Developing Teacher Professional E-Portfolios (digital portfolios)

Background:

With growing expectations for teachers to provide evidence of practice, it became clear that to be moving ahead in this area we would need more than a Blog as a means of collecting artifacts that clearly evidence and record professional goals and learning over time.

We are focused on developing formal processes whereby teachers' learning becomes more focused on the Inquiry model; They establish clear direction with specific goals as well as record the process they undertake.

This year I have been determined to explore “cost-effective” ways to allow teachers to begin to create digital portfolios (e-Portfolios) that can be exhibited as evidence of their professional practice. Additionally, we wanted something that can easily be viewed on the Internet as well as continue to be owned by teachers themselves, and therefore able to move with teachers over time as their career progresses; from school to school across New Zealand or internationally.

I have recently become a big fan of the Google suite of Tools, and I’ve discovered  this amazing tool called Google Sites. It is free, and so easy to navigate as it uses a similar process to Blogger which we are all very familiar with at Vardon. As our school has developed into a being more and more a "Google school", all our staff and many students now have Google accounts, it seems sensible to choose to trial "Google Sites".

Essentially, teachers will build a portfolio over time. I Have begun my own professional portfolio using Google sites and I am LOVING it! I hope to get some practice in over the coming term so that we can move towards our Leadership Team all starting their own Professional e-portfolio.

There is a useful Ministry Document available too, and this is the link to try out google sites for yourself! https://sites.google.com/