The Caterpillar and The Spider

Today my gardening colleague and I took a few of our 'left over' children into our car-parking area (its fully gated and locked with only our two cars - don't panic!).
 
We were pruning our Geraniums and our African Daisy and our Hibiscus and whatever else we happened to have ...
 

We found a teeny tiny caterpillar!

 

 

And we also found a St. Andrew's Cross Spider but the photo wasnt the best and then my colleague accidentally pruned where the web was! We will go back and look to see if she builds again.

 

My student said to me "We found two natures" ... and we did ... the caterpillar and the spider.

 

I love, LOVE, gardening with children. I love helping to connect them with nature and life. And this afternoon was truly special. Watching Miss Five and her sister Miss Two using scissors to prune - snip at leaves in helping us ... discovering little creatures, admiring the flowers, learning about their names Echivera, African Daisy, Geranium etc ...

 

 
I loved watching Miss Two concentrate so much on snipping the leaves. While it wasn't the best outcome for the hibiscus - I was pruning it anyway! - she concentrated so hard! She was so proud of herself as she asked me to look at her work! She was developing her fine motor skills, her concentration, her hand eye coordination ... she was learning to care for plants and "give them a haircut" so that they will grow stronger, greener, healthier ...
 

 

I loved watching Miss Five pick flowers for Miss Apprehensive who didn't want to garden, but loved sitting on the safe sidelines where she could collect and guard the flower collection. She could pick the African Daisies off the plants we'd pulled up ... Miss Five was supporting Miss Apprehensive's choice to sit to the side. Miss Five was showing she has strong empathy for her younger peers, a skill she's developed as a big sister and a member of a strong cultural family.

 

 

Where to next? Well, I'm thinking we'll bring a few out in small groups to do some observational drawings of the plants we have. I'm also pondering letting them use our camera to take some photos. As we only have one camera for now - we have to guard it well!
 
We don't have many plants in our playground - but we do have a garden area which we have started working on. We are adding organic matter to the soil to prepare it for planting - its just too dry and won't hold moisture. We've got grand plans!
 
We are going to use some of the Geranium cuttings to grow new plants which the children can take home themselves and care for should they choose. This way we can share with the children how we can grow some plants from cuttings, some from leaves, some from seeds etc.
 
I'm going to strongly encourage the staff to take the children to our garden area more often ... It's been sadly neglected and once our line is fixed, we can hang out our laundry, start our compost, develop more garden beds etc ...
 
All on our journey to being more sustainable! I would love to see this be a daily occurrence!
 

 
This my friends is the EYLF in action ... it's relationships, it's community, it's purposeful activity, its learning through doing, spontaneous actions, caring for nature, plants, animals, creatures ... its part of being a team with adults and children ...

I had such a good afternoon. I just feel at peace with myself and the world, and I wonder if the children are at home feeling the same glow? They certainly seemed to have a glow about them as we worked.
 

© Teacher’s Ink. 2012  All Rights Reserved

 
 

Portfolio Ponderings ...

I was flipping through some portfolios at a service I was working in and I made some observations:

Firstly, the portfolios looked the same. There were a few differences, but for the most part, they were copies of group observations all put into the children’s individual books. And by differences I mean, there might have been one or two entries that I could see that were individual – and they were something that the family did, not the services. The other aspects that I noticed were individual were the art works – but they themselves were novelty art (splatter painting etc) which are fun, but really not, in my opinion, a truly artistic practice.  There were no detailed paintings like what my old kids used to create, as the children only had those short fat brushes with only 2 or 3 colour choices.

I read parts of a few of the observations, but they were describing what all the children had done, and there was little or no focus on the individual. I remember years ago working at a service and that was one of the criticisms of some of the educator’s portfolios – little focus on the child/ren, more focus on the larger group or the experience. I believe in a happy medium.

I didn’t bother reading what was written because it was just a narrative. I didn’t even see the educational point of the observation in the first place. Don’t get me wrong, the staff put a great deal of energy and thought into what they were writing, I just didn’t enjoy reading it.

The photos were not very inspiring either – they were photocopies of a print out or the child from a distance. I think that the photos should be really thoughtful – there should be intent behind the image chosen and the child should feature, or the child’s work.  Also, there were so many different boarders themed to whatever the observation was about. It was so visually busy and really detracted from the work of the children.

