Sharing Web Resources

Sharing Web Resources

NIEER News Releases provides me adequate information about the latest issues and trends in regards to early childhood education.  The article 10-Year National Preschool Study Finds Decreased Support for Quality and Greater Disparities in Access posted on August 14, 2013 goes right in line with this week’s discussions.  However it gives it a different spend.  It’s actually referencing the decline in funding from the government due mainly because of the recession.

The article talks mainly about how the burden for early childhood programs now lays on the state.  The unintended consequence of that is that now educational opportunities are not going to be equal nationally.  By moving the power to the states means that some children will receive a better education, which means that now every child will not have the same competing chance when they get older.  These cuts do not go in line with what economists, neuroscientists, or politicians support for the early childhood field.

Like most policymaking, these government cuts were put in place based on a particular understanding of what returns public dollars would yield in the educational system. Yet it seems that educational policy is not in sync with new research-based understandings of child learning. For us to have a more effective and holistic approach to educational policy, we need to better understand the role that early childhood education plays in the overall learning of a child. (Nobleza, 2013)

It’s amazing about the amount of information that is available on this site.  It focuses on trends that are evident in individual states as well as nationally.  It touches on topics centered on early childhood development such as poverty, politics, and government cuts.

References

Nobleza, M. (2013).  A Creativity-Focused Agenda for Early Childhood Education Policymaking.   

Retrieved from

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-nobleza/a-creativity-focused-agenda_b_3992121.html

National Institute for Early Education Research, (2013).  10-Year National Preschool Study Finds

Decreased Support for Quality and Greater Disparities in Access.  Retrieved from

http://nieer.org/news-events/news-releases/10-year-national-preschool-study-finds-decreased-support-quality-and

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

 International Contacts-Poverty

One of my conversation partners name is Junior.  Junior is teaches in Togo.  He studied in France for his upper level education.  Here are the questions that I asked Junior, and his answers:

Me:      Are the classrooms that you teach in very diverse?  In addition how is diversity measured there….by tribes, language, ethnicity, cultures?

Junior:   Poverty here is very high.

 There are class system in every community here.  The rich on the top, followed    by the middle  class, and finally come the poorest.

 There are all types of diversity you listed (tribes, language, ethnicity, and cultures).

 I had the chance to teach in a private school and there study rooms are a little better (maximum 30  per class) unlike public school there are over 50-60 per class.

Me:      How is the health care there for the children?  Do the children have enough food, water, clothes…                 etc?

Junior:   The children have not many hospital so the health here for not only children but

all of us is below.  Many disease, and the mortality rate is high especially for                           

child.  Not enough food and water for children, and most died at young age.

Me:       Do you know what the average income is there?

Junior:   The average income here is very low and is 38000 cfa(80-83$) by month.

Me:       Anything else you can share in regards to “poverty” and the lifestyle and living arrangements there in  regards to young children ages birth to seven years old.

Junior:   Young children are the most vulnerable to extreme poverty.  Most especially in village many died  soon after birth.  The education problem also affects many children especially in rural areas.  But it’s  no longer.  The government passed a law to help children.  Currently free education is free for  children attending public schools.  But parents still complain each academic year that the spend on  fees and all the steps they need to do before their children are allowed.  Most do not have the  chance of being accepted.  But when you move on to the university degrees, it was fortunate to  receive a grant of up to 230$ per year.

            I enjoyed communicating with Junior.  He had a lot to share.  Poverty in the sense of how think of it is still very common even among the children with educated parents.  I copied and pasted what   he said pretty much word for word.  I wanted to show you all how well some educators are able to communicate the English language.  Yes it’s not 100% grammatically correct but very close.  I did clean it up a little bit but not much.  I’m saddened to say that I would not be able to communicate in his language if I tried.

Sharing Web Resources-Trends and How They Relate in Terms of Diversity

The newsletter that I subscribed to is the National Institute for Early Education Research found at http://nieer.org/.  There are many issues addressed such as home visits to encourage good health reform for the children, addressing the benefits for early start programs in regards to lower future crime rate, and advocating for different ethnicities to focus on early childhood development programs.  Considering that our main focus is trends and diversity this week I chose to focus early start programs in regard to different ethnicities. 

The article that I read is 'Preschool for All' Shouldn't Be 'One-Size-Fits-All.'  The article is based on information gathered from the Illinois school system.   The article mainly focuses on Hispanics and the effect of the lack of participation when it comes to the early start programs before the age of four.  “The data show us that at-risk and low-income -- many of whom are Latino -- kids gain more from preschool than their peers; inversely, they have more to lose by not attending” (NIEER, 2013).

Many government programs stress the need for children in this case Hispanics to get connected with high quality educational programs starting at birth.  The emphasis is stressed on high quality education/programming.  High quality programs depends on; teachers who are well trained, teachers or aids who are bi-lingual, and a program that encompasses the linguistic and cultural factors.  The trend in Illinois is that the state is mandating that pre-school teachers be bi-lingual or is working towards it.  “In building a teacher pipeline that can effectively support diverse learners, we must provide all teachers with opportunities for linguistic and cultural professional development -- and adopt practices that attract diverse teacher candidates to the profession” (NIEER, 2013).

I like that the state of Illinois is taking a big stand to lessen the gap between the students whose primary language is not English.  As educators we need to focus on the every child; however it is important to make sure that every child starts on the same “playing field.”

I would encourage everyone to read this article.  I know I found it very interesting!

'Preschool for All' Shouldn't Be 'One-Size-Fits-All.  Retrieved from:

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sylvia-puente/preschool-for-all_b_3902433.html

Sherry

"Establishing Professional Contacts"

Issues and Trends in Early Childhood

 "Establishing Professional Contacts"

I finally received a response back after sending out many emails.  I tried different resources when it came to me engaging with an international early childhood educator.  I did not find the sites that Walden University to be very helpful.  Most of the email addresses did not seem to be valid.  Here are a few of the websites and there links that I tried.  The site that worked for me was the, “The Global Classroom Project site.”  I’m still seeking another contact to ensure success when it comes to my blog posts.

The educator that I was able to make a connection with is Raissa Tilaime Charif.  She currently lives in Kpalimé which is in Africa.  Raissa is originally from Diégo-Suarez, Antsiranana.  Africans speak French in the part of Africa she grew up in.  Raissa says that she has a “blended classroom she teaches kindergarten and 1st grade.”  I think we both look forward to discussing and sharing about different trends

1.       The Global Alliance of NAEYC has e-mail addresses for early childhood professionals worldwide:

http://www.naeyc.org/resources/partnership/globalalliance

2.       UNICEF has local organizations and representatives worldwide. Check out the country specific links and contact a local representative:

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html

3.       The Global Classroom Project

Enabling teachers to connect, learn, share, collaborate, and lead – globally!

http://theglobalclassroomproject.wordpress.com/

Part 2, "Expanding Resources"

I subscribed to NIEER online news.  They also have other venues that they share information such as Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube.  NIEER’s website is very easy to follow and navigate through.  By subscribing to NIEER newsletter I can receive the latest information on hot topics, early childhood education research, and upcoming events.  This is the URL link:  http://nieer.org