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Scroll through these 8 sections to discover how to get the most value from this award-winning portal.
 

1 | Teacher's Playlist

This playlist has 6 short videos to provide a well-rounded almost ninja-level understanding of your portal. 

1:14


Click the invite link in your email from the SuperAdmin to access your portal dashboard.

2:38


Start with self-reflection to personalize your learning resources, setting the stage for targeted growth.

1:45


After self-reflection, review your Awareness Summary with results for each component, in context to other people.

4:23


Gain feedback from administrators to fine-tune your teaching strategies.

4:19


Explore recommended resources tailored to your strengths and areas of growth.

0:35
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Organize your development journey with a plan of chosen and assigned resources.

1:39


Journal is for goal setting and continuous reflection. Portfolio keeps imported evidence of learning in one place.

1:22


Establish PDU goals for participants, aligning their development with your educational objectives.

2 | Self-Reflection | Awareness Summary


User Video: Self-Reflection (2:38)


To begin a self-reflection:
1. Go to MyPortals, top-right of every page.
2. Click on the Title link of your portal.
3. You will be redirected to My Dashboard.


4. Select a domain or standard and click Continue.
5. If applicable, fill out required profile questions.
6. Complete your self-reflection. (This is not an evaluation. Please consider situations and questions in relation to what you actually do in your practice, not what you believe to be the "right answer." Your honest self-reflection will help this system personalize your PD learning experience.)
7. Click SUBMIT at the end of this process.
8. The system will take you to your personalized Results page and the rest of the portal, starting with the Awareness Summary.


User Video: Awareness Summary (1:45)

The Awareness Summary is usually at the top of each Results page. Each Domain and Component has its own Awareness Summary.



Your Awareness Summary compares your self-perception to actual practice for each Component. It also connects peer observations and summative feedback, if any. A weighted average of these elements determines the personalized resources that follow.



Self-Perception

Your Self-Perception is a measure of where you think you are - relative to your expectations - within a particular part of the Framework. It's the first of the three main components of better self-awareness.

Being able to compare where you think you are to where you actually are - let alone how other people see you in real life - are the building blocks of better self-awareness and engagement with learning.

Actions (Self-Reflection)

Your Actions result is a measure of where you actually are, based on your answers to the situation-oriented questions in the self-reflection.

For more details, find the Answer Details section on your Results page to review your answers in relative context to other educators.

Observation | Peers' Feedback

Your Observations result aggregates 360-degree feedback from peers whose opinion matters to you. Five or more peers must confidentially answer the same Actions questions asked about you.

Feedback

The Feedback result, if enabled on your portal, connects observations and summative feedback from your administrator(s).

Visit the Feedback page to see more feedback and shared observations, aligned to each Framework component.

 


 

3 | Personalized PD Resources


User Video: Personalized Resources (4:22)

Your Personalized Resources are on the Results page, based on your Awareness Summary and organized for each Domain and / or Component of the Framework. The resources may be from anywhere and of any format; usually, resources take the form of articles, videos, blogs and courses. Resources are usually curated by the Framework experts and your own portal's admin(s).



Your administrator may also assign custom resources to your MyLearning Plan or to a Learning or Coaching group, depending on your learning program and best practices.

Each Framework component likely has a different set of resources, and some may overlap. You can bookmark, rate and provide feedback on any resource.


 

A resource with the thumb-up icon (πŸ‘) has been assigned to you by an Administrator and added to MyLearning Plan.


 

Bookmarking resources is an excellent way to keep track of which resources you want to complete.
To bookmark a resource, click the heart (❀) on the resource section of the Results page. All bookmarked resources go into MyLearning Plan.


 

Use the Status bar on each resource to manage your progress. It says Not Started at first, and then you would update it to In Progress or Completed.



Once you’ve finished with a resource, go to its Status bar and mark it as Completed. This will update your progress in MyLearning Plan and count against your PDUs objectives (if applicable).

To mark a resource as complete: 
  1. Click the resource
  2. Click the status bar
  3. Select Completed

Feedback about recommended resources for professional learning provides additional voice to each learner, helps identify higher-quality resources, and helps flag lower-quality material. It helps other participants make informed decisions about which resource they want to pursue through the wisdom of the overall network.



To rate a resource:
  1. Find a resource
  2. Click the number (X.X) on it.
  3. Provide a measure of its Relevance, Engagement, Actionability and Overall recommendation.
  4. Provide open-ended feedback in the text box.
  5. Click Save.

