Final Blog Assignment

            It was very interesting to view how other countries support early childhood education and development. While we all may have different strategies and procedures our one main goal is to support all learners and their family members. Being able to view these types of practices we can learn to work together and share information for creating a high quality and highly effective early childhood classroom. Having the ability to research other countries can have United States early childhood professionals work on some issues that are right in our backyards.

            Secondly, I now realize how many resources and support systems are out in this world for our field. Seeing how children struggle in Syria and live in such dangerous conditions gives me a greater sense of value in our country. We are so blessed that we do not live in a war zone, and our students do not have to go through such traumatic experiences at an early age. While there are still issues in our states, I believe them not to be as severe as in other countries.

            Lastly, learning from all of my colleagues and through blog posts and podcasts gave me such confidence and fire I never had before. I have grown so much in these last few weeks in regards to what and how we can change and support all learners. It is crucial that we listen to our students family members, support diversity and culture, and more importantly obtain access for all families who may struggle financially. Viewing the many different organizations and other support systems showed me how much we have to offer, even though there is a gap in school readiness we have the ability to change that.

            My end goal is to be an early childhood facility owner, but I know that these classes give me the stepping-stones to get there. This class allowed me to connect with many different organizations and early childhood professionals via podcasts. I will continue researching these posts and continue to listen to the weekly podcasts through HiMama. It is important to stay up to date with the current issues throughout our world and will allow me to stay connected with many professionals in the field. I pledge my commitment to continue to grow and learn and to become the best person I can be to support these young students and other community members.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

Ron Spreeuwenberg, co-founder and CEO of HiMama recently did an interview with Judy Jablon, executive director of Leading For Children in regards to relationships between early-learning outcomes and the empowerment of educators at every level. Judy Jablon created a non-profit organization to ensure and inspire leadership at every level in the early-learning system that is vital to a child’s success within the classroom. She speaks about all families with different economic backgrounds and the importance of access for great care for all children.

Educators who love what they do, do not discriminate within the classroom, they show respect to all families and children, and also ensure high-quality care for each individual student, as well as, the classroom as a whole. She said, “when I think of empowering children I think about giving them the tools to be able to think, solve problems, do work, be inventive, be creative, be flexible thinkers” (Spreeuwenberg, 2017). To empower children it requires empowered educators, who understand the decisions they make and know why this will help their students in the future.

While there are many branches that go off of the early childhood development and education tree I have always seen myself as being a leader in the field and hope to have my own successful facility in the future. Being a young early childhood educator with a strong foundation for early childhood development has given me the skills to support a high-quality facility with an effective curriculum to support all students. The podcasts that I have the pleasure of listening to inspire and empower me, each professional shares different stories and shares why they were brought into this field. My first day in an early childhood facility really allowed me to understand why I wanted to go into this field and to share my knowledge with other professionals around the globe. I can only hope to be half as successful as the many professionals that are interviewed on this website, and know that this is a long road ahead. Each small step I take in my professional life opens new doors and new challenges, I just have to remind myself of why I’m here and why I want to be a director. My first step is to attend community meetings to speak to the public and share the importance of an early childhood education, to gain a bigger audience, and to support all within my town.

Reference

Spreeuwenberg, R. (2017, April 18). Leading for children by empowering teachers.

Retrieved from https://www.himama.com/leading-for-children-by-empowering-teachers

**For anyone interested in PD Course, I just received an email from Albany in regards to a professional development videoconference course for ECE professionals. “More That Just ‘Use Your Words’: Promoting Positive Communication with Children” you can sign up  https://www.ecetp.pdp.albany.edu

Sharing Web Resources

            I have had the pleasure of using HiMama for one of my outside resources for this course. I am honestly so happy to have found such an excellent website that allows educators to delve deep into many issues and trends about early education. The website has an abundance of other resources that lead to weekly blog posts and podcasts, an app that is available for early education curriculum and lesson plans, and even early learning frameworks.

