worse or behind other students. Drawings, stories, and photos of some of their projects that show how the class advanced in their learning through the year would be a nice addition.
Included positive year-end evaluations or performance reviews from the principal or your supervisor in your teaching portfolio. Provided the reviews are excellent.
Make your teaching portfolio easy and pleasant to look at and read. Choose an attractive, professional cover and have it well organized so that even a non-professional person can look through it and see what you have accomplished as a teacher.
We hope this article was helpful! If so, please feel free to comment and share your thoughts below. Should you need any assistance preparing for your next teaching interview, learn more about Candace and contact her today!
