It sure would be nice if the administration valued teachers' need to plan ahead

[hauntmeister]

In a meeting yesterday, we were informed that the school year would culminate in portfolio presentations by the students. WHAAAAAT!?! We hadn't heard a thing about this! And typically, isn't a "portfolio" something you work on over time, and not something you're informed about in the last month of schoolMy hunch is that one of the assistant

Comments

[hauntmeister]

Here's the response I sent to her (cc'ed to the fellow teachers who were at the meeting with her)
Standard opening salutation

I've been mulling over your proposal in Wednesday's Inquiry group to conclude the school year with student portfolio presentations, and have been coming to the conclusion that they may not be a good idea at this time. I was hoping to extend our inquiry group discussion via email.

Certainly, portfolio presentations can have wonderful uses. For special ed students, who may have difficulty passing standardized tests, a portfolio can demonstrate that the student has achieved competence in various necessary areas. Back at Boston Arts Academy, the portfolios for our visual artists were their way to show development over the years, or to highlight particularly strong accomplishments. But these applications assume that portfolios have been built into the curriculum in the first place, that time has been allocated at the end of the year for their presentation, and most importantly, that a student -- or his or her teachers -- have been collecting samples of the student's work over a lengthy period of time.

In this case, because portfolios have not previously been in place, we'd essentially be asking a student to present his or her best work for the month of May, which I believe would be of very limited pedagogical value.

Further, preparing the portfolios, and the presentations themselves, would probably involve close to a week of class time. This would trigger significant disruption to teacher planning, at a time of year when we're already competing with MCAS, prom, finals, assemblies, and the enticing weather outside.

Like our pending change to five periods and a rotating schedule, which took several years to set in motion, this new introduction may require more time than a few weeks to plan, build teacher support, and set up the structure, if it is to be successful. I feel that attempting to institute portfolio presentations at this time would be of limited benefit to either students or to teachers, and that the drawbacks would outweigh the benefits.

Thanks for your consideration.
Standard closing

No response yet. Possibly because I sent it to her BPS email address, which she may not check frequently (despite being expected to.) Most of the email I've gotten from her has been from her Blackberry account.