Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

After reviewing the podcast with Barbra Jones, I now have a deeper understanding of how monastery schools system operates and how she founded the monastery school Pine Grove School in Falmouth, Maine. Ms. Barbara mentioned that her student teaching experience a public school teacher did not speak to her and how she then made efforts to gain employment in the monastery private sector of education. Similarly, Ms. Barbra shared her traveling experience abroad in order to obtain the necessary level of education and certifications to be a monastery educator with credentials. Ms. Barbara believed that obtaining her degree in monastery education would provide evidence to those she desired to work with that she was serious about working in that particular division of education. I find Ms. Barbara’s desire to open her own school very insightful. As a Child Care Center Director for a private based child care center, I can relate to Ms. Barbara professional development experience. I find this Ms. Barbara’s experience is a trend among many educational professional with regards to reaching a level of ownership in the field. I find that my desire to own my own Child Care Center is very similar to Ms. Barbara’s story, which is one of the reasons why I am pursuing my master’s degree in Early Childhood Education, (World Forum Foundation, 2013).

After reviewing the Harvard, Center of Developing Child website, I found the following items most intriguing. The Center’s commitment to global work, which represents both an acknowledgement of moral responsibility to meet the needs of all children and a critical investment in the roots of economic productivity, positive health outcomes, and strong civil society in all nations, from the poorest to the most affluent. Furthermore, the three strategies that the center focuses on such as: (1) reframing the discourse around child health and development in the global policy arena by educating high-level decision-makers about the underlying science of learning, behavior, and health, beginning in the earliest years of life; (2) developing supporting innovative, multi-disciplinary research and demonstration projects to expand global understanding of how healthy development happens, how it can be derailed, and how to get it back on track; and (3) building leadership capacity in child development research and policy—focused on both individuals and institutions—in low- and middle-income countries to increase the number and influence of diverse voices and perspectives that are contributing to the growing global movement on behalf of young children,(The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2013). Lastly, I believe that the Director Jack Shonkoff’s article, Pediatrics reveals that new knowledge in the biological and social sciences, which offers a unifying framework that can inform innovative strategies to improve both child survival and early development as well as adult outcomes in health, learning, and behavior, (The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2013).

After reviewing the Pre-K Now website and the video Pre-K Now: Marking a Decade of Pre-K Milestones. I feel so inspire and have a greater appreciation for how scientists, economists and politicians work together in order to enhance the quality of Pre-K service nationwide. I am completely concur with the message unveiled in the video with regards to ensuring that parents and their children have the opportunity to access quality Pre-k programs. I am very certain that quality Pre-K program will only help better prepare students for higher setting of education and support their overall development. The video also mentioned how an increase of interest and funding has generated from policymakers, which is certainly an success story for the field. I do believe that Pre-K is important and research supports how important it is for children between the ages of birth and 5 to be giving the opportunity to learn in adequate and structured atmosphere, (Pre-K Now: Marking a Decade of Pre-K Milestones, 2012).

References:

Pre[K]Now: A Campaign of the Pew Center on the States. ( 2012). Pre-K Now: Marking a Decade of Pre-K Milestones. http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/initiatives_detail.aspx?initiativeID=31672 (Newsletter: http://www.preknow.org/signupform.cfm ).

The President and Fellows of Harvard College. (2013). Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/)

World Form Foundation. (2013). Barbara Jones. Podcast retrieved from, http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/world-forum-radio/  

  

   

Sharing Web Resources

 The Healthy Beginnings website is a tool for Child Care Director, parents, caregivers and educators, as it provides the pertinent information on how to teach children from birth to 3 years old in the following developmental areas: social and personal skills, language, cognitive and physical skills. As Child Care Center Director, I find that the website is a great resource to reference when I am evaluating my staff members’ lesson plans and classroom activities.  “Healthy Beginnings may not be that long-missing instruction manual for child care, but it is a tool that can help you give the very best you can to the infants and toddlers in your life,” (Maryland State Department of Education, 2013).

