Week 2

ePortfolios
Today in our lecture and tutorial we learnt about ePortfolios. An ePortfolio is an electronic or digital portfolio that contains a collection of evidence that is assembled and managed by a user and displays progress and achievements. In other words it is a compilation of student work made up of documents and achievements that are displayed in such a way that others can see how their skills have developed and progressed. We were shown an amazing example of an ePortfolio in the lecture today that was very motivating and inspiring. As a mother I would be absolutely blown away if my daughter's teacher went to the effort of making something this detailed and fantastic for her. On the flip side as a teacher I would not like to guess how long and how much time has been spent developing and compiling these ePortfolios that are of such a fantastic and detailed standard. However I think that completing ePortfolios for my students would definitely be very rewarding, especially if I managed to achieve something as impressive as the example shown. I feel that it is also very important to note that not only did this ePortfolio look visually fantastic but the content was also very thorough, relevant, detailed and showed
evidence of student learning and reflection.

As shown in the diagram ePortfolios are not only for students and educational purposes but they can also be a great resource to have in order to provide evidence of professional development and employability when seeking new employment. Therefore to have one of our assessment tasks as making our own ePortfolio I think is a great opportunity for all of us, as pre-service teachers, to develop a new skill, that will not only be useful with our students but also provide us with a tool to hopefully assist us in getting our preferred job next year. It also provides us with an opportunity to reflect on where we are in relation to our teaching career, where we see ourselves in the future and what we as individuals can bring to a school. At this point in our course I am extremely pleased that the work and assessment tasks that we are doing are not only relevant to our course but they are also very useful and valuable tools that we will be able to use throughout our careers as teachers. I am also very grateful with the chance to reflect on what I'm doing, how I feel about it and what I would like to accomplish in my future teaching career. When we construct our own ePortfolio it is important to include our resume/CV in order to show evidence of our achievements and awards. It is also very important to include what area of study our bachelor degree was in, particularly having done this course as we need to show what experiences we have in other fields other than teaching as well as how these experiences could help benefit my teaching career.

Applying For a Position
In our tutorial yesterday Greg also kindly talked about and assisted us in thinking about the job application procedure. The application process involves completing an application form in which we need to address some key selection criteria as well as including our resume and a letter of application.
The most important message that I got out of this tutorial is to make sure that I have answered the key selection criteria in the application. The other very important, yet obvious message, included making sure that we keep to any application requirements, for example if they ask for 3 referees do not include 2 or 4, and likewise if they specify that the application should be no longer than 10 pages do not write 11 pages or use 6pt font to cater for the extra page. These requirements are set for a reason and if a lot of applications are received for one position then the selection panel will be looking for an easy way to reduce the number of applications they need to read.

If you are lucky enough to be short listed for a position and are therefore selected for an interview, the following points are how you should approach the interview process:
Interview
- arrive early
- dress appropriately for the school
- make sure that you have researched the school, including their website, so that you can display your interest and knowledge of the school during the interview
- make a point to learn the panel members names so that if John is going to ask you a question you can then turn to look at John
- if you did not hear a question very well or you need time to gather your thoughts ask the panel to repeat the question if necessary
- if it has not come up during the interview feel free to ask what grade level you are applying for
- always have a question ready to ask! eg. what is your mentoring approach? what year level are you looking to fill? when will the new hall that is mentioned on your website be finished?
- never talk money, it is not appropriate
- always shake hands at the end of the interview and make sure that you say "I'm really keen to be part of the team here at Billanook Primary School"
- let other schools know if you have taken a position elsewhere, it is polite

Microsoft Publisher
Finally in our tutorial today we learnt how to use the Microsoft office program called Microsoft Publisher. I personally have not used this program before however I have seen other teachers use it to make various things so I was very keen to learn how to use it. It is a wonderful program that allows you to do some fantastic activities with students. One example of what you can use the program for is to make a brochure. Below is an example of a brochure that I started making about going to Hawaii for a holiday.

Students could be given a project to make a travel brochure and this program would be perfect for them to complete the task. The students may be given, or get to choose, a holiday travel destination that they would like to visit. They would then need to research the city/country including such things as the weather, the cost to fly there, the available accommodation, what things there are to do there, what are the main attractions, who is it suitable for, the population, the currency etc and when they had found out all the information they required they could then use publisher to collate their research information into a travel brochure. As a group today our thoughts were that this program could be used with students from a grade 3 level and upwards, as it is a very friendly and easy to use program for students. A travel brochure is just one example of what you can use Microsoft publisher for, however there are many more applications and uses for this wonderful program. I can see myself practising and becoming very familiar with this program so that I can utilise it to its full potential.