Portfolios mean something entirely different for teachers and students.

Portfolios are a teacher's way of emphasizing revision, and they are a student's way of fixing a bad grade.

Portfolios are really going to mean very little for me until I can figure out how to overcome this problem. No wonder my grades are so highóI let students fix their mistakes. Is this a problem? Do other professors allow for this?

Also this: I think the knowledge that they have a "second chance" keeps students from being as deliberate and careful as they ought to be. It's like nothing matters until the last week of the semester.

And this is, of course, just human nature. But it's probably incumbent upon me as a college professor to help people overcome human nature, even if it's just a little bit.