Theory to Practice

I have always wanted to create a digital portfolio to use as an educator. The process has always been confusing and overwhelming to me at the same time. Through doing the work for this class, I have come to realize that is is more of a time in the day type of problem more than a not knowing how to do so. With that being said, I have realized that as an educator the best thing I could do is to create my own digital portfolio. It allows for me to keep track of my own work, lesson plans, lesson ideas, and assessments all in one place, without having to look through a variety of binders, blogs, and computer files. The organization alone is a huge help. It also allows for me to compare work of my students to previous years. I am able to showcase each year what my class is doing and how hard they are working through an assignment, but also reflect on what worked and didn't work in the process. I will than be able to learn from the experience that I have gained in the work, and work towards creating new goals.

Creating a portfolio for students is something that I think my school desperately needs to do. With a high teacher turn over rate year to year in our charter school, most teachers end up keeping their student's work themselves, and not allowing the students to really see how they have grown. I think that if we created a digital area where students can see where they started from in Kindergarten, going all the way up to eighth grade, they would really begin to get that sense of ownership and pride that can continue throughout high school. Last year, our eighth grade students made a portfolio just for their eighth grade year to present to the school staff, and seeing the presentations they gave was not only heartwarming, but also a learning experience. When the student could explain why they chose an assignment and where it lead them to, they truly connected with it and understood what work they needed to do. The portfolio also impacted them, because when they come to visit us, they still talked about how much pride they had in that assignment and wanted to add to it through their high school years. In Niguidula (2005), he talks about making portfolios meaningful to students and that they can serve a variety of contexts with either best work, expectations for graduation, and as a way to communicate with parents. I believe that having this in a digital context allows for students to carry it with them through the years and watch how much they have grown over the years.


Niguidula, D. (2005). Documenting learning wtih digital portfolios. Educational Leadership, 63(3), 44-47