Self Evaluation: Final Entry

10 April 2008 - Finally… The long awaited e-portfolio is ready to be submitted. If I wait, I can still find more things to change, or more amendments to make but I will reserve that as part of my maintaining this portfolio. The journey needs to come to an end. Looking back at what I have done to prepare for this e-portfolio, I think I have spent more hours on developing it compared to time spent on any other assignments! I can confidently say that this is the most challenging but the most rewarding piece of work I have done for this Masters in TESL program.

I can also confidently say that I have turned from a techno-idiot to a techno-savvy, based on my own standard of course. I think I have confronted my fear of exploring what the technology has to offer. I really recommend anyone who is in the teaching field to venture into creating an e-portfolio because it is such a very helpful tool for teachers, students, as well as the administrator or advisor who is evaluating the concerned teacher.

E-portfolios are so versatile due to their nature of being accessible to practically anyone who has access to the Internet. It also promotes the concept of the paperless society and of course the benefit of developing oneself professionally. As an administrator, I do not have much material related to teaching which I can display in my e-portfolio. However, I managed to include a few lesson plans which I have developed for two of the courses I am taking this semester, namely Advanced Oral Communication and Literature in TESL.

The final e-portfolio has eight pages which are Home, Personal Details, Lesson Plans, Blog, Auto-biography, Photo Album, Guestbook, and Links. I chose green clean as a whistle as the design of my e-portfolio because green is my favorite color and it soothes my eyes and my soul. Besides this particular design provides me with a lot of empty spaces which I can use to develop my own personal touch. I also prefer the design because it lists the titles of the pages across the top as opposed to listing them vertically on the side area. I chose “To err is human to forgive is divine” as my slogan because as a human being I can not run away from making mistakes. No body is perfect and that is all the more reason for me to keep on developing myself personally and professionally.

In “Home” page I included a brief information of myself as an introduction to viewers. I included my academic qualifications and work experiences in the “Personal Details” page. The next page which is “Lesson Plans” contains lesson plans which I have written as part of assignments in Advanced Oral Communication and Literature in TESL classes. I am not very satisfied with the way it is currently presented. I am not sure how to link them so that viewers can get access to them right away without having to find them in an obscure spot in the Save-file site. However, for now that is all I am able to do. I will definitely continue to upgrade it after the class is over as part of my continuous professional development.

“Autobiography” page contains a detail story of my life including my struggles learning English as a second language. All of the pages have background music which I chose from the selections provided by the site provider. All the songs which I have chosen, are purely on the basis that they are all my favorite songs except for the Photo Album (FPA) page. I chose the tune entitled Dust in the Wind from a group named Kansas. The reason I chose that particular song is because my husband is from Kansas and most of his siblings reside in or near the state of Kansas, USA. In the last page I have included some links which I hope will be useful to viewers. I plan on adding more as I find more interesting and useful sites in the future. The page entitled “Blog” is a link to my e-journals which is also part of the course requirement for this Professional Development class.

Overall, I have gained a lot of new knowledge from developing the e-portfolio as well as the blog. I would still be unable to develop both if I had not taken this class. The whole process of developing them is so challenging and yet very rewarding.

Feedback From a Friend

3 April 2008 - It has been more than half a month since the last time I wrote my journal entry. I have been busy with work as well as assignments for my classes. In fact I am now in KL attending a four-day workshop at Kolej Poly-Tech MARA headquarters. It is very hard to juggle work, family, and study all at once but the experience makes me a better person. The knowledge which I gain while doing all the assignments is priceless and I would never trade it for anything in this world.

During the coffee break at the workshop I met with Harold Poong, another student for M.Ed TESL with UPM. I showed him my e-portfolio so he could give some feedback on its design and content. He commented on my content and he suggested that I remove two pages but transfer their contents to My Personal Details page. In fact the two pages he suggested to remove are the two new ones which I just added. But I think it is better that way. He also suggested that I use a table for the content of my personal details to make it look more “professional”. I made all the changes that night in my hotel room. Fortunately, the hotel provided a free internet service in each room. I still have to make some final touch ups but I don’t have much time before the due date is here.

I am also excited that I have some pictures added to My Photo Album page. Thanks to my husband who helped scan those pictures. Since I don’t have any pictures taken with any students, I decided to include just family photos.