Show the Learning

Before this program I had never even heard of an ePortfolio. Sure, I have a google drive FULL of lessons, student examples, videos, photos, and data that I have to show to my administrators at the end of every school year for my own evaluation, but I have never really organized any of it in a way that would be beneficial to me or to anyone else. So why, as a professional educator of high school students is it important for me to use an ePortfolio? I have decided that the reason that I am going to use my ePortfolio is to reflect on where I am now in my learning journey in my graduate studies, where I have been and where I am going professionally with my teaching, as well as an example to now show my students so that they will be able to create their own place to reflect on their learning journeys in order to share what they have learned with others.

Picture this. The second day of every school year, I am forced to give my freshmen English Lit students a pretest to “show me what they know” before I begin teaching the first unit in our curriculum. This test is created by an organization outside of my district and we, an extremely underfunded district, pay a great deal of money for it. It gives students reading passages to read and follows up the reading with a series of multiple choice questions. The number of questions that each student has to answer on the test is determined by how many questions the students get right or wrong. This test can take some students up to two full class periods to complete. In my school that is approximately 160 minutes of class time. You read that right. 160 minutes! About a month after they take the test, I get to sit through an entire day of professional development and go through the data collected from the test. This data is never shared back with the students and is really only used to see how they will perform on the state mandated standardized test that they will take when they are sophomores. We are literally using two days of class time to give them a test to predict how they will do on a different test two years later.

Godin poses a great question. “Why then, do we spend so much time collecting dots instead? More facts, more tests, more need for data, even when we have no clue (and no practice) in doing anything with it” (Godin, 2014). There are so many things wrong with this picture. Imagine being a freshman in high school and the second day of school being forced to take a test that literally doesn’t matter to anyone. I would hate my class if I were them. I should be investing that 160 minutes of class time to help them start creating a space of their own where they will be able to actively reflect on their learning journeys over the next four years. I feel like I should be showing my students the ways that I have been connecting my own dots in a valuable way and allowing them time to start doing the same.

My goal as an educator isn’t for my students to score a certain number on a test that will never matter to them or anyone else in the grand scheme of life. My goal is to help my students learn how to accurately read and write about information, no matter what it might pertain to, and use that information to help them gain some sort of understanding and knowledge on whatever topic it is that they are interested in. My ePortfolio is allowing me to create a place for me to write about what I know, what I am learning about, and what I hope to explore with my colleagues as well as my students. I am being given the opportunity to reflect on what I have been learning through the DLL program and apply it to my own work in order to benefit and actively engage my own students in their learning process.

Dr. Harapnuik states that “The right context and learning environment empower students to learn while they create something meaningful” (Harapnuik, 2012). I honestly believe that helping my students create a place to actively engage in and reflect on their own learning process will also allow them to learn and achieve at a higher level. Allowing them to choose a platform to explore their own ideas and share them with others will benefit them much more than any standardized test ever will. With an ePortfolio they will learn how to read, write, share, receive critical feedback in a positive manner, use that feedback to make changes to their work, and reflect on their entire learning process. The possibilities of what they will be able to explore, experience, and share with their own ePortfolios are endless. I hope that by showing my students what I have been building will empower them to start engaging more in their own learning so that they will realize that they are capable of whatever they put their minds to.

References:

Godin, S. (2014, April 15.) Connecting dots (or collecting dots). Seth’s Blog. https://seths.blog/2014/04/connecting-dots-or-collecting-dots/

Harapnuik, D. (2012, October 12). Arts integration for deeper learning: It’s the context and environment that matter. It’s About Learning. http://www.harapnuik.org/?p=3133