I decided to participate in this course portfolio project because I wanted an opportunity to reflect on my teaching and improve it in a systematic way. I'm currently about midway through the journey of this teaching life--I've taught for sixteen years and I will retire in nineteen years. I'm no longer young, and the modes of teaching that worked for me when I was younger were no longer working as well, now that students don't relate to me as big sister, but see me as Mom. Simply engaging in the project forced me to plan the course ahead in ways that I do not usually make the time to do, to reflect on the structure of the course, what I intended the students to learn, how I intended to assess the students, and how I planned to work around the limitations inherent in the course. Writing this portfolio at the end of the project has offered me a second opportunity to reflect on the semester. In the end, the exercise was worth it, although data collection alone was incredibly time-consuming.
Special thanks are due to Michelle Frisbie-Fulton and David Woken, the Associate Instructors for the course. The way the course was designed and my participation in the portfolio project made extra work for them, but because they were firmly committed to the goals of the course, they were just great to work with.
Finally, thanks are particularly due to Dave Parkhurst, my colleague and friend in SPEA, who basically analyzed my course data for me (I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Cliometrician!).
Contents of this section of the portfolio:
I welcome your comments about any aspect of the portfolio.