This week, our cohort had the pleasure of listening to a presentation on portfolios by Ian Landy, who is the principal of Edgehill Elementary in Powell River. Ian Landy’s presentation was a great reminder that we are not only teachers, but learners as well. I find it’s easy to identify with my role as a teacher while letting my role as learner slip. Realistically, both roles should be equally as important. It wasn’t until Christine made an enlightening remark asking, “what is important to you as an adult learner?” that I became invested in the presentation as a teacher AND a learner. This was my big “aha” moment from the presentation.
I loved how Ian Landy discussed the use of student portfolios as an assessment tool. It really spoke to me when he said, “you can fake a letter grade, but you can’t fake a portfolio,” suggesting the impersonalized, bitter reality of letter grades. On the other hand, portfolios give learners a variety of different ways to represent their learning in unique, creative ways. As a learner, I also like the idea of having my portfolio as an archive of my accomplishments. I find it’s easy to forget about certain accomplishments after the immediate glorification is over. With my portfolio, I can keep an ongoing record of the accomplishments I’m proud of without forgetting them.
One of the greatest connections I had to Ian’s talk was the importance of documentation of your journey, rather than your outcome with portfolios. During my first BCED chat, I responded to a question asking what one word we would use to describe the upcoming school year. I replied with, “journey” because I am choosing to focus on the journey rather than the outcome for this upcoming school year. Ian’s discussion on journey-focused portfolios was a great validation for what a great opportunity I have with to focus on my journey my e-portfolio. Overall, my takeaways from this presentation allowed me to stay grounded in my role as both a teacher and learner while reinforcing my value for embracing my journey.
This talk has inspired me to document my journey more often. I plan to recognize and take advantage of opportunities that will allow me to document and share my journey with others. This leads me to my inquiry, how can I remain mindful in order to take advantage of such opportunities?
After reading this blog entry it was evident to me that you are using your learner brain by connecting different experiences from our classroom and looking beyond just the presentation and BCED chat. Your thoughts about the ePortfolio connecting to your ideas of professional life being a journey are inspiring!
In this blog instead of focusing on your role as an educator you take a different path and focus on your role as a learner. You tie in with this your journey, and documenting this journey. This is fantastic! It really shows your growth as an individual, student and educator and shows a very inspiring growth-mindset, don’t ever lose that learner part of you!