Building Teacher Portfolios

Teachers and administrators in Connecticut are developing portfolios that are not only powerful professional development tools, but also often serve as substitutes for formal observation and evaluation.

In the Region 15 Public Schools in Middlebury, Connecticut, all students are learning to improve their performance through the analysis, reflection, and goal setting they do in their portfolios. Now teachers and administrators are using these strategies to improve teaching and learning. We are becoming a community of learners through our portfolio experiences. Here, a teacher reflects on her four-year learning experience in constructing what our district calls the "Educator's Collaborative Portfolio."

The Portfolio Journey Begins

The memo invited me to a meeting to talk about creating a teacher's portfolio. I thought about it for a while and found myself becoming intrigued. After all, I had worked with my students on portfolios for years, and I knew that making portfolios increased my students' understanding of themselves, their reading, and their writing.