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Credentials and Portfolios

Credentials

During your job search, a school district may ask for your credentials. What they are looking for is the documentation of your training and skills as a teacher, in particular, your references, transcript(s), and certificate(s).

Keep your credentials online! DePaul School of Education has partnered with Interfolio which provides secure storage for your credentials and/or portfolio. For a moderate fee, you can store your file online or have paper copies mailed to schools/districts.

"Must-have" documents in your credentials:

  1. Resume
  2. Letters of Recommendation We recommend three to five current letters from people who have seen you teaching or working with young people. Beginning teachers, ask your cooperating teacher, supervisor of student teaching, principal, or anyone who has seen you working with children/teens.
  3. Copy of transcript(s), available from the Academic Resource Center.
  4. A copy of your certificate(s).

Additional items you may want to add to your file:

  1. Statement of your teaching philosophy.
  2. Sample lesson or unit plan.
  3. Evaluation of your teaching.

Job Search Portfolio

A Job Search Portfolio is a document that you take with you to an interview to support your verbal answers and to demonstrate your skills in lesson plan writing.

Collect the following materials and put them in a good quality folder with your name on it. Give it to the interviewer either during the interview or at the end. During the interview, you can use it to offer a written answer to support your verbal answer. For example, if they ask you a question about your philosophy of teaching, you can offer your answer and then say, "I have written my philosophy for my portfolio, along with two of my lesson plans. Here is a copy I've made for you."

Recommended Items

  • The items from your Credentials
  • Statement of your philosophy of education: one page
  • Sample lesson/unit plans
  • Photographs or tape recordings of students' work (especially in music, art, and languages).
  • If you're seeking a coaching position, consider a one-page summary of your athletic team experiences, which could include well-known coaches you've had, accomplishments of teams you've played on or coached, any training you've had to be a coach, clinics in which you've participated, etc.
  • Any other documents you think will sell you as a teacher.

Keep Your Portfolio Online

DePaul School of Education has partnered with Interfolio, a website that provides secure storage online for your portfolio and/or credentials. For a moderate fee, you can store your file online or have paper copies mailed to schools/districts.