Professional Hopes and Goals

The one hope that I have when working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that they are welcomed with open hearts and arms and that those families can continue to experience their home language and traditions and share them with other families.  That diversity is welcomed in every center around the world and that every child is treated in a fair and equitable manner.

The goal that I would set for the early childhood field is that all early childhood professionals welcome diverse groups in a fair and equitable manner, that cultures are respected, home languages are encouraged, and that relationships are built with each child and their families.

This has been a long and challenging class that has made me focus on my past and how the past influences my future.  I want to thank each and every one of you for your input in this learning process.  I appreciate all the support that you have given to me, and that I truly hope that I have demonstrated my support in a non-microaggessive manner.  I hope that everyone has a safe and relaxing break. 

Thank you again,

Luci

Diversity: Welcoming Families from Around the World

The country that I chose is the Netherlands.  I chose this country because my ancestors are from there.  I do not know anything about this country and I am curious about their lifestyles.

To prepare for this family I would:

1.      Research the cultures from this country to help prepare the classroom to meet the child’s needs and to help with interactions.

2.      Research the different languages and dialects that they may have.  This will help me in preparing materials and labels, notes, and any and all interactions that happens in the school.

3.      Prepare books that have pictures of people and scenes from the Netherlands.  This will help the child feel like he/she belongs and is important to our class.  Hopefully I could also get pictures of the family to include.

4.      Prepare or purchase music that depicts the family’s cultures.  Music can be soothing and will help the family feel like they belong.  I would try to incorporate the music into the class traditions so that the other children could become a custom to it.

5.      I would talk to the children in the class about the new family, about what it might feel like to move away from home leaving friends behind.  I would show them pictures of the Netherlands so that they are aware of where this family is coming from.  I would have the children help me to setup the classroom to invite our new friend and help him/her to become accustom to the class routines.

Doing research and becoming aware of the different cultures that this family has will hep with meetings, visits, and classroom setups.  I think that if they could see something similar to their home it might help them feel more comfortable.  I also think that it is important that children are involved in the learning process.  You cannot just throw a new culture at them and say deal with it.  Everyone gets hurt if you do.  Having the children help will also help them to understand some of the differences and some of the things that are similar.  They will also listen and learn about different ways of life.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

A memory that I hold of bias, prejudice, and/or discrimination:

I was discriminated against when I went to purchase a car from a used car dealership and the owner told me that I needed to get my husband so that he could check the car out.  I was a single mother that grew up with five brothers, I probably knew more about whether I wanted the car and the condition of the car then the dealer did if he would have given me the opportunity.  However he never gave me the opportunity and he lost a sale.  I went to another car dealership and bought a car. 

The car dealer diminished equity by thinking that you have to be male in order to know anything about cars and to buy a car.  He took the power away from me because I was a female.

The dealer would need to change his opinion on females and the roles that they play in order for true change in this situation; however, if I had voiced my opinion and stated the facts he might have allowed me to view the car.

A movie and book that I really enjoy that I think demonstrates power struggles and biases is “Heidi”.  It’s about a family that has a disagreement and the boy and his wife die from a tree falling on them.  The baby survives however the Granddad blames himself for the death of his son and daughter-in-law and has a hard time coming to terms with his loss.  The village people view his behavior as inappropriate and label him especially when the child comes to live with him.  The child goes to live with a rich little girl that thinks that she belongs to her. It is a good show that demonstrates some of the “isms” that we have been studying and resolves a lot of these conflicts.

If you have seen the movie or read the book please fill free to give me your opinion.

Microaggression

Microaggression are brief everyday indignities that  maybe verbal, behavioral, or environmental, communicated intentionally or unintentionally, contains an insulting message and often causes severe psychological stress and harm (Laureate Education, Inc., n.d.).

An example of microaggression that I experienced this week is that during a teacher meeting at work we found out that we had a mandatory literacy activity on Monday the 10^th of December and I made a comment that it was going to be rough because Monday nights are boy scout night and the comment that “why can’t you husband take him? It is Boy Scouts after all.  The emphasis was on boy and the assumption that I got was that it should be a father/son only thing.  This left me thinking that because I was a girl I was not supposed to take my son to boy scouts.

