I Couldn't Attend The Online Class/ Portfolios

I am so sorry guys, I was completely unable to attend the online course last week because Tommy Hilfiger kept me hostage at his store board folding his cloths.. =/ Anyway, Just to catch up on a blog post I want to discuss some positive and some negative affects of having portfolios.

Personally I feel that portfolios are good to have in a classroom because I think that it can make the student feel so much better about themselves in a lot of ways. They can look back at things they did a long time ago and compare it to things that they have worked on recently and hopefully it shows how much they have progressed and what they still need to work on.
This is also a good thing for teachers because when a parent comes in to see the teacher they can take out the students portfolio and discuss everything that has been going on in the classroom and what there child has been working on. When you have a parent/teacher conference I think that it is important to make sure you have work to prove that the student is doing good or bad in the classroom. For example if a parent comes in and says "my son is telling me that he is doing very well in the class but he really doesn't bring home any school work to show me his progress". At this point the teacher can take out his portfolio and show how well the student is doing and how well he has progressed throughout the year. This is a great thing because attending a parent/teacher conference without having any back up is not good. Which makes portfolios so much better to have in a classroom.

I did a little bit of research, because I really did not feel that there was any negatives to having a portfolio for students, But this is what I found:

WHAT ARE THE DRAWBACKS? Good portfolio projects do not happen without considerable effort on the part of teachers, administrators, and policymakers. Research shows that portfolios place additional demands on teachers and students as well as on school resources. Teachers need not only a thorough understanding of their subject area and instructional skills, but also additional time for planning, conferring with other teachers, developing strategies and materials, meeting with individual students and small groups, and reviewing and commenting on student work. In addition, teachers may need extra space in their classrooms to store students' portfolios or expensive equipment such as video cameras.

http://www.adprima.com/student_portfolios.htm

I feel that this is a very touchy statement when they said that it places additional demands on teachers and students. I feel that because it is a teachers job to make sure that the students are progressing in class that they should take the extra time and effort to make portfolios for students. Making sure that children feel confident in there work, and making sure that a student can look back at there work previously and see that they did progress in class is very important. I don't feel that it should be any extra hassle, it should simply be apart of the education process where we make sure that every student can get ahead. The students at the same time have to do there part as well, and if it is a 50/50 effort, then that should make everything easier because in the end you helped a student succeed.

I hope you all enjoyed..=)