Preparing Your Portfolio for Attestation

Only yesterday, Tuesday 18 October, we resumed professional development sessions in our school “Ahmed Bin Hanbal Independent Secondary School for Boys.

The session focused on preparing professional portfolios for attestation so the session was entitled “Preparing your portfolio for attestation“. The session started by clarifying the objectives that can be summed up here:

•Identify the different sections of a portfolio

•Identify the contents of each section

•Have a look at the new templates of the attestation office and how to use them

•Name evidences of practice for each category

•Know how to apply for the Full Licence.

Then I started by eliciting the five section or folders of a teacher’s or a coordinator’s portfolio. It was also important to identify the contents of each section.

Section 1

This section includes your curriculum vitae.  It must include a personal statement of your educational philosophy.

Section 2

This is your self-audit (Self-Review).  It is a personal reflection on your progress in working with the national professional standards.

Section 3

This is an evaluation of your teaching prepared by an independent person.  It will most likely be a school evaluation.

Section 4

This is a copy of any awards, certificates and professional development that are relevant to your teaching practice.

Section 5

This contains evidence of practice.  You must present eight folders of evidence that cover all twelve standards. You need you fill in an evidence submission form with each evidence of practice.

Then we moved on to discussing evidences of practice for teachers which are:

•Lesson and unit planning  (Planning)

•Teaching resource/s (Delivery)

•Assessment tool/s (Assessment)

•Student assessment data (Measurement of outcomes, and use of data)

•Student feedback (Student feedback on planning, delivery and outcomes)

•Appraisal/observation by independent person/s  (Independent feedback on planning delivery and outcomes)

•Community feedback (Community feedback on planning delivery and outcomes)

•Teacher reflection (Self Reflection on planning, delivery and outcomes)

We also conducted a comparison between a teacher’s portfolio and that of a leader. We ended up by how a teacher or a leader can apply for the full professional licence using the new templates from the Attestation Office.

It has been decided that next sessions should focus on the practical side of preparing  a portfolio.

You can download this presentation here.