Final Blog: Issues and Trends, EDUC 6162

Three consequences of learning about the international early childhood field:
1. I am more aware of issues that others face that live in other parts of the world.
2. I am even more appreciative for what I have.
3. Learning about the international field of early childhood made me reflect on my professional and personal life.

One goal for the field related to international awareness of issues and trends and the spirit of collegial relations:
1. To learn all you can about different issues, culture, from around the world and apply that information to your professional and personal life.
2. To be advocates for issues that you feel passionate about.

Getting to know your international contacts part 3

I have learned three new things about issues related to international early childhood education.
"The first eight years of a child’s life are decisive for human development. Yet statistics on early childhood in Africa are appalling.

• Less than 12% of African children currently have access to Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) services.
• 12,000 African children die every day under conditions that could have been avoided – the equivalent of a Boeing 747 crashing every hour.
• Of the 76% of children entering primary school each year, 38% have experienced moderate or severe malnutrition impacting on their psychomotor and cognitive development" (UNESCO).

These ideas relate to my future goals of being a director of a child care center and teaching other teachers at a community college. The idea about children not having access to early childhood education can be changed if directors, teachers, and professors would be advocates for changing policies and help to advocate for new program funding. More funding of programs may allow more children to have access to education. The second idea relates to my future goals by being advocates for early childhood. Informing parents and the community about different topics that they need information on. If families are informed about services and given information they need, then they may have the help they need to better themselves. The third idea relates to my professional goals by teaching other teachers about poverty and the effects it has on people. The future teachers would be better able to understand what some of the children and families maybe going through that they work with.
References
UNESCO's "Early Childhood Care and Education" website http://unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Sharing Web Resources Week 6

1. I have been exploring the zero to three website. I followed an outside link under the maltreatment section. It lead me to The National Child Traumatic Stress Network. The website told about different types of trauma and gave resources.
2. I researched the area of care and education under the zero to three website. Under this section, it gave childcare and told what to look for in chilcare, transition to childcare. It also mentioned care from family, friends, and neighbors. The section I explored more in depth was on school readiness interactive birth to 3. This was a tool that was designed to support children's early learning. It give age based information about how children develop four skills that are important for school readiness. These included language, litteracy skills, self confidence, and self control. This part let you choose an age group and read about how to develop school readiness skills, how parents and caregivers can nurture and support school readiness skills, and also gave videos, activities, and answered frequently asked questions.
3. I think I signed up to recieve the zero to three newsletter but have not recieved the newsletter yet.
4. The website added to my information about equity and excellence. The website mentioned under the care and education tab that all childcare arrangements can lead to high quality, individualized, responsive, stimulating experiences that occur within the context of strong relationships imbedded in every day routines. I feel that although all realtionships have the potentional to be high quality, not all realtionships are posible of high quality care. The main thing that came to my mind was in care settings that the children were being mistreated or exposed to trauma.
5. Other insights I had this week: If a child is interested and involved in an activity, the child is learning. Activities that push children to read and write words don't help their development or make them do better in school. Can make children feel like failures when they are pushed to do something they don't enjoy or that is beyond their skills.
Refernces:
www.zerotothree.org

Getting to Know your international contacts part 2

 

I watched a video from the World Forum Foundation this week called “The Leaders of Tomorrow”. This video helped give me different insights from around the world. The video talked about leaders and the qualities of a leader. Leaders need to be credible, honest, intelligent, expressive, and forward looking. The video mentioned that by the age of six, it is too late for interventions. I found this interesting. I also learned that around the world, there are many common areas of need. These areas include lack of awareness, funding, and quality teachers. These fit in with the issues of equity and excellence. In Tanzia, Nigeria, and Haiti, children are still struggling to get their basic needs met. They are dealing with malnutrition, polluted air, and water.  I also learned that in China, Korea that children are losing time to play because the focus is on the academics (World Forum Foundation, 2011). This is not any different than what we are facing in the United States.

I reviewed the Harvard University’s website this week. I started by looking at the different programs that the organization was involved in. I reviewed the information on the Good Start Project in Santiago, Chile. The program focused on language development, health topics, and socioemotional areas of development. I then found an article that I found very interesting information. The article was accessible under the Zambian early childhood project. The Zambian project focuses on anti-malaria initiative. I learned that Malaria still does not have a cure. I knew years ago that there was not a cure but I thought there would be by now. In Zambia, the leading cause of death is Malaria. HIV is the other cause of death in Zambia. The country of Zambia determines if a child is healthy by whether or not their growth is stunted. “Where you are at age 6, before you enter school, predicts so many things in your life, and yet we have no way of comparing one country to another” (Gunther Fink, 2011).

References

Harvard University’s Global Children’s Initiative. (2014). Creating a new measure of child development. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/faculty_and_staff/faculty/faculty_spotlights/faculty_spotlight_fink/

World Forum Foundation. (2011). The leaders of tomorrow. http://worldforumfoundation.org/media-and-resources/wofo-tv/