Sharing Web Resources

One of the outside links that I explored was a link for Early Headstart.  When I went to this site, I discovered a whole new world of resources and information about Headstart.  The site that it took me to http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/ehsnrc provides an abundance of resources for Early Headstart teachers, educators, parents or anyone that just wants to learn more about it.  There are resources, policy and procedures, much literature as well as ways to get involved.

One of the resources on the website that I searched more thoroughly was the section on cultural and linguistic responsiveness.  I chose to follow this section because we have been studying and discussing this and I wanted to see how early Headstart handles this topic and what they do to make sure they are meeting the needs of their families.  Needless to say that once I clicked on the link for cultural and linguistic responsiveness, I found an abundance of more information such as professional development, articles beyond articles on the topic, information on refugee families, program preparedness checklists, and more.  I really liked the checklist so I explored that a little more.

The Checklist is divided into 13 sections, which are ordered alphabetically. The sections are: Communication, Community Partnerships, Curriculum, Disabilities Services,  Environments, Family Partnerships, Health and Nutrition, Human Resources,  Planning, Program Governance, Screening and Assessment, Teacher-Child Interactions, and Transitions

Each section of the Checklist contains indicators that refer to specific program systems or services. Some indicators were taken from, or were based upon, the Head Start Program Performance Standards and/or the Head Start Child Development and Early Learning Framework. Other indicators were selected from the literature on recommended practices (The National Center on Cultural and Linguistic

Responsiveness, 2012).  I think that this checklist would be very useful for any early childhood program/classroom to evaluate your classroom based on cultural responsiveness.

Something else I discovered on the site was the Headstart Multilingual Glossary.  This would be very beneficial to all teachers, especially those who do not speak the language of their students.  You can find this very useful glossary of terms at http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/cultural-linguistic/center/glossary

One major insight that I have gained from this week’s blog assignment is that there is a never ending amount of information, resources, and literature available for teachers, other educators, and parents that need it.  So often I have heard teachers say that there is not enough funding or resources for them to do what they need to do in their classrooms.  If teachers just spent a day searching the internet and all of these amazing websites that these organizations have, they would find so many free resources and professional development opportunities.  A few weeks ago I began a list of all the websites and resources that I have come across since starting this program at Walden.  I am beyond thankful that I will have this list to refer back to when I need it.  There is so much information that it can be overwhelming so I found that if I started a list, it would help.  I have 3 more websites/links that I can now add to it this week.

http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc

http://www.zerotothree.org/

Early Childhood Insights From Around the Globe

Unfortunately I did not have luck making contact with any of my global contacts, still to this day.  For this week’s blog I have reviewed the Harvard website on Global Initiatives to gain some insights about early childhood systems from around the globe.  Below are some is a summary of some new things I have learned.

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/

There are many programs that I have learned about while reviewing the Developing Child website at Harvard University; specifically global initiatives.  I have included a brief description of these programs, taken from the website and then gave a brief summary of my insights about what I learned about programs from around the world.

Brazil is working to make child development better by focusing on the science of child development and making sure that policy makers understand the science.  Preparing leaders to leverage the science of healthy development in the design and implementation of innovative policies and programs that reduce preventable disparities and promote greater well-being for all Brazilian children.

Canada- Saving Brains Program

A program of Grand Challenges Canada, Saving Brains seeks to improve outcomes for children living in poverty through interventions that nurture and protect early brain development in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. The Center on the Developing Child supports a dynamic learning community of Saving Brains grantees to help them advance the impact and scale of their work within global contexts.

CHINA: ASSESSING CHILD MENTAL HEALTH NEEDS IN SHANGHAI

This project aims to assess the mental health needs of children and adolescents – a first for China. Blending qualitative and quantitative methods, it seeks to provide a comprehensive picture of the current status of services, information on barriers to care, an improved understanding of local epidemiology, and a roadmap for future services and research development.

The Shanghai Education Commission has agreed to fund and move forward with intervention projects based on the assessment study’s initial results.

Based on all of the information that I have read, I have come to the conclusion that each of these countries is focused on developing the child in a positive manner based on scientific research and development.  They are using proven scientific research to help guide their early childhood programs.  Brazil is focused on making sure that their policy makers understand the science behind child development.  Makes sense to me!  Canada is focused on the child’s crucial brain development from the moment that a child is born into this world.  They understand that it is absolutely crucial for any child that is born into poverty, that their brain development can be negatively impacted in the first 1,000 days of their life.  They are working to make sure that they are protected via the “Saving Brains Program”.  China is very focused on the mental health needs of their young children.  Mental health is such an important factor to consider when looking at child development.

