Welcomes

Nona Lyons, Ph.D.
University College, Cork Ireland
February 26-27th, 2007

Join us for two special events:

Monday, February 26, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Wilson Elementary Auditorium
2100 Yupon Houston, Texas 77006 - (map)
Register (open to the public)

Tuesday, February 27, 7:30 - 9 a.m.
University of Houston Hilton
4800 Calhoun Road Houston, Texas 77204 -(map)
Register (open to Leadership Academy participants)

Nona Lyons always knew she wanted to teach. But when she first set foot in a New York City junior high school in the 1960s, she couldn't predict that her education career would some day take her to Ireland. Over the past five years at the University College Cork (UCC), she has been working with arts and sciences faculty to create reflective portfolios as a means of inquiring into and documenting their own teaching practices and their students' learning.

Lyons first became interested in the reflective portfolio process while studying at HGSE in the early 1980s. Similar to how writers and artists had always used portfolios to show development, teachers used them to document elementary and secondary students' learning. The portfolio seemed like an interesting way to document new teachers' professional learning and development, Lyons says. Portfolios usually contain a range of evidence of teaching, such as a statement of a teaching philosophy, a syllabus, videos of classes and lessons,
samples of student work assessments, and an extended reflection on what the portfolio maker has learned by the inquiry.