Robert L. (Bob) Wyatt III is Professor of Education at East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where he has taught for the past 13 years. He also taught education courses as a graduate instructor at the University of Oklahoma while completing his doctorate. He taught at the secondary level in Texas, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, and at the college level in New Mexico and Texas for 25 years prior to achieving his master’s and doctorate degrees. He has led more than 150 workshops and seminars for staff development during the last 15 years. He has twice been named Teacher of Excellence at East Central, an honor that can only be awarded every four years and is usually nominated by students and elected by peer review. He was among the top five teachers contending for Oklahoma Teacher of the Year while teaching secondary school. He has partici-pated in the Oklahoma Commission for Higher Education portfolio review committees for several colleges in Oklahoma as part of their preparation for NCATE reviews. Wyatt is a language arts specialist with a Ph.D. in both the elementary and secondary levels of language arts. He has taught undergraduate courses in methods for language arts, social studies (both elementary and secondary), and natural science (elementary); Clinicals I, II, and III; strategies for effective teaching (elementary and secondary); Portfolios I, II, and III; children’s literature; young adult literature; psychology of education; foundations of education; Composition I; and grammar. He teaches graduate courses in modern philoso-phies of education, contemporary issues of education, advanced language arts problems, techniques of research, and public relations for school administra-tors and librarians. Wyatt has two other books published: The History of the Haverstock Tent Show: The Show With a Million Friends, published in 1997 by Southern Illinois University Press, and Making Your First Year a Success: The Secondary Teacher’s Survival Guide, coauthored by Dr. Elaine White and pub-lished by Corwin Press in 2002. In addition to his teaching, Wyatt is a selling artist of watercolor and oil paintings. He also has three novels out for publisher review, is a former owner/editor of a weekly newspaper, and is the author/publisher of three books of local history and several journal articles in national, regional, and state journals. He is the president, a director, and an actor at Ada Community Theater, ACT II.
The purpose of So You Have to Have a Portfolio? A Teacher's Guide to Preparation and Presentation is to offer universities, colleges, professors, teachers, applicants for National Certification and students a book for a practical approach for portfolio preparation. The book may be used for individualized professional development, in teacher assessment for tenure and advancement, and in teacher preparation courses. Disciplinary fields to help those who have to present a portfolio to know both the theory and good practices for individual fields of study may also easily adapt it. The authors have defined a portfolio, given the theoretical base for the various kinds of portfolios, and shown how to collect data for an appropriate portfolio presentation. This theoretical and definitional material is contained in the first four chapters of the book with an acronym the authors have coined CORP: collection, organization, reflection, and presentation. These chapters deal with the importance of using creativity in the collection, organization, reflection, and presentation of the assessment portfolio. They offer several tools for each of the processes and compare the portfolio process approach with the other disciplinary processes.
