International Connections-

Through out this course I have looked at many resources from international countries to come to find out that there are similarities as much as differences in the way we teach and develop our young children. I have had opportunities to gain knowledge of organizations such as PACE (The Professional Association for Childhood Education), UNESCO's Early Childhood Care, and OMEP South African National Committee. I have had hopes to getting as much information as possible to ensure I understand the issues and trends all these countries have compared to here in the United States. There are consequences such as not being able to talk to many of the contacts I tried to. I was able to receive much feedback from the web resources. Another consequence is the fact of me not talking to anyone, I could not get a sense of what how they actually feel about the education that is given to all children. I do not believe there is any sense of equity in many international countries. Therefore, this is a major consequence that needs to be focused on to improve it. The last consequence I believe is the communication with one another. There seems to be a lack of collaboration. I do believe that my colleagues and myself have learned from one another. We have shared so many resources and insights to one another. I have learned so much more from them, than I have had with scholarly resources.

My goal is to keep looking for good resources to learn how international countries present education. There is always room for improvement to ensure children and families are treated equally and have excellence in the classroom and community. I would like to learn more about how certain countries deal with the issues that we have here in the States. Such as poverty, equality, communication, standards, excellence, and etc. As this course comes to an end, I will continue to learn about these issues and trends. I will hope to improve and be involved with every aspect of all young children and their families.

Getting to know your international contacts- Part 3

Here is a question for you to think about...

What does it take to have excellence and quality in the classroom?

 

Since I have yet to receive a response I went to the UNESCO's Early Childhood Care and Education webpage and I found many ideas and insights about issues related to internationals early childhood education to my professional goals. Through out my journey as a teacher and profesisonal in the field, I will come acrossed many hopes and challenges along the way. My professionals goals is to make a difference to every single children I teach. As a teacher we are here for the growth of these young children. Another goal I have is to have professionalism and work closely with all my colleagues and families. I believe this will allow myself, the program, children and families get the best education possible. My last goal is to provide the best education possible to ensure every child is getting taught up to the correct standards. I believe if I have the opportunity to accomplish all these goals that I will have many of my professional dreams comes true.

 

Looking through the website I can see the goals and missions of the organization is the same as to my professional goals. The website includes that their goal is to have every child have access, equality, quality, coordination and integration in the classroom. Their mission is to support childhood policy development with the aim to buld a solid foundation for a child's life long learning. (UNESCO,2012) This organization focuses on ideas the same to my professional goals. They revieve and devlop national policies that are affecting children from the age of 0 to 8. The UNESCO also describes one of their main goals is to actively involve parents and communities as tp show the imporantce and the revelence to the needs of all children and their education.

I believe along the same lines that whether we are in the United States or in another country our goals are fairly the same. The ultimate goal of every professional, program, and/or organization should be to ensure that every child is getting the education and experience needed to ensure healthy growth and development.

 

If you would like to see more on the UNESCO. Check out their website at http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/)

 

 

 

Sharing Web Resources

This week I went back to the organization of PACE. The Professional Association for Childhood Education. I looked at some outside resources and articles that were available for anyone to look at. These articles and resources are great for advocates of education, teachers to get new and fresh ideas and families to be involved with what is going on in their child's education. This website leads to many scholarly articles and many ideas of what works and does not work in line of early childhood education. I really like where they have a public policy and action center. This is where most of the policies and standards are posted for certain aspects of programs and what is expected. This is also an area where many can voice out and show action in what they believe will make early childhood education show equality and excellence.

One link I followed on this website was the articles that were written dealing with issues and trends that are involved in education. The link I chose was this article on how employers have a tough time filling the skilled gaps in education. While looking at articles throughout this course, we have been looking at why there is or isn't equality and excellence in the classroom. This article states that education is not the only occupations where this is coming into play. Nurses, doctors, and other professionals have less skilled workers just as education does because of the lack of requirements. The website that I looked further into is http://americasedge.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/1302-CA-Sacramento-Business-Journal.pdf

Every week I gain many new insights on what all these resources can provide to use as educators, advocates and role models in our community. There are so many issues that I never realized were so major in young children's lives. I have come to see there are always ways to find information and this course has expanded my knowledge to do so.

Getting to know our resources

Harvard University Global Children's Initiative

Website: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

 

 

I chose this week to look at the website of the Global Children's Initiative. I still have yet to receive much feedback from my international contacts. While looking at this website I gained much knowledge and understanding of how this program works and operates. There mission is to ensure that all children have opportunities early in life to be able to achieve to their fullest potential. The GCI focuses on to advance their children with using science to enhance their skills in practices. 

 

This is initiative has many objectives to ensure that children have opportunities all around the world. Some objectives in this initiative is educating high level teachers, supporting innovative multidisciplinary research and demonstration projects, and building leadership in child research and policy among individuals and programs. The GCI focuses on three domains which are early childhood development, mental health and children in conflict and crisis situations.