I know I’m being critical. I’m not questioning their motives or their dedication, merely their focus. It’s easy to make judgements as an outsider, I know this. But I like reflecting upon my own work, as well as others as it encourages me to think and be creative and evolve as a professional. I have also seen some awesome things that have made me feel at a professional loss! I’ve seen some wonderful observations! But this experience of sitting down with the has really led me to think about what I am going to be including in portfolios in the future. I see value in some old practices that I was pushed into doing at a previous service. I can utilise these ideas and weave in more of the EYLF into them...

What do parents and children want to see in the portfolios? The children and their engagement and their relationships!

The children should be a prominent feature in their own portfolio/journal/learning story ...

T.ink

(c) Teacher's Ink. 2012

The Day Book ~ My Style Explained V.1

I am titling this as "Day Book ~ My Style Explained V.1" because it's simply just that ... It's very general and I've written it using generic and nonsensical terms. I'm going to reflect more on this and either provide some different samples or some guiding questions. I have also done a few different things over the years, so I will create some mock-ups of those and post them in the near (or not so distant) future and title them V.2 and V.3 etc. If you notice, I have placed numbers in the sections. The numbers are used as reference points to explain my thinking behind those sections below the image.

1.   The Title ... You can say what you want here ... I used to say “Monday’s Story” or whatever day of the week it was ... You can have it focused on one aspect of your learning environment – you can use the terminology that you are familiar with for example I might have used “The Creative Child” (DOCS, 2005) and written about our experiences in collage or perhaps the buildings that were created in block area using stones, branches and pieces of fabric. The title can be simple, or it can be a headline designed to grab peoples’ attention!

2.   These are the =main= events ... it is not EVERYTHING that was engaged with on the day. This is just what was really important or where the most learning was observed by the educators ... It might not be the most important leaning that occurred – but you don’t have eyes and ears all over your head so you can’t see and hear everything that happens everywhere all day long.

3.    I don’t like being tied to a future idea ... or curriculum decision so I use “POSSIBLE future directions” ... Its just the ideas at the time of writing the day book entry ... overnight my ideas may change, indeed while driving to work the ideas may change – or the children may come up with their own ideas or in fact they may not want to move from the place of learning they were at yesterday. I think we get so carried away with: What are we going to plan next? When it is perfectly valid to just experience NOW! Notice that I used terms like: more, less, repeat, extend and then something new. Again, these are only ideas of where the possibilities might be. They are not set in stone!

4.   This is where I write about the main events in more detail. You can relate them to the EYLF (DEEWR, 2009) and the concepts held within the learning outcomes or any other aspect of the EYLF you’d like to refer to. You can paraphrase or you can quote directly. It’s up to you. There is no particular prescription about how this should look. What you do need to be talking about and reflecting up on is children’s learning – not so much the  specific outcomes, but the processes. I like writing this as a narrative because it means that its a story, its personal, its reflective, you are speaking to your audience and sharing your thoughts, but you are also able to refer to the past, present and future in your expression. And that is "linking" and making connections within your curriculum. Remember curriculum is:

"Curriculum encompasses all the interactions, experiences, routines and events, planned and unplanned, that occur in an environment designed to foster children’s learning and development" DEEWR, 2009 pp. 9).

5.   This is where there is a space for families to write a comment to the children or the service. They can share ideas or what they are thinking about what the children are doing. I would strongly encourage you to ask families to share their voice in the day book. I remember one mother’s comment about rainbows which to this day, touches me. She was one of the main parents to read the day book and be involved. Imagine how her child felt, knowing that her mother took such a strong interest in her school.

If you have any questions or comments, please post them here or email them to me! I'd love to hear from you: teachersink [at] gmail dot com

T.Ink

You're Programming Wrong!

“You’re doing it wrong” is what they were told about their programming ...

So who is telling them that they are doing it wrong? Well, it wasn’t the previous manager who has 15+ years experience working in children’s services. It wasn’t the “validator” who assessed the service last year and found them to be a service delivering high quality care and education (who liked the system and methods).

It’s the new manager. This is her first job as a manager. She is also young and hasn’t had her degree for very long, nor has she got a great deal of experience in a variety of services. I think they were desperate to hire someone consistent. It certainly doesn’t look good when you can’t find staff for your service. Out of everything she could have done to improve the team, the service, support the transition to the NQS, she chooses to attack the programming and planning and declare that its “wrong”? Really? Is that the best way of managing? Um, no, it’s not. The methods that she has suggested were also bulky, cumbersome, time consuming, not presented professionally and is just going to encourage people to return to scribbling decorations on a blank page to fill the empty spaces because they can’t think of anything substantial to write. If educators can’t fill one page of a daybook with reflections, how are they going to fill double or triple the space? I know that she’s simply getting them to work the way that she is used to, but it’s not about her.

