Final Blog Post for the Issues and Trends in the Early Childhood Field

While listening to the podcasts and looking over different websites, I have learned so much when it comes to the early childhood field internationally. The website that I chose at the beginning of this course was The Child’s Defense Fund which is where I learned about programs that were helping out in the U.S.

Delfena Mitchell taught me that there needs to be more programs that are designed to helping children in tough situations. She has the patience and understanding to give a child a safe place to open up about his life at home.  We as professionals can take a cue from Delfena Mitchell and give every child, which crosses our path, a safe place to express themselves.

I also learned that there are programs that are trying to connect what each country is learning and developing with each other.  The Global Children’s Initiative was set up to build activities that promote early childhood development, child mental health, and children in crisis and conflict situations.

Finally, I learned that many countries are experiencing the same issues and trends. Personally I have seen that there is changes that need to occur across the world. We as educators need to come together and find ways to help bridge the gap with these issues and trends.

My goal is to find contacts around the world that I can collaborate with. By doing this, I will learn from their experiences and their knowledge.

I want to say, thank you to all my classmates and Dr. Klein for everything that you have taught me these past eight weeks. It has been a pleasure reading your posts and your comments to my posts. I have learned some valuable tools from each and every one of you! I wish you all the best as you continue down this road.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

The podcast that I listened to was from George Forman.  Dr. Forman’s main interest was figuring out what children saw when they played. He talked about teachers teaching about colors and shapes but not about the action taken to make those colors and shapes. Dr. Forman talked about a child that he watched play and the delight that the boy got when he realized that a log could stand up. Dr. Forman couldn’t figure out why this child was so delighted by this until he came to the realization that the child was learning. Dr. Forman said that we need to see the world in terms of change and not change instead of how they are. I think the concepts that Dr. Forman talked about is what teachers learn as they grow professionally.

After listening to the podcast I went to, http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/ to learn more about early childhood education.  When looking through the site I found a topic that relates to one of my goals. One of my goals was to become an advocate for the children in my area. Right now, the children that I have focused my attention on are the ones that are living at or below the poverty level. UNESCO wants a “policy of universalisation with targeting can minimise inequity where governments aim for universal access among the target age group, but simultaneously prioritise the poor.” (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/access/). What they are saying is that they want every child to receive the benefits from the government but that they must start with the children who are in need the most.

The website also talks about quality. I think that quality is very important for teachers, which is why one of my goals is to become a high-quality teacher. The website mentions, “Early childhood care and education programmes should emphasise the child’s holistic development and extend beyond assisting the child’s transition to formal schooling” (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/quality/). I think that this statement is something that we all believe in. We must not teach towards moving on to the next grade but focus on teaching what the child is interested in.

Finally, I wanted to talk about investment. We need to invest in our children today by giving them the resources that they need to learn. I think that this website says it best by saying that we need to view early childhood education as part of the basic education. By doing this we are helping our children start down the right path of growing academically and socially.

Sharing Web Resources - Week 6

While exploring The Children’s Defense Fund’s (CDF) website I found a link that took me to Access for Infants and Mothers (AIM) found at http://www.aim.ca.gov/Home/.  This website is set up to inform expecting mothers of their benefits in California. “AIM is for middle-income families who don’t have health insurance and whose income is too high for no-cost Medi-Cal.” There are many benefits that are covered through AIM like prenatal and postnatal care. This website is all about keeping a mother and baby healthy so that they have a good start. Once the baby is born, they are automatically enrolled for insurance so that their healthy start can continue. I really liked seeing programs like this out there for expectant mothers. Many feel like they can’t afford to go get the prenatal care that they need, but programs like this help.

While looking at The Children’s Defense Fund’s newsletter I found out that as of November 7^th the “U.S. Census Bureau released its first report using the new Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM)” (http://cdf.childrensdefense.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=25802.0&dlv_id=0). The SPM was designed to take care of some problems with existing official poverty measures and found that child poverty is declining. CDF states that this is due to the federal programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit and food stamps. As CDF states though, in no way does this mean that our children are suffering less. We need to still support the basic needs of our children and still fight for their rights.

This week we have been talking about accessibility, affordability, availability, and equity for our children. CDF has a program that runs after school and all summer long that works with children. The program is set up to teach children about their culture, reading, writings, and expressing themselves in a safe place. One of the students mentioned that it was nice to walk into the school in the morning and see all the smiling faces from children of all ages. They have breakfast as a community along with a sharing time where everyone is dancing, singing, and cheering. They also have a designated time throughout the day where everyone has to drop everything and read (D.E.A.R). All the teachers and students sit down for fifteen minutes of quiet time and read a book.

My new insight for this week is this program. I had no idea that something like this existed in my area. I would have thought that my undergraduate studies would of encouraged us to take part in this over the summer since it is right down the street from the university. They have interns which are college students who teach the classes. One teacher said at the beginning of the year she had children complaining that they had to write a story or a letter. But by the end of the year, her school mailbox was filled with letters from her students. There needs to be more programs like this to help our children by giving them a safe place to learn and grow outside of school.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

The podcast that I listened to featured Barbara Jones. Barbara Jones is the founder of Pine Grove School in 1985. Pine Grove School is located in Maine and is surrounded by pine trees. She talked about liking the Montessori program and finished her training in London, England. When she came back to the U.S. she saw a boarded up school house and fell in love with it. When looking at the Pine Grove School website every teacher had their B.A. in education and had some Montessori training. Even the administrative staff had background in education. This was nice to see since the last daycare I worked at, the director that hired me had no knowledge of early childhood.

I could not find contact information for Barbara Jones so I went to http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/. There I found out that the Center on the Developing Child is committed to “building a unified science of health, learning, and behavior to explain the early roots of lifelong impairments.” They are also committed to “leading the design, implementation, and evaluation of innovative program and practice models that reduce preventable disparities in well-being.” Next, they are “catalyzing the implementation of effective, science-based public policies through strategic relationships and knowledge.” Finally they are “preparing future and current leaders to build and leverage knowledge that promotes the healthy development of children and families and brings high returns to all of society.”

The Global Children’s Initiative is working to build activities that promote early childhood development, child mental health, and children in crisis and conflict situations.  Faculty are working together to implement new projects and getting others involved. Currently they are expanding their resources to Brazil to promote stronger policies and gain larger investments to help the children.