Stick This in your portfolio
Hello again. I know, I know. You are thinking, "it hasn't been one month since his last post." That is true, it has only been since Wednesday. This is the new and improved me, that will promise to uphold the duties of this blog as much as possible. Anyways, on to the subject at hand.
About a month or so ago now, I had the State Representative from the Marshall County/Grundy County area in as a guest speaker. Polly Granzow is her name. Taught Spanish for 21 years and now serves this role. I'm sure she is a nice lady, but I wasn't impressed by her visit nor were my students. When I had a chance to speak with her individually, we were talking about Education. One thing that turned me off right away was her lack of knowledge of what was going on in the state as far as education goes. She had NO idea that new teachers had to go through a 2-year mentoring program with the end result being a Portfolio that shows proficency at all levels of the 8 Iowa Teaching Standards. Wisconsin doesn't do this, nor does Nebraska, Minnesota I'm not sure of. Anyways, part of me wanted to forgive her for not knowing this because a public service worker as herself as a whole load of issues to face. Problem is she taught herself (so I would think she would pay special attention to that) and education is kinda a big topic in Iowa now. Why are we slipping as far as progress in our students? Why do teachers get paid crap? Anyways I informed her of this, wrote it down for her, and she said she will bring it up when the Legislature reconvenes. My main complaint is that we just graduated from an Accredited College/University with a degree in education. Now we spend at least 3 hours a month in meetings repeating everything we've heard before. Do they not trust the colleges for turning out good teachers? There are just many small flaws with the system including how often you talk to your mentor (mine here and last year were both very good, just that you don't have a lot of time to talk to them). The list could go on and on.
Like I previously said though, the end result is this Portfolio. It isn't a bad idea and really it isn't that hard. I run into two problems though. First, when you are planning/checking/coaching when is there time to find "artifacts" and type up rationales about why it shows are are good in a certain area? Second, and this is a problem that maybe only I face, is worrying about whether or not your "artifacts" are going to be good enough. Yes, this insecurity bit of mine is going to have to end in all areas of my life soon- but you want to make sure you have your best stuff in this portfolio. It determines whether or not you get your full license or not. So its kinda a big deal. My most recent revelation about this portfolio is the stuff you CAN'T put in...which probably mean much more than some crappy artifact. Some examples: Last year, the Junior High at Lineville-Clio bought me the book "Duck For President" and all signed the cover. It meant a lot to me, and I actually used the book in a lesson this year. The giant card I got from some students at L-C last year was touching. And then, the reason this thought came to mind: yesterday first hour ended. First hour is Government(my favorite class) with seniors. The bell rings, and the students are leaving. I'm sitting at my desk entering my first hour attendence into the computer when one of the girls comes up. She gives me a glass with some pretzels covered with caramel and almond bark wrapped up inside. She says it is a Christmas gift for me because I am her favorite teacher. I simply say "thank you and have a good weekend" - one of those moments were you are taken aback and don't know what to say. Anyways...the point is why do I need to make this portfolio to show I'm a good teacher when I have moments from students that tell me I am. Those mean a lot more to me and will last a lot longer.
Later
About a month or so ago now, I had the State Representative from the Marshall County/Grundy County area in as a guest speaker. Polly Granzow is her name. Taught Spanish for 21 years and now serves this role. I'm sure she is a nice lady, but I wasn't impressed by her visit nor were my students. When I had a chance to speak with her individually, we were talking about Education. One thing that turned me off right away was her lack of knowledge of what was going on in the state as far as education goes. She had NO idea that new teachers had to go through a 2-year mentoring program with the end result being a Portfolio that shows proficency at all levels of the 8 Iowa Teaching Standards. Wisconsin doesn't do this, nor does Nebraska, Minnesota I'm not sure of. Anyways, part of me wanted to forgive her for not knowing this because a public service worker as herself as a whole load of issues to face. Problem is she taught herself (so I would think she would pay special attention to that) and education is kinda a big topic in Iowa now. Why are we slipping as far as progress in our students? Why do teachers get paid crap? Anyways I informed her of this, wrote it down for her, and she said she will bring it up when the Legislature reconvenes. My main complaint is that we just graduated from an Accredited College/University with a degree in education. Now we spend at least 3 hours a month in meetings repeating everything we've heard before. Do they not trust the colleges for turning out good teachers? There are just many small flaws with the system including how often you talk to your mentor (mine here and last year were both very good, just that you don't have a lot of time to talk to them). The list could go on and on.
Like I previously said though, the end result is this Portfolio. It isn't a bad idea and really it isn't that hard. I run into two problems though. First, when you are planning/checking/coaching when is there time to find "artifacts" and type up rationales about why it shows are are good in a certain area? Second, and this is a problem that maybe only I face, is worrying about whether or not your "artifacts" are going to be good enough. Yes, this insecurity bit of mine is going to have to end in all areas of my life soon- but you want to make sure you have your best stuff in this portfolio. It determines whether or not you get your full license or not. So its kinda a big deal. My most recent revelation about this portfolio is the stuff you CAN'T put in...which probably mean much more than some crappy artifact. Some examples: Last year, the Junior High at Lineville-Clio bought me the book "Duck For President" and all signed the cover. It meant a lot to me, and I actually used the book in a lesson this year. The giant card I got from some students at L-C last year was touching. And then, the reason this thought came to mind: yesterday first hour ended. First hour is Government(my favorite class) with seniors. The bell rings, and the students are leaving. I'm sitting at my desk entering my first hour attendence into the computer when one of the girls comes up. She gives me a glass with some pretzels covered with caramel and almond bark wrapped up inside. She says it is a Christmas gift for me because I am her favorite teacher. I simply say "thank you and have a good weekend" - one of those moments were you are taken aback and don't know what to say. Anyways...the point is why do I need to make this portfolio to show I'm a good teacher when I have moments from students that tell me I am. Those mean a lot more to me and will last a lot longer.
Later
posted by CKG at
6:11 PM
1 Comments:
CKG-Wow! Your thoughts on the portfolio got me thinking. I especially liked your point about just graduating from an accredited institution and still having to "prove" yourself to...someone (the state?). All negative thoughts aside, I use this required portfolio as an opportunity to reflect and think back upon my past year and a half of teaching. This is the part I like. The part I don't like is having to put it into a "portfolio format." In fact, after some research and thought, I think this "portfolio" thing is hyped up way too much. I think it should be the administration's job to observe us meeting all of these critera. Why should we, the low salaried teachers, have to do the extra work? It seems like the guy who is getting paid more than twice as much as me should be doing the dirty work. All he has to do is write a brief summative (it surely cannot take as long as this portfolio did...) and "check off" the portfolio and then his part is done! Since when do employees have to do all of the work on their OWN evaluation!?! In the "business world," I'm guessing this isn't the case. Just a thought to ponder...
By
Matt Townsley, At
12:46 PM
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