The programming that a service does should be created by the team for that particular service – what works for them? What physical resources do they have available to them? (slide shows on photo frames or computer screens? Printers? Computers? Photocopiers? Time to write?) What is their philosophy? How is that reflected in the interactions with children? How does all this relate to the EYLF? That programming that a service does should not come from ONE person whoever that person is!

What’s wrong with this line: “You’re doing it wrong?”  ... That’s not great management. It’s insensitive and passing judgement upon others. Even if they were doing it wrong, you don’t put it to them like that! You work WITH them as a team and brainstorm ideas – that’s reflection. That ‘reflection’ sits within the EYLF and is what we are required to do. But to tell someone that they are doing it wrong? That’s wrong.

One of my previous interview questions related to this ... and my answer was – I tend to be quite reflective and have lots of ideas. I’m however not going to walk into a new space and start changing things just because I have a new idea. I don’t know what happened before in this space – I don’t know the history of the room or program. I need to work with the team and the children and in consultation make changes. Yes, there are changes that MUST be made at times, but there are also changes that can occur over time. So, yes, you get what you want as a professional, but you do it in a way that everyone comes on board with you, and together you create change. In the meantime, I’ll just write my ideas down and wait for a good time!

You certainly don’t tell people they’re doing it wrong. People will be invested in their way of “doing it” and if you tell them it’s wrong – well you are going to put noses out of joint and upset people. Not a smart move.

I'd also like to add, that from what I've seen on  visits to quality services, at previous work places, and on the internet about how different people are programming - there are so many different ways it can be done, and as long as you can show an understanding of what your system is, and it meets the requirements - then you are doing it right. You are doing it right for you!

End of rant.

Stepping off soap box.

T.ink

About Teacher’s Ink.

I am an Early Childhood Teacher who also has a TAFE College (Technical and Further Education) Diploma in child care and education. I have been working in formal children’s services for 12 years. I have been caring for children since I was 12 when I began babysitting regularly for the neighbourhood infants! Times have changed a great deal since then, and I’m not sure how many people would hire 12 year olds to care for 9 month olds these days. But that, nonetheless is my start in caring for children. I began work as a nanny when I left high school, and those children are now adults and the same age as some of my dearest friends! Funny how these things work!

I just continued on this path of caring for children. My interest grew and grew as did my desire to further my education. At this point in time, I’m more interested in learning through collaboration, specialist courses on subjects of my interest, and research and reading.

My work experience:

· as a short term contract assistant in a family run private long day care centre (it was feral)

· an assistant coordinator of a before and after school care (BASC) program and vacation care programs

· acting coordinator of BASC

· as a casual team leader for long day care centres through multiple agencies,

· as a team leader in a nursery with 15 children aged 6weeks to 2 years,

· as a team leader in toddler room with ratios both 1:8 (16 children) and 1:6 (12 children)

· as team leader in a 30 place preschool room with children aged 2-5s

Introduction to Teacher's Ink Portfolios

This is not a “How To” publication. This is more of a “How I Did It” publication... I’m hoping to be an encouragement to other practitioners so that they feel inspired to share their practices with others. It is so important that we network and learn from each other.  This publication has evolved from my role as mentor and leader. I have been mentoring a series of my work colleagues who hold both diplomas and certificates in child care and education. I have also been supporting past colleagues who have since moved on to other places of employment but who maintain friendships with me. You can’t help but talk about your profession and career can you?

I have asked my fellow professionals if they have had any success searching on the internet and they’ve said no.  I have searched on the internet under many topics and still come up with sparse results on portfolios. As I am writing this, I have been unable to source a great deal that is relevant to the early childhood context in Australia.

Sure, there are plenty of books, publications, chapters in books etc. and there is even less content that is detailed and accessible on the internet. The more I look, the more I see very culturally exclusive or image heavy flashy websites and books that make amazing promises about their special curriculum product or assessment tool which is the only one that will truly prepare your children for school and for life. Get lost. There is no “one” way of doing anything.

