Irene W-P's Portfolio

Return to: ETAP623 Fall 2012 | Irene Watts-Politza's Introduction Page| WordPress Portfolio for Teachers

Topic/Purpose

The purpose of this project is to guide P - 20 educators in the basics of creating a teaching portfolio on WordPress.

Topics that will be covered:

Navigating the WordPress dashboard to create a multi-page, multi-media portfolio

Selecting and organizing artifacts for inclusion

Writing clinical reflection

Eliciting and responding to site visitor feedback

Connections to New York State Teaching Standards/APPR

Needs Analysis

1. Problem: Changes in P - 20 education with respect to testing, evaluation, and hiring of teachers necessitate the compilation of a body of professional work that flexibly documents one's knowledge, skills, and dispositions in a style that is relevant to 21st Century teaching and learning reform and initiatives.

2. What is to be learned: Course users will develop skills in multi-media artifact presentation and writing standards-based reflective commentary to publish an online, digital portfolio. Course users will become familiar with ways to select, organize, and reflect on teaching and learning artifacts with respect to New York State Teaching Standards and APPR requirements. These skills can support teachers seeking to fulfill APPR professional development requirements, gain district employment or tenure, apply to graduate or post-graduate programs of study, or serve as teacher leaders to faculty or students in the portfolio development process.

3. The Learners: Course users will be teachers of any level, preservice through teacher leader, who wish to explore and document their growth and development - and that of their students - through a reflective portfolio approach. Teachers in the current education job market must be prepared to demonstrate knowledge, skills, and dispositions for teaching and learning in ways befitting a 21st Century educator in order to secure and maintain a position in a rapidly and constantly changing professional landscape. Publishing one's professional body of work in a digital, multi-media format invites discourse, refreshes perspective, and deepens connections to make the art and science of teaching and learning more meaningful to self and to others.

4. Instructional Context: Most activities in this course will be completed by the individual in the online environment. Course users are encouraged to take the course with one or two colleagues or peers to link portfolios and engage in constructive critique and feedback during the portfolio development process. For those working on their own, the option to send outside viewers a link to the portfolio is built into the course.

5. Exploring the problem and solution: Through designing a portfolio, course users will explore the ways in which APPR requirements connect to New York State Teaching Standards and daily practice through selecting and reflecting on artifacts from their unique practice of teaching. Course users will invite and use feedback from knowledgeable others (colleagues, school and district leaders, higher education faculty, community leaders, parents and/or students) to gain additional insights into the nature of their work. They will use feedback to more deeply understand and improve their practice.

6. Course Goal: Create and maintain a professional teaching portfolio using WordPress to demonstrate one's standards-based, continuous professional growth to members, stakeholders, and constituents of the P - 20 learning community.

Reflections: Changes in Plans

Sunday, December 16, 2012

I have just concluded the design and development of the mini-course WordPress Portfolio for Teachers. While implementation is the next step in the ADDIE model of SDI, some evaluative comments are in order. I feel my course is rich in instruction, initially low in interactivity, and needs improvement on engagement. The addition of images and interactive quizzes are two elements of course design that would improve the engagement factor. While the course begins as an individual endeavor, the opportunity to collaborate extensively and meaningfully with others is introduced in Unit 3; this interactivity is designed to continue long after the course is over. Constructive comments aside, I believe that anyone who takes the course will receive a great deal of professional development in two of today's critical topics in education: APPR evaluation and reflective practice. While doing so, a project-based learning approach results in creation of an authentic product that demonstrates understanding of these topics as well as evidence of continuing professional growth and achievement.

Sunday, December 9, 2012

As I develop each unit, I find that there is still a place for inspiration within the logical domain of systematic design of instruction. Drafting the introduction to each unit results in deeper thinking on instructional strategies ... each unit requires different sets of strategies that are selected in accordance with the learning outcome of each unit. While this is systematic, the language and prose through which the learning is introduced and the learner is engaged are still subject to the creativity of the designer. In Unit 1, I differentiate instruction prior to any learning taking place. In Unit 2, I suggest note-taking and alert the learner to the positive benefits of doing so. In Unit 3, the learner is asked to pause to reflect on progress and learning. When introducing Unit 4, I ask the learner to complete two reflection activities in order to stimulate the affective domain. While these design decisions are rational, their genesis is accomplished by dipping into the ether for help in devising that perfectly motivating turn of phrase or expression of idea. It's called instructional design for a reason. :}

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Today I reflect on the importance of task analysis. Over the weekend I completed the curriculum map through performing a task analysis of my target objectives. It was amazing to watch the course build itself through identifying essential prerequisites and determining their instructional sub-components. I was also able to see how certain dispositions or skills must be in place - supportive prerequisites - prior to the learner being able to tackle course content and activities.

