The Professional Portfolio and Capstone
A professional portfolio is a collection of artifacts and reflections that demonstrates content knowledge, professional knowledge, skills and dispositions. Based on standards for best practices for media specialists (described in the next paragraph), candidates for certification as school library media specialists at Georgia Southern University will design, develop and present individual portfolios as a culminating experience in the certification program. Given the increasingly important role of technology in school library media programs in the 21st century, candidate portfolios must be submitted in an electronic format.
Professional Standards
The School Library Media Specialist initial certification at Georgia Southern University includes activities and experiences designed to meet the ALA/AASL Standards for Initial Programs for School Library Media Specialist Preparation. These standards have been accepted by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission as the minimum expectations for certification as a school library media specialist. The standards focus on candidate performance and the Instructional Technology faculty at Georgia Southern University believes that a professional portfolio based on these standards allows candidates to demonstrate a wide range of essential knowledge, skills and dispositions.
Portfolio Requirements
Required components include:
The five roles of the school librarian are not to be included in the portfolio as separate pages. You can refer to the roles in your reflections.
Here is a description of the portfolio pages and content requirements. The words in bold indicate separate pages in your portfolio website. The bullets list the components that should be on that page.
Home Page
Professional Philosophy
Resume
ALA/AASL Standards for Initial Preparation of School Librarians (2010)
Link to a Personal Learning Network
Link to the Practicum Blog
- Current resume
- Statement of professional philosophy which must include a paragraph concerning commitment to intellectual freedom
- Artifacts demonstrating mastery of current AASL preparation standards
- Reflections describing why an artifact was selected/ what the artifact demonstrates
- Spreadsheet documenting field experiences across P-12 sites
- All technological elements of the portfolio working properly
The five roles of the school librarian are not to be included in the portfolio as separate pages. You can refer to the roles in your reflections.
Here is a description of the portfolio pages and content requirements. The words in bold indicate separate pages in your portfolio website. The bullets list the components that should be on that page.
Home Page
- A professional picture of yourself (no avatars!)
- Your full name
- A 2 paragraph biography. Paragraph 1 should introduce you as a professional. Paragraph 2 should provide an introduction to your portfolio and navigational guidance
- A table which details practicum hours completed for each location (primary, secondary & tertiary sites)
Professional Philosophy
- A statement detailing your philosophy as a school library media specialist including a paragraph on commitment to intellectual freedom
Resume
- This must be an embedded PDF file. Do NOT include references or their contact information.
ALA/AASL Standards for Initial Preparation of School Librarians (2010)
- You need to create a page for each one of the five AASL Preparation Standards. Title the page with the name of the Standard and include the overarching Standard statement. You do not need to include the components under each Standard, but you can.
- Write a 300-500 word reflective essay describing what you have learned throughout your program that has enabled you to meet that particular standard (one reflective essay per standard page). Make sure that you review the criteria for reflections on the professional portfolio rubric. Remember, this is your chance to demonstrate your learning!
- Under each Standard embed the key assessments from FRIT 7231, FRIT 7235, and FRIT 7331, the practicum tasks, and any of your projects or assignment that, in your opinion, best support your mastery of that Standard. You may not link* to documents, PowerPoints, or other files. All artifacts should be embedded using tools like SlideShare, Google, Docs, or Scribd.
- *The only exception to the "no links" rule would be if you developed a website or wiki for an activity. Take a screenshot of that page and embed the screenshot on the Standard's page. Then provide a link to the live site. Make sure that the website is public so that everyone can view it.
- Write a brief reflection for each artifact.
Link to a Personal Learning Network
- Throughout your coursework, you should have begun a PLN. At the end of practicum, your PLN needs to include a minimum of 2-3 of each: a) blogs, b) social networking, c) podcasts, d) video or video series (open access only!), e) websites, f) training materials, and g) professional articles. Organize the resources according to these categories.
Link to the Practicum Blog
- This is detailed in the next section.
Practicum Journal in Blog Form
To meet the requirement of a practicum journal, you will use an online blog tool. There are plenty of free tools available (Blogger, Wordpress etc.).Since this is a semi-public forum you’ll need to be cautious about using real names when you post to your blog. The practicum blog will be used to document and record all checklist items under the candidate requirements page. You should also have individual posts for each of the 8 required practicum Tasks. Your blog should include a tally of when and where your hours were spent and photographs of the activities you completed. Note that a description of activities is not sufficient evidence of completion. You are expected to post a brief reflection on your practicum experience for every week of the semester. FRIT 7765 Candidates also have a 3rd category of blog posts which are described in the Book Study section.
IMPORTANT: Each blog post must be labeled with the date, the day of the week, and the week of the semester. Make sure you index your blog posts by title or by using categories using the names of the checklist items so that we can more easily identify those posts.
TIP: Pick one day of the week and make it your blog day. Otherwise, the semester will get away from you.
The practicum journal blog should be linked to your portfolio.
IMPORTANT: Each blog post must be labeled with the date, the day of the week, and the week of the semester. Make sure you index your blog posts by title or by using categories using the names of the checklist items so that we can more easily identify those posts.
TIP: Pick one day of the week and make it your blog day. Otherwise, the semester will get away from you.
The practicum journal blog should be linked to your portfolio.
Portfolio Evaluation
The professional portfolio is evaluated as a component of FRIT 7734 using the Professional Portfolio Scoring Guide. The scoring guide (available for download from the Forms page) reflects elements from the practicum as well as the portfolio itself. All portfolios will be presented orally during the semester the candidate is enrolled in FRIT 7734. Instructional technology faculty will attend the portfolio presentations and participate in the evaluation, although the final evaluation will be completed by the FRIT 7734 instructor. Since the grade in FRIT 7734 is S/U, every element on the scoring guide must be rated as acceptable for the candidate to earn an S in FRIT 7734 and complete the program.
Portfolio Resources
- ALA/ AASL Standards for Initial Programs for School Library Media Specialist Preparation - Links to standards that need to be displayed on the portfolio. These are the standards that the Georgia PSC uses for Georgia Southern accreditation.
- Portfolio Examples - Links to exemplary portfolios. Please note that guidelines may have changed from the time these portfolios were submitted. Be sure to check current guidelines for all required components.
Portfolio Capstone Presentations
Toward the end of the semester, your practicum University Supervisor will review your portfolio and let you know if you are prepared to present your portfolio in the capstone. The University Supervisor will provide a sign-up sheet for the capstone experience.
There are several items to remember when planning your portfolio presentation:
- We will use an online conferencing system, WebEx, for these presentations. WebEx allows us to talk with each other in real time. It has many other functions and features, but we will use it as an audio chat room only. We'll provide you with log in details before the sessions begin.
- You must have a headset and microphone-the audio simply will NOT work properly if you try to use the microphone built into your computer.
- There will be a practice session for students prior to the official presentation time.
- You will submit your final portfolio URL as part of signing up for our final portfolio presentations.
- On the nights of the capstone portfolio presentations, you will open the WebEx Classroom . You are expected to remain online the night of your presentation as the time slots may shift. We may move more quickly or we may need a few extra minutes so stay online and be prepared to present your portfolio. You are more than welcome to "sit in" on other nights to see how the process works.
- When it is your time to present, everyone will access the Portfolio URL that you have provided . You will then do your presentation (using WebEx for the audio) and everyone will follow you through your Portfolio on their computer. Before the presentations begin, please try to find a quiet corner of your home away from phones, TV's, and family.
- You will have 10 minutes for your presentation so you will not be able to show everything in your Portfolio. Pick one or two things that you think are examples of your best work to show. Remember, the focus of your artifacts is the reflection of how your artifacts meet the national standards.