Reflection # 3

I agree with all of the principles, but there were a few that really made me think about how I do portfolios with my pre-K students and how I would like to do them better in the future.I believe that the portfolio system I use now is more assessment of learning instead of for learning. I do believe that AFL should be part of effective planning and learning. As I constantly keep track of my students' portfolios I become aware of which areas they may be lacking and what small groups and experiences I need to plan for so that I can document their growth in that area. If I did not plan ahead I would not have a well rounded reflection of what they are learning. Another principle I believe in is AFL should focus on how students learn. I believe that in the past my portfolios have simply shown what skills the students have learned but not a true reflection of how they met that accomplishment. I am working to change this. As I strive to incorporate more technology into my classroom I am currently working on a grant for pre-k to recieve Flip cameras, so they we may not simply tell a parent what their child has done through annecdotal notes, we can show them through videos how they did it. I am very excited about this possibility because it will be a great opportunity for parents to see how their child is learning through play and eventually I would like to morph our portfolios into a kind of video scrapbook. The last principle that really caught my attention was that AFL should foster a child's ability to be reflective and self managing. I have definitely missed the opportunity to include the children in their own portfolio process. To improve in this area I will start giving them more of a choice in what goes into their portfolio and discuss with them why they think certain samples should be in it.

I think that portfolios are a great way to reflect on what we have learned and are striving to learn in the future. I hope that this is what I accomplish with my portfolio. I also hope that I can continue to use it to remind myself how much I still don't know and push myself to really explore the unknown areas and find a way to incorporate them into my daily teaching.