            I have always enjoyed the weekly podcasts and hearing how early childhood professionals are advocating for high-quality education and sharing information on accessibility. But for this particular assignment, I have decided to review their weekly blog posts, which consists of many topics that are relevant to early childhood care, curriculum, and even how to manage challenging behavior. Each post is written by an early childhood professional and share their personal stories and experiences within an early childhood classroom. The sites e-newsletter that is sent has links that head to their podcasts and blogs links as well testimonials, and the many features that come with this one website.

            One particular post that caught my attention comes from Katelyn Vickers, she wrote, “Though the role of early childhood educators in society is critical, there are simply not enough resources dedicated towards the child care sector and providing educators with what they need to improve the quality of child care they can provide” (Vickers, 2016). While so many directors and other professionals put so much pressure on the teacher in the classroom, there is simply not enough finances and resources for us to do our job to the best of our ability. Many early childhood educators are also underpaid, so the turnover rate in these classrooms are rather high. Some may not look at this to be a serious matter, but children become attached to these educators, they know they can trust their teacher, and by having a new educator take over the classroom every 6 months can have dramatic influences on their social and emotional development. We are expected to prepare these students for kindergarten and give them a strong foundation, but many early educators feel unmotivated and more importantly undervalued. The most talented educators can become lost in their field and often switch career paths to fulfill themselves in other ways.

Reference

Vickers, K. (2016, November 21). Early Childhood Education Problems in the U.S. Retrieved from https://www.himama.com/early-childhood-education-problems-in-the-us

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

            This week’s podcast was on Rethinking Research in Early Childhood Education with Mr. William Parnell who is the pedagogical liaison to the Helen Gordon Child Development Center at Portland State University. Many individuals say “quality over quantity” and this is how Mr. Parnell would look into these assessments for young children. Instead of seeing how much children know, it is more important to see what the children have mastered and how that will help them in the real world. Much research comes from professionals who do not necessarily work alongside with children, they look at the science ends of things and figure out what children should know and learn at certain ages. But for someone who doesn’t work with children and just look at raw data, how can they come up with the best ways to assess and research our young students.

           There was one quote that allowed me to think this way. Mr. Parnell stated, “So I think that for early-childhood educators, I think it's really important that they see themselves as an inquirer. What do they want to know about what's happening with children? Because I think sometimes we get swallowed up on our daily lives and then we work in programs that might say to us, “You have a canned curriculum that you have to use, or a canned assessment that you have to use.” And it's like, “Well, does the assessment ever allow for my own generative thinking? Does that allow me to actually think holistically about the child in any way, shape or form?” So those are the kinds of questions I think teachers are asking. And I think for them to bring those stories out, bring those narratives out, bring that data forward, is really important. And share it” (Spreeuwenberg, 2017).

            When educators are able to use the knowledge they have learned about early childhood development alongside with their experience and use the skills and practices they have seen succeed in the classroom is the best way for an educator to come up with their own assessment for their student.

            As we have learned, high-quality early learning experiences make a significant difference in a child’s success in academics for their future and should be available to all families. Alberta Family Wellness website stated “it has been known for some time that the quality of the infant-caregiver relationship has an impact on emotional regulation and sensitivity to stress in children. Positive, nurturing relationships help children learn how to control their emotions and cope with positive and tolerable stress” (Alberta Family Wellness Initiative, 2017). Many parents can only hope they have found the best daycare or early childhood facility for their family, but some do not have the finances to have their children in such a nurturing environment.

Reference

Alberta Family Wellness Initiative. (2017). Serve and Return. Retrieved from

                        http://www.albertafamilywellness.org/what-we-know/serve-and-return

Center on the Developing Child Harvard University. (n.d.). Working Globally - Center on

the Developing Child. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/about/what-we-do/global-work/

Spreeuwenberg, R. (2017, April 4). Rethinking research in early childhood education.

Retrieved from https://www.himama.com/rethinking-research-in-early-childhood-education