SHARING WEB RESOURCES: INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS, PART 3

The three insights that I gained from this website is:

1.       There is a major push for promoting literacy in Nigeria.  "Reading materials which promote local knowledge and values as well as cultures and traditions should be developed to promote a multilingual literate environment at home, community, learning centres and work places," stated by the  Representative of the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Bergudo (UNESCO, 2011) . Literacy needs to be established to help meet the developmental and educational goals of the children and their families.

2.       On the week of April 22-28 it will be Global Action Week.  This organization promotes education for all children.  There are six goals that the organization has established.  These goals include (UNESCO):

Goal 1
Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children

Goal 2
Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality.

Goal 3
Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes.

Goal 4
Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.

Goal 5
Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality.

Goal 6
Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills (2011).

3.      In the article, Education of Roma children among the subjects of World Conference on Early Childhood Care and Education, it focuses on the educational and learning benefits that the Roma children receive. Despite the efforts to expand and improve education for Roma children, as many as 50 per cent of those in Europe fail to complete primary education (UNESCO, 2011).

Resources: 

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/single-view/news/education_of_roma_children_among_the_subjects_of_world_conference_on_early_childhood_care_and_education/

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/world-conference-on-ecce/single-view/news/get_ready_for_global_action_week_23_29_april_2012/

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/dakar/about-this-office/single-view/news/major_push_for_adult_and_youth_literacy_in_nigeria/

SHARING WEB RESOURCES

Equity and Excellence is an important ingredient for the success of the NAEYC.  The NAEYC focuses on the well-being of the child.  NAEYC promotes quality and care for all children. The NAEYC states:

Several decades of research clearly demonstrate that high-quality; developmentally appropriate early childhood programs produce short- and long-term positive effects on children's cognitive and social development. NAEYC believes that our nation is at a crossroads. We must develop an integrated system of early childhood care and education that includes comprehensive approaches that directly involve families and communities in program design, implementation, and evaluation. We can invest now in our children and families and enjoy long-term savings, with a more vibrant nation of healthy, achieving children and more stable families. Or, we can fail to make the investment and pay the price: increased delinquency, greater educational failures, lowered productivity, less economic competitiveness, and fewer adults prepared to be effective, loving parents to the next generation of children. Federal, state and local government, communities, parents, and the private sector must share in the responsibility of ensuring the well-being of children and families (2006).

The NAEYC believes that all children should have access to educational programs.  Furthermore, teachers and professionals must have continuous trainings to help meet the needs of the children and their families.  The NAEYC also believes that in order to achieve these goals at the national, state, and local levels, policies and decisions must be guided of principles of Excellence, Access, Equity, Diversity, and Accountability. If all of these principles are implemented, then the future of all children will be promising.

On the National Association for the Education of Young Children website, it discusses how next month the NAEYC is focusing on mental health for young children.  This is an issue that has been gain momentum over the past years. As early childhood professionals, we have to become educated on the types and treatments of mental health that affect our children, as well as their families.  Activities will raise awareness of effective programs for children’s mental health needs; demonstrate how children’s mental health initiatives promote positive youth development, recovery, and resilience; and show how children with mental health needs can thrive in their communities (NAEYC, 2012). In our Early Head Start program, we have a mental health specialist that focuses on behavioral issues that affect young children.  If a problem is diagnosed then the mental health specialist will make a referral to an outside agency.  As a teacher, we have to be prepared to deal with any issue that may affect a child’s educational process.  Children need to be treated with respect, regardless of what kind of issue they may incur. I am very passionate about mental health awareness in my community, because I have seen from experience, what happens when a person does not receive the appropriate treatment from the educational system when they are suffering from a mental health issue.  Therefore, I believe that teachers should attend workshops or trainings that reflect mental health.

