E-Portfolios: The Next Frontier

Throughout the job search process, an applicant learns of many ways to demonstrate their competancy, passion, and desire to become an educator.  In my preparation for upcoming interviews, I decided to take the plunge and dive into the world of E-Portfolios.  But where to start?

Since I had little familiarity with creating a web site, I decided to search for a portfolio-hosting site and happened upon Portfoliogen.  After signing up for a free account, I was off and running!

Much to my surprise, creating this porfolio was a very enjoyable experience on many levels.  First, I was able to reflect upon my educational journey that began in my first education course several years ago.  When looking for documents to upload, I happened upon my first "Philosophy of Education" that I had written in 2009.  After comparing this early edition to my final statement of philosophy that I finished revising at the conclusion of my student teaching, it was evident to me that I had grown as an individual and educator.  The experience of student teaching had allowed me to create a new perspective on how a classroom really works and how to motivate students to succeed.  I find it very beneficial to look back on where I have started in my educational journey and where I am at this point in my educational career.  I would be very interested to see how my philosophy changes after 5, 10, 30+ years of teaching...

Secondly, I enjoyed the opportunity to learn how to portray my image as an educator on another platform (i.e. the world wide web).  It is fairly simple to collect paper documents and organize them neatly into a binder.  However, organizing one's accomplishments, philosophy, and photo documentation on a web platform is a task that takes practice.  It was a new adventure that I feel will allow me to gain more confidence in maintaining a class website, FFA web page, or a business website.

Over the past few days, I've been finalizing my E-Portfolio and I'm happy to announce it's completion (for now).  Kudos to Portfoliogen for creating such a user-friendly platform to be used by educators to assemble a professional portfolio! 

Please feel free to visit my E-Portfolio at www.portfoliogen.com/romberger_darla.

~DJR