I don’t have all the answers and I shouldn’t. I only have some of the answers that are right for me at this point in time, and they might be right for you too. If not, take them and improve upon them or change them and do something different that works for you in your context. I am simply sharing my style, experience, and philosophy of the portfolio.  The more I engage with my current work colleagues and friends, the more I see a need for something. Now my style of “something” won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, and that is perfectly ok. If I can reach some of the many educators out there, I will be happy. If someone looks at my efforts and thinks they are capable of different or more or better and they are the motivated to then share their brilliance, then I’m a happy educator.

My Personal Journey With Portfolios ...

I didn’t understand portfolios at first. I really didn’t understand what they meant or how to work on them. Five years out of university, and I get it. I’m always reflecting upon my practice as well as trying to improve upon my understanding and technique. I still find this really challenging. It’s hard! Asking questions and finding out what it is that is really behind children’s interests and learning and such. Sometimes the children just like dinosaurs or rainbows and its ok not to beat it to death by trying to understand “why”. I like rainbows because they are beautiful and colourful and bright. I think they are magical and they make me feel good and I am amazed when I see them in the sky. It really ruins it for me if someone says “It’s just light refracting off a raindrop” ... Seriously, I just think it is magic and I don’t care about the mechanics of the trick of nature. 

First Time With Portfolios ... Preschool

 I had a contract position at a work based long day care centre which really had a long history with portfolios and documentation. They did amazing work and the educators there really knew their stuff. It didn’t matter if they were an ECT or a Diploma or an Assistant ... they had focus children and they did the work. The staff were mentored by the ECTs as well as the very hands-on director and they worked together in this way to create relevant portfolios for the children in their care.

I had seven portfolios and the children were going to school at the end of the year. I remember being really overwhelmed by the task. I am not sure how relevant my work actually was, but I am sure if I was lagging behind, I would have been supported and guided in the direction they wanted me to go. We also all shared a computer in the staff room ... There were I think 8 or 9 staff who maintained portfolios and shared one desk and one computer in the staff room, occasionally the administrators computer and there were a couple of computers in the rooms to maintain the daily reflective journals.

I can’t remember how much portfolio time I had, but I think it might have been an hour and a half every fortnight or something along those lines. My colleagues put in so much effort and time on their books ~ including working on the weekends. I did some work at home as I was under so much pressure I felt for maintaining the books at a certain standard. I honestly don’t know if I did that ... I think I might have been a bit out of my depth at the time. I know that it was all in my own head.

It was the first time I had ever done anything like that and I felt that there was so much pressure because everyone else had had so much practice!  I remember that some of the educators took their books home each weekend and worked on them for hours.  I understand that portfolios are a valuable tool, but I think it’s too easy to get obsessed and too involved. It’s important to maintain balance and have a life!

So that was my first ever time with portfolios ... Other than that, I don’t remember much! I thankfully had the foresight to take photos of some of my work so I could remember where I came from in my professional journal!

Round Two: Toddler Room Team Leader

When I started at this job, I had 24 focus children or the like and these giant cumbersome art portfolios that were A3 sized and totally unrealistic. The idea I think was that these books could be used for the child’s whole possible 5 years in care. I don’t understand the point of that though ... they were horrible.  To get this job, I totally B.S.ed my way from 7 portfolios to 24 ... or maybe they just had confidence in my abilities!?

The type of work that they did in those books was based upon group developmental goals.  I don’t believe that their style reflected a picture of the child as a whole person. I didn’t feel that they represented the child’s development within the relevant social context either. They would put a sticker with a developmental domain printed on it, such as “Cognitive Development” and then they would have little strips of observation with a little photo and then the child’s name underlined so they could keep track of which observations with multiple names went in which portfolios. There were reference numbers which linked the observations to the national accreditation scheme quality indicators. There were drawings and paintings and summaries. That pretty much summed it up for those books. What was the purpose of even having that information in the book? If a child left the centre, the few pages that were done on that child were then ripped out and handed over. That system really made no sense to me.

I remember feeling overwhelmed, submissive and unsure of myself ... I am lightyears away from that person ... but it’s all part of the journey isn’t it?

Other than that, I don’t remember what went in them. I also don’t even remember what their day books looked like. I think they may have been handwritten without images or even written in exercise books. They had a photo slideshow of the day on display in the hallway. I do remember doing things differently. I purchased an art diary for the daybook and I know I used photos to illustrate what occurred in the day. I remember that I was asked to reference everything to the NCAC QIAS indicators which was a huge pain in the ... a pain in the proverbial.