The information that I received this week has me watching closely at what is being said and for reactions to those words.  Because people take meaning from words in different forms things that are said maybe misinterpreted.  Watching for a reaction will help me in determining if I said something that offended some one.  I need to know if I am going to be able to monitor and fix the hidden biases that I am not fully aware of.  The two implicit Association tests (IAT) that I took young versus old and thin versus fat.  The test suggests that I have a strong preference towards young to old and thin to fat.  I found this kind of interesting as I am on the fat side and older than most of my peers.

Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (n.d.). Microaggressions in everyday Life. [Video Webcast]. In Perspective, Diversity, and Equality Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_1958978_1%26url%3D

Diversity…? Culture…?

I talked to four different people about what diversity and culture means to them.  They all had similar responses.  Their responses were:

Diversity

·         Diversity is the different ethnicity, cultures, social economics, traditions and values.

·         Diversity is different ways of life; cultural, social, economic, psychological.  It is people coming together, working together.

·         Diversity is things that are different about each other, ethnicity, race, demographics, age, and language.

·         Diversity is race and cultures.

Culture

·         Culture is an aspect of diversity, community values, likes, and dislikes. It can be broad like American culture or it can be regional, or community.

·         Culture is the way of life.  It is a group of people and the way they see and view the world.

·         Culture is everything, demographics, the groups that you hang out with, economics, race, ethnicity, and age.

·         Culture is people’s beliefs, the way they were raised, and backgrounds.

“The word culture refers to how particular groups of people live.  It is the way we eat, sleep, talk, play, care for the sick, relate to one another, think about work, arrange our kitchens, and remember our dead.  It includes the language we speak, the religion or spirituality we practice (or do not), and the clothing, housing, food and rituals/holidays with which we feel most comfortable” (Derman-Sparks & Edwards, 2012, p. 55).  With this being said the people I talked to discussed culture as the way we see and view the world around us, our beliefs and our backgrounds.  They mentioned all the big stuff that people often thinks about we talking about culture; however they did not mention any of the smaller aspects like the foods that we eat, where we sleep, and how we care for each other.

I think that diversity and culture goes hand in hand.  Every culture is diverse meaning that it is different from other cultures.  There is also diversity within cultural groups as no two people are the same. 

Reference:

Derman-Sparks, L. and Edwards, J. (2012). Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves. Washington, DC; National Association for the Education of Young Children



Family Culture

If there were a major catastrophe and my family and I had to evacuate the three items that I would take would be:

1.      Family photo album

2.      A stuffed doll that I have had since I was two.

3.      A quilt that my grandmother made for me.

The photo album reminds me of my ancestors, growing up years, and my children.  My stuff doll was the one thing that I could tell everything to without feeling like I am being judged.  I hurt no one’s feelings and I was able to relieve some of my stress.  The quilt is a patchwork that was made with love especially for me by my grandmother.

To have to give up anyone of these items would hurt very much.  It would be like giving up a part of who I am and how I survived to get here.  I do not which item that I would choose to keep if I could only keep one.  Though I do not use my doll like I did when I was younger she would be very hard to part with as she knows more about me than anyone else.  The quilt is very special to me it was made out of materials from dresses that I used to wear.  My grandmother signed the quilt with love and made it special for me.  It would keep me warm and remind me of times that I spent with my grandmother.  Pictures are something that cannot be replaced.  Pictures help to tell stories of the past and to see relatives that I have never met, such as my grandpa on my mother’s side.  He died during war when my mom was just four months old. 

I grew up in a large family and I really had to think about what I would take with me.  It might be to my benefit to place pictures on my computer and making my computer one of the items that I take with me.  If I did this I could take a picture of my doll and the quilt to have though it would not be the same as having it in person. 

