Week 4: Sharing Web Resources

One specific section of the NAEYC website I felt is very relevant to my professional development is the Early Childhood Workforce Systems Initiative. The Early Childhood Workforce Systems Initiative is used to “assist states in developing, enhancing, and implementing policies for an integrated early childhood development system for all early childhood education professionals working with and on behalf of young children (NAEYC, n.d., p 1).” Integrated systems will help all efforts to expand and reach all children in the early childhood programs to coincide with each other across sectors. This cohesion is depended upon several facts but according to the Initiative, one of the main factors is “developing and retaining a competent and stable early childhood workforce – a skilled cadre of effective, diverse, and adequately compensated professionals (NAEYC, n.d. , par 1).”

On the website under the Early Childhood Workforce Systems Initiative tab, several interesting articles or papers were listed. To name a few: “2014 National Summit of States: NAEYC’s 7^th State Professional Development Leadership Team Work Day will be on June 7^th in Minneapolis, Minnesota,” “Workforce Designs: A Policy Blueprint for State Early Childhood Professional Development Systems,”  “Policy Profiles for States and Territories: Early Childhood Education Technical Assistance Professionals,” and “Strategic Directions: Technical Assistance Professionals in State Early Childhood Professional Development Systems.” I was disappointed to see that Tennessee is not one of the states going to the National Summit this year and do to have a policy blueprint to set up a professional development system. Currently, according to NAEYC (n.d.), the only states using the blueprint to create professional development programs are “Iowa, Rhode Island, the US Virgin Islands, Oklahoma, Washington and New Hampshire. The blueprint is used “to have input from other national organizations and experts working to strengthen professional development and career systems for the early childhood workforce (LeMoine, 2008, p 6).”

Another topic on the website was “Supportive Environmental Quality Underlying Adult Learning (SEQUAL) Pilot.” This “pilot tested with 285 teachers in San Francisco using four domains which are teaching supports, learning community, job crafting, and adult well-being (Whitebook and Ryan, 2013, slide 6).” The main purpose of the pilot is to gauge what teachers feel is necessary to help them create a better professional workforce system. To coincide with the pilot, research which shows “clearly that children who attend high-quality early childhood education programs are better ready for school” also shows that teacher preparation and training is just as important. Of course, one major problem with teacher readiness is the lack of compensation which makes it very difficult for programs to attract and retain high-quality professionals who will add to the program, thereby, causing training to become more intense for those who are not as qualified which hurts the program. (Whitebook and Ryan, 2013)

I agree that having a high-quality early childhood program is difficult. Whitebook and Ryan (2013) stated “although many studies point to the knowledge and skills of early childhood program staff as the cornerstone of high quality early childhood education programs, the research shows that the qualifications of early childhood educators in child care centers is declining (p 7).” So, economically the education of early childhood children is positive because of the growth the children will encounter which will help them in their future, but the economy cannot handle an increase in salary or benefits, therefore, decreasing the quality of an early childhood program. Therefore, the problem is one of demand because the children need the more qualified teachers but those teachers are leaving that environment for another that is more beneficial economically for them.

References

LeMoine, S. (2008). Workforce Designs: A Policy Blueprint for State Early Childhood Professional Development Systems. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/policy/ecwsi/Workforce_Designs.pdf

LeMoine, S. (2009). Workforce Policy Web Seminar #5: Focus on Financing. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/policy/ecwsi/WorkforcePolicy_FinancingFocus.pdf

NAEYC. (n.d.). Early Childhood Workforce Systems Initiative. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/policy/ecwsi

NAEYC. (n.d.). New! Workforce Designs Blueprint in Action. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/policy/ecwsi-blueprint

Whitbook, M. and Ryan, S. (2013). Supportive Environmental Quality Underlying Adult Learning (SEQUAL): Early Childhood Workforce Data Systems Meeting June, 2013. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/SEQUAL.pdf

Week 3: Getting to Know Your International Contacts - Part 1

Since I do not have a conversation partner, I previewed the World Forum Radio podcasts and looked up information on the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre. The podcasts I listened to were on Delfena Mitchell, Director of Liberty Children’s Home on the outskirts of Belize City in 2009 and TJ Skalski, Principle of the Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School in Canada. I also listened to a podcast on Bam radio network called Edchat. The podcast by Whitby, Blair and Davis talked about the challenges of teaching students in poverty.

In places such as Belize City, in Central America and Canada, poverty is a well-known problem as well as the USA. Liberty Children’s Home is a “non-profit program licensed to house up to 40 children and all the children at this program have either been abandoned, abused or orphaned as well as disabilities, special needs or are HIV positive (World Forum, 2009).” The Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School was the first indigenous charter school in Canada. This program “provides education grounded in the teachings of the Medicine Wheel, embeds cultural knowledge into programs and activities, offers programs for children from pre-kindergarten through Grade 9 (Kalinowski, n.d., par 5).”

 As I was listening to the podcasts and researched information on the programs, I came across the Hope Foundation who partners with The Mother’s Earth’s Children’s Charter School. The Hope Foundation is “internationally recognized for re-culturing school communities and sustaining student success by collaborating with schools and districts on a long-term basis to build leadership capacity and ensure success (Hope Foundation, n.d.).”

