Portfolios In Childcare - Open Discussion

[Lorina]

Well thankfully the year is almost over and finally a weight has been lifted off my shoulders as all portfolios have finally been completed. As I go through each of the portfolios it brings me memories of the experiences that the children and I were involved in and the fun we had throughout the year. But it also saddens me because it did take so much of my time away from the children and I know that next year it’s going to start all over again. I’ve also noticed that there are many of you feeling this way and it’s kinda a relief in a way knowing that I’m not the only one who feels like this way. I guess we just have to try and make it easier on ourselves by managing our time better, using other staff to help, etc… I know that next year I will be putting up a time table on what needs to be completed each day in which child’s portfolio… I hate the structure that I now have to use but there is no other way, it’s just too hard otherwise… On a lighter note, holidays are nearing! :)

Cheers ,
L.A

[cathiek]

I agree LA. I have decided to make a timetable sort of thing where I will note how often to put things in portfolios etc so that I make sure there are things that are evenly spaced over the year and include all different things (not just art) I am hoping if I timetable it a bit more, it will seem like a little job over time rather than a rush all together. That is the plan anyway.......
I actually started hols today - but am already thinking what can I do for 2012 - how sad - need to get a life LOL
Cathiek

[grandma]

this has been a thorn in my side since starting family day care. I used to work in centre based pre school. Now that I work alone and have no assistant its really hard getting stuff together. I have 5 kids 5 days a week. this year I added group and child observations and learning stories as well as a couple of activities covering EYLF outcomes from child obs. a few pics of special occassions and some funny stories under heading of things I have heard. Most of this has to be done after hours using my jottings and a flip video and camera. I believe portfolios are not a requirement of early childhood.
grandma

[LindyT]

I totally agree with you Grandma portfolio are no longer needed.
I remind my FDC parents that the things I give them and email them are all part of their childs development and worth the read. A portfolio is just a rehash of what I already give out.

[grandma]

i just need to convince the FDC organisation I work under. I agree that we are doubleing up on what the parents get. I am definately condensing all my paper work this year some how. this is a great site with great resources and Im glad I found it.
Happy New Year

[LindyT]

I put my case to my co-ord unit with my 'evidence" and they agreed that what I was doing would indeed be double up and by me giving the info to the parents/caregivers immediately it was fostering a much more direct line of communication.

[kristyl74]

HI Everyone - I have a question if I could please get some ideas. I work in a 52 place oshc centre. We are in a community centre so we have to pack away and set up everyday / every session. Im thinking I will go in the way of portfolios. We are restricted to room we can share work and we are not allowed to hang stuff My question is what do you put on your portfolio cover page?? Just a photo of the child?? Is it like an "about me" type set up?? Any help or examples/samples would be greeeeeeeeeeatly appreciated xx

[Lorina]

Hey Kristy,

Yeah it almost feels like only yesterday that I finally completed the portfolios for the end of the year... Just started work yesterday and guess what portfolio's have started all over again ( LOL... Not a fan)... Anyways, at the beginning on the portfolio's we have an "All about Me" page. So, it's a coloured piece of paper with the centre's name on it and then it has a couple of questions such as At school I like to ______, I like to play with ________, I come to school on ________ etc. Then at the bottom it has a place to put a child's photo. There is also another page which has the child's handprints and some poem underneath it... Basically after these beginning pages we continue on with the rest of the stuff such as monthly obs, adding art n craft etc... That's what I add to the portfolio's at my centre (although I think it's way too much)!

Hopefully this gives you a bit of an idea,

Cheers ,
L.A

[Kaz]

I agree a lot of things/time is being taken away from the children, b/c we do have to get those ob's done and we do have to do some much more too...
I'd rather be at the play dough table spending time with the kids working on cutting skills and things like that, I like to take mental ob's and write them in my lunch. Sometimes I wish we cld have just 5mins at the end of each hour to get 1 or 2 ob's written down on paper.

