Benefits of learning about the International EC field

 

1. Studying international websites has opened my eyes to the vastness of the EC field and it is very interesting to know what other professionals are doing.
2. Professionally, it encourages me when I see the amazing influence EC professionals have when they speak up and reach out.
3. Professionally, it is wonderful to know that the purpose of EC is the same all around the world and that is to celebrate learning and development from birth and foster it by providing enriching environments and by educating parents and other professionals in a communal effort to raise healthy generations of children admist lack, poverty, disease, and communism.

I think one goal for the EC field as a whole, internationally and locally, would be to keep the focus on children and what they need and for professionals to stay updated on current research in the field and in professional development so they can be the best for themselves, their children, families and their colleagues.

Researching the UNESCO site

As I perused the United Nations Educational, Scientific, & Cultural Organization (UNESCO) website I found a few aspects of their organization that matched up loosely with my professional goals as an early childhood professional.
My Goal: To continue to develop professionally so I can be a better educator
UNESCO: Provides continuous trainings for their early childhood personnel worldwide so they can further their professional development and keep up with the newest findings so they can provide the best for the children they service
My Goal: To inspire societal change in the way early childhood is viewed
UNESCO: Encourages and implements global change in the view of early childhood by outlining the differences in primary care and pre-primary care. They also make known that learning begins at birth not when a child begins formal schooling
My Goal: To advocate for military children and families and educate adults (parents, EC professionals) about child development
UNESCO: In addition to providing updated professional development for their personnel, they also provide parental education in every area of the world they service

Sharing Web Resources

1.In my exploration of the Zero to Three early childhood website I followed some of the outside links. These links included:

·         NTI (National Training Institute)-professional development available for all in the early childhood field in the form of a large conference held annually. In this conference, professionals may pick and choose which courses they would like to partake in.

·         MIECHV TACC (Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting/ Technical Assistance Coordinating)- These programs provide support to grantees implementing the home visiting program. They provide experience and expertise in achieving high quality program implementation, creating integrated service systems, and improving program outcomes.

·         Early Head Start- this link provides information about the early head start programs. It includes the latest news and highlights, resource spotlights, web resources, and ways to stay connected.

2.On the MIECHV page I learned about how support is provided to programs to help make them better programs. This support comes in the way of facilitating connections with technical experts, identifying best practices through webinars, phone correspondence, email, interactive website portal, and individual site visits.

3.The Zero to Three May e-newsletter focused on parenting skills. It included articles that covered how to prevent biting and how to make sure the mental health of your child is good. It did not include any outside links other than the link to the Zero to Three website.

4.The website included information that added to my understanding of equity and excellence in ECE when I learned about the DOHVE (Design Options for Home Visiting Evaluation) program. This program works with the TACC program to help grantees under the MIECHV program on strengthening their evaluations of promising programs, developing and adapting data systems to facilitate tracking and reporting on federal benchmarks, and implementing quality improvement systems.

5.Something new from the Zero to Three website that I found interesting was the 2013 Federal Policy Agenda for the Administration and 113^th Congress. The past two courses in my program have mentioned the importance of policy and I have become interested in what the current policies are in my area. This was new information to me as the policy contends that school readiness starts at birth and so should early childhood policy.

Reference: Zero to Three www.zerotothree.org

Global Initiatives are Changing the World- one child at a time.
Looking over Harvard University's Global Children's Initiative Site (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/) is proof of the fact in the title of this post. It is amazing to learn of all the things that are being done around the globe to educate people about early childhood development. For example, in sub- Saharan Africa, the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project (ZECDP) is working to address the knowledge gap that exists, and to measure the effects of an anti-malaria initiative by working together with a group of organizations to provide the ZamCAT, a comprehensive instrument for assessing the children's physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development before and throughout their schooling. The hope is that an assessment tool of this type will deepen the knowledge and understanding of child development.
In Brazil, a program called Nucelo Ciencia Pela Infancia was launched with the intentions of using the science of child health and development to foster strong policies and solicit more funding for young children and their families.
The Global Children's Initiative as a whole has been major in getting these programs, and many others, up and running. They are in-part responsible for the interest in child development that has taken place globally. As far as equity and excellence are concerned, in Brazil, educational videos about child development and the science of the brain have been translated and adapted in Portuguese and politicians, policymakers, public managers, civil-society leaders get together for training courses on early childhood development. This shows great future promise for their children as the community gets together to lead.
Also, the Global Children's Initiative uses the Global EC Research Fund to assess the quality in early childhood programs globally, and pilot assessments like the ZamCAT to measure child development outcomes, monitoring improvements on the effectiveness of interventions in Chile, and considering and exploring the impact of war on youth in Sierra Leone.
This is a great organization and I am eager to be a part of it in any way I can.

