skippy Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Hi I am after a system of recording and keeping work. How do you do yours? At the moment we have an observation system/folder and a portfolio of children work. We were thinking of combining the two, but staff are worried about having to re write obs to go into the child's file rather than keeping them for their own use. So confused and struggling to find an effective way of doing things. Please help!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helen Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 How do you mean "for their own use"? Do they put these observations somewhere else...in a summative assessment format maybe? What's in your observation folder now? I think the two can be very successfully combined without having to rewrite stuff. Can the observations simply be stuck into the children's portfolios along with pictures, photos, etc.? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Ours all seem to go straight to the parents, because the children want to take them home, or up on the wall! Are we doing something wrong!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Ours are the same Suzie - we end up taking photos most of the time of their artwork. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Good thinking. Wish I could somehow magic up more time for my poor staff to do all this recording though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panders Posted February 2, 2010 Share Posted February 2, 2010 Hi I am after a system of recording and keeping work. How do you do yours? At the moment we have an observation system/folder and a portfolio of children work. We were thinking of combining the two, but staff are worried about having to re write obs to go into the child's file rather than keeping them for their own use. So confused and struggling to find an effective way of doing things. Please help!!! I think the general idea is that observations go in just as they are written at the time. They do not require re-writing so that they look neat etc. for the parents. We type some up occasionally if they are long ones, it's a case of varied ways of showing observations for us, we are photo heavy because we feel that is what parents will really treasure and we use stickers etc. to give a scrapbook feel to them, we use coloured paper too, there are ways of making the journals "look" stunning, without written observations being perfectly written up. We use ringbinders and plastic wallets so that pages can be easily inserted, and everything goes in as it happens in date order, we do not break it up into different learning areas.. When the children leave we transfer all the contents into project files which then form part of their Record of Transfer to the new setting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skippy Posted February 3, 2010 Author Share Posted February 3, 2010 Hi thanks for your replies. The observation file keeps together all the observation, planned and unplanned. Their journal consists of work, phots and observations. I think staff worry if they have to write something the parnts might not like ie ....... Found it difficult to shae the train track today. That's probalby not the best example and there may be a reason why. Therfore we have two systems the journal for children and parents and a key worker obs file. Every couple if weeks we would transfer any obs and relevant work. I am unsure if we are making things difficult for ourselves? Would love to hear how others do it Thanks Skippy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helen Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 I think they could (and should!) all go in the same place. You will need to rephrase the types of observation you mention "Found it difficult to share the train track today" into something like "Freddy is learning to share the train track and we are helping him by...........We are going to give him lots of opportunities to practise sharing". Whenever you write an observation, the purpose of it is to do something with it, so just writing a sensitive sentence (ie ones that you think the parents will be saddened by) is not really enough in any case. You need to consider what it is you and your staff are going to do. I don't think I'm explaining this very well! I would really recommend that you try and put everything together in one place. I think it'll save you loads of time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
louby loo Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 I think they could (and should!) all go in the same place. You will need to rephrase the types of observation you mention "Found it difficult to share the train track today" into something like "Freddy is learning to share the train track and we are helping him by...........We are going to give him lots of opportunities to practise sharing". Whenever you write an observation, the purpose of it is to do something with it, so just writing a sensitive sentence (ie ones that you think the parents will be saddened by) is not really enough in any case. You need to consider what it is you and your staff are going to do. I don't think I'm explaining this very well! I would really recommend that you try and put everything together in one place. I think it'll save you loads of time! I agree about keeping it all together ........ for us a statement like " found it difficutl to share.." would proberly go staight onto our planning evaluation sheet, to help us provide next step planning. x Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skippy Posted February 3, 2010 Author Share Posted February 3, 2010 Thank you all for your replies. I am in panic mode at the moment as I feel I am failing the staff as I cannot offer a solution or system that is effective! Do you have just a journal showing obs, photos and work? Along with our files we have an overview of the areas and aspect of learning that are highlighted when they are achieved. I worry that I am not doing enough then I worry I am doing too much. Aarrgh! Lost a bit of confidence Sorry! I really appreciate your replies Skippy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
louby loo Posted February 3, 2010 Share Posted February 3, 2010 Thank you all for your replies. I am in panic mode at the moment as I feel I am failing the staff as I cannot offer a solution or system that is effective!Do you have just a journal showing obs, photos and work? Along with our files we have an overview of the areas and aspect of learning that are highlighted when they are achieved. I worry that I am not doing enough then I worry I am doing too much. Aarrgh! Lost a bit of confidence Sorry! I really appreciate your replies Skippy I think we all feel like that at some point! I keep asking my staff for 'feed-back' and their own ideas on how it can be improved.......but they all seem to take what I say as gospel, when I know full well there's loads of room for improvement!! xxx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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