Sharing Web Resources

I have been researching the website for National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators.
I browsed the books which have been published by NAECTE, and found many of the titles to be intriguing. I made myself a list to read in the distant future (when I don't have quite as much going on as I do now).
I also learned about the foundation which raises money to fund early childhood teacher educators and the communities they serve. The goals of the NAECTE Foundation are:

 The goals of the NAECTE Foundation are:

• Advocacy of NAECTE goals

• Promotion and support of research projects related to early childhood teacher education and;

• Provision of scholarships for early childhood teacher education students

The site also provides a link to related organizations. I have this "thing" about Australia, so I clicked on the link to Australian Early Childhood Association and spent about thirty minutes perusing their website. They have a link to their newsletter call Voice. I was able to read it online, though the pages turned automatically and I had to keep going back. Also archived on the site is their magazine "Every Child," as well as much, much more information.

There is a lot of information to read on this site, too much for one siting. I focused mostly on the Foundation and the links to related organizations, but stopped to read a couple newsletters.
I look forward to having time to read more of the archived newsletters and visit other organizations over the next few weeks. 

I am interested in one day becoming a trainer/adult educator and feel this website could be beneficial to that end.

Getting To Know Your International Contacts Part 1

I have been very disappointed by the lack of response from those who I had contacted in Australia and Hong Kong. I have sent second requests and still have not had any type of response, therefore, I had to resort to the alternate assignment.

I have visited the World Forum website and have listened to a few pod casts. The first was from Susan Lyon Director of the Innovative Teacher Project in San Francisco. Susan had been a teacher and had seen a window into the children's minds and it was quite fascinating to her. She had learned about the schools in Reggio Emilia and was inspired to visit the schools in Reggio Emilia. She had been inspired by the exhibit 100 languages of children. She brought the exhibit to the San Francisco area and began professional development using the Reggio Emilia Approach. Soon she began the Innovative Teacher Project-where there is a collaboration of schools and teachers who use this program for their own professional development. She had wanted to prove that this quality type of work could happen in the public center. So she used a stand alone private center to use as the pilot project....the school thrived and has become a real inspiration.

The second pod cast I listened to was Irma Allen-Chairperson for Swaziland Development Authority (Equivalent of U.S. EPA). She trains people to become early childhood professionals. Nature comes in very strongly. The local environment is the classroom. They are the materials and the medium-they are everything. They rely on every grass, tree, the weather, water, the dew etc to create a greater expect for the environment and conservation. They had been having a farewell party for a teacher who was leaving and when everyone was leaving a young man raised his hand and ask to speak. He had been one of the first students to attend the school. He was an orphan, he remembered this lady who had smiled and opened her arms he felt that someone cared, and he learned to appreciate his country, his home, his environment which he had previously taken for granted. As he grew up he remembered back to his early childhood experiences and how important they were to him.

I also visited the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Center's website and researched the poverty rate in China, the most populous country (population of 1.27 billion). China has made major strides in poverty reduction in recent years. 

By 2001  5% of China's population lived below the national poverty line, with rural poverty estimated to have fallen from 250 million (1978) to 35 million in 2000 and the Urban population was between 4 and 8% down from 15-31%.
One critical area of reform is the ongoing restructuring of state-owned enterprises. In 1995-2000, the state sector lost 31 million jobs. Not enough new jobs in the non-state sector have yet been created and an estimated 14.6 million are without a full-time job - an unemployment rate of 12.3 per cent.  In addition to this, inflation in the early 1990s and the introduction of charges for health and education services increased pressures on many households. Liberalization has also led to massive migration, as over 120 million people have moved to the cities since 1990, in search of better opportunities.

4.2 million Chinese children live in absolute poverty and 8.7 million live in disadvantaged conditions. Education and health levels in China are higher than in many countries with equivalent incomes, however, improvements in these areas have slowed in the 90s and regional differences remain. Recent studies suggest that the health and education reforms are reducing poor families' ability to make use of these vital services



As the structure of the economy has changed, the social security system has had to adapt to protect people from different forms of poverty. Up to 1992, in urban areas, only people without work, with no savings and with no family to depend on were eligible for financial support.  A Minimum Living Standards (dibao) system has been developed since 1997 and by 2002 covered 23 per cent of poor urban households. Though this is the main form of social relief in urban China, there are concerns that the amounts allocated are too small to meet people's basic needs for food, clothing shelter, health and education and in particular, aren't enough to allow families to pay the compulsory education fee. Furthermore, large numbers of vulnerable people are excluded because they are unregistered migrants, or are disqualified by local administrations.

The Ministry of Civil Affairs, under whose responsibility the dibao system falls, is considering increasing the amount paid to ensure that it does, for example, enable school attendance and extending this system to rural areas. It is therefore interested in finding out how far it protects poor families, and their priorities for additional support. CHIP is working with this Ministry to explore these issues as part of wider research on urban poverty and its effects on children.

Poverty is everywhere and it will take some major changes to help reduce its effects, especially on children.

Sharing Web Resources

I have chosen the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators because I have been feeling the pull to use the knowledge I have gained from these courses to teach others in the field.

I have spent a little time of the association's website this week and found myself reading their position statement on teacher certification for early childhood teachers.

The position statement calls for teachers who work with children 8 years and younger to have specialized training in child development. This requirement is to assure that children receive instruction from teachers with the best possible teacher preparation.

A growing body of research, including studies on brain development, demonstrates that the experiences of 

the first years of life have a decisive and long-lasting impact on all areas of children’s later 

development and learning. This research shows that young learners have unique needs and learn 

in different ways than older children.

The statement goes on to list the elements necessary for providing quality care to these young children:

• Attention to social and emotional development is essential in young children’s school experience. Children need support to develop the capacity to form and sustain positive relationships with other children, teachers and other adults and to develop the social and emotional skills essential for living and working cooperatively with others. 

• Conceptual development in young children is based on a foundation of direct experience 

that enables them to later understand abstract concepts. 

• In order for young children to master literacy skills, they need to learn how to 

communicate, to acquire and understand vocabulary and linguistic concepts, and to 

develop the ability to recognize and decode print and to understand words in context.

Not all teachers or even administration understand the importance of early childhood educators having specialized training in child development and teaching practices. 

For example: the school my children attend treat pre-k and kindergarten students the same as they do older students. Their classrooms are arranged the same as a fourth or fifth grade classroom, with rows of desks and assignments written on the board. You would never dream you were standing in a pre-k classroom; and this is an accredited program!!

I have attached the link to the position statement: http://www.naecte.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30&Itemid=4

The Association website also posts an early childhood teacher certification tool kit which I found to contain useful information and am sharing it as well: http://www.naecte.org/docs/Toolkit%20for%20use%20with%20NAECTE%20Position%20Statement%20on%20Teacher%20Certification..pdf

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I have become very excited about this course, Issues and Trends In Early Childhood. At first I was very nervous and didn't know where to begin, then I just woke up this morning and decided to sit down and get busy.I am excited to be able to establish connections with professionals outside of the United States.

I have chosen to make contact with professionals from Australia and Hong Kong.

I am excitedly waiting to hear back from those whom I have contacted. As soon as I receive a response I will update my post. 

In addition, I am researching the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators. Since I began working in ECE I have found that I enjoy sharing what I learn with others and might perhaps someday be interested in teaching adults at our local junior college.