When I Think of Research…

When I Think of Research…

I want to start by saying this has been a challenging course for me.  I knew next to nothing about doing research before I began this course so the insights that I gained are too much to write in this paper.  I learned that there are different methods of research quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods.  I learned that there are different methods of choosing the participants that are in the research study.  I found it interesting that in quantitative research researchers perform experiments and get facts that are numeric related while qualitative gives the meaning or understanding of the study (Mac Naughton, Rolfe, & Siraj-Blatchford, 2010).  If researchers mix the methods they could get a complete picture with a numeric experiment with meaning and understanding.  I guess you would say a full story of the research study. 

I understand more about research and the process of doing a research study.  The simulation that we did during this course has helped to build my understanding.  Research is challenging and hard work.  I understand more about research that I am comfortable about reading and conducting literature reviews.

Designing a research study takes time to gather the question and to decide what method of research to use.  Deciding who the participants that are needed and how researchers decide their sampling is a step that I never considered.  Conducting research is a challenge for me however I feel that with practice research designs would be less challenging.

Writing a research question that was simple enough to be conducted in a single resource study was challenging.  I feel that my research questions have been very broad; however I learned that in a qualitative study the researcher question can be broader then in a quantitative study.  The quantitative research question needs to have a cause and effect that can be turned into an experiment.  This whole course has been challenging for me.  Learning a lot about research and the ways to design a research study is a challenge in itself.

My perceptions of early childhood professionals are still held highly.  I have found a new perspective of researchers in the early childhood field.  Research is continuously needed to improve the early childhood field.  This research benefits children and early childhood educators by giving new information that is needed to increase the learning and development of young children.

Finally, I would like to thank all my colleagues for their support, feedback, and sharing of their knowledge.  I have learned a lot about research with your help and I thank you.  I would also like to thank Dr. Barbara Walker for stepping in, not making a bunch of changes for the course, and for your responses and feedback.  I appreciate your assistance in this course.

Luci

Research Around the World

I explored Early Childhood Australia through the website http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/ I saw a lot of similarities to NAEYC website.  The following are the research themes that I found while exploring this site:

·         Being, Belonging, and Becoming

·         School Readiness and Children’s transitions

·         Sustainability, global warming and climate change

·         Baby and Toddler sleeping

·         Child health and childhood obesity

The Early Childhood Australia (ECA) position statement of regret and commitment to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families:  The ECA recognizes them as the original inhabitants of Australia; the ECA is committed to reconciliation and recognize that home cultures help develop an identity and self-worth. 

While exploring ECA position statement: children of Asylum Seekers I found this interesting bit of information: “half of the world’s refugees are children.”  This tells us that we really need to focus on these children giving them the extra support.  As I explored I found that Australia’s early childhood field is researching the same or similar issues that we are in the United States.

This website is worthy of further exploration. 

Research Studies

            The research that I would study if I had no limitations or restrictions would be: What skills do young children need to be successful when entering public school?  School readiness skills are very important for young children to be successful throughout their education and life. As years go by I am seeing more and more expectations on young children and most of it is not developmentally appropriate, and I feel that we need to know where young children should be developmentally to be successful.  My goal would be to study developmental skills starting in infants and setting standards that build up to replace the standards that start at third grade and goes down.  We need to start at the beginning and move forward in what we expect of young children.  We need to teach them to be life-long learners and that will not happen if our expectations for them are out of their reach.

Research Journey

The topic I chose is at what age do problem-solving skills start in young children?  I work with children that have special needs and I facilitate problem-solving skills.  I use the Second Step curriculum to help with this and to build social skills in my classroom.  I need to know that I am not pushing skills that children are not ready for and to know where my students should be.  Problem-solving skills are used throughout life and are a very important school readiness skill.   Children need problem-solving skills to be successful in school and in life.

This class and constructing research has been very challenging.  I have learned a lot and we are only in week 2.  Any suggestions and insights for researching as well as research articles that you might find on problem-solving skills in young children would be much appreciated. 