 

Their first priority for early childhood development is to adapt to successful centers to energize and frame young children at an early age. Their second priority is to generate and apply new knowledge that addresses health and development of these young children in various settings.

The last thing that I believe is very good for advocates and professionals in our field of early education is the Global Children's Initiative works hard to find scholar resources to ensure children are getting the best education possible in the early childhood field. This shows that this program strives for equality and excellence of every child, family and professionals. The center provides research forums among high scholars to share findings and publications to show what's working and what's not. I would suggest this website for anyone in our field. I believe with more programs such as these, early education in every community would be even more successful.

Sharing Web Resources

PACE- Professional Association for Childhood Education-



Specific sections that I enjoyed reading and looking into is the blog section where early childhood professionals voice out their opinions and facts to learn more about what they are teaching and how it works. Its called "Tip a Week Blog." A couple topics I came a crossed where professionals were interacting with one another are what's the best day to advocate for your center, tips for stressed out teachers, how to be a tourist in your hometown and more.. This is helpful in my professional development because this shows there is always somewhere or someone to help with questions and concerns even if someone you don't know. This site is very informative and supportive for all advocates and childhood professionals.

An article that I found quite interesting in how controversial it is for programs to fill the caps with skilled teachers. The website of this article is http://www.pacenet.org/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=186 . I believe this is a major issue in the field then and now. Due to the economy and other situations that occurs, high quality teachers are minimal. There are so many articles on this subject, but it made me realize how hard it is to fill these gaps. Why are schools not hiring the best ones qualified? Why are professionals such as myself still looking for a job around the area for 4 years now? There are many gaps to be filled all around the country.

On the PACE website, there is an article that states what President Barack Obama plans do for early childhood education. This describes to me how politicians and economists are involved to ensure children are getting the best education possible. The article to read more about this http://www.pacenet.org/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=190&type=News. The president states "We know what we have to do...so let's do what works and make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind." I really like this quote because it shows that we need to start as early as possible whether its voicing what we believe in, investing into an early childhood program, or studying ways children learn easier and more effectively.


Here are some other articles that are very interesting and informative to learn about issues and trends in education...

http://www.pacenet.org/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=188

http://www.pacenet.org/ArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=184

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s

For this week's blog I looked into Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s (CHIP). There was a lot of information on this website that proved that this organization is researching, examining and informing families and individuals on families and children living in poverty. There are many ways in which this organization helps children living in poverty is by researching to deepen understanding of the causes of childhood poverty. They also examine economic and social factors to contribute to efforts of getting families away from poverty and informing effective ways to improve or end childhood poverty.

I learned so much from reviewing this website on childhood poverty. Did you know 600 million children worldwide live in poverty? Over 60 percent of households live on poverty lines. This hurts children the most. Children are the ones who have to bear the cost of poverty the most, psychically and emotionally. While looking at the photo gallery on this page, there were many pictures shown of what children had to do in some countries. Some of the pictures included kindergarten children eating flour noodles for lunch, or fetching water for their families, and small apartments that many families live in with one room. I have learned from this website and others that were used this week that millions of advocates have and will continue to fight to end childhood poverty.

CHIP tries to achieve change in poverty by:

• positive action at different levels
• positive change in a range of policy areas
• attention to policy implementation as well as content
• effectively using research findings
• targeting key fora and institutions/departments who make and influence policy

Below are some pictures that I wanted to include that I found with children and families living in poverty.

   

         
 Resources: Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centres. CHIP. UK Department for International Development, Save the Children and the Chronic Poverty Research Centre.
http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php

Early Childhood Organization

This week I chose to share to you about the early childhood organization called PACE. This stands for Professional Association for Childhood Education. The website for this organization is http://www.pacenet.org/.

 

The main focus of this orgnanization is to provide resources and services to early childhood care and educating professionals. This is a non profit organization that has been around since 1955 in California. Members of this organization focus to enhance education for professionals, families and their children.

 

This quote was in the newsletter of the March issue on the PACE organization.

 

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.

~ Benjamin Franklin

 

I believe that this is and always has been and always will be an issue in the early childhood field and the PACE organization. Teachers need to have the best knowledge and invest time and money to become a high quality teacher. This will not only serve the best interest of the child, but will help the family. The PACE organization focuses on this issues to promote the best possible way for teachers, families and children to get the education that is expected.

 

The thing that I mostly learned about looking at this organization, along with others this week is there are always resources and websites and other professionals there to enhance our knowledge on not only education, but everyday situations in the classroom. These organizations do primary focus on education and how to make it better, but throughout these websites there is so much information to get our brains going on early childhood.I believe if more states had programs such as PACE, this will help everyone to provide a high quality education from the start.