NMSU Early Childhood Portfolio Manual

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1 NMSU Early Childhood Portfolio Manual Dear Students, If you are pursuing a Bachelors or Masters degree leading to state licensure in Early Childhood Education (ECE), you will submit a portfolio to the NMSU Early Childhood Education Program Area as an exit criterion. This portfolio will provide evidence that you have met the state competencies for early childhood certification and will be evaluated by the ECE faculty. The portfolio is an ECED licensure requirement at NMSU and does not replace the MA exam or thesis. Right now it may seem, as one student said, like walking into a cloud, but students have said the only way to overcome that feeling is to get started compiling your portfolio. It is important to view the process as essential to your professional development. This short manual will clarify the portfolio requirement. It answers questions that students have been asking about the portfolios and the process of putting them together. Please raise questions that you have about the portfolios. Your questions and the answers they generate from faculty and students will help shape the evolving portfolio process. What is an ECED Portfolio? The portfolio is a set of documents that display your competency as an early childhood educator. The process of developing a portfolio is an opportunity for you to examine your preparation and experience with young children (birth through age 8) in relation to the State of New Mexico standards. All portfolios will address the six Common Core Competencies delineated by the New Mexico Office of Child Development, Children, Youth, and Families Department and the Public Education Department. These are: 1. Child Growth, Development and Learning 2. Health, Safety, and Nutrition 3. Families and Community Collaboration 4. Developmentally appropriate content 5. Learning environment and curriculum implementation 6. Assessment of Children and Evaluation of Programs 7. Professionalism You will find detailed descriptions of these competencies on the following website: NMAC Rule: This document is the licensure rule that lists all the teaching competencies that you will be responsible for knowing and documenting throughout the program. They are the same competencies that can be found on the syllabi for your courses. 1

2 Your portfolio will include your writing about each competency area and artifacts you collect and develop related to each. How Do I Know What to Address in my Portfolio? The competencies developed and approved by the State of New Mexico are your guide for topics to address in your portfolio. Under each competency is a list of indicators that give you an idea of what to address. Many of the indicators under the competencies are linked to other indicators. To streamline your portfolio and avoid repeating yourself, cross reference or list the competencies met by each piece to avoid repetition when core competencies seem repetitious. Some of the competency indicators may seem complex or difficult to understand. If you rewrite them, listing key words, they will be easier to work with. Consider phrasing each indicator as a question you can answer. What Should My Portfolio Look Like? Your portfolio can take one of two forms. You may develop a notebook or using hyper studio, for example, put the entire portfolio on disk. The format of your portfolio is up to you. Every student s portfolio will be different, expressing each person s individual approach to early childhood education. The portfolio should include your personal statement of philosophy of Early Childhood Education, which some students have termed a personal mission statement. This should be followed by a table of contents which will make the portfolio easy to use and understand. No matter what you decide to include and how you choose to display the contents of your portfolio, the following components should be included: Introduction to the Portfolio/Philosophy Statement/Personal Mission Statement Table of Contents Competency I: Child Growth, Development and Learning overview and artifacts Competency II: Health, Safety, and Nutrition overview and artifacts Competency III: Families and Community Collaboration overview and artifacts Competency IV VI: These three competency areas are now your completed Evidence of Student Learning Project (EOSL). Therefore this section of your portfolio covers o Developmentally appropriate content o Learning environment and curriculum implementation o Assessment of Children and Evaluation of Programs 2

3 and the EOSL is the artifact. What you must do, however, is integrate your understanding of the three competencies when you write your overview essay. In other words, the overview will guide the reader toward understanding how the EOSL project demonstrates your knowledge and skill in all three competency areas. Competency VII: Professionalism overview and artifacts Conclusion Remaining questions and future goals Appendix What Should be in Each Section of the Portfolio? Overviews. An overview statement that is a full discussion of the competency should introduce each competency. The overview summarizes what you understand about that competency and explains the artifacts that support that competency. It links the competency under discussion to your experiences learning about ECED and the demonstrations of that experience, which are your artifacts. Each time a specific competency is addressed, we recommend showing that by putting the number in parentheses, for example (II.e). As you write a summary or introduction for each section of your portfolio think about how this written piece will make your portfolio easier to present. Revise these summaries as you take additional coursework and do more readings in each competency area. Artifacts. An artifact can be a drawing, a list, a chart, an exam or paper written for a course, field observations from a journal, children s work with an explanation you have written, or an essay anything you generate yourself. Most students used course or field placement assignments as artifacts. Artifacts should: represent your learning; come from your personal experience; document what it took for you to know about this competency; recall the ahas you ve had on this subject; make you come to life as a teacher of young children; and be generated by you as opposed to handouts or articles written by others. The artifacts will need some explanation, in the form of captions or short paragraphs. If your artifacts are your course papers, you may want to excerpt and summarize instead of including entire articles or papers to avoid bulk and demonstrate your selection and analysis. Your portfolio, through the artifacts and introductory statements about each competency, should demonstrate your awareness of the key theories and of the role of theory, rather than recapitulate everything you learned in a class. 3

