While looking through the website I chose, http://www.childrensdefense.org/about-us/ I found a section called Early Childhood Education and Care. Under that section, there is a link called Advocate and Family Resources and in that page there is a list of links that they call Early Care and Education Resources. Under that page there is a link called Child Trends and when you follow that link, you get to http://www.childtrends.org/ which is a website full of current research of trends in the field of early childhood. Some of the topics there are things like poverty, child development,education, child welfare and fatherhood & parenting to name a few.
This part of the Children's Defense Fund website is a great area for us as we go through this course. I was also able to review briefly a few of the articles by the Children's Defense Fund and I did not find anything I would consider controversial. The amount of information is a bit overwhelming but I am pleased with the decision I made to research this website over the next few weeks.
In my time reviewing the site I did not find much about economists or neuroscience but there was plenty about politics, legislation and policies. I read about full-day Kindergarten and how the trend is changing to full day Kindergarten for all Kindergartners. At the center where I work now, we offer the only full day Kindergarten in our town but the children who attend, are those who need full day care because of parents being at work. These children often transition from the full-day day care setting that is run in another part of the building so the long day is not much of an adjustment for them. I had not realized that having a full day Kindergarten program was going to be the trend for the future and that having a full day is so beneficial for children. My daughter will probably go to a full day Kindergarten next year and because she is at my center with me now, I believe she will adjust easily to Kindergarten. We will see!
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Poverty - A Global Issue
After e-mailing many people from other countries, I still have only heard back from a few and those I heard from are not willing to correspond about the issues that face children in their countries. So, I spent some time on the podcast website this week and though I did not listen to anything specific about poverty, I learned about How children think about thinking from George Forman from UMASS. I also learned about the orphaned children from Indonesia as a result of conflict and the tsunami from Meridas Eka Yora. I also learned about how young girls in Africa live in fear of being raped because it is thought that having intercourse with a young girl will cure you of HIV/AIDS from Deevia Bhana. This World Forum Radio seems like a fantastic resource and even though I am disappointed that I have not made contact with anyone from another country, I am excited to continue to broaden my view through the use of these tools.
I also have not made contact with anyone from the podcast, so I completed the alternate assignment to review a country on the website http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/ . The country I chose was China. I actually was talking to my brother-in-law about China recently and we were talking about how we assumed that the country must be very polarized between rich and poor. The website says that the poverty rate there in 2000 was actually only 3.7% according to their own statistics. It also says that the poverty level is low compared to global standards so I researched current data at another website. I simply checked on Wikipedia to see what information there was there. According to Wikipedia, the poverty level in 2005 was less than 15% but the actual poverty line for them is $1.25 A DAY!!! Seriously? I read it a few times to be sure. That was a surprise to me.
Maybe $1.25 in china is enough to live on but that would not go far here in the US. This week I had the opportunity to research poverty in my own community and it was a very eye-opening experience for me. Poverty is a global issue and it is one I do not know if there will ever be an answer to. All we can do is help where we can and be sure to be aware that people in need are all around us and it might not take much to help them out.
I also have not made contact with anyone from the podcast, so I completed the alternate assignment to review a country on the website http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/ . The country I chose was China. I actually was talking to my brother-in-law about China recently and we were talking about how we assumed that the country must be very polarized between rich and poor. The website says that the poverty rate there in 2000 was actually only 3.7% according to their own statistics. It also says that the poverty level is low compared to global standards so I researched current data at another website. I simply checked on Wikipedia to see what information there was there. According to Wikipedia, the poverty level in 2005 was less than 15% but the actual poverty line for them is $1.25 A DAY!!! Seriously? I read it a few times to be sure. That was a surprise to me.
