International Early Childhood Knowledge

As I reflect on the websites I have perused through this course, the international contact I was able to make and the podcasts I listened to, I have come to the realization that the early childhood profession has much to do to increase awareness and services of the early childhood field.

Three consequences that I have encountered as a result of these contacts and increased knowledge of international issues are:

1.  Experiencing a sense of helplessness as I realize the complexity of issues affecting children and their families on a worldwide scale.

2.  Educators in different parts of the world are experiencing the same stresses I am experiencing such as overworked professionals unable to receive the professional support they need.

3.  Connecting to an international contact was difficult and time consuming and I was only able to contact one international educator.

My one goal to strengthen international awareness would be to use my international contact to create a network of international eduator contacts so that we could share information about trends and issues that we are experiencing in the early childhood and other education fields.

I really valued the information I received from my international contact and look forward to making more international contacts to help give me a better perspective of what is happening in education around the world.

Getting to Know My International Contact

My International Contact- Helen Lui

 

 

My international contact is Helen Lui.  Here is a little background on her; we have been contacting each other via e-mail:

                 "After graduating in 05' I moved to beijing and taught there for 3 years as a foreign        english teacher. I taught first, third, fourth and fifth grade. I started pursuing the part time distance /on field MA TEFL program offered by Asuza Pacific University and upon completion, I moved to Hong Kong and have been teaching English as a foreign language ever since. I currently teach first, second, third, and sixth graders. I have five lessons per day with the duration of 35 mins each. I have complete autonomy as to what I want to teach except for third and sixth graders where I teach to prerare them for a public English exam called the TSA. "

I met Helen via e-mail from a colleague that I teach with at my school who is an English Language Learner teacher in our district.  Her and Helen went to school together in the United States.

This week, I e-mailed Helen the questions from our blog assignment and here are her responses:
 

1.  What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed where you live and work?

Early childhood professionals are underpaid with heavy workloads. People are quitting and do not wish to apply for jobs in this field. Hence, the government has recently announced a 2 year free Kindergarten Education where people who are accepted into the program will study both English and early childhood education overseasfor 2 consecutive years. (http://7thspace.com/headlines/435516/appointments_to_committee_on_free_kindergarten_education_announced.html)

2.  What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist? http://www.edb.gov.hk/en/teacher/qualification-training-development/development/cpd-teachers/index.html

3.  What are some of your professional goals?
To enhance the teaching of English Language in Hong Kong and to increase students' exposure to authentic English instead of "textbook" English.

4.  What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?
Hopes and dreams: refer to question 3
Challenges: It's hard to get students to be exposed to "authentic" English when Hong Kong is such an exam oriented society where text books would always be there first priority when learning English; being the one and only foreign English teacher in school can be lonely and feeling isolated at times; cultural differences/conflicts is also another issue when dealing with issues related to teaching.

It was exciting to have contact with an international teacher and hear about her experiences!  I found it interesting that early childhood professionals are also overworked and underpaid in Hong Kong.

                

 

 

 



Sharing Web Resources- Finding New Information

This week's blog information is gained from the Children's Defense Fund at http://www.childrensdefense.org/


Outside links from the site that I discovered:

I was not able to find outside links from the site but I feel like I have seen them before so I will keep looking and report back when I find them.  But there isn't anything directly on the website taking you to outside links.  I know that some of the articles come from other news sources besides CDF staff.

One particular site area that interested me:

This was taken directly from the "About Us" page of the website and I found the information sad but interesting.

March 2013

• 2 mothers die in childbirth.
• 4 children are killed by abuse or neglect.
• 5 children or teens commit suicide.
• 7 children or teens are killed by firearms.
• 24 children or teens die from accidents.
• 67 babies die before their first birthdays.
• 208 children are arrested for violent crimes.
• 467 children are arrested for drug crimes.
• 838 public school students are corporally punished.*
• 892 babies are born at low birthweight.
• 914 babies are born to teen mothers.
• 1,208 babies are born without health insurance.
• 1,825 children are confirmed as abused or neglected.
• 2,712 babies are born into poverty.
• 2,857 high school students drop out.*
• 4,475 babies are born to unmarried mothers.
• 4,500 children are arrested.
• 16,244 public school students are suspended.*

**Based on 180 school days a year. The numbers for suspensions and corporal punishment are underreports because they are based on a survey of 85% of all students, and because they do not take into account repeat suspensions or corporal punishments in the same students.
Learn more stats about the state of children in America on our Moments in America for Children page.

New information gained through the site newsletter:

The monthly newsletter is brief but chock full of information.  Since CDF is celebrating their 40th anniversary, they have chosen to highlight the work of one of their young advocate leaders.  The newsletter also highlighted the following events coming up:

-An inservice/training on how to start up the CDF Freedom Schools program which is a summer school and after school programs.
-The 3rd Black Male Symposium that CDF is co-sponsoring in Washington, D.C.
-The 2013 Proctor Institute for Child Advocacy Ministry

These institutes provide information on how people can become more involved with CDF and in their communities.

There is also a brief note about watching the National Budget, especially when education and family services issues are affected.  CDF encourages people to talk to their legislators about issues currently on the table that affect children and their families.

Information from the site that adds to understanding equity and excellence in early childhood:
There are variety of articles related to equity and excellence in early childhood on the site when checking out the Policy Priorities tab.  The following are the articles I came across:

-New Data on Early Childhood Education and Care
-50 States.  Every Child.  Every School.
-Increasing Access to Full-Day Kindergarten
-A Strong Start
-Angie Salazar- From Head Start to Harvard

All of the articles are very interesting and well worth reading and this is only a sampling of articles the website has access to.

New insights about issues and trends gained from the site:

The CDF and its website encompass a variety of topics that affect children and families of poverty and violence.  The CDF is a strong advocate for children and families and uses its voice to inform others and rally to legislators to advocate for positive change in order to create better living and learning environments for children and their families.

Information on an International Level

International Contacts

 

 

I was hopeful that I would have an international contact by now but unfortunately I do not.  So this week, I chose to explore the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University website.

 

I read about the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project.  In the past 3 years the Zambian Ministry of Education along with some other worldwide organizations collaborating together created a new comprehensive assessment tool to assess children's physical, socio-emotional and cognitive development before and throughout children's school age years.  The Zambian Early Childhood Development Project is hoping that this new assessment tool will give them insight into the development of the whole child and help identify improved outcomes for their children in a world that offers many challenges (Global Children's Initiative, n.d.). 

 

I also read The Zambian Early Childhood Development Project 2010 Assessment Final Report and found it quite comprehensive and impressive.  I was surprised to find out that research on cognitive development assessment has been taking place for thirty years in Zambia.  It was just recently that the ZECDP decided to include other facets of child development which I find encouraging and interesting.  It's encouraging to me that other countries in the field of early childhood are interested in young children as a whole and realize the importance of taking all of a child's development into consideration of a child's success in school and into adulthood.

 

Harvard University's Global Children's Initiative.  Retrieved from  http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/