Materials for Your Teaching Portfolio

Over the course of your teacher preparation program, you will create and collect many materials that you may wish to include in your teacher portfolio as evidence of your knowledge, skills, and attitudes for teaching. These materials should show that you meet the standards for new teachers developed by INTASC, the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium. The INTASC standards are available at http://www.ccsso.org/intascst.html#draft.

To help you begin developing materials for your portfolio, complete one or more of the following activities.

1. Visit the INTASC web site to learn more about the core principles and the Consortium's specific standards for new teachers in the discipline you hope to teach. Begin evaluating the materials you have prepared for this class and others you may be taking to determine which of these materials, if any, help demonstrate your growing ability to meet the standards that will be required of you as a new teacher. (INTASC Principles 9 and 10)
2. Use the web links for this chapter and the information in your textbook as starting points to learn more about professional organizations of interest to you. Join one if it seems especially helpful to you as a preservice teacher, and determine how you can become active or take advantage of the resources of the organization. (INTASC Principle 10)
3. Draft a schedule for your continued professional development after you finish your teacher preparation program. Although you will almost certainly change your schedule as your career progresses, it can be helpful to have some goals in mind. For example, do you plan to return to college for graduate studies? About how long after you take your first teaching position do you think you'll be able to do that? What other kinds of personal and professional learning would you like to pursue, at which points in your life? (INTASC Principle 9)