Landing Pages

There are several reasons that directors and other leaders need to be aware of effective portfolio development strategies. You may have team members on your staff who are pursuing their CDA or other credential that requires them to compile a portfolio to document their experience.  Portfolios are also often used by accrediting agencies to validate that program practices align with accreditation criteria.  Because the process of creating a portfolio is such a valuable professional practice, it is recommended that every teacher and caregiver have one, even if it is not required by an outside agency.

As a leader of a child care program, you are an important resource for employees who are developing professional portfolios. The first thing you should do is ensure that your portfolio is neatly organized and up-to-date. 

Conduct research to find creative examples of how other people have presented their portfolios using online tools. Some of your employees may prefer to work online, while others will be more comfortable creating physical portfolios.

Plan a professional development event that focuses on how to collect portfolio evidence and organize items in a professional manner.  If this is not a strength of yours, utilize an outside training organization.  Provide time during staff meetings for portfolio sharing and feedback sessions. Perhaps the use of portfolio mentors or coaches would be appropriate in your setting.

Help employees recognize activities and situations that would be appropriate examples to use in their portfolios.  If a teacher has developed an excellent lesson plan, provide that feedback and encourage them to take photos of children engaged in the planned activities to add to their portfolio. 

Create a culture of self-reflection.  It is not a skill that comes naturally to everyone. Guide teachers to think back on their experiences and make connections to best practices. Help teachers think critically about their work, successes they have achieved, and opportunities to do things differently in the future. 

Consider providing the materials that teachers will need to compile all of their documentation. Physical portfolios are typically organized in binders or file boxes. Prezi and website development tools are great ways to organize information on a virtual platform. While many are easy to navigate, employees may need support getting accustomed to digital tools. Tell us how you support your employees as they create their own professional portfolios on our Facebook page here. 

For the main article Creating a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article Benefits of Developing a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article What Goes into a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article Organizing your Portfolio, CLICK HERE

When it comes to organization, people have different ideas about the right way to do it.  There is no one right way to organize the materials in your portfolio, but you should attempt to group similar items together so that they are easy to find. Reviewers should be able to flip through the portfolio and notice a flow to the order of the materials.

Consider a few of the following suggestions:

• Decide whether you want to create a physical portfolio or a digital portfolio using an online portfolio builder, Prezi, or even PowerPoint
• Gather the professional documentation, such as your resume and transcripts in one section
• Group training certificates together and put them in chronological order
• Place letters of reference, past performance evaluations, and parent survey materials together
• Organize the evidence of your work in the classroom in a different section of the portfolio
• Place evidence of leadership in a separate section
• Group any writing samples on one place so you can find them easily
• Include a reflection statement in each section that focuses on the contents of that section
• Protect contents with sheet protectors to maintain a professional image
• Use temporary labels to identify sections and criteria identifiers – this will help you customize your portfolio for multiple audiences
• Ask a colleague to review your portfolio and provide feedback on the contents and organization, including typos!
• Continue to add new evidence to your portfolio to ensure it remains up-to-date
• Every now and then, review your portfolio and determine if any pieces of evidence can be removed, perhaps because you have been able to collect a better example

Remember, a portfolio is more than a scrapbook of photos.  Each piece you include needs to be purposeful and tell a story about your experience. You don’t need to go overboard with decorations and embellishments.  Let your work speak for itself. 

