Why Use an ePortfolio

I think that ePortfolios are a wonderful way to showcase yourself as an individual. I love what Dr. Harapnuik shared about his sons both having an ePortfolio, but using them in their own unique ways. He further explains how for one of his sons, it showcases him in his profession as a well rounded individual which helps him to get sponsors. His other son uses his to showcase his design ability, in turn helping him to get more opportunities and more clients (Harapnuik & Thibodeaux, 2020). When I finished up my teaching degree, I wanted a way to make myself stand out and really showcase my strengths. When you go in for an interview, you can't really control a lot of what happens. The questions they ask might not showcase your strengths and experiences as well as you would like. When you have an ePortfolio, you have control over what your future employers see and learn about you as a person and learner. You can even personalize your strengths toward the role you are trying to get. At that point, 10 years ago, I just added a QR code onto my resume, and handed my resume to the interviewer. It contained my resume, my educational philosophy, and all of my letters of recommendation from professors, mentors, colleagues, etc. I have since used a form of ePortfolio every time I have tried to get a new job since then. Every time, someone has made a comment about how it helped me to stand out among my peers, helping me to get the job.




I think another huge reason to have an ePortfolio is the reflection process it makes you go through as a learner. You really have to think about what qualities you want to continue developing and how you would showcase that. When I was reading the 41 Benefits of an ePortfolio (2010), it described the benefits from three different perspectives: the student, the educator, and the employer. It broke down the benefits for each of those roles in the process and the product. My biggest takeaway from this article was the reflection piece and being able to look back on how far you have grown and to also look forward toward goals you want to achieve and what that can look like. Going through the process of creating an ePortfolio is the embodiment of being a learner and the documentation that goes with the growth that happens. It makes learning visible and more intentional.


References:


(2020). LMD EP30 ePortfolio Why. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx304CW-gKU&feature=youtu.be.



Barnstable, K. (2010, September 30). 41 Benefits of an ePortfolio. Stable Transitions. https://kbarnstable.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/41-benefits-of-an-eportfolio/.

11/19/2020 Getting Started

Review and discuss the following articles and related links:

• Getting Started Tips
• The minimalist fundamentals of eportfolios
• What is an eportfolio
• Making Meaningful Connections in An Eportfolio (this is a linked post in the What is an eportfolio link above--it is a good idea to follow the links in the pages that we ask you to review)

After reading these articles, I realize how much more I need to add to my ePortfolio. After reading them and what options ePortfolios should have, it really had me thinking about what I really want to be showcased. I just became a math coordinator, so this could be a very cool place to blog about my reading or new resources that I look into as a place to share my learning. We also spend a lot of time coaching in my role, so this could also be something that can be housed here. I also loved the suggestion of adding a page of books you love or recommend to others. That does really show what you believe as an educator as well.


In the last article, where it talked about students starting an ePortfolio their freshman year as a showcase to colleges of how they grew during high school is a genius idea. I will definitely be having my own personal kids do this. All kids should be taught the importance of this and how this is the kind of digital footprint you should want to have. I have always had somewhat of a digital portfolio when I have applied for jobs, and it is something that has definitely set me apart from others that I was interviewing against. I love how the articles kept going back to it being a showcase of how you learned how to learn, a place to kind of document your growth. It takes a bit of vulnerability to really put together something like this with everything you care about, believe, and produce for anyone to see.


I added some empty pages to my ePortfolio this week in response to these articles. They may be empty now, but I am very excited about the direction it is taking me.

How Growth Mindset, the COVA model, and Failing Forward Strategies Impact Learning

This program has been a huge eye opener into why growth mindset is so important. In trying new programs, platforms, and applying new learning about leadership, it can be a little intimidating to publish it out on the web within our portfolio without being fully confident in our abilities yet. I have learned from Daniel Pink (2012) that providing autonomy, mastery, and purpose to people to inspire and motivate them is a necessity as a leader. I have felt that I have gone above and beyond what I would have done if I had been only accomplishing what is on a rubric. This course has taught me that while rubrics do provide guidance and a framework for what is expected, sometimes that can put creativity to a halt and cause people to only do what they are asked and not think outside the box. I also learned this week about how important it is to start with the why, then the how, then the what (Sinek, 2011). I think sometimes I have gotten stuck with the lack of time we have as educators and been guilty of asking teachers to do things without fully establishing the why. I think that may be why that I have gotten some pushback as our campus has been implementing new things. As an instructional coach, I can see things from a bigger perspective so the why comes more naturally to me. When teachers are within the day to day of their own grade level, they may not be able to see the why as clearly. I also need to always be sure I am being an active listener so that I understand the obstacles that they can see more clearly.
As I continue to create my ePortfolio, I love that we are given the autonomy to really implement the COVA model. It is ours, so we get to make it exactly how it represents each of us the best. I have actually already made a copy of my ePortfolio and added in my resume and all of the professional learning that I have created at the district level and campus level. That one I used as I was applying for a position in my district. I didn't want all of that information to be public, which is why I made a copy and used it in a different way. It was very beneficial in showcasing my work and what I have been doing recently to help me get this position. When my colleagues gave just a piece of paper, having an ePortfolio and my Twitter account to speak for what I have done and believe, it helped me to stand out and to have support behind all that I expressed in my interview as my assets that I would bring to the position.
The most valuable thing I have learned in this class so far is that I have to build my portfolio in a way that showcases me. It doesn't need to be like anyone else's and it can change as I change. It doesn't have to ever stay the same. As I learn and grow, my ePortfolio should show that as well. It is completely ok to fail while creating this space for myself. That provides more opportunity for learning and growing throughout my Masters' program.