The last podcast on the challenges of teaching students in poverty talked about the difficulties in the USA. One of the major problems as pointed out by the commentators is that people tend to view poverty stricken people in the USA as choosing to be in poverty. One example was if the poverty stricken people would get a job, they would have money. This is untrue. The problem in the USA is that people cannot earn a living wage, as stated by the commentators. (Whitby, Blair, and Davis, 2013).

Another organization was UNICEF. UNICEF Social Inclusion, Policy and Budgeting program partners with other organizations to combat poverty, such as The Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre. The Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre IS “linked to Save the Children, the Chronic Poverty Research Centre and partners in China, India, Kyrgystan and Mongolia (UNICEF, n.d., par 3).” As I researched the many topics of the site, I chose to read about poverty in South Sudan. The people of South Sudan are constantly working against poverty. One factor is nature; the “floods followed by drought mean that is hard to grow sufficient crops (Save the Children, 2014, par 1).” Sometimes the people of South Sudan walk “two days across the border to Ethiopia to try and buy whatever food one can afford (Save the Children, 2014, par 1).” Save the Children has a farmers group which demonstrates how to use “seeds and tools to help them increase the amount of food they are able to grow so that they can feed their families (Save the Children, 2014, par 4).”

References

Hope Foundation. (n.d.). Mission and Vision. Retrieved from http://www.hopefoundation.org/about/mission-vision/

Kalinowski, M. (n.d.). A program showcase: Mother Earth’s Children’s Charter School. Retrieved from http://www.childcareexchange.com/resources/view_article.php?article_id=5019192&keyword_id=&page=1

Whitby, Blair, and Davis. (2013). The Challenges of Teaching Students in Poverty. Retrieved from http://www.bamradionetwork.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1222:jackstreet54&catid=86:edchat-radio-&Itemid=249

Save the Children. (2014). South Sudan. Retrieved from http://southsudan.savethechildren.net/news/i-grow-vegetables-so-my-children-can-go-school

UNICEF. (n.d.). UNICEF Social Inclusion, Policy and Budgeting. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/index_45381.html

World Forum Radio. (2009). Episode 3: Delfena Mitchell. Retrieved from http://ccie-media.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/WFR_03_DelfenaMitchell.mp3

World Forum Radio. (2010). Episode 7: TJ Skalski. Retrieved from http://ccie-media.s3.amazonaws.com/podcasts/WFR_07_TJSkalski.mp3

Week 2 Sharing Web Resources

NAEYC

http://www.naeyc.org/

NAEYC is a non-profit organization which is the nation’s leading institute for high quality early childhood from birth to age 8.

I have perused the NAEYC website and have found many topics in early childhood. On the home page the topics are broken down. The topics you can preview information for are: Learning about memberships, view the many publications accessible to the public and members; the accreditation process with training; conferences you can attend; professional development with a book store and online learning; public policy and a topics area where you can choose a subject to preview. The website also states the many position statements it endorses and how you can become involved in many different avenues whether local, state, or federal level.

The one thing that caught my eye on the website is the Week of the Young Child. The Week of the Young Child is April 6-12. You can add your event on NAEYC’s interactive map. Some helpful topics were: tools and tips to pan your event, FAQ about Week of the Young child, News, and Inspiration from NAEYC members. Just as a side note, the sponsors are Follett and the Richard W. Riley College of Education and Leadership Walden University.

NAEYC. (2014). Week of the Young Child. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/woyc

Week 1 Issues and Trends in Early Childhood

For Part One of the blog assignment I emailed three individuals. In Mexico, I emailed Ximena Barrientos. In Canada, I emailed Yvonne Dionne. In Haiti, I emailed Dominique Hudicourt. I chose Mexico and Canada due to the proximity of the United States and I am also interested in learning if the early childhood program in either country teach bilingual classes or employ bilingual teachers. In Haiti, I am interested in learning what their Step by Step Program/Tipa Tipa consists of and how successful it has been within the country. As of today, I have not received a return email but am hopeful I will next week.

Since I am not sure about my contacts, I also looked into the alternative part one. So far, I have read the website for the World Forum Foundation and have listened to some podcasts on the World Forum Foundation Radio. I am interested in contacting Susan Lyon. I enjoyed her episode and would love to follow how effective her Italian Immersion preschool is coming along.  I am also interested in contacting George Forman because he is the President of Videatives, Inc. According to the website, "the word videative refers to the combination of text and video segments to create an integrate viewing experience (video + narrative = videative) where the text explains the video and the video exemplifies the text (Videatives, n.d.)." I am emailing them as well just in case.

For Part Two, I chose the NAEYC website. I am not a current member but am planning on joining. The website is so full of information and in my last class, I researched and gained so much knowledge. I also looked at the CAYC website. Since I tried to contact Yvonne Dionne, I was interested in viewing the organization. I think the NAEYC offers more information so I am going to stay with that choice.

Reference

Videatives, Inc. (n.d.). What is a Videatives? Retrieved from https://videatives.com