CTS Portfolios by Nina Shandetskaya

Keeping a portfolio is one of the essential components of the CTS course. Participants must maintain a portfolio of all their lesson plans, handouts, session notes and other work. This should be neat and tidy. As portfolios are a relatively new concept for our course participants, we use the word loosely to mean a collection of all their course work, rather than narrowing the purpose of the portfolio down. My group in Erzurum found keeping a portfolio a very enjoyable activity.

How did we manage?

Well, what we really needed was one enthusiastic member of the group who turned up the second day with a nice folder containing 5 A-4 pages of different colours with all the activities from Day 1 on them to get started. Everything was creatively organized on the paper with stars, smiling faces, hands and pictures. 

A good start, isn’t it? Moreover, it was a kind of inspiration to other participants. This way we had had four teachers out of 11 with great portfolios by the end of week 1.

What about the others?

I could hear some trainees complain, "We are not students. Why should we prepare it? It’s time-consuming. I’m not good at keeping things in order." However, at the end of week two I could see 10 folders with all the course materials nicely organized. It was also the participants’ attitude to the idea of having all the materials in the portfolio that changed completely, probably because they began to see some of the benefits.

Trainees’ feedback on keeping a portfolio

“After this course, I know that my portfolio is my basic resource. It is simple and easy-to-use. I can quickly find a game and use it in my class.” 

“Keeping a portfolio is a really good way. When I need to do something differently in my teaching practice, I can always turn to my portfolio and find information easily. It saves time while planning a lesson.” 

“At the beginning of the course I didn’t want to prepare a portfolio. Now I am sure that I will always use my portfolio and it will be a good resource for the development of all skills. There are lots of activities and games that will help me during my lessons.”

“I’m impressed by the work we’ve done over the two weeks. Now I have a guide book for my teaching career!”

The teachers didn’t only compile different items, but also reflected on their own work and the performance of other participants. We decided to have a special section called “Bank of Ideas”, in which the trainees gathered activities from other teachers in the group.

I can say it for sure now that the course portfolio helps to increase motivation, develop teacher’s reflective capacities and encourage teacher growth.

These are 5 easy steps to create an impressive portfolio

• Start as early as possible! The first day of the course is just the right time;)
• Plan well and systematically collect data.
• Update information regularly.
• Involve other trainees as contributors. You can benefit from teamwork.
• Be creative and reflective.

Here are some more lovely examples from my group: 

Note from Kristina: Nina's group was all female and a male group would probably have kept their portfolios quite differently. However, even without all the colour and sweet drawings, a portfolio is a useful tool. You may like to explore the links below and share them with participants if they balk at keeping a portfolio. Please add you favorite links and ideas in the comments. 

1. Why use portfolios in assessment? 

2. Using a portfolio to reflect. (Scroll down for some useful questions.)

3. Detailed explanations of reflection, artefacts and portfolios. It's for art teachers but the basic principles are the same.   

In fact we should consider how to make better use of the portfolios in the 'advanced' CTS courses. I shall have a little think about this over the next few months. Thanks for setting the standard for portfolios, Nina :)