Some articles that I have found:

Webster-Stratton, C. & Reid, M. J. (2004). Strengthening social and emotional competence in young children-The foundation for early school readiness and success: Incredible years classroom social skills and problem-solving curriculum. Infants and Young Children, 17(2), p. 96-113. Retrieved from http://journals.lww.com/iycjournal/Abstract/2004/04000/Strengthening_Social_and_Emotional_Competence_in.2.aspx

Bernard-Opitz, V. Sriram, N. and Nakhoda-Sapuan, S. (2001). Enhancing social problems solving in children with autism and normal children through computer-assisted instruction. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 31(4), 377-384. DOI: 10.1023/A:1010660502130 Retrieved from http://www.springerlink.com/content/k2t2416v357q3883/

Final Issues and Trends Blog

Three consequences for learning about international early childhood field:

1.      Learning about the international early childhood field has helped me to see that the early childhood field is growing in quality around the world.  Though this growth has slowed down due to the recession we were well on our way to high-quality early childhood education and care.

2.      Inequitable high-quality care is happening everywhere and there are so countries in worse shape than ours.  We need to work together throughout all states and countries, advocating for equitable high-quality in the early childhood field.

3.      I learned about where some of the children that migrate from and the early schooling that they may or may not have received.  This gives me an idea of where some of my children and families came from helping me to learn their cultures and beliefs.

The one goal that I have for the early childhood field is:

To build equitable high-quality early childhood education and care programs that maintains high learning and program standards and that demonstrates cultural and ethnical awareness for each young child and their family.

I would also like to take a moment to throw out a special thank you to my colleagues whom have given me great feedback throughout this course and have also given me new insight into the issues and trends in the early childhood field.  A special thank you to Dr. Thomason for her beneficial feedback and support as well.  Thank you!!

International Contacts Alternative – Part 3



As I have yet to hear from any international contacts, I explored UNESCO’s “Early Child Care and Education” website at http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/.  During this exploration I found the article Inter-Ministerial Collaboration in Early Childhood Training in Singapore written by Khoo Kim Choo in 2004.  In this article I learned that the Ministry of Community Development and Sports (MCDS) and Ministry of Education (MOE) both support early childhood education and care; however most programs fall under the MCDS.  Childcare that falls under MCDS has state-subsidized with assistance for poor children.  MOE supports preschool serving ages 4-6 their program ranges from 2-4 hours.  These programs has a preschool fees that are lower than childcare, but they do not offer state-subsidized; however financial assistance is available.  Ninety-nine percent of children in primary one (grade 1) had attended at least one year if not two or three in preschool under MOE or MCDS.  In the early 1970s in-service training was ad hoc and brief only 60 hours; however as the years went by the program was extended to 90 hours then to 120 hours.  Preschool teachers trailed behind childcare teachers during this time.  Preschool qualification Accreditation Committee (PQAC) came up with three levels of training for both sectors leading to a Certification in Preschool Teaching which is 470 hours, Diploma in Preschool Education Teaching which is 700 hours, and Diploma in Preschool Education Leadership which is 500 hours.

            I continued to explore UNESCO’s “Early Child Care and Education” website and found multiple articles concerning access to early childhood programs, as well as quality in early childhood.  All of these articles were written in 2002-2004 so most of the information that was gathered came from the late 90’s early 2000s.  I learned from the article Access, Public Investment, and Equity in ECCE: The Nexus in Nine High-Population Countries that “In 1993, the heads of state and government of nine high-population countries – Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria and Pakistan – launched the E-9 Initiative aimed at achieving concrete progress in basic education” (Choi, 2004, para 1).  I also learned that these countries hold 55 percent of the world’s population of children 14 and younger.  “The average proportion of this age group in the countries is shrinking, from 35% in 2001 to a projected 30% in 2015; and the fertility rate is also declining, from 5.8 (1970-75) to 3.2 (2000-5), per woman. Overall population growth in E-9 countries is projected to be 1.5% by 2015 compared with 2.1% in 1975-2001” (Choi, 2004, para. 2). 

            With the decrease and expected decrease in children I wonder if that is part of the reason that early childhood is getting left out on services that they need.  I also wonder if this age group is rising faster than the expectations due to immigration.  I know that expectations for preschool teachers have risen since these articles and that the quality of early childhood education and care has risen however the equity still needs improvements.

