The Electronic Thread

Brenda A. Dyck

I have to be honest. The day my principal announced our staff would be developing reflective teaching portfolios as part of our teacher evaluation process and continuous improvement plan, I was less than enthusiastic. This was just one more responsibility I would have to add to my growing list of "things to do."

The prospect of documenting my learning journey through reflection took me a while to accept. I had no idea this initiative would provide not only significant professional growth, but also direction and encouragement.

My work as a reflective practitioner came alive when I decided to explore how technology might help define and evaluate my learning and teaching practices. To my delight, I found that technology extended the powers of reflection well beyond my classroom by merging it with the experiences of colleagues around the world. I learned how valuable technology can be to simply share thoughts, extend professional networks, and find inspiration.

Electronic Portfolios

It is through the process of collecting, selecting, and reflecting upon material chosen for a portfolio, that teachers learn a lot about their teaching, because they better understand why they do the things they do in the classroom. — Shirley Beck (Professor of Education, Southwest Texas State University)

The traditional form of portfolios did not compel me to question or evaluate how I taught. Reflective writing offered new challenges that required a new format. My computer held the answer. Electronic portfolios have a number of advantages:

• The contents can be made as public or private as you choose. The portfolio can be saved to a disk or shared with others on the Internet.
• Electronic portfolios save space. After four years of portfolio binders I was glad to store mine on a CD.
• Portfolio reflections shared on the Internet can inspire and mentor educators in faraway places.
• Electronic portfolios encourage creativity in reflective presentations.

Esthetics and technical aspects of an electronic portfolio, however, can overshadow the content. Web page building must take second place to the more demanding "thought-work" which is the purpose of the portfolio.

Bill Sommers, executive director of teacher and instructional services for the Minneapolis Public Schools and co-author of Reflective Practice to Improve Schools: An Action Guide for Educators explains the importance of making sure that reflective writing documents the act of looking forward. He also emphasizes the importance of anticipating what is coming up and what needs to be done to prepare for that.

Sommers and his co-authors say reflection requires:

• Taking a deliberate pause, a purposeful slowing down to find time for a close look
• Being willing to be open to other points of view
• Consciously processing your thoughts
• Examining beliefs, goals, and practices
• Gaining new insights and understanding.

Several of the reflective goals can be the product of exchanging ideas with other educators via Web sites and chat rooms. The ongoing exchanges can promote more timely, up-to-date portfolio entries.

I found that it was better to work on portfolio reflections on a routine basis throughout the year as opposed to having an occasional writing marathon. Real-time reflective writing was more authentic, and regular reflections equipped the reader with a bird's eye view of the process of teaching and learning.

Meaningful electronic portfolios should contain:

• A personal statement of teaching philosophyand goals that can be effectively presented on a Web page
• Documentation and thoughts from teaching seminars and workshops attended or books read
• Examples of student work and performance assessments easily inserted periodically into the portfolio itself
• Written reflections on the high points and challenges of teaching
• Photographs of meaningful bulletin board displays, student work, and classroom activities made available through digital technology.

Finding Inspiration in Conversations

I think that part of nurturing ourselves is seeking out those others who support our drive to better understand teaching and learning, whether they be our students, their families, colleagues, or panels to whom we present portfolios etc.

During the seventeenth century, Parisian artists, poets, and thinkers gathered regularly in "salons"

to talk about ideas. Some of the most influential thinkers of the day met purely for the joy of conversation and for the pleasure of thinking together. From these meetings came much of the cultural change that occurred in that era.

The twentieth century has created its own form of a salon…it's called a listserv. Some of my most inspiring moments of professional growth have occurred through my participation on listservs such as MiddleWeb listserv, a virtual community of middle school educators who are eager to improve and learn more about the craft of teaching through discussion.

Becoming part of MiddleWeb has exposed me to not only the questions that I need to ask myself about my teaching practices, but also the "bounce and catch" of creative dialogue with virtual colleagues. Responding to listserv postings has created a venue to articulate my beliefs about teaching or learning. Occasionally, during a moment of inspiration, an unexpected nugget of "profound learning" presented itself. These experiences inspire the reflections that ultimately make their way into my electronic portfolio.

Extending Your Circle of Influence

When you share you will grow, get stronger, get deeper, gain courage, see yourself clearer, open up, feel vulnerable, face your inner fears, find friends, deepen in your journey, have support for the rest of your journey. In sharing the journey we become better travelers. — Tom Morris (speaker, minister)

Have you ever considered publishing your thoughts and learning discoveries on the Internet? Probably not. I know I didn't. Most of us believe that publishing is for the big names of our profession—people who write books, speak at conferences, and think big thoughts.

It doesn't occur to us that our daily classroom experiences and musings can be instrumental in leading other educators to their own learning breakthroughs and education reforms.

You can publish your thoughts online. Educational journals, magazines on the Internet, and Web sites often welcome professional article submissions from everyday classroom teachers like you and me. Some to consider are Technology and Learning, Education World, New Horizons for Learning, and Multimedia Schools. Writing is another way for educators to contribute to the learning of others in their profession, extend their circle of influence beyond their own classroom, and nurture their own learning in the process.

Last spring our entire staff attended a large education conference in Calgary. As a way of processing our learning at this conference, each teaching team at our school was responsible for creating a post-conference presentation for our colleagues. Our group decided to create a Web page about one of the keynote speakers, Margaret Wheatley.

This proved to be such an effective way to document our learning that I decided to use Web page format to record some of my other learning adventures. For example, last spring I created a Web page to profile my thoughts and findings on teacher burnout.

The title of my web page was Gakkyu Kokai, a Japanese phrase for "the collapse of teachers." The content of this page and my subsequent reflective writing ultimately led me to pare down my full-time teaching job to a more manageable part-time position.

That's exactly what reflection does best—it supplies the fuel that helps move us from where we are to where we want to be! Technology provides the vehicle.

Resource

York-Barr, Jennifer; Summers, William A.; Ghere, Gail S.; and Montie, Joe. 2001. Reflective Practice to Improve Schools: An Action Guide for Educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Brenda A. Dyck is a math teacher and technology integration specialist in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She is also one of the teacher editors of MidLink Magazine and co-author of a monthly column for Microsoft's Classroom Teacher Network. You can reach her at dyckba@shaw.ca.