I have learned that in the United States, while we are moving forward in the right direction in some areas of child development, we clearly need to take notice of what are neighboring countries are focusing on.  We need to advocate for our children to policy makers and educate them on the science behind child development.   Child development is not testing, drilling and teaching to the needs of the government.  Child development is a science and we cannot change the way in which science intended children to learn and develop.  What we can do is educate ourselves and our leaders so that we can make the changes that are necessary for us to catch up to the rest of the world.  More structured and rigid academics are not the answer.

www.zerotothree.org

I have been researching the zerotothree.org website and organization.  I have to honestly say that the entire website is relevant to me and my current professional development.  I am working towards becoming a NYS certified trainer for early childhood care and I would also like to become an instructor for undergraduate students in the field of ECE.  Zerotothree provides information that is extremely important for all new, aspiring and current educators to be aware of.  The website is so detailed and is always current!  There is an abundance of information on training, development, teaching, early childhood care, maltreatment, as well as public policy and ongoing efforts to help the field.

The zerotothree.org website is full of different articles, studies and publications that provide amazing information about research and issues in the field.  One resource I came across really hit home and made me aware of something that I was not aware of.  Infant-Early childhood Mental Health Issues are a lot more common that I thought.  10 states have put new laws and practices into place to help advocate better and fight issues related to I-ECMH.  I wonder and it makes me sad to think that we have to deal with children at such a young age suffering from mental health issues.  If you are interested in reading the publication you can find it here: http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/pdf/nurturing-change.pdf

One insight that I gained in regards to policy makers is that zerotothree has quite the extensive relationship with policy makers.  It is one of their top priorities to work with policy makers to make the lives and education of infants and toddlers nothing short of the highest quality.  You can find an entire section on the website dedicated to Public Policy and it is very clear that the Policy Makers are aware of the zerotothree organization and our very supportive of them.  Another amazing resource I found and read on the site can be found here: http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/Policy_Guide.pdf?docID=8401

This is an entire document that is dedicated to Infant and Toddler Policy.  There is some amazing information in this document and I really respect what this organization is doing on a daily basis to advocate for our young ones.  I would love to work for them!

Poverty in the United Kingdom

I have not had any luck, as I have still tried even this past week, make any connections with professionals from around the world.  I did get a few emails to actually work and go through but I have now not heard back from anyone.  I am kind of disappointed because I was looking forward to being able to develop a professional relationship with an educator from another country.

During the summer of 1999, I was fortunate enough to teach abroad in the United Kingdom for 6 weeks.  I even emailed some of the teachers that I had the pleasure to work with while I was there but I did not hear back so am wondering if they are no longer in the school that I worked at.  With that being said, I am doing the alternative assignment of reading about poverty and sharing some insights that I learned about.  I chose the UK because I have been there, taught there, and would like to know more about the children that live there.  I did not really learn as much as I would have liked to while I was there.

UNICEF UK is a strong supporter of breastfeeding, child education and child rights.  They spend a lot of time, training and money making sure that children know their rights and that they are educated in an environment that allows them to flourish. 1 and 5 people in the UK live in poverty even though they have the 6th largest economy in the world.  13 million people in the UK to not have the means to live a comfortable lifestyle. UNICEF along with an organization called OXFAM work together to make life easier in the UK for people who are living in poverty by advocating, bringing awareness to people about the problem, and working with policy makers to end poverty.  Based on the information that I found and read, it sounds as though the UK as comparable poverty issues to what we have in the United States.  One program that UNICEF sponsors in the UK is the Children’s Rights Partners program.  This program together UNICEF UK and local government to ensure all children have the same opportunity to flourish.The main mission and philosophy of the program is to put young children first and to make sure that all children have what they need in life.

Sharing Web Resources

http://www.zerotothree.org

ZERO TO THREE is a national, nonprofit organization that provides parents, professionals and policymakers the knowledge and know-how to nurture early development (zerotothree.org)

One thing that really caught my attention on the website is how many organizations that zerotothree supports.  One of the big one’s is military families.  There is an abundance of resources available from zerotothree to help military families cope as well as resources for others who are dealing with children that have parents deployed.  This is so important and I have had a lot of experience working with military families.  Children don’t understand what is going on and need a lot of help with transitions and care.

ZERO TO THREE is proud to support military and Veteran families. We work to increase awareness and collaboration throughout military and civilian communities so that professionals who work with parents and children can more effectively care for babies, toddlers, and their military-connected families. Our board books developed for toddlers, our informative booklets for parents, and our professional guides all focus on strategies to help strengthen the resilience of our babies and toddlers in military and Veteran families so they will have a strong start in life.

