Your teaching portfolio is meant to showcase the work that you completed as an undergraduate teaching assistant. Select several documents, pictures, or other artifacts that document what you did as an undergraduate teaching assistant. When thinking about which pieces to include be sure that these pieces reflect your teaching philosophy. For example, if you said that it is important for students to learn how to study, provide documentation of how you helped students learn how to study.
Be sure to include the following pieces of information:
- Create a list with a brief description of each of the activities that you completed while serving as an undergraduate teaching assistant.
- Provide an artifact that provides documentation of at least two of the activities described in the list.
- Provide at least a two-paragraph description of the artifact.
- Describe the artifact. Is it a test? Written assignment? class activity? Provide a summary of the artifact. For example, if it is a written assignment, what topic are the students writing on? Is it a structured assignment or an open-ended assignment?
- What was your specific role in the activity? (Did you create the activity? Did you score it? Did you provide feedback? Did you help the student study for it/complete it?)
- How does this activity connect with your teaching philosophy?
- What did you learn from doing this activity? (Be specific. What traits/characteristics did you develop as a result of doing this activity?)
- If you had to do this activity again, what would you do differently?
Here’s a brief listing of some of the things you can provide as artifacts:
- Submit a copy of a presentation given to the class.
- Submit an example of an assignment that you scored. Include the rubric used to score the assignment, notes/feedback that you gave the student, or anything else that shows that you scored the assignment.
- If you helped a student study, take a picture of handwritten notes that you and student made or submit the Word document of notes taken. Maybe take a picture of the materials used to study; textbook, notes, other books, flashcards; quizlet, etc.
- If you monitored or provided feedback on a discussion board, take a screen shot of the discussion board.
Tips on Writing a Good Reflection: The most important aspect of this part of the portfolio is your description of the artifact (question #3 above). The artifact of the activity you completed, in and of itself, is not that relevant. How the artifact/activity relates to your philosophy and what you learned from the activity is very important. Take some time to reflect on this experience, and really put some thought into the skills that you gained.