Students completing coursework in many fields often assemble a portfolio at some point during their schooling. A portfolio can include examples of coursework, a resume, and other documents that demonstrate understanding and competency in a specific field. Job seekers can direct employers to an ePortfolio. Documents in an ePortfolio give a more well-rounded view of a job candidate than a résumé alone.
Your ePortfolio assignment consists of three components:
Classroom Management strategies
Innovations in Education
Career Explorations
CREATE EACH COMPONENT IN A SEPARATE DOCUMENT- ONE FOR EACH COMPONENT. All documentation supporting your work on each component should be included in the respective folders. Feel free to include Word® documents, Excel® spreadsheets, pictures (JPEG), scanned copies of items, etc. Make your ePortfolio assignment as professional as possible.
APPLY A GRADE LEVEL AND SUBJECT AREA OF YOUR CHOICE TO COMPLETE THE COMPONENTS OF THIS ASSIGNMENT.
Details on Each Component:
Component One: Classroom Management strategies
This component includes developing interesting and motivating activities and strategies for classroom management and organization in your classroom. You will be developing a variety of introductory activities (anticipatory sets) to assist you in:
Motivating students
Addressing unique learning styles
Addressing varied diversities of students.
You will create four (4) introductory activities that meet specific learning goals and objectives as well as address the needs of diverse learners in a positive motivational atmosphere.
Tips:
Activities should be relatively short in duration but “hook” the student into the subject.
Activities may be hands-on activities that introduce the concept in a unique, exciting way, i.e., dividing up a Hershey Bar to demonstrate the fractional concept of eighths.
Activities can include the creation of costumes or props to entice the students in attending to the instructional activity.
Avoid teacher-centered lectures to introduce new material and lessons.
Consider technologies you can employ.
Passing score description:
You will demonstrate that your introductory activities entice students to participate in your lessons. You will provide unique “hooks” that gain student attention and sustain it. Your artifacts show that you understand the importance of developing classroom management tools and strategies that provide motivational, exciting, and unique activities while maintaining a positive and comprehensive learning environment.
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Component Two: Innovations in Education
This component focuses on the appropriate integration of technology into instruction. This component also includes various ways to network and reach out to students using technology such as Facebook®, Twitter®, videos using Jing®, Captivate®, You Tube™, podcasts, wikis, blogs, PowerPoint® presentations and classroom or school websites.
To complete this component, address at least two technologies, giving specific examples of how you have used or plan to use in your practice. Include at least one specific activity for each technology with an appropriate learning objective and method for assessing student performance. Best practice suggests that this will be a rubric or checklist.
How can you and your students use these tools to create authentic learning tasks?
How can you apply these tools to develop student-teacher and peer-to-peer communication and collaboration?
How will using various educational technologies increase student motivation and learning?
How can learning become more authentic and task-based in nature by using technology in the classroom?
How can these technologies support the constructivist framework of teaching and learning?
Passing score description:
You will demonstrate that you can effectively apply new technology to the constructivist learning environment in order to achieve specific learning objectives. You will find new ways of accommodating students’ diverse learning style preferences, skill levels and motivational triggers such that student interaction increases. You will utilize technology to provide students with an authentic, task-based quality learning experience. You will include a method for assessing student performance. Your artifacts show that you understand the importance of employing a technological tool to support student-centered, problem-based lessons and assessment that meets a wide variety of student needs and preferences within a constructivist framework.
Component Three: Career Explorations
If you need additional assistance in answering these questions, please contact the Kaplan University Career Center at careercenter@kaplan.edu.
How do you create a cover letter and resume suitable for a first time teaching position, a change in teaching position or an entry- level administrative position?
Which interviewing questions should you anticipate from a school administrator? How would you respond to these questions that use educational buzz words such as differentiated instruction, No Child Left Behind, accountability, backward design, reading strategies, etc.? Finally, what questions would you ask the school administrator? You will include 5 of the best interviewing questions (with your responses) relating to your grade level and content area. In addition, include 3 questions you will ask. Please include these in folder three of your ePortfolio.
What job sites will you search to obtain a position in your field? You will include 3 job sites including the URL and a brief description (3 sentences) of the sites. Please include these in folder three of your ePortfolio.
Passing score description:
You must include all well-written, quality artifacts as stated above:
5 Administrator interviewing questions (with your responses), and 3 questions for the Administrator
3 job site
