Portfolios are starting to become a great way for students to display work. As an international student and/or teacher, it's important to keep all of your work and evidence in one area. Because of the growth in technology and it's ease of use, there are many ways to integrate YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and other media forms that can add to your online portfolio. In some cases teachers and other professionals are tossing out their paper CV's for a virtual one.

The practical applications are starting to become more apparent for students as well. University's such as MIT are starting to take a submissions that are supplemented by interactive portfolios. 

So what are the benefits?

After listening to @alex_artedu and @chamley_ at the #SISRocks create conference this past weekend, I felt the message was clear. The benefits of an online portfolio are important to acknowledge and understand before creating one.

Transparency allows other passionate individuals to follow and react. It gives the opportunity for people to share openly. My college professor always said, "original ideas are hard to come by, but building off of other ideas can be very productive." Blogging ideas and other work gives an opportunity for comments and constructive criticism from readers. 

The Authentic Audience can really create a great forum where Visible Thinking can happen. To me visible thinking is a great way to work on student assignments. I utilize Edmodo as a discussion tool to have those conversations with students. We talk about what they can do to improve themselves a student, son/daughter and overall as a human. Students start to learn in the real time.  

Real Time Learning is a very fluid concept, but I feel there are some great blogs out there that can focus the scope a bit more. Check out this blog by @JEFinkelstein and the LearningTime company. It really highlights how important blogs can be to the learning process and should be integrated in our student's learning. 

Overall, the goal for my own blog is to have professionals visit and CONTRIBUTE. I feel I am now a seasoned teacher with pieces of work that could benefit another teacher. Like I said, "take it, use it and give me feedback." When teachers start contributing to their Online Presence, the ultimate winner are our students.

With that all being said, under my resource tab, I am going to start sharing some Google Folders which will include lesson plans and assignments that I currently am using and adjusting. I'll write a bit more about each one as I share them, a I look forward to the professional conversation we will have in the future!

Thanks for having a read and I look forward to future collaboration!

This past Friday, the Lady Geckos had their second game of their soccer season against a very experienced team! The girls were excited for the match against some very familiar faces, so familiar in fact that some of their opponents knew them since they were born! The Geckos played a tough match against their teachers and mothers, nicknamed the Internationals!

This non-traditional game would be played in four quarters that lasted roughly 10-15 minutes, (or 20 when the referee wasn’t paying attention). During the first quarter, the Geckos got off to a 2-0 start. They were a bit more organized than the Internationals and fired some shots on goal with conviction. Their confidence was high, but the Internationals were not intimidated at all by the youth of the Geckos. The Internationals knew they could organize and come back.

As the second quarter came to an end, the Internationals finally got on the board and were looking not only more organized, but they even exuded confidence. The score was a bit closer and everyone was chomping at the bit to get the third quarter started.

As the whistle blew to start the third quarter, the score was in favor of the Geckos 3-2. Some spirited play by both teams, with what seemed like hundreds of shots on goal, made for an exciting quarter! The fans were going crazy as the Geckos smashed a fourth goal that almost took the net of frame. The Internationals, with credence, keep their heads high and knew they would have more opportunities for chances on goal. Confidently, taking the kickoff with less than seconds to play, the Internationals cut through the defense of the Geckos like a hot knife through cheese and drilled the ball to the lower right side of the goal to bring quarter to the end and the score to 4 for the Geckos, 3 to the Internationals!

After a short pause and to check that everyone was still breathing, the Internationals confirmed that they were ready to take on the Geckos for one final quarter that would either seal their fate of defeat, or produce a rally that would be talked about for ages to come! And that’s just what happened!

The whistle sounded for this 10 minute quarter, and the battle commenced. Each team, barely able to penetrate each other’s defense, started this quarter in what seemed like it would end with a stalemate. The Geckos communication was high, but the Internationals’ heart rates were higher. A pass down the right side line isolated an International in the corner, looking for support, someone, ANYONE, she looked up and smiled. A chip over the middle and the ball was sweetly directed into the left corner for the score! GGGOOOAALLL!

With both teams at the height of their play, the long whistle sounded and as quick as it began, the battle ended. This epic battle of youth versus “finely-aged-experience” will end in a draw today, but both teams look forward to April, where these two teams will bring it all in the most anticipated rematch in Lady Gecko history. It will be a match for the ages! With a time and place to be determined later, stay tuned to come out and support your SIS teams!