MorganClassicalPrep Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 (I'm in MD) For those who do portfolio reviews, do you date all your material? I'm sort of torn whether I'm going to do the portfolio review or try and get together the money to join an umbrella. I'd *rather* do the portfolio option (financial reasons :tongue_smilie:), but also don't want to get to our January review and be told we aren't doing it right. Should I make sure to put dates on everything? (What about workbooks? Do I really need to date every page?) And what about block scheduling? Will it cause a problem if we do science and history from June-December and then no more from January-May? I'm so nervous about this year! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sasharowan Posted May 29, 2011 Share Posted May 29, 2011 Yes, dating your material is important. That way the evaluator can tell that there is progress from the beginning of the year to the end. I don't know if the way you do history will work in MD, but we can do something like that here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atozmom Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 Also in FL so I can't answer the block scheduling for History and Science. We do however try to date everything. When I do our portfolio's I include our weekly schedule of what we have done throughout the year, plus the curriculum used and books read. (that list is usually pretty long :lol:) I also make note of any activities, field trips, or co-ops that we have participated in. If we have any brochures from field trips I bring those as well. I then include samples of each subject. I take the samples from 4 to 5 different times of the year, trying to space it out from beginning to end. This way the reviewer can see progress. Pictures of projects or lapbooks are also nice to bring along. Every state and reviewer is different in what they want in a portfolio. I'd check those requirements. It isn't really as hard as it sounds sounds though. Take a deep breath and relax. You will do fine. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandamom Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I would really suggest asking people in your area. In my county, he did look at dates and sometimes questioned how frequently we covered something. In the neighboring county, there were multiple reviewers and people had very different experiences so there's no way to know what your county is like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meet me in paris Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 We were in MD for a few years and did the portfolio review. Honestly, it depends on who your reviewer is. Some will be picky about it, some will not. What they do want to see is a progression - so as long as the work seems to be progressing in difficulty throughout the year you will be covered. Block scheduling will not be a problem. Just show them your plan! They like to see some sort of schedule/plan, etc. Also, if your oldest is 5, they will be *very* lenient on you. The very worst that will happen is that they will tell you what to do more of next time. The county director/supervisor where we lived actually told me that the people who show up for the reviews are not the people they are worried about... so just showing up is 90% of the review. ;) Our director (we were in Anne Arundel) also made sure to meet himself with Kindergarten parents and high school parents whenever he could so he could offer the most guidance. Hope that helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leimarie Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 We are in MD also and did attend portfolio reviews this past year. It does differ county to county and reviewer to reviewer. :p We are choosing to go under an oversight group this coming year. We found the review process to be very subjective. The law is written quite vaguely and I found that items that our reviewer was excited about during our January review were the same things he criticized in our May review. He was also quite against me combining the children for any of their learning (including science even though I was using a curriculum that was written for K-3). Our county also required our children to attend at least one review this year which I felt was a misinterpretation of the law. We have found a local oversight group that has a reasonable fee per family. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cat Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 After my first year homeschooling, the teacher who did the portfolio review said I needed to date everything...... so I bought a date stamp at Wal-mart for about $10.00 well worth it! It gets so old for the kids to have to write the date on everything and they love to just stamp and go..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorganClassicalPrep Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 After my first year homeschooling, the teacher who did the portfolio review said I needed to date everything...... so I bought a date stamp at Wal-mart for about $10.00 well worth it! It gets so old for the kids to have to write the date on everything and they love to just stamp and go..... This is such a great idea! ...adding to my wish list... :D Thank you everyone. It seems like I'll basically have to hope for the luck of the draw and get a good reviewer. :glare: My only child is 5, so hopefully they won't be too tough on me! I'm just going to let go of the nervousness. If worse comes to worse, I'll just join the umbrella group, but I'm going to go ahead and try it on my own for this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leimarie Posted May 30, 2011 Share Posted May 30, 2011 I'm just going to let go of the nervousness. If worse comes to worse, I'll just join the umbrella group, but I'm going to go ahead and try it on my own for this year. Confidence in how you are teaching and training your child is your best "weapon" in the review process. Since this was our first year homeschooling and we are unsure of how long we'll keep them home, we wanted to go with county review to "keep up with what they expect". It wasn't until we'd been through the entire year that we decided our goals and the goals of the school board just don't always mesh. ;) Having a bit more freedom was our ultimate reason for choosing to go with an oversight group this year. You will do fine with portfolio review. My kindergartener's binder was the least of his complaints this past year. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorganClassicalPrep Posted May 30, 2011 Author Share Posted May 30, 2011 Confidence in how you are teaching and training your child is your best "weapon" in the review process. Since this was our first year homeschooling and we are unsure of how long we'll keep them home, we wanted to go with county review to "keep up with what they expect". It wasn't until we'd been through the entire year that we decided our goals and the goals of the school board just don't always mesh. ;) Having a bit more freedom was our ultimate reason for choosing to go with an oversight group this year. You will do fine with portfolio review. My kindergartener's binder was the least of his complaints this past year. :glare: Well, that's good news. I'm definitely confident in the education my daughter is getting. :D Or... confident it's better than she'd get if I sent her to school anyways. :tongue_smilie:I guess I'm just concerned about the review because... well. My idea of a good education and what's important to learn aren't exactly what big brother thinks my 5 year old should be learning! :lol: I just need to get through two years in this state.... and hopefully we'll be in Texas after that and can forget about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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