(2012). Daniel Pink: "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFlvor6ZHdY.

Sinek, S. (2011). How great leaders inspire action. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action?language=en.

Why Professional Learning Networks are a Must Have

As an educator, it is so important to be able to get out of your own classroom and educational bubble to collaborate with others for the benefit of your students. One of the most impactful learning experiences the teachers at my campus talk about is the ability to go on learning walks. In this time of COVID-19, learning walks have taken a back seat to safety. We can't just halt our learning, especially when we need to learn more than ever to teach in ways we have never imagined would occur. So when we can't take learning walks physically, we need to broaden our horizons digitally. Some of the best connections I have made are through Twitter. 

I have been a member of Twitter as an educator since 2014. It has been an amazing place to collaborate across the world and to find out the newest research and trends in education. It's amazing what teachers come up with and share. I am an instructional coach and my teachers are not really on Twitter, so it helps me to be eyes for them and to share new ideas that will make their job easier. Twitter has by far been where I have learned the most about my craft as an educator. Also from Twitter, I have learned about other entities that offer professional development such as Build Math Minds, Make Math Moments, and NCTM that has had the 100 hours of virtual PD this year. These events have definitely impacted me as a math educator. Some of the individual contributors I follow are Berkeley Everett, Graham Fletcher, Robert Kaplinsky, and any math teacher within our district. One of the major benefits from following teachers within our district is that we are all on the same scope and sequence. So if I see a great idea that someone else is implementing in their classroom, I can forward it to my teachers. Then my teachers also have someone at another campus to collaborate with off of social media as well. 

For the ELAR realm, we use the Units of Study curriculum. There are so many Facebook pages that are filled with teachers from all over the world that share the amazing resources they have made to support reading and writing instruction. When there are great ideas shared, I email them on to my teachers or tag them on that post within Facebook. On Twitter to support ELAR teachers, again I follow every teacher I can find from my district so that I can make connections for my teachers if a teacher has a great idea or has solved an issue we are having on our campus. It creates a bond between teachers and our district motto this year is that we are #StrongerTogether. It is definitely a true statement. 

On a personal note, I love to learn in general. Twitter is my main way to consume new learning. I am consuming all things education, virtual teaching, student engagement, technology, coaching, research... The list goes on and on. I contribute ideas that I create, great ideas my teachers have, research I find to be interesting, opportunities for professional learning, innovative ideas from other districts, hacks, anything I think the teachers in my district might use or challenge them. It has created the ability to collaborate across the world and opens up so many possibilities and perspectives I never could have been exposed to on my own. 

The digital footprint you create can benefit your learning, your teaching, your career, and other educators that get to learn from you. Don't let the opportunity to expand your horizons and disrupt "what you have always done." Make connections and keep getting better. It's all for the kids we serve and the future generations.

My Twitter handle is @danifryIC 

Here are some that I follow outside of Twitter. I could list a hundred more. :)

https://www.nctm.org/

https://buildmathminds.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/975388825890055/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1391607630957125/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/445786889466638/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/387698441673646/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/404130629988558/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/HackingSchoolDiscipline/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/245931442563744/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/HyperDocs/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/ReadingStrategiesBook/

Learning Manifesto

When I think about the learning process and learning experiences for students, the main components that come to mind are being student centered and being the kind of education that I want for my own children. I want children to be ready for the future and to be successful at the criteria that will be sought after for future careers. Students should learn how to embrace challenges, collaborate with others, be innovative, respond with empathy, and know how to contribute positively to society. When I think about learning experiences for students in today's classrooms, they should be filled with deep discussions, real world contexts, and open ended projects that force kids to think outside the box. Technology should be used as a tool to transform the learning by providing personalized learning experiences and making outcomes more student driven, giving the teacher the opportunity to be more of a facilitator and coach. Teachers should be incorporating voice, choice, and goal setting to increase student engagement and ownership. When looking at this video, it reminds me that learning targets cannot be in isolation as a means to say that we "taught something." Students have to be able to envision solutions to problems that haven't even happened yet, and they have to be comfortable with productive struggle when presented with problems. For example, in this video (Kaplinsky, 2013), the student struggles to answer this math problem when presented in a real world context, but then solves with just quantities. Even his explanation doesn't REALLY prove he knows why he got the correct answer. We have to do better than this to set our students up for success in the long term.

