Table of Contents 
- What are Portfolios?
- Why do schools use Portfolios?
- Who can create Portfolios?
- How do I create a Portfolio?
- How do I add Moments into Portfolios?
- FAQ
What are Portfolios?
Kaymbu Portfolios is a dynamic feature that automatically builds custom student assessments based on schools’ own instructional design. This visually compelling, industry-leading tool supports educators as they track child growth and share that information with families and other stakeholders. Easy to build, easy to share, Portfolios save you extra work! Learn more by watching our webinar, Tracking Individual Learning with Portfolios.
Are you a COR Advantage user? Check out our webinar here, overviewing how Portfolios can benefit your program!
Download a sample Portfolio.
Why do schools use Portfolios?
Educators use Kaymbu Portfolios to:
- Track student growth over time
- Report on growth outcomes
- Keep families informed about their child’s development
- Complete developmental checklists
- Organize and document IEP goals
- Create NAEYC accreditation materials
Who can create a Portfolio?
Any user in the account!
Directors and Administrators can build a Portfolio at the center or organization level, and specific classrooms and students to be included in each one. These Director and Administrator Portfolios provide consistency throughout a program’s assessments.
Click here to view a short video on how to build Portfolios.
Teachers can build a Portfolio at the classroom level. All teachers in the classroom will be able to access and edit it. Teacher Portfolios are great for tracking IEPs and students with special rights.
How do I create a Portfolio?
Creating a Portfolio is easy! First, make sure your program has the learning standards added to the account as Tags. If you do not yet have Tags in your account, you can reach out to us at help@kaymbu.com or contact your account manager for assistance. You can also add Tags to your account on your own. Read more about how to proceed with this option by clicking here.
Navigate to the Portfolios tab on your menu. If you are a director, you can create a Portfolio under “School Portfolios,” if you are a teacher, you can create one under “My Portfolios.”
If you notice the Portfolio feature is not available to you, a Director or Administrator can reach out to us at help@kaymbu.com to request a trial period or inquire more about adding this feature to the account.
To create a new Portfolio, click the green and white plus button in the bottom right hand corner of the page. A new window will appear that will prompt you to establish the settings for the Portfolio. It will look like this:
These first settings are important as they will dictate what observations flow into your Portfolio!
- The first step is to name your Portfolio.
- Tip: If you are creating a Portfolio from the Director level, you may consider creating separate Portfolios for each classroom or age group and naming it based on the period your program is reporting the growth for. For example, “Spring Conferences 2020 - Preschool.”
- Next is the option to choose your date range.
- Tip: This may be based on the period of the school year the Assessment will take place during. For example, if you have conferences twice a year, you may choose to have a Portfolio’s date range span half of the year. This is entirely based on your program’s needs.
- Then, add the Tags that you will need to assess the student growth based on.
- Tip: You can create a Portfolio that tracks an overall picture of the student’s growth, or mix and match Tags to use any combination to track growth in specific learning domains! Your program can also select Tags that are specific to a certain type of accreditation.
After you have established those three things, that same window will prompt you to finish setting up your Portfolio by choosing your preferences for the ratings (which are based on the score associated with your learning standards) and where you want comments to appear. The second part of the window will look like this:
- Ratings & Comments allows you to select where you would like Ratings & Comments to appear.
- Allow on both Tags and Folders will activate the option to include these items on folders, which are often larger developmental domains, such as “Approaches to Learning” as well as on the more specific items within that larger domain, such as “A. Initiative and Planning.” You may want to score students at the larger domain level, more specific item level, or both, and here is where you can make that determination.
- Allow on Tags only will activate the option to add additional ratings and comments on the specific Tag in the folder.
- Allow on Folders only will activate the option to add additional ratings and comments only to the folder and not to the specific Tag within the folder.
- Cover Page Design - When you share your Portfolio, this is where you choose design will appear on the top of the page. If you have a school logo added to your account, you can opt to use it here. If you do not have your school logo added to the account, please reach out to help@kaymbu.com to inquire about this being added.
- Required Items - This is where you select what items will be required in order for the Portfolio to be marked complete. Once a required item is determined, a red asterisk will appear in the Portfolio to indicate for educators where an item must be entered in order to fulfill completion.
- Rating refers to the rating entered on Tags or folders that are selected under the first option “Ratings & Comments.”
- Observations are Moments (photos, videos or anecdotes). Choosing to require this item will mean that each section of the Portfolio must have a Moment included in order to fulfill completion.
- Comments refers to the comments on folders and Tags based on the earlier selection under “Ratings & Comments.” If comments should be included on Tags or folders, this is where comments can be made into a required item.
We recommend playing around with these settings as you are familiarizing yourself with this feature in order to see what works best for your program!
After the Portfolio folder has been created you can work on each student's individual Portfolio. Click on a Portfolio folder, and then inside of that folder you will see a Portfolio for each individual student that was selected during the Portfolio set up:
How do I add Moments to a Portfolio?
There are two ways to add Moments to a Portfolio.
The first way occurs automatically as teachers capture documentation during the school day! As teachers carry out their normal workflow, their Moments will flow into their children’s Portfolios.
The three things that dictate what observations flow into the Portfolio are the 1) date, 2) students, and 3) Tags. See the image below for where you can add a standard to an observation as part of your workflow:
If the date, the student, and the learning standards on a Moment all correspond to the settings of a Portfolio, the Moment will appear automatically, without any additional work!
The second way is to manually add an observation to a Portfolio. Navigate to the Portfolio you are working on, click into a particular student, then either click “Start” or click into a section (folder or Tag) as seen below:
- Add from Moments will allow you to select an observation directly from your Moments page.
- Upload Photo/Video will allow you to select media from your device or external storage site such as Google Drive.
- Add Anecdote will allow you to create a text-based Moment.
Read more about these options in our overview of Moments in Portfolios.
FAQ
What happens when a student moves into a new classroom?
When a student moves to a new classroom in your program’s Kaymbu account, his or her Portfolios from old classrooms are available to be viewed on his or her student profile in the Roster page. The new teacher cannot edit these Portfolios, but can view them to better understand the child’s developmental history.
Can I change the settings of a Portfolio after it’s already created?
Yes, you can go back and update the settings as needed. Navigate to Portfolios, then on your overview page of all Portfolios that have been created at your level, click the three dots on the bottom right:
Can a Portfolio cover all of the years that a child attends our Program?
Portfolios are designed to track development for a single period or year, so should not span multiple school years.
How can I view or share Portfolios?
Please read more about how to view and share Portfolios by clicking here.
How much do Portfolios cost?
To find out more about pricing for your program, contact our School Ambassador team at help@kaymbu.com or reach out to your account manager.
How do I sign up for Portfolios?
Reach out to us at help@kaymbu.com if you are interested in adding Portfolios to your account, or if you would like to inquire about a trial period for your program and to learn about pricing.
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