So often, my approach to designing lessons and units has been a mixture of knowing what needs to be learned and reaching into the ether to devise engaging activities that support that learning. Is this a right-brained habit of mind? Whatever the reason, the experience of conducting task analysis has opened a new dimension of planning to me. Backwards design had heretofore seemed so mysterious and time-consuming; having had a real-world experience of it has shown me the logic and ease with which one can approach planning for purposes of instruction, professional development, or achievement of personal goals. It really is so much less stressful - and more reliable - than waiting for inspiration to strike. When it comes out of a research-based, best practice foundation, it has the potential to result in a highly effective and engaging experience for the learner.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

It has been a month since I have worked in KNILT but I have been busy as the School of Ed (SoE) edTPA Coordinator. The fruit of my efforts has been the development of a design team that consists of the SoE Certification Officer, the Director of the Curriculum Materials Center, and the Instructional Technologist for SUNY NP Blackboard. Through meeting over the past month, we have determined that teacher candidates will present their final portfolio on WordPress. Building the mini-course around a WordPress presentation will increase the audience who will find the course useful: novice teachers in need of a tenure portfolio, teachers who lost their positions in budget cuts, and those looking to move into administration will all find a WordPress portfolio to be useful. In addition, teachers who are interested in learning about digital portfolios for personal enrichment or instructional purposes will also find the course useful.

In that my dean has requested my learner characteristics survey be approved by our campus Institutional Research Board prior to disseminating it, I am using data shared by our instructional technologist as my learner characteristics survey. We have no electronic portfolio training or program at SUNY New Paltz, and so she advised me to assume that everyone's skills are entry-level when designing instruction.

Designing a course in real time has taught me the wisdom of starting such a project a year in advance: in October I began collaborating with a colleague at Duchess BOCES on an edTPA mini-course for cooperating teachers and our preliminary release date is October 2013. This experience of systematic design of instruction on multiple levels in response to a real-world problem has been exhilarating but also a bit harrowing. Feel free to learn from my experience: start each individual project way in advance of its launch date!

Saturday, October 20, 2012

I am inching closer to starting the design of "Creating a Digital Portfolio on Blackboard". When meeting with my associate dean on Wednesday, October 17 to review the learner characteristics survey, I learned that approximately 200 candidates enter School of Ed (SoE) initial certificate programs each semester. This means that approximately 400 candidates per year will be accessing the mini-course to learn how to create their digital program portfolios. On Monday, October 22nd, I am meeting with the Dean of School of Education for a final review of the survey. I have also received suggestions and feedback from members of Elementary Ed and Secondary Ed Departments. While the survey review process seems to be taking a long time, I am seeing that instructional design that is larger in scale has more sub-phases within each design phase. This makes me think of Gagne's chapter on task analysis; what I am learning is that sequential steps (i.e., survey writing, critique, approval, administration, analysis, application) are different from subordinate skills (i.e., creating the survey, preceded by writing clear attitude statements, preceded by understanding attitude as a learned characteristic). I am also understanding that when performing a task analysis of intellectual skills, "working backward from a target objective reveals the simpler component skills that comprise the target objective" (Gagne, p. 159).

While waiting for survey final approval, I am visiting the edTPA ning and SoE webpages of other universities in order to do content background reading and viewing. I also attended a day of edTPA training at the AACTE Conference in Albany. In addition, I have engaged the interest of the director of the SoE Curriculum Materials Center (CMC); she has agreed to work with me to design an edTPA resource center for teacher candidates to be housed in the CMC. This presents the possibility of having mini-course collaborative work sessions using the CMC's twenty-four notebooks. Candidates who are further along in their program can also support their junior colleagues, and this may support the development of positive learner attitudes. While it may seem that I am straying from thoughts of the mini-course, I am actually envisioning ways in which it can be accessed with quicker and greater success by candidates. I also tend to have a part/whole task approach (of which we read is the basis of the 4C/ID Model) to learning: the digital program portfolio is one task of the entire process of preparing candidates to submit evidence of skilled teacher preparation as part of their edTPA. I am hoping that other ETAP623 students can learn from my (lengthy) survey process that when you are designing for an institution or organization, be prepared for each step of the design process to take more time than you originally though sufficient.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Today I developed a learner characteristics survey to collect data from Fall 2012 SoE undergraduate program entrants. I sent it to a colleague for feedback and suggestions and upon receipt of such will draft it on Survey Monkey to send out via email. I hope to share the results of the survey with the School of Education faculty when we meet for a school-wide assessment meeting in late October. Sometimes I worry that I am behind in classwork but I am really happy that the work I am doing is real and that candidates will be using the portfolio shell in Spring 2013. I must continue to seek feedback on the project among faculty in order to build support for it as well as for the reform being instituted by State Ed.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

