Creating a teaching portfolio is a critical step in your professional career --- whether you are a graduate teaching assistant, or an experienced part-time instructor. Your portfolio is the primary means by which you can share your teaching philosophy and demonstrate your skills as an educator. In addition, most interviewers in higher education require that you bring a copy of your teaching portfolio to an interview. Follow these simple steps to create a teaching portfolio.

Compile artifacts from your teaching career. Gather any course syllabi, assignments and assessments you designed personally as a teaching assistant or as an instructor. Collect certificates from continuing education workshops. Gather evaluations completed by both students and administrators. If you are missing any evaluations, contact the appropriate place of employment to ask for a duplicate copy. In "Evidence of Effective Teaching," Maria Yon, Charles Burnap, and Gary Kohut indicate that higher education institutions now use peer observations for both hiring and promotion processes. Combine your peer observation reports with the other documents and place these documents in a folder or envelope until you are ready to organize your portfolio.

Write a teaching philosophy statement. Your educational philosophy should include what approaches and methods you presently use in the classroom, and should explain how you measure the efficacy of your teaching. Make your one- to two-page statement concise and specific. State whether you prefer lectures, discussions, or collaborative projects. If you combine various pedagogical approaches, explain when and why. Cite scholars who have inspired your pedagogical methods. Explain how you motivate students. As Geoffrey Squires notes in "A Framework for Teaching" (2004), even if students can learn, they won't, unless they are motivated to do so. Include a statement about how you address various learning styles, and state explicitly your level of expertise in using instructional technology. Explain how you evaluate your methods.

Organize your documents in a three-ring binder. Many professionals create a master portfolio, which they select from to create a customized teaching portfolio for a specific job interview. In your master teaching portfolio, consider placing your teaching philosophy statement first; all of your course syllabi, assignments and assessments next; and copies of your evaluations last. To create a teaching portfolio for a specific position, consider your audience. If you plan to interview for a position at a university, consider showcasing artifacts from undergraduate and graduate courses you have taught. If you interview at a four-year liberal arts college or a community college, display documents from introductory and upper-level undergraduate courses in your field.

Evaluate and revise your portfolio at the end of each semester. As you learn and employ new pedagogical methods, attend educational workshops, and receive feedback from both students and administrators, revise your teaching philosophy.