For the main article Creating a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article Benefits of Developing a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article What Goes into a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner: Supporting Employees as they Create Professional Portfolios, CLICK HERE

Here is a list of some of the things you should collect for your portfolio:

• Resume
• Educational transcripts
• Training certificates
• Letters of reference
• Proof of credentials you’ve obtained
• Philosophy of teaching statement
• Images of classroom arrangements and other physical features of your learning environment
• Images of outdoor enhancements you’ve made on the playground
• Lesson plans or project plans your developed
• Images and descriptions of children engaged in lesson you’ve designed
• Documentation of children’s learning
• Examples of parent letters or newsletters you’ve written
• Summaries of parent surveys
• Past performance evaluations
• Description of any leadership responsibilities
• Awards or recognitions you’ve received
• A description of past and present committee involvement, highlighting leadership roles
• Descriptions of your volunteer work
• Goals or an outline of a 3-5 year plan
• Personal reflections on experiences and/or your progress toward your goals

Unless required by an outside agency, place copies of important documents in your portfolio. Keep your originals in a safe place whenever possible!   What other items have you incorporated into your professional portfolio? Tell us on our Facebook page.

For the main article Creating a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article Benefits of Developing a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article Organizing your Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner: Supporting Employees as they Create Professional Portfolios, CLICK HERE

The first and most evident benefit to creating a portfolio is the fact that it will help you illustrate your skills and abilities to future employers and other professionals in the field.  It is an excellent way to highlight your skills and show evidence of the experience you have acquired throughout your career.

More importantly, pulling together your portfolio provides you an opportunity to reflect on your experience, identify strong practices, and recognize opportunities for growth. Gathering evidence of your skills is an opportunity to think critically about how your experience compares to best practices in the field of ECE.  You also have a chance to reflect on what you have learned throughout your career and determine how you use new information in your professional practice. 

Here are a few additional benefits according to a 2017 post in Forbes Community Voice^TM entitled, Nine Advantages of Developing Your Own Professional Portfolio:

• Generates credibility
• Offers a reminder of your outstanding achievements
• Helps people visualize working with you
• Sets you apart from other candidates
• Gives you a chance to show creativity
• Shows consistency between what you say and what you do

For the main article Creating a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article What Goes into a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article Organizing your Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner: Supporting Employees as they Create Professional Portfolios, CLICK HERE

One of the ways that we assess young children’s learning is through the use of portfolios.  These are collections of work that we can analyze to identify current skills, tracking progress, and recognize areas of growth.  Children’s portfolios typically include a wide range of images, work samples, descriptions, and dictations that provide a clear picture of a child’s abilities.  It is a compilation of work that continues to grow as children move through the first years of their lives. 

A portfolio can serve a similar purpose for teachers, who often have to demonstrate their skills for accrediting and credentialing agencies. Portfolios can also come in handy as teachers pursue new career opportunities within the field. Creating a portfolio is an excellent way of providing a clear picture of your strengths and skills to other professionals in the field.

In this month’s newsletter, we will explore the benefits of creating a professional portfolio and strategies for organizing its contents in order to present the best picture of your professional experience.

For the article Benefits of Developing a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article What Goes into a Professional Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article Organizing your Portfolio, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner: Supporting Employees as they Create Professional Portfolios, CLICK HERE

How did you being your career in early childhood?

At the time I was a stay at home mom/nana to 3 sons and 5 granddaughters. I volunteered with my middle granddaughter Katlyn at Kentucky River Foothills Head Start. The next year my middle and next to youngest granddaughter Katlyn and Addison were both students. Some of the staff members (Ashley Robidoux my granddaughters’ teacher, Patricia Brummett the assistant teacher, and Ashley Overbay the center director among others) encouraged me to continue to volunteer and further my career. I had dropped out of school at sixteen and now was forty-five years old with nothing to stop me. My boys were grown two of which were married with children of their own. So, I decided to go back to school and try for my GED, in which I did in a record time of less than two weeks. I also received a scholarship for college. I then applied for a job at the same head start and was hired. So, around the beginning of September 2018 I started my CDA class and I had completed it around the end of December 2018. I also started college classes to get my teaching degree and I am currently in my second semester.

What program(s) have you participated in with CCEI?

CCEI Online Self-Study CDA
Diversity and Multiculturalism Certificate
Childcare Orientation Certificate

What is your favorite time of day to spend with the children?