I believe that it shouldn't matter what classroom in a grade level a student is in because every classroom should encompass learning at high levels. We shouldn't have certain teachers who go above and beyond with high leverage, engaging activities on technology platforms, and others who only use worksheets. All students have the right to a viable curriculum and a rigorous education to prepare them for the future. This is why I wholeheartedly believe in collaboration and teachers working together so that they are a team learning from one another and creating an environment where the students as a grade level all benefit from every learning experience regardless of who the teacher is. I also believe that all students should have access to the curriculum. One of the issues that was really brought to light this year was the amount of inequity when it comes to technology, access, and home environments as we embarked on virtual learning from home. Impairments, socioeconomic status, race, access to technology, access to internet, access to a support system at home, etc, shouldn't determine whether students should learn at high levels. We need to provide scaffolds and remove barriers so that they can also access their education to the fullest extent. I am lucky to work in a district that worked tirelessly to address these inequities, but there is still much work to be done. Take a look at this graphic that beautifully shows how equity and equality are different. It even takes it a step further to show that when inequity is addressed and barriers are removed, everyone benefits.

Another issue in public education right now is teachers not having enough time. It takes so much longer for teachers to create meaningful, authentic learning experiences for kids than to just pull out the worksheets they used for the last several years. Even though students are so much different than they were 20 years ago, there is little that has changed about how many teachers approach instruction. One of the fundamental issues is that teachers' contract time ends at 3:20 in my district. A lot of teachers do stay past that time to work, essentially without pay for it. So if teachers do leave at 3:20, it is almost impossible to be prepared with highly engaging and authentic learning experiences for students. Teachers do get a planning time during the day, but a lot of time is taken up by parent conferences, team meetings, preparation, and 504 or ARD meetings. One way this could be fixed, is to extend teacher contract time and pay them for it. I know teacher funding is one of the biggest issues as well, but there is a ton of funding that goes into state testing each year. I wonder if when we switch over state testing to online, how much money is left that can go to teachers? Teachers are some of the lowest paid experts in the professional world. If we want teachers to have time to learn, research, implement best practices for students, and truly do transformational teaching within our field, they need to be treated like professionals and be given the means to carry out their learning. We also have to provide teachers with the means to support students with the amount of technology in their classrooms. We can't ask educators to provide all of these experiences if they don't have the equipment and training to be highly successful.

There are also so many things going right in education. In my district, we are encouraged to be innovative, and our district really practices what we know as best practice according to research. All of our schools are in a roll out process to be one to one with technology, so that teachers and students can more easily be risk takers in the classroom. Schools are also getting furniture refreshes, so that our classrooms can be more flexible and give each student the learning environment they need to be most successful. Our district relies on research and what is best for students at every decision making level and provides campuses with whatever support they need to reach campus goals. 

Within digital learning and leading, I find myself wanting to continue to break down the old methods of professional learning. Teachers should be learning in ways that we know are best for learners in general. There should be no more "sit and get" professional learning experiences. Teachers should no longer have to sit through learning that they already have mastered. We need to practice what we preach and let teachers feel the difference in excitement and ownership that goes along with authentic learning experiences. If we are expecting teachers to transform their classrooms through use of technology, we have to help them experience these learning platforms as learners themselves and train them how to use them. I have been creating professional learning for my campus and district for over a year now, and we are always trying to reinvent the way we offer it. Here are some examples of what I have collaborated on so far.

Feedback for the Future Ready Classroom

Personalized Learning Experience

Please look for more examples on the Portfolio page of my website. 

If we can make some simple, but dynamic and disruptive changes to the way "we have always done things" in education, we can make the world a better place with producing the most disruptive and critical thinkers the world has ever seen. The key to this is growth mindset in educators and being willing to sit in the uncomfortable to experience growth. 

References

(2013). Student 14 Both. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XujdqrPcaQ.

Equality vs Equity. Diffen. https://www.diffen.com/difference/Equality-vs-Equity.

Growth Mindset Plan

Hello,

My name is Dani Fry, and I am an instructional coach in Frisco ISD, which is in north Texas. Much of my job is to grow people and work alongside them to use high impact strategies to raise student achievement. I am usually working with teachers on something that is out of their comfort zone, especially when it comes to trying out something new and getting feedback. A lot of my job pushes people outside their comfort zone and into the learning zone, which requires having a growth mindset. 

