The new manila folder

That’s the problem with conferences like edJEWcon, you hear a great idea and you can’t wait to get back to school to start trying it out in your classroom or for your teachers!!! Well, I can’t wait to work on a digital portfolio (or blogfolio as its called @MJGDS) rollout program with one of our younger grades! What a great concept. Teachers for many grade levels and in many subjects collect artifacts of their students throughout the year anyway. They usually store the paper documents or drawings in a manila folder in the back of a closet somewhere in the classroom. It comes out twice a year, once for each parent-teacher conference and then itbis handed back to the student at the end ofnthe year when it is eventually weeded out or thrown out. Yes, some parents do keep alot of their child’s work in a memory box forever and ever but it is rarely accessed by the parent, let alone the child or the teacher. Digital porfolios seem like a fairly easy and inexpensive way to have that manila folder saved in a more connsed version and have it easily accessible by anyone when put up on the students blog account. It is also fluid amd mvoes with thenchild as he/she grows up and transitions from year to year. This allows for a refelctive aspect to thensrtifacts a yearsngo by and gives everyone a good sense of the academic well being of the child.