I learned how to manage 24 or so portfolios without any professional support from a stable (as in both consistent and mentally competent) director and without any real idea of what I was doing. I learned some strategies to deal without having much programming time ... I was supposed to get an hour a week, but that often didn’t happen, and we never had any relief for it anyway.

Round Three: Toddler Room Team Leader

The most growth I experienced in regards to portfolios happened in this job. This job ended up being the job from hell, but I learned a great deal and there were amazing supports in place. I also formed a really good relationship with the other ECT room leader and together we forged the portfolio frontier at this particular service.

I worked in a long day care service in a toddler’s room with 13 children aged 2-3 years old with a certificate III trained assistant. My team partner was not comfortable with managing portfolios, so the task of looking after the content of about 32 books fell to me. She did in time though develop excellent skills in helping me file the content and put them into the books. It was invaluable support.

I had 30 minutes of programming time per child per month and then a further hour per week for program reflections. It worked out to be about 3 hours one week and 5 hours the next based upon my shifts (early shift = 7am start and late shift = 10am start).

In subsequent drafts of this publication, I wrote a pretty scathing description of the portfolios. Since I have started writing this book, I have come to realise that some people do their best and others don’t care. There is no reason to pass judgement on their work. This publication is not about their work. It’s about my work and my thinking and my learning and growth. So having said that, I grew professionally because I was able to critique their work and improve upon it. I will simply say that much of their work was handwritten with photos that didn’t necessarily match up with the written work. There was no linking to development or any curriculum framework. There were a great many gaps in their work in my opinion.

We used A4 art diaries and we had to paste the content into the books. It meant we had to cut all A4 sized papers down with a margin so that they would fit into the books. It was quite time consuming and with 32 books to maintain, it was ALOT of time during sleep time and other quiet times during the day putting content into books.  This cutting and sticking, was a colossal waste of time and natural resources.

Each page of paper in an art book, had another page stuck to it. One page of content would consist of: slice, slice, slice, slice, pull double sided sticky tape and rip, then stick, rip, stick rip, stick rip, stick rip. Peel backing, peel backing, peel backing, peel backing. Then line up page and stick down. All this work for ONE single observation.

So, if you had five entries over a month: (1) slice, slice, slice, slice, pull double sided and rip, then stick, rip, stick rip, stick rip, stick rip. Peel backing, peel backing, peel backing, peel backing. (2) slice, slice, slice, slice, pull double sided and rip, then stick, rip, stick rip, stick rip, stick rip. Peel backing, peel backing, peel backing, peel backing. (3) slice, slice, slice, slice, pull double sided and rip, then stick, rip, stick rip, stick rip, stick rip. Peel backing, peel backing, peel backing, peel backing. (4) slice, slice, slice, slice, pull double sided and rip, then stick, rip, stick rip, stick rip, stick rip. Peel backing, peel backing, peel backing, peel backing.  (5) slice, slice, slice, slice, pull double sided and rip, then stick, rip, stick rip, stick rip, stick rip. Peel backing, peel backing, peel backing, peel backing. That is in one book ... Image that for 32 children who had a range of two to seven entries per month. I don’t know how I made it through all that work on top of the actual creation of the observations and collections of artefacts!

It was at this time that I became really passionate about working with portfolios and when I wanted to work on a book with my colleague. Suffice it to say, I’m now doing this on my own, but ideas sprang from shared discussions and research. If we had written a book at this time, it would look totally different to the one I am now working on. My understanding, experience, skills, philosophy have changed so much in the past 2 years, as they will in the next 2 years I would imagine! Carpe Diem though ...

Round Four: First Year as Toddler & Preschool Room Team Leader

In my next context, I worked with roughly 45 children (30 per day) aged 2-5years old with a team of four including myself. It is a long day care service and it is called the preschool room. I started to work with an almost Diploma and two assistants. My team and the groupings of children have changed so much over the course of 18 month that I am not even going to go into them all. There were 12 changes. TWELVE. I’m the ONE consistent adult in the room. It’s actually quite frustrating, why plan on something, when in a month’s time it will be obsolete or changed. At the moment I have a qualified partner and two assistants with 26 children aged 2-5 years old. I design the program and implement it with their help and support.