[fchaudari76]

I think that there is too much emphasis on portfolios and it leads to staff in the room feeling like they HAVE to create something that is worthy of going in a portfolio. I am cutting out the placing of every random scribble in the portfolio and just sticking things in that actually show some kind of learning or development, sorry but to me just scribbles on a page show nothing to the parents and I am sure they have plenty of those artworks at home already without having them taking up space in a portfolio.
My artwork goes along with a learning story with a pic of the child creating that art (or craft) and clearly says what the child has learnt/achieved and parents can actually see this in the attached art or craft.
I do not have time to double up on things by sending art home and then having them do another for a porfolio, its a horrific waste of time and energy.

[daa]

At my centre this is how we work our portfolios out. We have display folders with plastic sleeves in them. we have divided them up into the five learning out comes so that we can keep track of how many obs we have covered in each outcome. We do 2 observations on every single child in each room every month. I am a Assistant Director and Preschool teacher who had 45 children in my room each week last year and i could do this.

Tips for making it faster and simpler:

* Let assistants help do learning stories
* All rooms have access to a laptop or computer which i belive should be compolsary
* * Make sure you are following up your obs on the spot eg A child cooking in home corner could be encouraged to go cook in the sandpit that afternoon. Don't leave them to be followed up till another day if you can help it so that you are not chasing up old obs to finish off
* Outcomes are on the computer so we can cut and paste them as we type them
* Each group leader has a folder that has a copy of all our observations which becomes the centre copy and as we print our daily obs we print a copy for the child's portfoilo and the centre copy folder.
* Do a variety of obs such as photo, checklists etc and put a paragraph on the bottom explaining the reason why it was done.
* Whilst you are in the room during the day spend time sitting with children and writting the ob at the same time or have the assistant write the ob whilst you carry out the activity or visa versa
* in Qld it is compolsary to have 2 hours a week covered programming time so if you don't have fight for it.

Learning stories,obs and portfoilos don't have to be complicated and fancy to comply with EYLF or parents. As long as they are consice and meaningful in all outcomes they will be fine. Centres are putting to much pressure on staff to do out of the world fancy programing but no department officer will give them extra bonus points for it and simpler programming can pass spot visits.

Hope this helps

[justathought]

Hi everyone,
I have just read the last couple of posts and Im glad to see some of you speaking up about how you guys find the portfolios and some of the daily paper work a bit too much and over the top.
I just want to personally say that if you guy's keep speaking up about how over the top all this work is someone will have to listen and children will one day again be nurtured and cared for like they are supposed to be, their people not programs.
Daa, if the things you posted are the requirements you are supposed to cover for the week, well all I can say is if you can do it go for it, nothing Im going to be doing in the near future, couldn't think of anything worse.
Dont forget guy's speak up someone has to listen, Children Services workers cant be ignored forever.
Enjoy your weekend.
Just a thought how many of you are doing paper/book work this week end or did you guys get your work done during your lunch breaks last week?

[daa]

it may sound like am doing alot but i am not really hard to explain wish i could show everyone. i still have lots of time to sit with children and participate in activities. you just have to really organised and share the work load with your other team member. i do agree though that alot of centres out there are foucing staff to do way more than they need to which is sad. i take very little if any work home with me. I am an Assistant Director so i am studying my Advanced Diploma so that is what i do at home.

[dnskmp]

No Justathought, you are not the only one feeling like this, I am too, and have been for months. I swear this will eventually be the end of my career as a family daycarer!

[fchaudari76]

I find that sharing the load can help a lot, encourage your assistants to contribute towards portfolios and parents too. Ive sent home My Weekend templates where the parents can share what they have done with their child over the weekend, which will be stuck in their books.
Sometimes a picture itself can show a lot, I have simple photos with headings I can... Tidy Up, Hop on one leg, etc in the portfolios as well.
The other day we were showing our children a green frog we found in our playground and one child held it so I snapped a photo and put it in his portfolio with a few lines under it.

I snap photos whenever I see the kids doing anything so I can actually do my obs off these sometimes + I have a good memory so I don't really need to not interact with the children in order to get my obs done etc and I find my 3 hours/week programming time means I can write up my obs and do all my programming & planning for the next week and my assistant uses her 2 hours/week to sort out portfolios and stick everything in so I am not spending 3 hours gluing things in a book!