Resources:

Choi, S. (2004). Access, public investment, and equity in ECCE: The Nexus in nine high-population countries. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved from  http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137408e.pdf

Choo, K. (2004). Inter-ministerial collaboration in early childhood training in Singapore. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137413e.pdf

Exploring Resources

 I have been exploring the website NIEER http://nieer.org.  I receive the biweekly online newsletter as well.    I have further explored NIEERs website and found multiple research articles in different categories.  The categories are Access, Assessment, Quality and Curriculum, Special Education, Economics and Finance, State of Pre-K Evaluations, English Language Learners, State Programs, Governance and Accountability, Teachers, Outcomes, and Universal and Targeted.  Another area of this website is News and Events.  This section maintains archives of news releases about early education.  NIEER also has a lot of publications to include The State of Preschool annual reports from 2003 until 2011, journal articles, latest research, archives of NIEER online newsletter, NIEER videos, NIEER working papers, Policy Matters Briefs, Policy reports, Preschool Matters Newsletters, presentations, and recommended books.

This edition of the NIEER biweekly online newsletter contains a lot of information about funding issues in early education.  One topic caught my attention when I read the preview “Senator Tom Harkin estimates that approximately 46,000 employees currently employed through Title 1, special education, and Head Start funds could lose their jobs” (NIEER, 2012).  If this happens where would it leave our young children?  I further reviewed this report from Senator Harkin and found that “under the Budget Control Act, Federal programs face an across-the-board cut in January 2013 if Congress does not enact a plan before then to reduce the national debt by $1.2 trillion” (Harkin, 2012, p. 2). “A December 2011 study found that investing $1 billion in health care or education creates significantly more jobs within the U.S. economy than spending $1 billion on the military. In health care, the difference is 54 percent more jobs; in education, 138 percent.” (Harkin, 2012, p. 2).  Congress really needs to work on fixing the budget so that our youngest members of society do not suffer the consequences.  This report is 181 pages long and breaks down the federal programs that lose funds and the loss of employment in the education field.

 The NIEER website and its online newsletter is packed full of information that goes along with the issues of access, availability, and responsiveness in early childhood education.  The information that I learned as I read Senator Harkins report about the possibility of 46,000 people in the education field losing their job if congress does not find a solution to the budget crisis.  This really scares me as I work in a Title 1 and special education learning community.

Resources:

Harkin, T. (2012). Under threat sequestration’s impact on nondefense jobs and services. Retrieved from http://harkin.senate.gov/documents/pdf/500ff3554f9ba.pdf

National Institute for Early Education Research. (2012). Online news. 11(16).

NIEER website http://nieer.org

International Contacts

As of yet I have not heard from any of the international contacts that I emailed.  I am hopeful that someone well email me back however I did look up a podcast to listen to and reviewed the Children’s Initiative website.

The podcast titled ‘Beyond School Books’ – a podcast series on Education in Emergencies by Rudina Vojvoda talked about how there are 200 million children under the age of five that are not able to reach their full potential in cognitive development due to poverty, conflict, malnutrition, inadequate care and lack of educational opportunities.  The moderator Kathryn Herzog spoke with Dr. Jack Shonkoff and Dr. Chloe O’Gara about this issue.

According to Dr. Shonkoff neuroscience suggests that stronger returns on investments could come from programs that not only provide rich learning experiences for children but also build the capacity of parents and other caregivers to protect young children from the consequences of toxic stress.  Dr. Shonkoff states “The circuits in the brain are very vulnerable to toxic stress, so even in the presence of good education later, children will not achieve as much as they would have if they’re not protected from this adversity early in their life” (Vojvoda, 2012).

Dr. O’Gara talked about how little investments are being made in early childhood.  Africa invests less than 1 per cent of public education resources in early childhood education, Latin America 9 per cent, and 10 per cent in Western Europe (Vojvoda, 2012).  She goes on to say that there is a lot of room for growth in awareness and investment in early childhood care and education, particularly for children who benefit the most – the least advantaged children.  Schools need to become outreach agents, assisting families and communities in implementing small-scale early childhood programs that focus on getting children ready for school.

