In yesterday’s class, Prof. Guy Allen gave a talk on how to prepare the teaching portfolio. The basic message that I got out of the talk was that you need to take care in preparing the document to communicate a particular message. He gave some helpful tips on what you should try to do:
- Use white space for effect – only in academia do we try to cram as much text as we can on the page. He has statistics that indicate that for each new line added to a page, you lose X number (sorry I forgot the number) of readers.
- Remember that there are two major types of people who review your application – the detail-oriented to who read and check everything and those who barely read it. Your message should be communicated to both.
- You should start collecting material now – you never know what you can use in the future.
- Try and provide evidence – Prof. Allen quoted a colleague of his “I don’t want to see evidence evidence of teaching. I want to see evidence that learning has happened”.
Prof. Allen’s specialty (well one of many) is in communication. Sharing tips from being on both sides was very helpful.