Yet... who knew such a small word, could change the meaning of a phrase so much? It can change "I don't understand." to "I don't understand yet." The power of yet within growth mindset is so important because it allows people of all ages to believe that they can still learn new things. There is such freedom in that, which allows for an abundance of grace between people because mistakes are just part of the learning process. So much more innovation will happen, more risks will be taken, and people will live fuller lives if they view everything as a learning experience. When adults and children have a fixed mindset, there are so many dangers that appear. The victims of a fixed mindset avoid new challenges, rarely excel at things because they believe they were born with a certain amount of talent that doesn't change, and they are likely to give up after a few mistakes or trials when new tasks are presented (Jeffrey, n.d.). We see from the video, Famous Failures (2012), there are many examples that have become some of the most well known and talented individuals in their craft, not because they were born that way, but because of their growth mindset and desire to achieve and put in the work to get better and better. 

At my school and within education in general, there are many people who do not encompass a growth mindset. We teach students to have one, yet some teachers do not model it themselves. Now, I do attribute a lot of this to our current reality this year of COVID-19, and I do believe everyone is embracing change at differing levels, with some being at their max level of stress. As a first step to having teachers realize their current reality of mindset, I have created the attached professional learning that I plan to push out to my staff next month. In A Complete Guide to Changing Your Fixed Mindset into a Growth Mindset by Scott Jeffrey (n.d.), Dweck references the four steps to change your mindset from fixed to growth. The first thing you have to do is be self aware of what mindset you are having and be able to hear that fixed mindset voice. In order to start my teachers off in the professional learning, I have them taking an assessment, so that they will be mindful of what mindset they are starting out with as a baseline. The next step that she suggests to change your fixed mindset is to realize that you have a choice. Throughout the professional learning I have developed, it really informs teachers of the way they can change the words that they think and say and that there is a science behind how the brain works to learn new things. This essentially busts the myth that people have a set amount of intelligence when they are born. Dweck next says the step is to talk back to your fixed mindset voice with a growth mindset voice. To address that step, I have teachers doing a sort so that they have statements they can say instead of the fixed mindset statements. Next I teach them about the learning pit and how to react when they experience failure instead of quitting and giving into that fixed mindset mentality. In the fourth and final step, Carol Dweck talks about how they need to take the growth mindset action. For this step, I have teachers creating a goal for themselves after watching a video on famous people who have experienced failure, but used their growth mindset to rise to the top. 

The message of "YET" is the most important part to impart, especially to children. In order to impart that though, we have to truly believe it and model it. I think this learning experience that teachers will go through thatt I have created, will give them the reminder of what growth mindset is all about. It is not just a fad that came into play a few years ago. It is a scientifically proven way of thinking that makes our lives better in all aspects. Instead of children focusing on the negativity around them or their failures, it is so important for them to speak the word yet as they experience hardships in learning and other aspects of their lives. Reminding teachers of Dweck's philosophies with her video, The Power of Yet (2014), will help with the implementation in our building that I am hoping will trickle down to students. 

The videos and content that I am using are embedded within this Genial.ly. We actually decided that we will send it out as a personalized learning experience for teachers to gain one of their hours of GT credit this year. They will turn in their reflection in order to receive professional development credit. As I was reading for this project about growth mindset, I realized that I may have some areas of my life where I tend to have a more fixed mindset right now. Going forward, I will be sure to listen out for the fixed mindset voice, and I will use the tools I have found for my teachers in order to reframe my thinking and take action toward a growth mindset, especially when learning new technology and modes of delivery. 

References

Cullins, A. (13AD). The Ultimate Guide to Praising Your Kids. Big Life Journal. https://biglifejournal.com/blogs/blog/praise.

Dweck, C. S. (2008). Mindset: the new psychology of success. New York: Ballentine Books.

Farmer Kris, D. (2015, June 10). Preschoolers and Praise: What Kinds of Messages Help Kids Grow? KQED. https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/40369/preschoolers-and-praise-messages-that-can-help-kids-grow.

Jeffrey, S. (2020, June 23). Change Your Fixed Mindset into a Growth Mindset . CEO Sage. https://scottjeffrey.com/change-your-fixed-mindset/.

Khan Academy. (2014). Growing Your Mind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtKJrB5rOKs&feature=youtu.be.

Motivating Success. (2012). Famous Failures. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLYECIjmnQs&feature=youtu.be.

Sesame Street. (2014). Sesame Street: Janelle Monae - Power of Yet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLeUvZvuvAs&feature=youtu.be.

Take the Mindset Assessment to Learn More about Your Mindset. What's My Mindset? (2015). https://blog.mindsetworks.com/what-is-my-mindset.

TEDx Talks. (2014). The Power of Yet. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-swZaKN2Ic&feature=youtu.be.