Both speakers stressed the importance of empowering families and communities.  I feel that this is important for the success of every child.  Families and communities are the biggest advocates for their children.

Dr. Shonkoff concluded with this quote “This is not just about stimulating minds.  This is about protecting brains” (Vojvoda, 2012).

Three new insights that I have gained from exploring Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” Global Children’s Initiative is the centerpiece of the Center on the Developing Child to focus on children’s health around the globe and development an agenda. Through exploration of the website, I learned about some of the activities that are a focus on the Global Children’s Initiative.

One activity is the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project. The Zambian Early Childhood Development Project focuses on the early childhood experiences and development within sub-Saharan Africa. A number of states have shown the impact a child’s development, health, and educational outcomes but there is little evidence on the areas of sub-Saharan Africa. The Zambian Ministry of Education, the Examination Council of Zambia, UNICEF, the University of Zambia, and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University launched the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project (ZECDP) in 2009, a collaborative effort to measure the effects of an ongoing anti-malaria initiative on children’s development in Zambia. In order to do this successfully they created a new comprehensive instrument for assessing children’s physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development before and throughout their schooling careers—the first assessment tool of its kind in Zambia. The ZECDP collaborators hope that the data collected as part of this project, as well as future work in this area, will not only improve understanding of child development in this context but also help identify key interventions towards improved outcomes in a rapidly changing developing world.

Another insight is I learned that the Center on the Developing Child is launching its first major programmatic effort outside the United States. This effort is a part of the centers Global Children’s Initiative and is called Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância. In collaboration with local experts, this project aims to use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families in Brazil. Through this effort to work towards benefits of young children and families in Brazil, organizations are working together to catalyze more effective policies and programs that will, ultimately, foster a more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable society.

The third insight that I learned about was the video Super-Cérebro. Super-Cérebro is the Portuguese translation of Brain Hero, a three-minute video depicting how actions by a range of people in the family and community can affect a child’s development. This video corresponds to the child’s development and what impacts a child’s development including but not limited to their brain development, the community in which a child grows, the experiences a child faces throughout early childhood development. This video was a very informational piece for parents of children of young ages.

Resources

Vojvoda, R. (2012, April). ‘Beyond School Books’ – a podcast series on education in emergencies [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/education/beg_62266.html

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/

Sharing NIEER Online News

I have been studying the website National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER).  I subscribed to their Online News and received volume 11, issue 15.  In this volume they talk about new research on autism.  This study is relevant to me because the majority of the children that I work with are on the autism spectrum.  Did you know that autism can be spotted in children as young as age two with the use of electroencephalogram tests (EEGs)?  Early intervention is best so early knowledge is always good resource.

            What I found interesting is that United States ranks 24^th on early childhood because preschool access and quality vary too much from one area of the country to another.  The top three ranking countries are Finland, Sweden, and Norway.   We should look at these countries and follow their example by making our preschools more accessible and have high-quality center throughout the country.

            Neuroscientists had to set the record straight in New Hampshire when a “state representative remark that kindergarten  results  in criminal activity after his research found a link between crime rates and access to kindergarten in communities throughout the state” (NIEER, 2012, para. 5).  “Correlation does not mean causation” (NIEER, 2012, para. 5).  It goes to show that you need to learn how to analyze your research properly.  NIEER Director W. Steven Barnett wrote a paper providing insights on how to do this.  You can find his paper at http://nieer.org/resources/research/PreschoolEducation.pdf.

            Jumpstart, a national organization dedicated to improving school readiness outcomes for low-income children, established National Early Education Council (NEEC).  The NEEC is to advise Jumpstart strategies and bring together key players in the early childhood field.  I thought that this was something with checking out.  You can find the Jumpstart webpage at http://www.jstart.org/.

Resource

National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER). (2012). NIEER Online News, 11(15). Retrieved from http://www.nieer.org/publications/online-newsletters.

International Contacts

International Contacts

Unfortunately, I have not received a response back from any international colleague and I had to do the alternate assignment.  However I did learn about Mongolia through the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=countryo#12).  I watched all ten podcasts from the World Forum Foundation radio. 

