Developing and Presenting a Professional Portfolio in Early Childhood Education

Developing and Presenting a Professional Portfolio in Early Childhood Education, Third Edition, is must-have handbook for all early childhood education major preparing their professional portfolio for scholarly review and job placement. In ten straightforward and user-friendly chapters, Wiltz et. al.’s supplemental textbook instructs the student on what items to collect for the portfolio, how to compile/construct/label it, and then how to talk about it/present it. Readers will journey from learning the reasons behind developing a professional portfolio clear through completion of a final product. The authors present the topic to readers via a successful step-by-step process of developing, self-evaluating, and presenting a professional early childhood education portfolio. Each chapter has a definitive goal and will guide the reader that much closer to the end goal–that of a portfolio ready to present in interviews and utilize in the working classroom. Although the premise of the text is based on the platform the authors have implemented to support their own student interns going through the portfolio process at Towson University, this manual has a widely universal appeal for all students in a wide-range of early childhood programs as they develop their professional portfolio from just the beginnings through the final presentation The text is appropriate for programs for which the portfolios are started in the Introduction to Early Childhood course and compiled as students make their way through the programs; or when the portfolio process is introduced in a Curriculum course, for instance; and for the Student Teaching, Practicum, or Capstone course.

Nancy W. Wiltz earned a B.S. in Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Maryland, College Park. In 1999, she joined the Early Childhood Education faculty at Towson University, where she taught Pre-Primary and Primary Curriculum courses until she left the main campus to administer a new Montgomery College-Towson University-Montgomery County Public Schools partnership in Early Childhood Education at the Universities at Shady Grove. At that location for the past three years, she taught seminar, supervised student teachers, and helped students develop their final showcase and interview portfolios. Now retired, she is a Professor Emeritus from Towson University. She keeps busy writing, gardening, playing with her grandchildren, and as a first grade volunteer for three former students in Montgomery County Public Schools.

Hannah Smith Cawley, M.S., joined the Department of Early Childhood Education faculty at Towson University as a full-time Lecturer in 2003. She teaches a variety of courses in Early Childhood Education, ranging from the introductory course to the Student Teaching Seminar. Mrs. Cawley hails from Maine, and completed her Bachelor’s degree and her Master’s degree from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. This range of experiences allows her to bring a fresh and critical eye to the portfolio development process. With Heather Skelley, she has developed several on-line courses including Human Growth and Development and Introduction to Early Childhood Education. She is also a university liaison to a cluster of Professional Development Schools in Baltimore County.

Janese Daniels, Ph.D., received her B.S. in Psychology from Morgan State University; her M.A. in Education, Instructional Systems Development from UMBC; and her Ph.D. in Education, Human Development from University of Maryland, College Park. Her teaching career began in 1992, as a teacher in Baltimore Public Schools. She joined the faculty in the Department of Early Childhood Education at Towson University in 2006, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in early intervention, diversity, literacy, technology, and Pre-primary and Primary curriculum. Additionally, she has worked with Head Start and public school teachers around in the country, and in 2011, she piloted an e-portfolio section of ECED students. Mostly, she enjoys watching teacher candidates learn and grow into professionals.

Heather Skelley, M.S., received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Towson University, and is currently a full-time Lecturer in the Department of Early Childhood Education, where she teaches reading, literacy, and curriculum courses. She is a former Pre-Kindergarten, first, and second grade classroom teacher in the Baltimore County Public Schools. She spent two years as a Professional Developer with the Fund for Educational Excellence, and currently is a Professional Developer for Children’s Literacy Initiative, a non-profit organization that provides literacy staff development for teachers in urban school districts. Not only has she modified and written curriculum in reading for the State of Maryland, she and Hannah Crawley have co-authored several on-line courses. She is the busy mother of two active boys, and President of their school’s PTA in Harford County, Maryland.

Ocie Watson-Thompson, Ed.D., a native of Alabama, began her career as an elementary school teacher, but has taught for nearly 30 years in teacher education at Towson University. Her specialty is Curriculum and Instruction, with concentrations in special education, literacy, and diversity. As the “guru” of portfolio at Towson University, she taught a portfolio course for many years, although now portfolio development is incorporated into all courses. As a faculty member, her course load took a wide-range from teaching Introduction to Early Childhood Education all the way through to the final capstone course, a Student Teaching Seminar. This full-circle in teaching at the university allowed her to clearly articulate the progressive work that goes into portfolio development and presentation. Dr. Watson-Thompson is presently an Associate Professor at Towson University, where she is also the current Chair of the Department of Early Childhood Education.