Sunday, May 31, 2015

Sharing Web Resources


The website that I have been researching is The National Association for the Education of Young Children. The section of the website that interests me the most is the section regarding professional development opportunities. In this section there is a list of training opportunities, annual conference information and other accreditation and training opportunities. This information is relevant to me as I am constantly looking for ways to better my teaching skills and stay abreast of current issues in Early Childhood Education.

 

A portion of the website is entitled, Effective Advocacy Resources. There is information pertaining to how members of the community can support the field of ECE through voting and lobbying. Politics play a large part in how child care centers are funded and how they are regulated. Citizens should understand that they have the ability to change policies through being an active member of society.

 

A new insight that I gained through my website research is how much information can be obtained through this website. I have spent hours scrolling through the NAEYC website and each time I see something that I did not see before.

 

 

References

 
The National Association for the Education of Young Children www.naeyc.org

Thursday, May 21, 2015

Getting to Know Your International Contact


Overseas Contact

 

I contacted an organization called “Thrive” that was trying to connect me with an Early Childhood Professional in Pakistan. After several emails and no response, I gave up hope with this contact and began searching through social networking and people that I know for another one. I know that there is an alternative assignment, but I am really interested in making contact with someone overseas and discussing the similarities and differences between education here in the U.S. and education in other countries.

 
It turns out that one of my co-workers has a daughter in Iran that teaches young children. Her name is name is Farnaz Fahool and she teaches a private Kindergarten class in Mashhad, Iran.  Phone calls will not be possible due to the time difference and our daily schedules. I have emailed her and I am waiting on
a response.

 
Information on Poverty

 
The website that I chose to research was the National Center for Children in Poverty ( http://www.nccp.org/)  This website contains a wealth of information about poverty and it is well organized and easy to navigate, I have some basic knowledge on how poverty effects young children, but after doing research on this website I learned much more. I learned that there is a difference between being “poor” and being “low income”. The National Center for Children in Poverty defines
children living in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold – $23,624 for a family of four with two children in 2013 – as poor and children
living in families with incomes below twice this level as low income. (http://www.nccp.org 2013)

I also learned that the percentage of low income families in the state where I live, Virginia, is a lot higher than I thought. The low-income percentage is 36%.

Doing this research has made me want to contact my local social services office to find out what I can do to help aide in the war against poverty. I am just one
person, but if I can even help just one child, I will feel that I am making a difference.
 
References
The National Center for Children in Poverty http://www.nccp.org

 



Friday, May 15, 2015

Early Childhood Organization


The organization I chose to research is The National Association for the Education of Young Children www.naeyc.org

NAEC’s mission statement is: NAEYC promotes high-quality early learning for all children, birth through age 8, by connecting practice, policy, and research. We advance a diverse, dynamic early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children. (www.naeyc.org)

On the NAEYC website there is a place marked News and Highlights, here you can access the NAEYC blog where professionals write articles for educators and families to read. I chose to read a blog article titled “Professionalizing the Early Childhood Field” http://www.naeyc.org/blogs/gclarke/2015/04/professionalizing-early-childhood-field

This article interested me immediately. Over the years the Early Childhood Field has worked tirelessly to prove its importance and professionalism. In order to show that we are more than “Glorified Baby-Sitters”, Early Childhood professionals need to ensure that they are becoming and remaining educated in the field. This article discusses the importance of this issue along with barriers that Early Childhood
Professionals may face in meeting their educational goals.

I would recommend this blog for others to follows.

Update on ECE Professional Contact

I received an email this week from the organization that I contacted on in order to get in touch with an ECE professional overseas. The organization put me in touch with a professional in Pakistan. I contacted the professional by email myself, but have not heard anything back so far.

Hope everyone else is having good luck in this assignment!

 

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Establishing Professional Conacts


Making contact with Early Childhood Professionals outside of the United States was more challenging than I thought. I have contacted an organization called “Thrive” in hopes of making contact with other professionals. Thrive is a network of organizations that have merged and work toward making a difference around the world. They have divisions dealing with health care, education and other issues of social welfare. There Model is: “We are connecting great ideas and people together in surprising ways to increase impact” http://thrivenetworks.org/program/early-childhood-education

 I thought this would be a good organization to try and make contact with a professional. I obtained an email address from the contact page and emailed the director asking for help in contacting an Early Childhood Professional in their network outside of the United States. I hope to make contact with someone within the upcoming week. I am excited with the idea of discussing the Early Childhood Field with someone from another country. I would like to see what the similarities and differences are.

The website that I chose to research and review was The National Association for the Education of Young Children. NAEYC is the leading organization in the Early Childhood Field. I chose the NAEYC website because it is well organized and I know the information that I find will be credible and accurate. Along with other publications, NAEYC publishes a quarterly journal called Early Childhood Research Quarterly. The journal contains research on Early Childhood. I plan on reading a few editions of the Journal to discuss on this blog.

I hope everyone luck in communicating with someone in the Early Childhood Field outside of the United States. I am interested to what everyone else’s results will be.