Before entering medicine, I had a naive understanding of the multitude of opportunities for involvement in education. I often viewed education as a traditional institution, with lectures, curricula, textbooks, and testing being the primary means of acquiring and asserting knowledge. Clearly, teaching and learning should not nor cannot be confined to these limits, and even within these limits, I have become increasingly aware of how to accommodate students with a variety of different learning styles and background.

Because of the vast expansion in avenues for teaching involvement that are not always reflected in traditional assessments of an educator's worth, I believe that is has become more important to reflect on one's teaching contributions, in all of their forms. While humility is a crucial attribute for both educator and physician to possess, the work of gifted teachers is often undervalued. Thus, the creation of portfolios/dossiers an important exercise in outlining the various "hats" that a medical educator may wear in the variety of settings where they interact with learners, to help others gain a fuller appreciation of the work that they do in the field of medical education.