Anyway yesterday morning one parent wrote in our communication book she looked through her childs portfolio and really was amazed by the various activities we do with the kids and the skills we are teaching them and she just wanted to thank us and she really appreciated the effort we were making.... Made my day, just wish more parents were appreciative, sick of being thought of as a glorified babysitter

[patty]

at my centre we do scrapbooks. everything i put into my scrapbokoks has meaning, nothing is just "stuck in" to make it seem full. I do magical moments, which is a way of capturing the little things that children do (read the book by belinda whately-she is amazing!!) i add photos to the magical moments, meaningful decorations, rarely artwork but yes sometimes if its directly connected to my magical moment/learning story. A way i use to cut down how much paperwork/research i have to do to get my magic moments done (atleast 1 per child per month), i do a big activity off my program each day, take lots of pictures and print off doubles of them. I write up a learning story in my daily journal with outcomes, onward adventures and the first lot of pictures, then say 9 kids partisipated in the activity, use the doubles to make 9 magical moments/observations out of it, just persoanlise it to the child you are doing it on (make sure you take notes throughout the activity about what they are each saying, how they are responding etc) and put it all in their magical moment/ob. saves alot of time and the parents love reading about their persoanl journey/adventure in the activity after reading the general group one!

[justathought]

My magical moments used to be at the end of the day, I would give the parents the photo I had taken that day of their child and tell them a brief story about it so they could take the photo home and talk to their children about it, I was always told the photo went on the fridge, Now that's in the moment isn't it.

[Angellhart]

WE do ours on the laptops.... its called daybook where we include about 3 learning stories, staff list, daily menu and todays story. We then transfer the learning stories into the appropriate childrens portfolios and elaborate on them during programming time off the floor which is covered by another staff member so no time with children is lost. These are burned to CD at the end of year for parents. Oh and the daybook gets completed while the children are sleeping. We send some artwork home during the year but keep a selection in a display folder to give with the CDs at the end of the year.

[kristyl74]

Surely these 100+ place oshc centres wouldnt do portfolios for each child?? Would they :/ I have just introduced a morning and afternoon scrapbook which I stick pictures in, children can write in it, might have the weather, what they ate for afternoon tea, the activities planned and spontaneous etc.. Just for parents to have a flick through at the sign in table if they choose to... I am at the moment looking into sending home a camera with a child, much like the "class mascot" that schools do. This could enable some conversation/relationship with families. Print the photos off and talk about them with maybe a little spiel and have like a "families" portfolio.. Just have to look more into it and then speak to the director.. Any thoughts on this???

[Lorina]

Hi Kristy,

I like the scrap book idea you are currently using and also getting the children involved by reflecting on what has happened during their time in OOSH. As an extension of this, maybe you can consider making a special scrapbook for each child at the centre that they can contribute to it. Since you're already taking photos and sticking them in.. You could add these to children's scrapbooks and ask them to write about them, they can stick in their own artwork, friends can write their own messages to one other in each other's scrapbooks , etc. Its like a journal belonging to each individual child and sharing what they have experienced and enjoyed doing at OOSH. A unique way for children to reflect on their experiences...

Having a "classroom mascot" is a great idea! Although I think you have to select an appropriate type of mascot to get the older children involved. I did this one year with my group of preschoolers and it was a great success. We had a teddy that will spend the weekend with a child. The child was given a camera and encouraged to take photos and write about what thy did with the teddy. When the child came to the centre, we would print off the photos and ask them to tell us what happened and talk about the photos. This went into an adventure book and was shared with the rest of the group! This experience could possibly suite the younger children but what about the older ones? I don't think the older boys would want to carry around a teddy to take photos of during their weekend... Maybe for the older classes, you could have a photo competition using a catchphrase or theme "Made for Champions" , "Things that make you go mmmm" and the children can submit their entries to receive a prize...You could also display these photos on the wall...

Just wanted to share a few ideas that I've come up with,

L.A