baltz portfolio

THE PORTFOLIO: Purpose and Process

The process of building a portfolio for A Community of Teachers (CoT) has been a tremendous learning experience about all facets of teaching. CoT is a highly student-directed and field-based approach to teacher education through the School of Education at Indiana University, Bloomington. The program requires its members to attend weekly Seminar discussions that are led by seminar members and relate directly to semester themes and curricula developed by the seminar group. The member also fosters an Apprentice relationship with a Mentor Teacher that immerses the future teacher in the entire school setting.

The Expectations the portfolio demonstrates require me to investigate many areas of education that impact my teaching from beyond my classroom walls. I would not have otherwise been exposed to these critical issues until I began my teaching career through a traditional teacher curriculum, and then I would have approached it alone as a new teacher with insecurities, doubt, and more immediate daily struggles for survival. The CoT program draws upon the sense of community and sharing that its diverse membership provides. The freedom to question, complain, compare, struggle, support, grow and celebrate are nurtured into invaluable learning experiences.

Valuable evidence and reflective material is collected from the Seminar and Apprenticeship, as well as from relevant experiences in virtually any applicable event in a member's life. The portfolio is a personal and professional summary of how my experiences through a unique teacher education experience, family practices and a corporate career will influence my teaching style and materials.

I have developed, I believe, a keen understanding of what this specific reflective portfolio is all about. I have made presentations to my Big Monday seminar group about my process and purpose. It is important to demonstrate through the portfolio that you are a reflective practitioner--that is, you can evaluate your experiences and relate them directly to your teaching. It is an empathetic approach based upon understanding. It is not enough to demonstrate that you successfully passed a class, for example, as evidence in an expectation. Instead, you must draw upon how the content of that class will impact your teaching in ways that may vary from simply a deeper understanding of content to a more complex analysys and identification of your own personal struggles with it.

Ultimately all new teachers in the State of Indiana will be required to build a similar portfolio based upon the same standards and reflective processes. It will be followed and reviewed proir to being issued a full license to teach. It is easy to see that, for A Community of Teachers alumni, this major requirement will already be well on its way to completion. A member must only keep the evidence and reflections up-to-date with more relevant material from those critical first years of teaching. Most traditional teacher education students must navigate through this difficult and unfamiliar process of building a portfolio from scratch in addition to all of the trials, pressures and scrutiny of being a new teacher.

I decided early in the process to develop this portfolio in an electronic, Web-based format. Although initially the additional steps make the completed expectation take longer, the long-term benefits are dynamic. In my first days as a CoT member, I had flashbacks of my undergraduate days in the School of Fine Arts--everyone lugging around their boxes full of projects and tools. I couldn't imagine working out of an over-sized file box for the next several years, and I found great convenience in being able to access and view the contents of my portfolio from anywhere. It is totally accessible to me and other readers at any time. Other advantages and considerations regarding the electronic portfolio are outlined in a presentation I was asked to co-present with my CoT Faculty Coordinator at IVY Tech. I am pleased with the progress of the electronic portfolio and enjoy watching it evolve into a tool that is also useful for my teaching, my mentors and my students (see Lawrence North link above). As a reader and/or evaluator, I hope you do, too.

ME: Purpose and Process

Philosophy of Teaching Statement

Professional Resume

Academic Transcript

My story is a probably common one among second-career teachers. From days at Noblesville High School (long before the building pictured here), I recall a thorough enjoyment of my mathematics classes and teachers--to the extreme that I can recall imposing my unresolved questions about overkill content with blended objectives on their busy, tired brains. I admired them for their intelligence and their patience. I would think to myself, "I could see myself doing that, someday."

Someday got fuzzier when, as an impressionable and materialistic seventeen-year-old, I wrote my college preparatory research paper on teacher salaries (1986). I made a great friend in that class. It was the teacher, Mr. Purvis, who was affectionately known to the class of '87 as Uncle Dave. Although in my head I knew I no longer aspired to teach, he knew my heart and questioned my every chance he got over subsequent years about entering "the noble profession."

I easily distracted myself throughout college with accounting classes and business opportinities that somewhat satisfied my fondness for numbers, but I also enjoyed learning about lots of other things as well. When push came to shove in college, I found myself turning away from the School of Business. I found even the prepatory coursework to be narrow and felt like I was wearing blinders through college. I wanted to continue have the freedom to study foreign languages and explore other interests as well.

Through this exploration, I took an Art Appreciation class with some friends, and then another, and then another. I found myself completely engaged. Art History was opening up an appreciation for things I had not fully appreciated before. Aside from the master craftsmanship and skill of the great artists and the aesthetic beauty and rich symbolism of their works, I developed a deep understanding of history, philosophy, religion, culture. I became an Art History major with no intention of putting that degree to any professional use. But the insights and opportunities it brought me were great rewards. I developed a particular fondness for the art and ideals of the Italian Renaissance.

I entered the business world with franchising experience during college and eventually bought the franchising rights to two restaurants. I enjoyed success and challenges in the business world through many years, until the revelation. I had seen the movie before, but it was a brief moment between me and Mr. Holland that changed everything and realigned my head with my heart. Reflecting upon my most enjoyable business experiences of mentoring and training adolescents, I headed back down the long road to teaching high school mathematics.

I have discovered that my appreciation for art and music have wonderfully ironic mathematical links that I will be able to use in my teaching, and those understandings about history, philosophy, religion and culture can be applied as well.

For many years I have continued to work in restaurant management while meeting the requirements to become a licensed teacher. I owe enormous gratitude to many people. My wife and children have sacrificed time and money to ensure my success at work and school over the years, and the remainder of my family offers moral support, and free babysitting!. The faculty and members of A Community of Teachers have provided sound education, unique perspectives and the flexibility and self-directed curriculum to do something I could not have done through traditional means. My mentor teachers and the principal at Lawrence North High School have supported my long-term involvement with CoT and made me a confident Student Teacher and a part of their progressive and recognized educational culture. My colleagues staffs at P.F. Chang's China Bistro have appreciated my contributions with the understanding that I would eventually be leaving, all-the-while quietly catering to my scheduling needs. And who could foget Uncle Dave. Not me! I actually called him when I began the CoT track to let him know that he was right all along. I cannot wait to call him back with news of my first teaching job.