When I finished reading Shambaugh's chapter on needs assessment, I felt good about the meeting with my deans: I had already analyzed the organizational problem and determined a solution format, the digital portfolio. While I realize Shambaugh advises not to adopt a solution so readily, this decision is warranted in that candidates must submit a digital portfolio to State Ed starting May 2014 as part of the licensing tests for certification. Changing the mini-course to the digital portfolio concept had also resolved a context issue in that I had signed off on a non-disclosure agreement with Pearson regarding the sharing of edTPA content with parties not directly involved with the assessment. Sorry, guys. :)

Reading Shambaugh helped me to realize that I could design a much more effective and engaging mini-course if I genuinely predetermined some innate learner characteristics, traits, and dispositions prior to constructing the course. Working with pre-service teacher candidates for eleven years, I have extensive knowledge of their characteristics, but surveying them removes any personal bias. I can also learn how much of what skills for which they need development. Survey results will also enable me to further differentiate the mini-course in later iterations. Something Ian pointed out in this week's needs assessment forum is that Jane modifies the course as we progress through it. I wonder if this is rapid prototyping? I am doing this right now in my Student Teaching Seminar course and while it is extremely helpful to the learner, it is taxing on the instructor.

Monday, October 1, 2012

I conducted an organization-level needs assessment by meeting with School of Education (SoE)Dean and Associate Dean. The result is that I will be responsible for creating the program portfolio shell for the School of Education using Blackboard 9.1 CMS. With this in mind, I feel I must change my mini-course to "Creating a Digital Portfolio on Blackboard". Academic language will be one module of the mini-course, not the entire course.

I think this change will be more constructive and engaging for pre-service teacher candidates in that they will be learning how to create, download, reflect upon, and defend the inclusion of THEIR OWN artifacts. I began thinking about this upon reading Jane's advice that the mini-course should be engaging and not instructive. Once I read about motivational categories of the ARCS model, I pondered even more deeply how I was going to make academic language interactive over 3 - 4 lessons in 4 or 5 modules. Lots of verbal information, but intellectual skills are not linked in real world context to interesting, meaningful motor skills that result in construction of products and development of schema. Boring.

Performance (Target) Objectives

In the online environment, course users execute a portfolio shell by using WordPress software.

From existing files and work products, course users demonstrate professional growth and development in accordance with New York State Teaching Standards and APPR requirements through selecting and displaying relevant artifacts.

Through connecting to New York State Teaching Standards, course users demonstrate professional knowledge, skills and dispositions for the profession through writing clinical and reflective commentary to give meaning to artifacts.

Through eliciting and responding to feedback, course users choose to inform and enrich their experience of teaching and learning.

Task Analysis

Course Purpose The purposes of this course are for teachers to document and reflect on professional growth and to make critical connections between professional standards and their practice.

Learning Outcomes At the conclusion of this course, users will be able to:

identify connections between standards, state professional performance requirements, and teaching practice;

demonstrate professional growth and development;

analyze teaching practice;

generate a digital portfolio;

choose to invite commentary from knowledgeable others.

Prerequisite Skills

Essential Prerequisites In order to reach outcomes, course users must know/learn to:

1.1: Open and authenticate a user account at WordPress.com.

1.2: Use the WordPress dashboard to create posts and pages.

1.3: Insert multi-media artifacts to a post page using the Dashboard.

2.1: From professional files, select and upload between two and five relevant artifacts that correspond to one element of one of the New York State Teaching Standards.

3.1: Based on a set of two or more related artifacts, write a clinical reflection on one aspect or event of one’s practice through the lens of one Element of one NYS Teaching Standard, identifying examples of professional knowledge, skills, and dispositions.

4.1: Collaborate with peers when developing a professional teaching portfolio.

4.2: Invite viewers to leave constructive comments on your portfolio pages.

Supportive Prerequisites To achieve maximum benefit from the course, users should:

1.1: Create, authenticate, and maintain membership accounts on social media websites.

2.1: Maintain professional files: lesson plans and units, student work samples, records of committee membership, scholarly work, mentoring, evidence of data analysis and data-driven instruction, observation reports, evidence of communication with members of the school community.

3.1:Apply knowledge of APPR contents and NYS Teaching Standards to reflective writing.

4.1: Have a positive disposition toward critique by knowledgeable others.

4.2: Have an open disposition toward life-long learning and professional growth.