 

4 | Learning and Coaching Groups

Learning Groups are communities of several-to-many participants who share a common context, such as the same school, content area, leadership advancement, first-year support and many other reasons.

You may find yourself in more than one learning group. You may also be a member of one group (to recieve personalized support) while at the same time be a group leader of another group (to offer additional support). Y

Group resources, if any, are part of your individual Results page, in the Learning Groups section. Resources that are requiredπŸ‘by the group admin, or bookmarked by you ❀ will be in your Learning Plan as well.

 

Coaching Groups are 1:1 or 1:many pairings between mentors and participants. They are used to foster individualized PD, in the form of targeted improvement and skill refinement.

You may find yourself in more than one coaching or mentor group. You may also be a member of one group (to recieve support) while at the same time be a group leader of another group (to offer additional support to someone else). Y

Group resources, if any, are part of your individual Results page, in the Coaching and Mentor Groups section. Resources that are requiredπŸ‘by the group admin, or bookmarked by you ❀ will be in your Learning Plan as well.

 

 
 

5 | MyLearning Plan and Summary


User Video: MyLearning Plan (0:35)

MyLearning Plan is where you see all your assigned and bookmarked resources across all components
  • All assigned resources are marked with a thumb-up icon (πŸ‘)
  • All bookmarked resources are marked with a heart icon (❀)

 

The Summary page shows the Actions result for each Framework component.



Instead of clicking through each component in the Awareness Summary, you can use the Summary page to see the full Framework and quickly move from one component to another in order to focus on suggested learnings or explore curated resources.

To add more resources to MyLearning Plan:
  1. Go to the Results page
  2. Pick which component you want to focus on
  3. Scroll down to the resources section
  4. See something you want to do? Click the heart icon (❀) to save resources to MyLearning Plan.



 
 
 

6 | Journal & Portfolio


User Video: Journal & Portfolio (1:39)


Journal

The Journal page is where you answer self-reflection questions for each component. Unlike the Self-Reflection exercises, these answers require long-form answers and are typically done after completing resources. There are journal questions for each component in your teaching framework.

To answer Journal questions:
  1. Click Journal
  2. Select a component on the top (to switch domains, go to My Dashboard)
  3. Type up your answers
    All answers are auto-saved.



Portfolio for Files & Assignments The Portfolio page is where you upload evidence of knowledge, artifacts and personal learning resources.



To upload a resource in your portfolio:
  1. Go to Portfolio
  2. Click Add New
  3. Fill in title, description and domain.
  4. Click Choose File to upload or paste in the Add link.
  5. Click Add to save.

 
 

7 | Feedback and Observations


User Video: User Feedback (4:23)

The Feedback part of your portal combines all forms of shared observations, as well as your administrator's summative feedback.

New observations are highlighted in yellow.

Tap to view a growing list of observations.

In most portals, you can also tap on each Component to see its definitions and critical attributes. 

View Shared Observations

In most cases, shared Observations (Formative Feedback) are organized by the Framework component they were tagged to. You can explore shared observations by tapping between the [brackets] next to the component.



If you do not see any [brackets], it's because you your Admin has not created or shared their observation yet.

To review the rubric language and critical attributes:
  • Click on the Component; it will expand down to reveal its Definitions & Critical Attributes link
  • Click on this link -- in most portals, you should see a popup window with that Component's details.


This feature must be enabled for each portal. Contact us through Support if you do not see this.

 
 


 

8 | Tracking Progress


User Video: Professional Development Units (PDUs) (1:22)


Professional Development Units (PDUs), represent a measure of time spent on professional learning activities.

When you complete a resource, the PDUs attached will be added to your PDU summary. Your administrator may have set a PDU target for you to attain by a certain time-frame. You can view your PDU goal on the PDUs page.

To see your PDU progress:
  1. Go to PDUs.
  2. View your completed PDUs and PDU goal.
  3. You can calculate how many more PDUs you need to reach your goals.

 

As part of the learning activity, you may be asked to re-assess and view progress within a particular domain of the Framework.



To re-do your self-reflection:
  1. Go to My Dashboard.
  2. Pick a domain in your teaching framework.
  3. Click Reassess.
  4. Answer questions truthfully and carefully.
  5. Click Submit.
  6. This should bring you to your Awareness Summary on the Results page.
  7. Your new Self-Perception and Actions results are in purple.
  8. You can see the change by comparing the purple and orange results.
 
 



 

 

 
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