More on Teaching Philosophy/Portfolios

Laurie told me about this portal of teaching with technology portfolios at Penn State. I also found this how-to for writing a teaching philosophy statement that is helpful...but it doesn't answer that crucial theory/practice balance question I have in mind. Laurie, Jessica, and I talked about how the teaching philosophy statement genre has changed over the years. Apparently at one time it was kind of, well, effusive and I feel a call to teach deep down in my soul-esque, but now it's more matter-of-fact. I need to figure out how much pathos I want in mine. Here are a couple more how-to sites on writing teaching philosophy statements:

• A list of FAQ from UC-Santa Barbara
• The Teaching Philosophy Statement from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln

That last site starts out with "Your statement of teaching philosophy essentially answers the question 'why do I teach?'" That's confusing to me; I thought it was supposed to explain what your approach to teaching is, what you think is important that your students get out of your class, and why you have chosen the approach you've chosen (the theoretical underpinnings).