Curriculum Map

File:Task Analysis of WordPress Portfolio for Teachers.pdf

References and Resources

Adams, Heather. How to Compile a Professional Portfolio for a Teacher. [Retrieved December 9, 2012 from: http://www.ehow.com/how_10011397_compile-professional-portfolio-teacher.html]

Ayala, J.I. (2006) Electronic Portfolios for Whom? - an Educause Viewpoint, October 2006. [Retrieved November 8, 2012 from: http://hbarrett.wordpress.com/how-to/resources/] direct link: http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/ElectronicPortfoliosforWhom/157386]

“Balancing the Two Faces of ePortfolios” (2009).[Retrieved November 18, 2012 from: http://hbarrett.wordpress.com/how-to/resources/] direct link: http://electronicportfolios.org/balance/Balancing2.htm]

"Blog". Wikipedia.org.[Retrieved December 4, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog].

"Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching" (2010). Pennsylvania State Education Association. [Retrieved November 24, 2012 from http://www.psea.org/uploadedFiles/Publications/Professional_Publications/Advisories/DanielsonFrameworkForTeaching_Advisory.pdf]

"Cognitive Load". Wikipedia.org. [Retrieved December 9, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_load].

"Continuing Professional Development". ProDAIT.org. [Retrieved November 25, 2012 from: http://www.prodait.org /prodait/about_cpd.php]

"Cooperative Development". ProDAIT.org. Retrieved November 25, 2012 from http://www.prodait.org/approaches/development/index.php]

CRICHTON, S., KOPP, G.. The value of eJournals to support ePortfolio development for assessment in teacher education. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology / La revue canadienne de l’apprentissage et de la technologie, North America, 34, Apr. 2009. Available at: <http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/502/233http://www.cjlt.ca/index.php/cjlt/article/view/502/233>. Date accessed: 24 Nov. 2012.

“Electronic Portfolios = Multimedia Development + Portfolio Development: The Electronic Portfolio Development Process” — a chapter in a book on Electronic Portfolios published by the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), Fall, 2000 [Retrieved November 20, 2012 from: http://hbarrett.wordpress.com/how-to/resources/ direct link: http://electronicportfolios.com/portfolios/aahe2000.html]

Hay, Deltina. "WP Tutorials Deltina Hay". [Retrieved December 9,2012 from http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL32C52F9242AB34AF].

Hodge, Sean. Creating a Successful Online Portfolio. [Retrieved November24, 2012 from: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/03/04/creating-a-successful-online-portfolio/]

"How to Make Text into a Link". McBuzz.com. [Retrieved December 9, 2012 from : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsRv2LkvJHs]

“Online Personal Learning Environments: Structuring Electronic Portfolios for Lifelong and Life Wide Learning” with Nathan Garrett – a work in progress in GoogleDocs (October 2007) Published in On the Horizon |Vol. 17 No. 2, 2009, pp. 142-152, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1074-8121. [Retrieved November 23, 2012 from: http://hbarrett.wordpress.com/how-to/resources/] direct link: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dd76m5s2_39fsmjdk]

"Professional Standards for the Accreditation of Teacher Preparation Institutions" (2008). NCATE. Retrieved November 27, 2012 from: http://www.ncate.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=nX43fwKc4Ak%3D&tabid=669]

"Questions and Answers about the New York State Teaching Standards" (2012). Engageny.org. [Retrieved November 25, 2012 from: http://engageny.org/resource/qa-on-new-york-state-teaching-standards]

Simon, Edwige. Educational Technology Resources. [Retrieved November 25, 2012 from: http://edutechnoresources.blogspot.com/2011/07/create-teaching-portfolio-with.html]

Simon, Edwige (2011). Blogging with WordPress. [Retrieved November 25, 2012 from: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18MnLrhl_JpkaW4PtrYiCfoYJXio_7--OrpqajM1YOgA/edit?hl=en_US&pli=1]

"Social Networks and Interactive Portfolios: Blurring the Boundaries"(2010). [Retrieved December 5, 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckcSegrwjkA]

"Teaching Journals". ProDAIT.org. [Retrieved November 25, 2012 from http://www.prodait.iehosting.co.uk/resources/teaching_journals.pdf]

"Understanding by Design: Essential Questions". [Retrieved December 9,2012from: http://www.huffenglish.com/?p=363]

"What is Reflective Teaching?" ProDAIT.org. [Retrieved November 27, 2012 from: http://www.prodait.org/teaching/critical_teaching/]

"Writing and Publishing a Post" [Retrieved December 8, 2012 from: http://wordpress.tv/2009/01/15/writing-and-publishing-a-post/]

"Word Press Tutorial - Creating Pages". JD Site Care. [Retrieved December 8, 2012 from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN-3DF-k4KQ]

Zympher, Nancy 92010). PAARC Letter to Arne Duncan. [Retrieved December 11, 2012 from: http://www.suny.edu/provost/academic_affairs/files/assessment/PARCC%20_%20Zimpher%20Letter.pdf].