Wednesday, October 26, 2011

For The Record

I am currently slowly but surely going through the assessment and accreditation process for this Group Daycare that I am loving operating in my home everyday. One of the standards that should in place is portfolio work of each child. A portofolio in a brief definition is work that the child has done in a chronological order so that you can use it to measure growth of the child. I have struggled with different ways of getting this done. So much of the childrens' work that they do they want to take home, and often times I forget to copy it before they leave for the day. Over the weekend I found a new blog Mrs.Wills Kindergarten. On her blog she talks about doing Math Journals with the children. I thought it was interesting, but I first was concerned with how developmentally appropiate it was at the preschool age. My first thought was you can't teach concepts by first presenting it in a worksheet!! After much research I finally think I have a basic understanding of math journaling. I decided to give it a try with using one of Mrs.Wills free math journal prompts avaliable on the site Teachers pay Teachers. I brainstormed a bit, I included the metal insets in the presentation of the lesson that the child was already familiar with, and it worked out to be a  fun activity for Andrew(4yrs old).





Andrew and others thought this was a very good work to do. Again they asked me if they could take it home :) Yes I do know this is actually language work. I am really stuck on this, maybe I am looking too deep into the whole thing. Anyone have any suggestions for me? I would really, really appreciate!!!
                                                   

5 comments:

  1. Could you use your photographs as evidence of work? I love photographic portfolios and you can photograph both pencil/paper work but also care of environment and all of those other areas that Montessori is so strong in.

    In some ways this blog IS a photographic portfolio, although obviously not divided by child. You might be surprised what you could do with photographs, an online album, and heck even printing books for children who graduate from your program or move on.

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  2. If you're already snapping pics of the kids why not just photograph their work or activity. Then later you can journal it with the image.

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  3. Thank you so much for the suggestions.
    Heidi- wonderful idea about printing the pictures to make a book. I am going to do just that.

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  4. I am new to your blog and have only a small understanding of Montessori Methods. I have been teaching PreK for many years. I find that at this age the boundaries between "subjects" is often blurred and work with numbers or math concepts often spills over into literacy work and into pretend play and into play dough. Maybe your portfolio will reflect some of that crossing of lines.

    I don't keep much for portfolios. I do keep a log of daily anecdotal records that include notes on all areas of development for each child. I have my clip board close at hand at all times so I can quickly jot down observations, conversations, responses, etc. I don't know that these notes are portfolio worthy, but they do help me keep track of growth over time.

    Thanks for taking the time to share your work and ideas. I love your blog!
    Mariah

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  5. Thank you Mariah! Yes great record keeping of observations would be portfolio worthy.

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