Portfolios,Scrapbooks and other school diaries

Fashions in the academic world come and go. In recent years it has become fashionable to ask our students  to keep an English language Portfolio just to look more european more standard-like.
A portfolio used to be first and foremost a briefcase; 
then it was used in finance as a collection of assets,(which connects very well with the leading politicians in our advanced capitalist consummer world),
 in the art world as a collection of samples of an artist´s work,
 a portfolio of properties in the real-estate world;
 a career portfolio which is an organised presentation of an individual´s education and skills or even an electronic portfolio, just a collection of electronic documents in the educational world.
In the political sphere there used to be the figure of a Minister  without a Portfolio to refer to a Minister who does not head a particular ministry or with no specific responsibilities.
After thirty-odd years as a teacher and having kept the records of school diaries or classroom diaries for decades I may have become a teacher without a portfolio and here´s why:

I prefer the use of an observation journal, even a scrapbook, which records your  learning biography. 

As an educator every day I am more and more in favour of boosting  ATTITUDES and PRINCIPLES rather than contents which may soon vanish in the students´minds.
 The attitudes I hold dear are :

CURIOSITY 

ENTHUSIASM

EMPATHY

CREATIVITY

RESPECT

TOLERANCE

INDEPENDENCE

AUTONOMY

COMMITMENT

APPRECIATION

RESPONSIBILITY

COMMUNICATION

BALANCE

OPEN-MINDEDNESS

COOPERATION & COLLABORATION

(COMMUNITY SERVICE SPIRIT) (Not Competitiveness or outright competition)

CARING & SHARING 

SELF-DISCOVERY 

STIMULATING CRITICAL THOUGHT 

 being aware of the negative effects of FEAR

FOSTERING A POSITIVE OUTLOOK ON LIFE 

LIFELONG CROSSCURRICULAR LEARNING

The typical portfolio consists of a language passport, a language biography and a dossier.

The average scrapbook is a visual diary which captures your thoughts,your creativity and feelings and memories in a little book.

My school diaries are some sort of "silva rerum", a mixed chronicle of all the activities and projects carried out including:

 Our nine month journey  

Weekly timetable

Ephemera

Fun activities 

Stories 

All about Me (each individual student)

Projects  

Home reading record 

My language practice 

Different celebrations & Intercultural learning 

Extracurricular activities

We have to record as self-assessment:

What can I do well?

 What is still hard for me? 

What can I still work on? 

What will I do next? 

What did I learn? 

and our progress in the skills of:

Listening, Reading, Conversation, Speaking, Writing, Culture.