 Sharing Web Resources

Professional Development/ New Insights

The Zero to Three website is stock full of information about early childhood development and care. One area that stuck out to me and is very pertinent to my professional development is their Military Family Program. Featured there is the Coming Together Around Military Families training  series that is utilized on military installations all over the world. There is also insightful literature designed to support a young child whose parent/ caregiver has been injured physically or emotionally while on deployment. This book is titled Sparrow (little bird's dad goes away for a while and comes back injured and cannot fly with little bird like they used to all the time, but little sparrow learns that just because dad cannot do the things he used to do it does not mean he does not love him just the same and even more) and it addresses the issues a child might face when a parent returns home from a deployment. The book is available in two versions (Poppa and Momma).

In light of a recent deployment that just took place before school let out and will continue to take place when school is back in session, I feel it is important for me to review the resources available to me as a teacher of military children so I can do the best I can at providing a safe and understanding environment in my classroom.
Support?
It is very evident through the website that neuroscientists support early childhood through their journals and articles. There is a plethora of information available about the brain development of young children.
Other New Insights
I learned more about policies and how they are formed , and how I can better advocate for early childhood policy in my local area in the Public Policy section on the website.

Childhood Poverty in China

 





I explored the childhood poverty site www.childhoodpoverty.org and selected the country overview tab. Featured there were different countries and how poverty is affecting their children and families. I chose to focus on the country of China.

*4.2 million Chinese children live in poverty
*8.7 million Chinese children live in what they call, disadvantaged conditions
*Health (insurance) and education (school expenses) reforms are reducing the ability of poor families to utilize health for their families and education for their children.
*China has made tremendous strides in combatting poverty by making changes in economic growth (globalizing the market). However, this only benefitted people in Eastern China and poverty rates in Western China increased.
*The national poverty line in China ($1.83 a day) is low by international standards so more people live close to poverty.

Sharing Web Resources

I found a website that encompasses all issues and trends in early childhood as it pertains to children from birth to age three. The name of the site is Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, toddlers, and Families and the link is www.zerotothree.org.
This is a "national nonprofit organization that informs, trains and supports professionals, policymakers and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers" (Zero to Three, 2013).

They now have an active blog to which they post periodically and the latest one that caught my attention was titled "The Sequesters Pain: Air Travelers get Relief, Kids not so much". This blog posted on April 26, explores the swift decision congress made to find money to pay aviation employees so the flight delays would decrease and wait time for travelers wouldn't be so severe. This change in the sequester only came when the members of congress tried to come back home from their long vacations they took and found out how impossible it was to travel when there are not enough employees there to do the necessary jobs. Unlike the aviation employees getting their jobs back, the families that count on federal assistance are in need of homes, and their young children are being dropped off Early Head Start and Head Start rosters. The sequester has effected children everywhere. The following passage is from the blog:
"Passengers who must wait a few hours on the tarmac might miss a meeting or a connection to another city. But young children shut out of early childhood programs miss out on the positive early learning experiences that help their brains make critical developmental connections, putting them on the path to success in school and in life. And while those passengers may shift uncomfortably in cramped seats, families who lose rental assistance may find themselves living for months in cramped quarters, or even becoming homeless" (Baby Policy Blog, Zero to Three, 2013).
This hit home for me simply because I am a government teacher and am now going to be furloughed. Although this will effect my personal life greatly, the kids are the ones who have to pay because it is their education that is being screwed with. And it concerns me to think whether our future generations of children will care anything about our world and sustaining it when the people in charge clearly have shown they don't care about them.