Maybe $1.25 in china is enough to live on but that would not go far here in the US. This week I had the opportunity to research poverty in my own community and it was a very eye-opening experience for me. Poverty is a global issue and it is one I do not know if there will ever be an answer to. All we can do is help where we can and be sure to be aware that people in need are all around us and it might not take much to help them out.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
CDF week 2
As I mentioned in my last post, I chose the Children's Defense Fund after reading the mission statements of this group and many more. As I was looking around on their website, I decided to start on the left of the site and click through in order so I could remember where I had been :) First tab is "About Us" and at the bottom of this page, is a you tube video that made me cry at the same time as it made me proud to be in this field.
This is the link: http://www.childrensdefense.org/about-us/
The recurring theme of their focus seems to be the voice for the children who can not speak for themselves and I love that. I can totally identify with that because I believe as a preschool teacher, I do the same thing. Some of my three year olds can not speak for themselves yet but they have a right to be defended and protected if need be. As adults, we feel free to speak up when something is not okay but children, especially young children (in my opinion), may not possess the skills for speaking for themselves.
I am excited to look more into this organization and I hope I am not disappointed!
As an update on last week's assignment, I did hear back from one place I e-mailed in England but only to hear that they are really too busy to correspond with me at this time and then the woman gave me another place to e-mail which I did (three different people) and so far I got 1 out of office reply and that's it. Looks like I may be doing the alternate assignment after all. I'm kind of bummed. Maybe something unexpected will happen. We will see!
This is the link: http://www.childrensdefense.org/about-us/
The recurring theme of their focus seems to be the voice for the children who can not speak for themselves and I love that. I can totally identify with that because I believe as a preschool teacher, I do the same thing. Some of my three year olds can not speak for themselves yet but they have a right to be defended and protected if need be. As adults, we feel free to speak up when something is not okay but children, especially young children (in my opinion), may not possess the skills for speaking for themselves.
I am excited to look more into this organization and I hope I am not disappointed!
As an update on last week's assignment, I did hear back from one place I e-mailed in England but only to hear that they are really too busy to correspond with me at this time and then the woman gave me another place to e-mail which I did (three different people) and so far I got 1 out of office reply and that's it. Looks like I may be doing the alternate assignment after all. I'm kind of bummed. Maybe something unexpected will happen. We will see!
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Establishing Professional Contacts
The idea of regularly corresponding with early childhood professionals in another country sounded a bit daunting at first but the more I looked into it, the more excited I became. I have a few e-mails out so far. One to Haiti, one to the UK and one to Senegal. I really hope I hear from people. I am a little concerned that my e-mail will not end up in the right place though, but time will tell. This is an interesting way to change our perspective and I am looking forward to the results for myself and for my colleagues.
I also needed to choose an organization from the field, to research over the next 7 weeks and the way I am deciding from the list we were given, is to go to their websites and read their mission statements. I am pretty sure I am going to be following the site for the Center for the Child Care Workforce or the CCW. Their link is below. I chose them because I do not understand why there is no money in this field unless you work at Head Start, and I want to know more about that issue. I hope to learn many new things and to gain a better understanding about the topic.
On a personal note, my grandma passed away this past Wednesday at the age of 95. She was an educator for 65 years!! She obtained her BA when most women did not, taught in the public school system for years and then in her early fifties she founded a small, private, Christian school that is still running today and has grown leaps and bounds over the past forty years. She was an inspiration to me and I will miss her greatly. I hope to make her proud as I continue my journey through this field. Thank you.
Center for the Child Care Workforce:
http://www.ccw.org/
I also needed to choose an organization from the field, to research over the next 7 weeks and the way I am deciding from the list we were given, is to go to their websites and read their mission statements. I am pretty sure I am going to be following the site for the Center for the Child Care Workforce or the CCW. Their link is below. I chose them because I do not understand why there is no money in this field unless you work at Head Start, and I want to know more about that issue. I hope to learn many new things and to gain a better understanding about the topic.