My favorite time of day with the children is center time because we get to interact one on one, be silly, teach, learn, and engage in many different ways with them. This is great because no two children are the same and the more you know about each specific child the better understanding you will have for any needs that child may have and you can adjust your teaching for that child.

What is their favorite time of day/activity?

Favorite activity would be reading to the child and letting them use their imagination to join in and become part of the story.

What motivates you to work with children?

When I see those little faces light up when they write their name for the first time or to see how proud they are to show their moms and dads a picture they drew or colored. Knowing one day they will grow up to be something great, and I had a little something to do with their long-life journey.

What do you enjoy most about your job and educating young children?

Knowing that I have made a different in one child’s life each year and improved it in some small way makes it all worth it.

What do you do in your free time?

I am a full-time college student at Somerset Community College. Work full time at The Prep Academy of Laurel County, formally Kentucky River Foothills. I live with my husband of 29 years and my disabled son he has Cerebral Palsy and Charcot Marie Tooth Disease and my granddaughter. So I am a mom, wife, and nana 24/7.

Where do you see your career in the future?

I want to be a teacher in the Head Start or Kindergarten age group.

Do you plan on pursuing your education?

I would like to continue in my education and complete my Master’s if financially possible. Most of all I want to continue to work with children and teach them so that one day they can grow up and be anything they set their minds to. No obstacle is too big to overcome with encouragement and support.

Do you plan on receiving any further CCEI coursework or credentials?

I am currently working on credentials and I plan to continue to use CCEI soon. The CCEI program has been so beneficial to me during my journey and the support that I have received from the team has been overwhelming. It is so greatly appreciated that words can never explain.

Have you been awarded your CDA credential by the Council of Professional Recognition?

I am waiting for my paperwork/appointment to take my final exam hopefully within the next week or two I will be.

Would you recommend CCEI to anyone?

1000 times yes, I would recommend the CCEI program and as a matter of fact I have. The CCEI program has changed my life in so many ways and so many others. I would tell anyone and everyone I know to take advantage of all the things that CCEI has to offer. The people in this program are there to support, uplift, and encourage you to be everything you can be and even more. Guess what THEY DO IT!!!!!

What is your current city and state?

London, Kentucky

Are there any comments, recommendations, or testimonials you would like to share?

I would love to recommend CCEI to anyone who is considering going into any level of child care. The cost is very affordable. The support and the CCEI family are priceless. In closing, I will say if you’re like me and think at 45 your life has passed you by and it is too late to further your education, you are so wrong. Since I have started this journey from volunteering two years ago, my life has only improved and I am reaching for my goals one day at a time. Our life is what we make it, we write our own story and we determine the outcome.

Leading a program that promotes risk-taking requires a certain level of comfort with risk. If we want teachers to trust children’s capabilities and allow them to take on new risks in the classroom, we must model that by trusting our teachers to do the same.

Hold a team meeting to discuss risk in the learning environment. Talk with staff about how they define risk and their feelings about children engaging in risk-taking activities.

Identify safe risks that are present in the environment and ones that could be added. Implementing these learning opportunities also requires an understanding of what licensing regulations and quality initiative tools in your state say about risk-taking and big body play so you can work within those standards.

Collaborate with employees to create an environment that maintains adherence to licensing regulations and provides children opportunities to take on new challenges. It will also be important to have clear supervision guidelines for activities that involve risk.

Encourage staff to consider individual children’s comfort with risk, just as you work with individual teachers to increase the amount of risk they are comfortable with. Communicating the value of risk-taking to families can help them to accept the new activities you are implementing in the classrooms. It might even encourage them to promote some risk taking activities at home or at the local park as well.

For the main article Children and Risk, CLICK HERE

For the article Benefits of Risk Taking, CLICK HERE

For the article Encouraging Risk in the Classroom, CLICK HERE

For the article Big Body Play, CLICK HERE

Children often take risks with their bodies. They seek to understand the strengths and limitations of the vehicle they are using to move around the world. Encouraging physical risk-taking is something that many adults are uncomfortable with. We have been trained since the beginning of our careers to make sure children are safe and that they never get hurt. These are very important rules, but is there a way that children can explore their capabilities that involves minimal risk?