Also, this week on the NAEYC website it focuses on Earth Day, which is Sunday, April 22, 2012.  The website has articles that give teachers or parent’s ideas on projects and activities that they can do with young children.  In the article, “Ensuring that all Children Can Spend Quality Time Outdoors” discusses the importance of children experiencing nature.  One of Children Nature Network goals is to reduce the disparities in children’s outdoor play and the health and mental health outcomes associated with a lack of outdoor experience (Erickson, 2008).  Young children need to engage in outdoor play because it increases their knowledge about nature.

While reviewing the NAEYC website this week, I increased my knowledge on the well-being and development, equity and excellence, and quality education for young children.

References:

Erickson, M. 2008. The Children Nature Network. Ensuring that all Children Can Spend Quality Time Outdoors”. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/yc/file/200801/BTJNatureErickson.pdf.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). 2008. A Call for Excellence in Early Childhood Education.  Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/policy/excellence

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). 2012.  National Children’s Mental Health Awareness Day. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/children-mental-health

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS---------PART 2

Unfortunately, I still have not made any contact with my international resource, and I am going to continue trying to contact one of them.  Therefore for this week blog assignment I had to do to the alternative assignment.

The first insight from the website that I found relevant was the topic on mental health.  Mental health is becoming a very important topic in the early childhood field.  So many young children are being diagnosed with mental health issues at such a young age. There is an urgent need to identify the scope of the problem within and across countries and to develop evidence-based approaches in policy and service delivery that are responsive to diverse cultural contexts. In the article it discusses how China is trying to assess mental health in their children; how in Rwanda they are discussing how mental health issues affect children with AIDS/HIV; and how to address mental health issues in children who live in the Caribbean’s.

The second insight that I gained from this website is the information on Un Buena Comienzo (UBC), “A Good Start.” This is a collaborative project in Santiago, Chile, to improve early childhood education through teacher professional development (Developing Child).  Its helps with health issues in critical areas. The programs encompass international and national parts of the world which relies on contributions form private and public sectors.

 

The third insight is about Brazil, who is collaborating with local experts to discuss issues about the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families.  This information taught me that states and countries have to rely on each other to give positive input about how to better meet the developmental needs of the child.

From reading this website, I concluded that the international countries have put much equity into the health and development of their children by doing research and studies so that can provide their children with excellence in care.

Reference:

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

SHARING WEB RESOURCES E-NEWSLETTERS

The organization that I am following is the National Association for the Education of Young Children.  This organization focuses on the development and well-being of young children.  In the volume Teaching Young Children and the issue titled “Unplanned Explorations and Lively Minds” it focuses on how  as educators we should just let children learn new experiences own their own, without the guidance and planning of a teacher.  I believe that the whole issue was related to my current professional development because it gave me an insight and knowledge on how to continue to provide a learning environment for young children.  For example, if children were engaging in conversation, the teacher would not interrupt; instead she would document the development of language skills.  This issue also focused on how as early childhood professionals we should encourage, support, and create a learning environment for young children.

At the present time none of the ideas, statements, or resources made me thinks about the issue in a new way.  The information on the website only enhanced my knowledge about the issue in the Early Childhood Field.

 In the issue it discusses how children who are 5 years old need a rich and learning environment, just as the neuroscientists having been saying all of the time; and now the economists and politicians are seeing the value of early education and the significant benefits of children acquiring knowledge at such young ages.

From exploring the website, I realized that NAEYC is committed to meeting the needs of young children.

References:

National Association for the Education of Young Children http://www.naeyc.org/tyc/article/unplanned-explorations-lively-minds

Getting to Know Your International Contacts- Part 1

As of today, I still have not made any contact with my outside professional contacts.  Therefore, I am giving insights on the poverty in Mongolia. The CHIP programme emphasizes the importance of preventing poverty in the particularly vulnerable first years of life thereby reducing the chance of poverty persisting over an individual life course or through the generations (http://www.childhood poverty.org/index.php).