On a personal note, my grandma passed away this past Wednesday at the age of 95. She was an educator for 65 years!! She obtained her BA when most women did not, taught in the public school system for years and then in her early fifties she founded a small, private, Christian school that is still running today and has grown leaps and bounds over the past forty years. She was an inspiration to me and I will miss her greatly. I hope to make her proud as I continue my journey through this field. Thank you.
Center for the Child Care Workforce:
http://www.ccw.org/
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Daily Supports
Who are my daily supports? Well, I have many and they all come in different forms. I have my family, from my husband to my children who make me laugh and give me hugs everyday. I have my sister who I talk to almost everyday and who I vent to because I need to vent sometimes to someone who does not know the people that I am talking about. I have my co-workers who make me laugh and who I grow closer to every day because we need each other and we are in the same boat. I have my friend who lives up the hill from me. We talk, pray, shop and sometimes drink wine together. We laugh, cry, and love each other the best we can with our busy lives with our kids and husbands and other responsibilities.
To imagine my life without these people is not something I even want to pretend. The people I see and interact with everyday are as much a part of me as I am. I am rarely alone, not because I don't like being alone, but because I always want to be around the people I know. I only wish I had more time to see more people I know who are great people. The only way I would ever be without all of my supports is if I were away from home with no phone. I think I may enjoy this for a day or two but after that, I think I would miss them all horribly. If I had not had them in my life, I do not have any idea where I would be. That actually is an interesting question. Would I be in the same place I am now, just with different people? Or would I be a lonely, working woman with no friends and no kids and no fun. Personally, I am grateful I will never know the answer to those questions.
To imagine my life without these people is not something I even want to pretend. The people I see and interact with everyday are as much a part of me as I am. I am rarely alone, not because I don't like being alone, but because I always want to be around the people I know. I only wish I had more time to see more people I know who are great people. The only way I would ever be without all of my supports is if I were away from home with no phone. I think I may enjoy this for a day or two but after that, I think I would miss them all horribly. If I had not had them in my life, I do not have any idea where I would be. That actually is an interesting question. Would I be in the same place I am now, just with different people? Or would I be a lonely, working woman with no friends and no kids and no fun. Personally, I am grateful I will never know the answer to those questions.
Saturday, November 26, 2011
My Connections to Play
Two quotes about my play as a child:
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” - Plato
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” George Bernard Shaw
The play of choice from my childhood is set in the woods, up the hill behind my house. I have cleared an area of debris and I am sweeping with a few white pine branches I hold together like a broom. I have created areas in my fort sitting and star gazing, as well as an area for eating including two large logs set next to an even larger stump with a flat top for a table. The longer I spend there, the more details are added and the cozier the feel of this area of woods is. Maybe some wild flowers on the stump table in a small vase provided by my mom or a bed made of leaves for my favorite doll Sally. I can play for hours by myself or with a friend and I need no help from my mom (besides the occasional snack). There are no instructions, no rules made by someone else and most importantly, no electricity. All that is required is a little imagination, space in the woods and a heart for a home, and there you have my play from many, many years ago.
 |
| Stump Table |
 |
| broom |
| wild flowers |
Does play like this exist today? I would like to believe so. I do not live in a place where my own children have a place in the woods to play but some day I hope to so they can have a piece of this kind of play. Their play involve toys and the outdoors and I can see them create their own rules and fun with the tools they have. My mom always encouraged us to play outside, maybe to help keep the house clean, but none the less we were sent outside until it was dark. We would go in for dinner, only to rush through before our doorbell rang and we were beckoned outside again by a friend.
These hours spent playing have made me be the kind of parent to encourage play outside when some parents these days may not. I want my kids to have fun engaging in physical activity outside and sometimes that means joining the game my self like jumping in a game of wiffle ball or joining a water fight. They have more fun when I play and that lesson is valuable to educators as well as parents. We do not have to be the best player, we just have to play. Nothing delights my eight year old more than showing me how to do something he has already mastered. The same is true for my students. I can encourage their fun by playing with them and even ask them for help to help build their self-confidence. I hope I never stop playing!!
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)