Being a teacher has given me a peek behind the curtains of education.  I have been able to see education both as an outsider as a student and insider as an educator.  There were so many things that I often wondered about teaching as a child that I was able to find the answer to as a teacher.  One of the things that I always wondered was could there in fact be different ways to learn rather than the traditional way.  Now that more and more technology is accessible in a lot of classrooms I believe it is now time that we begin utilizing it to our advantage. 

​

I believe I can empower learners by providing opportunities for them to showcase their learned skills through the use of e-portfolios.  By providing students the opportunities to do so, we are allowing them to take control of how they learn.  Many of the projects and assignments that I have worked on as a student were in a very cookie cutter format where the learning seemed to be a one size fits all method.  However, when we take into account the diversity of our learners, not everyone fits into the same mold.  In order to create life-long learners we need to encourage our students that there can be a variety of ways to show their knowledge and skills.  By providing opportunities for learners to showcase their learned skills it would offer them the opportunities to have a choice and take ownership of what they are learning.  You would be surprised at the ideas and creativity that you would see!  As a teacher, I have always been a firm believer in if students can demonstrate learning in ways different than bubbling in a test, then they are truly mastering the learning concepts.  Aren’t these learners the type citizens that you would want to see being leaders and innovators for the future?  I have chose to implement e-portfolios in grades 3-5 as my innovation plan because I believe this will provide opportunities for students to showcase their learning in multiple ways.