The Portfolio of
Joshua Cabot Wilson
As part of the requirements for graduation from Southern Arkansas University, English majors are required to complete a senior project. This project is chosen by the students to showcase things they feel are beneficial to their careers as English scholars. It also displays the high-quality education that the student received from SAU. Some students choose to write an extensive research paper. Others elect to expound upon a paper or project they have already done for another class. After reviewing my options, I chose to do this Internet portfolio, highlighting the things I have done throughout my career as a student at SAU.
Several purposes are accomplished with this portfolio. First of all, it displays my accomplishments for future employers. Being fresh out of college, I do not have any records to give administrators to observe how well my students have done in the past, nor can they see what kind of work ethic I have as a teacher. In order to fill that gap, I have included professional information, such as a resume and a philosophy of teaching, as well as complete lesson plans I have created to teach different components of a typical English class. Those lessons which I taught to seventh grade students include samples of class work they completed. With these lesson plans, employers not only get a chance to evaluate my competency of subject matter and teaching ability, but also my professional demeanor.
Another purpose of this page is to showcase my ability as a teacher to parents. Many parents choose to take an active part in their children's education. Concerned for their children, they often want to evaluate a teacher as being fair, impartial, and competent. To have the full support of these parents, it is important that I show them that I am able to teach their children. Therefore, I will make this site available to those who wish to check my credentials. In reading my professional information, parents can get an idea of my goals as an educator, my style of teaching, and how I may discipline. They can read the lesson plans and reports to determine my competency, and they can view the pictures to observe my interaction with students. Overall, parents should be able to gather enough information about my teaching ability to judge whether or not they trust me to teach their children correctly.
The third reason for this site is to give students an opportunity to become familiar with me before class begins. Many times, students are apprehensive about teachers they do not know. They worry about the teacher's fairness, style of teaching, and attitude. Other students seem to think that teachers do not know what they are doing. With this mind set, students can become unmotivated, disrespectful, and rowdy. In both of these cases, students become distracted by a lack of knowledge of the teacher, and their learning my suffer for it. Of course, the majority of trust between teachers and students will come through classroom interaction, but this site can provide them information about me before they get to the classroom. With prior knowledge, students may become less anxious and more at ease about being in my class. Each section in the Table of Contents links students with several areas that provide desired information about me. The professional development section will give them an idea of what I expect from them , and what may happen if I do not get that respect. The lesson plans give them an idea of the kinds of assignments and projects they may be required to do for my class. The reports also help them to realize that I have been where they are and understand how they feel. Knowing that I have done everything they have to do may help students feel less uneasy about doing any of the assignments. The "About Me" section provides personal things about me that students may find they can relate to. Hopefully, there will be something about me in that section that each student can identify with and feel comfortable in talking with me about. In general, students are able to read the contents of the site and get to know me a little better and, hopefully, will become more inclined to learn in my classroom.
The fourth and final reason for the construction of this site is to display my technological knowlede. With computers becoming a standard part of classrooms throughout the country, many administrators are faced with the problem of having too few teachers with any technological training. It is important that future teachers let administrators know that they are able to function in the Information Age. With this in mind, I built this web site to display a part of my technological ability. Though the Internet is only a part of the technological advancements that schools deal with, it is the part that is most likely to one day be included in every classroom in the country. This site shows my ability to create a professional web site and teach this information to other faculty or students. Though all of my technological knowledge cannot be displayed in this site, administrators can get a good idea of my capability.
This web site is the best thing that I could have done for a senior project. Not only are others able to get to know me and my methods easier, but my accomplishments as a student and teacher are displayed. The work I have done at SAU is accessible to future employers, parents, and students. I believe that it will be most beneficial to me as an English teacher.