The answer is “Yes!” according to proponents of Big Body Play (BBP). Frances Carlson, author of the book Big Body Play: Why Boisterous, Vigorous, and Very Physical Play is Essential to Children’s Development and Learning, defines BBP as “the very physical, vigorous, boisterous, and sometimes bone-jarring play style many children love and crave.”

Examples include jumping, leaping, chasing, tumbling, rolling, spinning, swinging, bumping, crashing, tagging, tugging, pushing, and wrestling. These activities help children develop physical skills, strength, and coordination. Additionally, children practice language skills, listening to peers, and interpreting body language during BBP. These skills are used to ensure that the play remains play and does not transition into aggression. Children explore concepts of competition, fairness, and cooperation, each of which leads to better developed self-regulation skills.

To learn more, check out these resources:

• http://www.bigbodyplay.com/home.html         
• https://goalbookapp.com/toolkit/strategy/big-body-play
• https://www.naeyc.org/our-work/families/big-body-play

For the main article Children and Risk, CLICK HERE

For the article Benefits of Risk Taking, CLICK HERE

For the article Encouraging Risk in the Classroom, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner: Managing Risk, CLICK HERE

Before you can begin to incorporate risk-taking activities, it is important that you reflect on your own relationship with risk. You can take a few quiet moments to think about how you feel when risky situations, either personally or professionally, arise in your own life. What emotions arise when you see a child engaged in a risky activity?

Next, you will need to work to create a safe environment in which children can explore risks. Of course, through supervision and careful selection of materials, you can ensure safety, but in this case, we are talking about more than just physical safety.

Consider the level of emotional safety that exists in your learning environment. How safe do children feel to take chances? What messages do children receive when they make mistakes? Are children encouraged to try new things or are they shielded from challenges and possible frustrations?

Teachers should work to create a classroom culture where children feel comfortable reaching beyond their current skill-level. Mistakes should be seen as welcomed learning opportunities and children should be encouraged to bring their ideas to fruition, even if they don’t know how things will work out. Risk taking will look different for each child so it is important to observe children carefully in order to notice when they appear to be avoiding a particular challenge. When you notice this, you can attempt to support the child’s efforts through encouragement, modeling, scaffolding, or just simply by letting them know you are there if they need you.

For the main article Children and Risk, CLICK HERE

For the article Benefits of Risk Taking, CLICK HERE

For the article Big Body Play, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner: Managing Risk, CLICK HERE

Risk is part of everyday life – from infancy through adulthood. Effective risk management involves numerous skills that develop over time. In order to navigate risks effectively, children need to learn to assess risk, think about the risk critically, create solutions, implement them, and evaluate how their decisions worked out in the end.

In other words, learning to navigate risks requires the opportunity to encounter risks and work through them. Here are a few additional things that children learn or develop during risk-taking activities:

• Balance, physical strength, and coordination of movements
• Using materials appropriately and safely
• Self-regulation, patience, and impulse control
• Perseverance, determination, and resilience
• Collaboration and cooperation skills
• Bonding with peers
• Listening and respect for others
• Practice reading body language of others
• Creativity and ingenuity
• Problem solving and curiosity (What will happen if…?)
• Decision making
• Learning from mistakes – adjusting actions in the future
• Understanding of cause and effect
• Confidence, self–esteem, and belief in their abilities
• Recognize the limits of their capabilities
• Opportunities to push the limits of their capabilities

Were any of these skills on your list of things that you remember learning from your risk taking activities?

For the main article Children and Risk, CLICK HERE

For the article Encouraging Risk in the Classroom, CLICK HERE

For the article Big Body Play, CLICK HERE

For the article Director’s Corner: Managing Risk, CLICK HERE