Customer Reviews

Developing a Professional Teaching Portfolio: A Guide for Success

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This book is a helpful guide for a grueling project. I have to create and maintain a portfolio throughout my year-long certification program, and I didn't really know how to get started until I discovered this book.

It outlines the areas that should be in any professional teaching portfolio, and clearly lists the types of documents that could be contained in each section. Looking at your own work with a critical eye and reflecting on what you did and how you can do better is one of the key ideas in this book.

There is a section on how to use your portfolio, and even an overview of creating an electronic portfolio. I found the examples of portfolio entries the most helpful section. It shows there are many ways to present your portfolio in creative and eye-catching ways, without being "cutsey".

The best message I got from this book is that your portfolio should not be shoved aside after you get a job, but continuously updated and reflected upon. This not only will keep you prepared if that "dream job" comes available, but it will help you grow as a professional educator. Any student teacher would find this book extremely valuable, and I believe professional educators would gain insight in revising their own portfolios.

This book was required for one of my beginning classes in wanting to become a teacher. This book is insightful in creating portfolios, how to lay them out, and at the same time this book can be a bit redundant with information. Overall, if you're required to have it - get it, you will need it when designing your portfolio.

As part of my graduate studies in education, I am required to maintain a professional portfolio, and this book has been beneficial in outlining the why's and how's of keeping a portfolio. One of the key benefits of maintaining a professional portfolio is that a teacher can reflect on his/her teaching periodically, and make changes to improve teaching, including designing more effective lessons plans, better classroom management strategies, etc. It also allows teachers to evaluate their performance in the classroom, and provides a source of constant renewal in the teaching-learning process.

This book is well-organized and gives valuable insights and provides guidelines on how to go about developing and maintaining a professional teaching portfolio. There are also examples of portfolios provided ,and a chapter on electronic portfolios. There is an appendix, glossary, reference, and index at the end. Recommended for those considering teaching as a profession and also for in-service teachers interested in a professional self-development tool that allows them to take responsibility for their own learning.

This is the impression and the influence I got from reading "Developing a Professional Teaching Portfolio": that is the sense that you grow up as an individual and a teacher if you realize, think and organize in a personal and structured way your ideas, knowledge, competences and educational materials. Documentation and reflection are key words, but also originality and creativity. As a teacher and a teacher trainer I suggest this book to all my colleagues.