The podcasts were about the passions that inspire these professionals to help young children.  Not a lot of talk about poverty; however, Meridas Eka Yora, ran an orphanage in Indonesia.  She talked about how you had to be mother and father before becoming the teacher and that the oldest children take care of the youngest.  Irma Allen who lives in Africa talks about the fact that there are no schools.  Children’s learning experiences all take part outside.  The outdoor environment has a lot to teach us and they use natural resources that are available to them.  Maysoun Chehab in Arab trained parents and teachers how to help children that have been through a big conflict such as war.  Teaching adults how to deal with the conflict helps children to deal with it.  Delfena Mitchell ran a home for abused children in Belize.  You could hear her passion in her voice when she talked about a little boy in her program.  Deevia Bhana in South Africa talked about sexual abuse that goes on there.  They believe that having sex with young girls would cure HIV or AIDs this is a scary thought.  It would mean that no young girl is safe from being raped.

World Forum Foundation Radio. Includes links to podcasts of conversations with early childhood professionals.
http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/radio.php

After visiting and researching the website http://www.childhoodpoverty.org, Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre I learned a lot about poverty in Mongolia.  Mongolia went through a rapid structure change that hit families hard, unemployment rose, inflation and prices soared.  There were cuts in basic social services and welfare reduced support.  In 1998 36% of the population was below poverty level.  Poverty was higher in urban areas than rural. 

Before this transition Mongolia’s social services were high standard and accessible to all.  Now access to healthcare for poor families, migrants, and those in remote rural areas is poor.  Health insurance schemes demands user fees and restricts use to these registered as living in that area.  Malnutrition is growing in 1998 30% of children under five had low height for age and 10% were under weight.  51% of population did not have access to safe drinking water.

Many Children were forced to work outside the home for money which resulted in no schooling.  One third of migrants moved to urban areas for better education.  Migrants are four times more likely to drop out of school than long-term residents due to urban schools not accepting migrant children.

This information is not the most recent and I look forward to researching more about Mongolia to see where they are today with poverty.  I still hope that the international colleagues will respond to my emails; however I still plan to research Mongolia further.

The organization that I am reviewing

The organization that I chose is National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) http://nieer.org

This organization “conducts and communicates research to support high-quality, effective early childhood education for all young children” (http://nieer.org/about/vision).  The NIEER has a variety of articles and research projects that benefits educators, families, and policy makers.

The newsletter is sent biweekly.  I looked back over the last three issues and I found this:

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) recently released the latest edition of “The Condition of Education,” the annual report of trends and developments in P-20 education. Amongst the plethora of statistics gathered, NCES reports that the percent of 3- to 5-year-olds enrolled in full-day pre-K classrooms increased from 32 percent in 1980 to 58 percent in 2010; private preschool enrollment dropped from 6.3 million in 2001 to 5.5 million in 2009; nearly 1 million more public school students were identified as English language learners in 2009 than in 2000; and the percent of children and youth ages 3-21 with disabilities has decreased each year since 2005, with approximately 6.5 million (13 percent) of public school enrollees being served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (NIEER, 2012).

I thought it demonstrated the demographic changes that we have been talking about.

NIEER. (2012, June 1). The condition of education 2012: A portrait of the nation’s students. NIEER online newsletter, 11(12). Retrieved from http://nieer.org/publications/online-newsletters/volume-11-issue-12

Establishing Professional Contacts

I sent out emails to different professionals in Netherlands and Haiti.  I used the Global Alliance to get the email address that I used.  I sent an email to Sarah Klaus and it could not be sent incorrect address or no longer used.  I looked through the website of the International Step by Step Association for the Netherlands and found Dawn Tanksley’s email address and I am waiting for a reply.  I also sent an email to Dominique Hudicourt from Haiti.  I got her name and email address from Global Alliance as well.  I may have to explore the alternate for this assignment.  I am still hopeful that I will get contacted.

I have been exploring the website for the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) and I have prescribed to their online newsletter.  I am interested in learning more about research and the research that is in place to help early educators.  I am a member of NAEYC so I wanted to explore other sites.