One of the countries that are related to the CHIP program is Mongolia. Mongolia was a strong country but transitioned into poverty because they became an open economy. This transition affected many of the Mongolian families.  There is an inequality of services provided to the rich and poor families of Mongolia.

The three insights that I gained from reading this article is:

1.       The Mongolians used to get accessible and high quality healthcare before the transition.  The quality of services is bad and those who can often turn to private health clinics for treatment, further increasing the gap between rich and poor.  In certain areas the quality of healthcare is very poor. They are also tackling the issue so that they can help defeat poverty.

2.     They have a very high increase of families beneath the poverty line. Many children who are poor live in female headed households. Poverty is higher in urban areas than rural areas.

3.     Many of the children have to find jobs which cause them to drop out of school. The children have a responsibility to bring money into the home. Poverty really has had an effect on the educational process of the Mongolian children. 

Mongolia has been increasing their knowledge on the poverty issue by comparing their social and economic growth to other areas around the world. They also are doing research on what is actually causing poverty in these areas.  The Mongolians are also reaching out to the policymakers to help reduce poverty.

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/)

SHARING WEB RESOURCES

The name of the website outside of the United States that I chose to review is Association for Childhood Education International.  The link is http://acei.org/  and the online resource is http://acei.org/knowledge/. The organization’s  mission is to promote and support the optimal education and development of children worldwide, and to influence the professional growth of educators and the efforts of others who are committed to the needs of children in a changing society http://acei.org/ .  I chose  this  website because it  focuses on all children  and their education well-being. I believe that all children should have the right to a fair and quality education.

The current issue that caught my attention  was the article on Supporting Quality Education: Public-Private Partnerships . The article main focus was how Latin based corporate companies donate their monies to education to provide for high quality education.  Whereas, American based companies provide money that is put into the general education sectors.  Basically the American companies do not fully thrive for high quality education, only basic education.  The Latin based corporate companies also make long term investments toward high quality education.

While reviewing the resources, I noticed that demographics and diversity all correlate with effective and quality education.  Organizations that are private or public should support quality education.  They should make an effort to support these education goals for a long term commitment.  I believe that companies should make it their obligations to donate money into the educational system, because all children deserve the right to have an education.  I believe that if more companies would support a child, then the child will have a positive educational outcome.

References:

http://acei.org/

http://www.acei.org/global-news/supporting-quality-education-public-private-partnerships.html

PROFESSIONAL CONTACTS

This week our assignment was to establish professional contacts with individuals outside of the United States.  However, I emailed many professionals from various parts of the world that were listed in the resource list, and I have not received a response from any of them at this time.  Also, many of my emails were returned because of failed notification or email address not valid. I will be thrilled when one of them emails me back so that I can learn about Early Childhood Education from their perspective.  I feel that this is an opportunity for me to expand my horizons from other people who represent other cultures and countries. When I receive a response from one of the individuals that I emailed I will update it in my blog post.

The website that I choose to explore was the National Association for the Education of the Young Child. This is an organization that focuses primarily on the well-being of the child, including, individual, cultural, diversity, and ethnicity.  It provides many resources, policies, and standards for early childhood professionals to follow as guidelines to better serve the child, family, and the community, as well as guidelines to enhance your own professional development.  The NAEYC also provides information on curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation (National Association for the Education of Young Children).   The goal of the NAEYC is to provide effective programs and practices for the child in a safe, nurturing, and learning environment.

 In NAEYC news they are headlining the Week of the Young Child which is April 22-28.  Last year my son was excited during the week of the Young Child.  Each day they had an opportunity to explore literacy, language, and role play, physical and social skills through the eyes of Dr. Seuss, community leaders, various occupations and super-heroes.  I thought the way that the center implemented different ideas into the curriculum was a way to show each child that they are unique and special.  The entire week was focused on the child, giving the parents and communities a chance to see how much their child had progressed over the past several months.

Reference:

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (n.d.). Where we stand on curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation. Retreived from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/StandCurrAss.pdf