I get 2 hours a week programming which is often interrupted and I find it difficult getting into the groove of it all. I also did alot of work in the room alongside my children or when they are asleep or when things are quiet. I only coped with this role because of the skills I learned in my previous two jobs ~ especially the latter. I have learned that challenge leads to growth and innovation.

Round Four: Second Year as Toddler & Preschool Room Team Leader

I have had to rethink how I engage with portfolios this year. I have engaged in a great deal of reflection at home, while at the shops, even while having coffee, in the shower or making dinner.

In my previous experience, portfolios have been these open ended creations individual to the child, the service and the educator. I think that can be quiet dangerous. In my experience of the past few years, the children who come full time, or who are more extroverted, or who spend the most time with their educators are the ones who get the most content in their portfolios. The children who are more timid and shy, more independent of their educators or who simply have more quiet personalities or just don’t “take” to the whole early childhood service experience are the ones who miss out. So what do we do to try and even out the playing field? 

The answer I came up with was to create sort of format to use. This would mean:

· that all the staff, regardless of their experience or education, would know what the portfolios was expected to look like.

· each child would have a more consistent and even portfolio

· there would be balance within the content of the portfolio.

· that when portfolios are transferred with the children to another educator, then the educator can easily continue with that child’s progress.

· It is easier for educators to ask for help and support. 

I am the one who hates to be told what to do and how to do it. I do not like following “focus child systems” where you have to observe Samara on Monday, and Olivia on Tuesday and Aiden on Wednesday. I do not operate like that. I know that others do, and they thrive on it, but that is simply not me.

The Australian government has put out a national learning framework for the early childhood years which is to be implemented nationally.  This will of course change the way that many practitioners operate. I know that not all centres use portfolios for the children attending their service. I also know that many services also use a portfolio of artwork and photos and maintain separate developmental information on each child. That is just so much work in that. What if you could streamline things? What if you could have everything in the one place? Wouldn’t that make more sense? Well, I think it does.

I have found that I was somewhat frustrated at times because I have only set aside a certain amount of space for individual observations. As a result, my prolific children who are getting ready to go off to school, are doing more work than I have space for, and I’m strongly driven to document their efforts and creations. These books are all about them after all. So, as a result, I am slightly altering the format for those children. I am giving them more space, and allowing them more opportunity to construct their own books.  I have still set a “minimum” for the portfolios, but I’ve relaxed the structure and come to a happy medium. I am pleased with where this is heading.

Personal Philosophy of The Portfolio ...

I’ve been doing lots of research on children’s developmental portfolios ... I’ve been doing it for years and years actually. I don’t remember what was discussed at university at all ... so even if it were, it obviously didn’t make much of an impression.  What I have read about portfolios places such a huge emphasis on “assessment” and “development” and what the child can or cannot do. How much of that is really important? Yes, a child should be confident in achieving certain milestones at little school, but how much of that is really truly important? We all develop in our own ways, in our own time. We all get there in the end.

So how do I view portfolios today? I love them. I resent them at times to be honest, but for the most part, I greatly enjoy creating them and working on them with the children and sharing them with the families. I love it when the parents tell me how much they love the portfolios and how much they have enjoyed looking at them with their children and families. I appreciate the feedback about the learning that the children are taking home.

So what do I think of when I am putting together a portfolio?

·    Does this make a good story? Does this story share an aspect of the child’s unique personality? Has the child learned someone wonderful about the world? Or themselves? Does this story illustrate the relationships the child has? Why is this moment special?  What does it say about the child and their experience?

·    How many children are involved in this experience (and therefore, how many portfolios can I put this into?!? 5? 7? 10? Whoohoo!).

·    All these photos are really charming, but on their own, can I really justify the time and expense of putting this into a single observation? i.e. I have to frame it, write about it in context, and then relate it to something of importance (not all the time mind you, but sometimes).

·    Does this help to reflect the child’s experience within their social contexts? (learning environment, home, local community?)

·     Does this entry reflect the curriculum of the learning environment?

In thinking about putting this book together I started to look at my own past work and it was really quite enlightening. When I was looking at some of my previous work, I had a book of photos of a full portfolio... I then photocopied this so there four images of A4 pages upon the one page ... I could then look at them critically and write ideas and notes on the large white margins. I could see my style of work from two years ago ... what I thought was memorable and important, what I said what I should have said, or what I would say now! I could also see how the portfolio came together and whether it flowed for me (the professional) and how it might look to a parent or another professional.