                Consequentially the Health Beginning website offer a developmental chart that outlines the key milestone/ developmental skills that each age group should acquire. As a Child Care Center Director and I parent, I have first had experience in know that each child is unique and progress at their own paste in the areas of language, cognation, social and personal skills and physical movement. However, the chart allows those who work with children the opportunity to fully understand how to measure a child’s growth and what areas of development the child has achieved. The website was created by the Maryland Department of Education in as effort to  ensure that the early child care educations where being given a creditable resource to carry out the Maryland State Department of Education's Division of Early Childhood Development in partnership with Johns Hopkins University/Center for Technology in Education, mission which involved establishing guidelines for families and those who live or work with children from birth through three years of age, (Maryland State Department of Education, 2003).

"Children are born with tremendous potential and capacity for learning. Our youngest children need positive early learning experiences that will lay the foundation for success," said Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick, State Superintendent of Schools. "Healthy Beginnings will help those living or working with young children to recognize appropriate behaviors and set realistic expectations for infant, toddler and preschooler growth, development, and learning." The Healthy Beginnings guidelines are compatible with the Maryland State Curriculum and the Maryland Model for School Readiness, making them an important part of a Birth to Grade 12 learning continuum. Federal funding from the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services Child Care and Development Fund support the production and dissemination of Healthy Beginnings,( Maryland State Department of Education, 2003).

References:

Maryland Department of Education, (2003). Health Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning from Birth through Three Year of Age.  Retrieved from http://www.marylandpublicschools.org/MSDE/pressrelease_details/2011_03_25.htm

Maryland Department of Education, (2013) Healthy Beginnings. Retrieved from http://www.marylandhealthybeginnings.org/

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

The World Forum Radio is the audio podcast for the early childhood leaders’ community. The podcast promotes the exchange of ideas between people and cultures on all topics related to young children. I elected to review the podcast which features the interview with Ms. Susan Lyon. I discovered that Ms. Susan Lyon was intrigued by a small child’s conception of the word “city”, and began pondering how children think. She eventually visited Reggio Emilia in Italy and decided to bring the “100 Languages of Children” exhibit to the San Francisco Bay area on two occasions. She initiated the Innovative Teacher Project, and began working with the Presidio Child Care Center and the San Francisco public schools. Currently she is working with an Italian architect to rehab a San Francisco structure into the first Italian immersion preschool.

The podcast with Susan highlighted the importance of children and their families having access to supportive resources in order to gain quality educational services. Ms. Susan also revealed how important is for early childhood professionals to learn the perceptions of the children they serve. As mentioned, Ms. Susan worked with a young boy who has a spelling ellipsis and needed assistance with learning the word city. According to Ms. Susan, the boy state that he believed that the term city was such a small word for such a big place. I find that it is very important that we as early childhood professionals realize that those children who live in poverty may not perceive their life styles as any different to those children who are not in poverty until someone tells them so or they grew to gain that understanding for themselves.    

References

http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/radio.php

Sharing Web Resources

Healthy Beginnings is a resource to help caregivers nurture the tremendous potential for learning and growth that every child has… that every child is born with. Specifically designed for caregivers of infants and toddlers from birth through age three, Healthy Beginnings gives you knowledge and support around child care and child development, while our Activity Planner provides you with fun, developmentally appropriate activities that build young children’s skills and promote all kinds of learning.

The Healthy Beginnings website highlights the importance of socializing children and exposing children as early as infancy to other culture group through “play dates”. Healthy Beginnings reveals the benefits of parents and their infants participating in and host a play date with other moms and babies. For example, parents should set up some soft toys; establish a safe area on the floor for the babies to explore together. Stay close by the action, using words and simple sign language to talk about what is happening. The term “play date” is a demographic culturally based term used to define the arranged time established between parents and/or caregivers that children have with other children within their community.

An interesting factor shared on the Health Beginnings website under the caregiver’s tab is the ideas the being culturally sensitive and well diverse is understanding how other cultural groups process/ learn in general.

Getting Ready—E stablishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I had the pleasure of e-mail several of the professionals out lines on the website below.
http://www.naeyc.org/resources/partnership/globalalliance. I have sent out an e-mail to 3 of my former Professors. I am very optimistic that I will obtain at least two responses.

I decided to review the State of Maryland Health Beginning Website listed below  http://www.marylandhealthybeginnings.org/. This week I was able to review the developmental chart posted on the website for caregiver and parents. I find the website very easy to navigate. I was referred to this website my former teacher of mines. I am very impressed with the developmental chart model that is posted. I am looking forward to exploring their activity planner for educators and parents.