4 If you include photographs or videotapes of children in your portfolio, you will elicit consent from the parent or guardian (Family Educational and Privacy Rights, U.S. Code: Title 20, Section 1232g). The signed consent forms must be included in an appendix to your portfolio. Please enclose the signed consent forms in an envelope. The consent form is attached (English and Spanish versions) so that you may make multiple copies as you progress through the program. When Will I Begin My Portfolio? The portfolio construction is a developmental process introduced in ECED 115 Child Growth and Development. Other courses will offer assignments that will help you build a section of your portfolio; ECED 125 Health, Safety and Nutrition, ECED 135 Family and Community Collaboration, ECED 255 Assessment of Children and Evaluation of Programs, and ECED 245 Professionalism. In addition, most of the ECED classes and field experiences you take will have something to contribute to the portfolio. You may also include ideas gleaned from conferences at which you were either a presenter or attendee. Everyone will develop her or his portfolio in a way that suits the individual. Some people have begun collecting many materials. It makes sense to begin sorting papers, articles, drawings, and other materials according to the six core competencies. Now is the time to begin developing summaries of articles or lists of resources. Writing them a bit at a time is much easier than doing them all at once. When must a Portfolio be Completed? Finish your portfolio early enough to share the completed work with peers during student teaching before you present it to a faculty committee. Student feedback will be helpful. This means completing all drafts by October or March of the semester you are student teaching. Then you will have at least a month to revise before presenting the final portfolio. Portfolios will be presented at the end of November or April. A committee comprised of faculty and community members will review the portfolio together, talking about your work in the program, and your effectiveness at showing how you have met the competencies. Our discussions are lively and interesting we learn a lot about you as well as the program through your reflections. Who is my Audience for the Portfolio? The portfolio should be a useful document to the student who is developing it you. In addition, it should be something you can show a prospective employer. At NMSU it will be examined by other students, by faculty members, and by at least one representative from the broader early childhood community. Since there is a varied audience, it is probably best to make your portfolio as meaningful to you as you can. 4

5 How will Portfolios be Evaluated? The portfolio will be available to faculty for review for one week near the end of the semester. Portfolios are given a brief narrative report and an evaluation of outstanding, satisfactory or unacceptable. Portfolios judged as unacceptable must be revised and resubmitted within 2 weeks. A portfolio that does not result in a satisfactory evaluation will affect your final grade in the student teacher seminar. Portfolios that have been developed with the available supports from faculty and peers should not result in a judgment of unacceptable. What Happens to the Portfolios? During the semester of your graduation from NMSU you will submit your portfolio to a group of faculty members and peers. It will be returned to you before graduation. You will keep your portfolio as documentation of your work at NMSU. Students use their completed portfolio as visual support toward securing an early childhood teaching position. 5

6 Dear Parent or Guardian: This is a request to take photographs, audio or videotapes of your child at (school or center) for inclusion in s (name of NMSU student) professional teaching portfolio. The purpose of the photographs and videotapes is to demonstrate to the university the student s ability to work successfully with children. Below is the consent form. A signed consent form will enable the early childhood teacher candidate to include photos of your child in preparing his/her portfolio. The NMSU student may also use the portfolio when seeking employment after graduation. If you have any questions, please contact me at Sincerely, Dr Betsy Cahill, Director Early Childhood Teacher Education Program Department of Curriculum and Instruction New Mexico State University I give permission for, a New Mexico State University Early Childhood teacher candidate, permission to use photos/audio or videos of my child in his/her Early Childhood Teaching Portfolio. I understand that this portfolio is used by the student to demonstrate competency toward teacher certification. In addition, I am aware that the NMSU student may also use the portfolio when seeking employment after graduation. 6

7 Parent/Guardian Signature Date Estimados Padres: Este aviso se envia para tener permiso de tomar fotografias or videos de su niño(a) en su centros o escuelas. Las fotografias o videos se usarán como parte del portafolio profesional de enseñanza del estudiante (nombre del estudiante) de la Universidad Estatal de Nuevo Mexico. El objetivo de estas fotografias y videos es para demostrar a la Universidad la abilidad de los estudiantes para trabajar con los niños(as) con éxito. Su firma en la forma de consentimiento indica que la maestra estudiante de educación de niñez temprana puede incluir estos photos o videos como parte de su portafolio professional. La/el maestra/o de la Unidersidad Estatal de Nuevo Mexico podrá usar su portfolio professional no solamenta para cumplir con los requisitos de su trabajo universitario sino tambien para cuando el/ella busque empleo (despues de su graudación) el cual requerira que se presente su portafolio professional. Si usted. tiene cualquier pregunta favor de llamarme al numero Atentamente, Dr. Betsy Cahill, Director Early Childhood Teacher Education Program 7

8 Department of Curriculum and Instruction New Mexico State University Forma de Consento Por este conducto doy permiso a,candidato(a) a maestro(a) de educación temprana de la Universidad Estatl de Nuevo Mexico, las fotografias y/o videos de mi niño(a)en su potafolio professional de enseñanza temprana. Yo sé que este portafolio por el estudiante se usara para demostrar competencia hacia la certificación del maestro(a). Ademas, estoy conciente de que el/la estudiante para maestro(a) podría también usar ese portafolio cuando ella busque empleo despues de su graduación. Firma del Padre Fecha. 8