Final Blog Assignment

I can’t believe we are in our final week of this course.  I have learned a lot of useful information that I believe will help me to become a better ECE professional.  It was sad that I could not connect with any of my international contacts I believe that it would have been a very beneficial to my learning process.  Three consequences about learning from the international early childhood field were.

·         To see that many of the other countries see the importance of early childhood education more than we do here in the United States.

·         After reading and listening to various people from other areas it seems that they deal with similar issues that we do here in the United States.  For example, poverty, parent involvement, and politics.   In a way this is comforting to see ECE professionals elsewhere sometimes have to figure out these various issues as well. 

·         Lastly, learning techniques or skills from others can help you bring information to your center.   Using your resources from the international people you will be able to incorporate what you learned into your lesson plans. For example it could help if you decide to do a cultural day.

My goal is to continue to try to reach out to my international colleagues and stay abreast of all the latest techniques in our ever changing profession.  Since, this field is continuously changing, being able to stay on top of any decisions made by our politicians, learning about any new issues or trends will help me to be the best ECE professional possible. 

Getting to know International Contacts-Part 3

I looked around UNESCO’s Early Childhood Care and Education website I choose to look around the section of Science and Technology.  Growing up during my school years Science was not my strong subject so I was interested in how to grasp a child’s attention while they are young.  Science and technology education can help with poverty reduction which I never knew.  The website also suggests that science education is an important component of education for sustainable development.

UNESCO is the lead agency of the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014). The purpose is to pull together the principles, values, and practices of sustainable development into all parts of education and learning.

The website also gives you various links that will help you to find more information on how to help with sustainable development in the science and technology area.  The subject of science does not have the impact as it once did because it cannot keep up with the constantly changing science and technology field.  I do believe it would be helpful if we teach our children to keep up with all the modern technology so that we can keep the new information and skills here in the United States.

Sharing Web Resources

I am following the website http://nbcdi.org/  the National Black Child Development Institute.  I choose to read about the CEO of NBCDI who attended the President’s Speech on Education.  It expressed how the president stated there should be no cuts in education funding even in these tough economic times.  The president stated that he wants every child in school to know that  in the fall that there education is America’s priority. 

Also from this article it allowed you to go to The White House fact sheet and to the President’s remarks on education.  The President also stressed the fact the education starts at home.  This article helped me reaffirm that equity and excellence for a high quality care and a positive early childhood education field need to start at the top.  With the help of the government education for children in the early stages of life can be effective.  I also liked it because it connected to the letters that we had to right to the White House Council. 

Getting to Know Your International Contacts-Part 2

I still have not made any communication with any of the international contacts that I reached out to.  It’s really upsetting because I would love to see how things are done on the other side of the world.  To really communicate with someone who is going through all of these experiences would be great.  Hopefully, before this class is up I will have reached out to at least one person. 

I choose to explore the Harvard University Global Children’s Initiative website.  I like many things about the site what stood out to me the most was how it chooses 25 diverse academics and scholars to help out with child development globally.  Harvard University has a Center for the Developing Child it has teamed up with the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and the National Conference of State Legislatures to bring the science of early childhood development to important personnel in the legislative and executive branches in all 50 states.  The Global Children’s Initiative also has a world Conference were various people come together to incorporate child survival, health, and development during the early stages of life. 

Exploring this website was very really useful; it was good to see that people worldwide are seeing the importance of Early Childhood Education.  Also, expressing the significance of how caring, learning, and health have a huge impact on child’s future and why we should come together to provide the best possible life for our children.