There are numerous reasons to write your first evidence post and start creating evidence of your teaching practice. Maybe you just want to reflect on what you’ve been doing so you can understand it better. Perhaps you’re working towards meeting the criteria for an assignment or teacher accreditation?
Whatever the reason for reflecting and creating evidence of your teaching practice, giving yourself space to connect with what you do or why will help you better understand yourself as a teacher.
Writing evidence of practice can take you out of your comfortzone
Writing your piece of evidence or reflection can be intimidating though! We totally understand that.
Sitting back and really, deeply thinking about your practice as a teacher can push you a little out of your comfort zone!
However, doing so often leads to some amazing growth for your and your students.
In an Edufolio™, we write all of our evidence of practice inside “Evidence Posts”. These are then stored on a timeline that you can explore.
It’s quite fun to see what you said about that same topic a year ago – you’ll have grown!
You have the option to tag them with multiple standards from the Australian Professional Standards for teachers and their corresponding focus areas.
Most importantly though, the data you create through your reflection becomes searchable, reportable and so, so much more useful!
How do i begin my first evidence post using the standards?
Here are some top tips to help you get started with your very first evidence post in Edufolios™
1. There’s no such thing as perfection.
It’s impossible in a classroom and it’s impossible in a reflection. Don’t forget to be a reflectionist… not a perfectionist 
Take the pressure OFF.
2. Start with you and your practice NOT the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers
No more posts called “1.1 Physical, social and intellectual development and characteristics of students”! Teaching just isn’t that simple! As soon as you start talking about your students, you’ll start exploring how you know that… That’s going to come from a variety of places and hit a whole heap of standards! One evidence post should cover lots of standards and focus areas. (The average is around 12 focus areas per evidence post). The title should name the story of practice, not the standard.
Have a listen to this podcast episode to hear more: #087: The Teaching Standards are NOT the ANSWER – Edufolios
3. Not all evidence is for accreditaiton!
There’s no pressure to write a novel every time (or ever!). Sometimes, you just want to share a quick A-ha moment. Those short, wonderful moments hold a lot of power – share them. One day, they may form the basis of an amazing story of practice
4. Write as though this is for you.
This is your reflective practice. This is not for a uni assignment, this is not for accreditation, this isn’t even about PD hours… You’re reflecting on your practice and what it shows. You’re doing that for you so you can explore the impact your practice is having, your learnings from that impact and what you’re going to do next.
5. Evidence isn't ... evidence.. without artefacts
- Add artefacts (lesson plans, pictures, student work samples) and then annotate and explain what they show. Artefacts on their own won’t pass muster (when it comes to accreditation) nor will just recounting what you did. Think more about WHY you did it and HOW you chose to do it.
6. Set a goal for next time.
Don’t be afraid to set yourself a target in your post and then write a new evidence post a few weeks later updating yourself on how you’re going. That’s the easiest way to gather evidence at any career stage!
7. Use the standards AFTER you write your story.
When it comes to adding the standards – after you’ve reflected, just ask yourself some questions. Look at the standards guide and use the questions to help you focus on the right standards and focus areas.
Start with who you are impacting.. and then what you have talked about. Edufolios will guide you into the right descriptor and shows you what you need to cover.
This is when you start to get more detailed and when you start to think about what your evidence shows. You might change your mind, you might suddenly realised you missed a bit in your reflection. All perfectly normal!
Writing an evidence post is all about you reflecting and taking time out. If you reflect regularly, you’ll soon have all the evidence you need. If you do so purposefully, reflecting on the impact you’re having you might even start hitting HA and lead!
Some of our subscribers even plan what they’re going to reflect on.
It’s a great idea to schedule time in to take time out to reflect!
If you have any tips to share, please feel free to do so below.