My Supports

My family is a support to me.  They help me with household chores and sometimes cook dinner for me.  They are there if I need them or if I just wanted someone to talk too.  My husband supports assists me with mechanical needs on my vehicles and mows the grass.  Though my husband teases me about work work or school work, he supports me in furthering my education.  My friends support me in my education and my exercise programs.  They are there for me when I need someone to talk to or some extra motivation.  I could not imagine life without my friends and family in it so if you take away those supports then attending college now would be a lot more difficult.  I also receive supports through my coworkers and other professionals within my field.  If this support was gone not only will I have a difficult time the children within my care would also be affected.

            The challenge that I chose was the loss of my sight.  I feel that my family and friends would be supportive and assist me in my daily needs.  Without supports I would suffer greatly.  I would not have anyone to be my eyes for me and this is a little scary.  My eyes progressively were getting worse a few years ago and I honestly thought that I would be blind by now.  I am very thankful for the supports that I get from my friends and family.

Quotes about child development

Children Learn What They Live - Dorothy Law Neite
If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, he learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, he learns to be shy.
If a child learns to feel shame, he learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, he learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement he learns confidence
If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate.
He a child lives with fairness, he learns justice.
If a child lives with security, he learns to have faith.
If a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself.
If a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find love in the world.

"We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today."
- Stacia Tauscher

"Children are like wet cement. Whatever falls on them makes an impression.
- Dr. Hiam Ginnot

"Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand."
- Chinese proverb

"The secret of teaching is to appear to have known all your life what you just learned this morning."
- Anonymous

“Since the earliest period of our life was preverbal, everything depended on emotional interaction. Without someone to reflect our emotions, we had no way of knowing who we were.”
― John Bradshaw

“The path of development is a journey of discovery that is clear only in retrospect, and it’s rarely a straight line.” ― Eileen Kennedy-Moore

Testing for Intelligence

As a preschool teacher in a developmental day school I use a variety of assessments to ensure that I know the ability levels of each child so that I can gear my lessons and facilitate learning to meet the needs of all my children.  At my center we use the LAP assessment that assesses the developmental milestones in all the domains. 

As a mother with children in the public school system I know that the school system assesses the basics on reading, writing, and math at the end of every year starting in the third grade to the fifth grade.  This is called the end of grade assessment and the teacher start teaching the test the last semester of the school year.  The older classes have an end of course test where children take the test as they finish each course.  These tests are very confusing for me as a parent.  I feel that they add a lot of stress to our children’s already stressful lives and to the teachers that are held accountable for their learning.  These tests do not take in account that a child may be a bad test taker or having a rough day the day the assessment was given.  They do not let current teachers know where children are at the present time and how to best meet their needs.  My son is in tutoring now for his end of course exams because he is prone to score at the low end of the passing grade every year that he has taken the test. However, my son is an A-B student in all his classes.

I know that these tests are so they can hold schools accountable for the education of children, but shouldn’t assessments of children be so that schools and teachers can meet the needs of their students?  These assessments are only for cognitive levels however, I feel it does not assess the whole child and does not truly demonstrate what a child knows or does not know.  These tests tend to be multiple choice questions except the writing test so students have one out four chance to get it right if they guess. The writing exam may or may not demonstrate students’ skills because they are given a topic to write about.  If they are not interested on know little about the subject their writing will not be so great.

Education in the Netherlands is different than in the USA.  The elementary grades are from 4 years to 12 years or 8^th grade.  At the end of the eighth grade students are given a standardized test to determine if they have reached their attainment targets.  This exam helps determine the secondary school that best fits each child.  Schools have free choice in their teaching methods and parents can choose where their child attends school.  All schools are free public and private.  I found this article very interesting the fact that schools are held accountable, however they are allowed to choose how they teach children there are no set way.

Dykstra, T. (2006). High Performance and Success in Education in Flemish Belgium and the Netherlands. National Center on Education and the Economy. Retrieved from http://www.skillscommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/HighPerformance-and-Success.pdf