One of the major issues that zerotothree focused on this week is screen time for young children.  I received an email with a downloadable flyer that explains the common myths about screen time.  All screen time is not negative for young children but should be content appropriate, be time limited and parents or caregivers should attempt to be involved so that they can help the young children make connections to the world around them as the learn from the content (zertothree.org)

Click to access 5-myths-infographic.pdf

http://www.icrichild.org

International Child Resource Institute is a nonprofit organization that works to improve the lives of children and families around the world. We focus on early childhood care and education, children’s rights, empowerment of women and girls, maternal/child health, and grassroots community development. ICRI believes that we should only go where we are invited, and all of our programs advance local leadership and promote community collaboration. Since ICRI was founded in 1981, we have developed or operated over 300 programs in over 50 countries, all with the goal of empowering the village to raise the child (www.icrichild.org)

25 different countries and/or organizations have blogs that are linked to the International Child Resource Institute.  Each blog has the latest work that that country or organization is currently involved in as far as world child advocacy.  One of the current blogs posted by New Zealand discusses a world forum that will be occurring in early 2015 and a conference that will be the first of its kind

Architects, landscape architects, educators, and environmental advocates will gather March 11 – 14, 2015, to explore high-level universal principles necessary in designing effective and inspiring indoor and outdoor spaces for children.

They expect to have representatives from 25 different countries at this forum.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I am working on reaching out to some contacts via The Global Alliance of NAEYC http://www.naeyc.org/resources/partnership/globalalliance.  I have unfortunately have not had much luck finding an email address that works.  I also went to the links for the World Forum Foundation and those did not work either.  I was able to go to their actual website http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/ but the link that had the podcasts posted did not work for me.  I will continue to try and reach out to resources.  I did find a section on the World Forum website with videos that can be watched.  

Expanding Resources

One website that I will be exploring over the next 8 weeks is http://www.zerotothree.org  This is an organization/site that I have heard of in the past but became more familiar with during my studies at Walden in another class.  I was glad to see it come back up again in this class because I really have not found the time to explore it like I would have liked to already.  There is so much amazing information to be found here and I cannot wait to dive in and learn about all they have to offer.  Some of the topics that are covered on the site include behavior and development, brain development, challenging behaviors, mental health, nutrition and play, maltreatment, public policy and childcare information as well as information on school readiness.  And this is just some of the information.  It definitely seems like a resource that all parents and childhood professionals should have access to.

The other website/organization that I am going to use to expand my knowledge and explore is http://www.icrichild.org  This is the International Child Resource Center.  Just having explored it briefly, it seems to be full of wonderful information on early childhood issues and trends from many different countries/continents including but no limited to the United States, New Zealand, Kenya, India, Africa, Europe.  Each area of the world that they have links to also have blogs that have past and current issues that are discussed.

Supports in My Life

I think that many of us, on a daily basis, take for granted the people and things that we have for supports in our life. For example, when I first read this assignment I immediately just thought of people in my life that support me (my husband, my parents, my friends). I didn’t even think about things like money, my house, my daily to do lists, my phone or computer. I guess I didn’t realize how much those things do support my life and allow me to do other things that I enjoy or need.

My wonderful, supportive husband 🙂

My husband is my absolute #1 supporter in my life. Exactly one year ago (this week), I made the most difficult decision of my life and that was to resign from my career that I had for 10 years. I love my job as a Center Director for an ECE center and loved the children, teachers, families and fellow co-directors that I worked with on a daily basis. I made a good salary that contributed to 40% of our family income. However, I was not happy anymore. I was overly worked, overly stressed, not supported by my direct supervisor and the company I worked for was going down a path that just did not fit into my beliefs about Early Childhood Education and what it should look like. My husband supported me 100% and although there have been some financial struggles we have truly learned to appreciate each other more, our children more and that money absolutely does not create happiness!!! We made sacrifices, cancelled cable TV, contracted cell phone services, paid off our vehicles with my 401k and I would not look back on that day if you handed me a check for $20,000! I feel like the luckiest wife in the world even if I can’t have that big house I wanted to build someday and the brand new minivan that all my friends drive!

Since I have been home, I started my Master’s Degree (this is the 3rd attempt for me). This program has become a daily support for me because I look forward to learning new things, it has helped me to deal with my own young children in a more positive manner and it is supporting me with my new career hope to become an early childhood education instructor and trainer for NYS.

My silly children!

My children support me every day because they make me realize what is important in life. They support my faith in humanity, my love for education, they simply support the reason I get out of bed every day! They are my life!!!

Clearly money is a support in our lives but I have proven that you can still survive and be happy with out as much of it. I will be honest (just to put it into perspective) and tell you I was making $55,000 a year plus bonus. I typically made about $8-10,000 a year in bonuses. That is a huge income (where I live) to cut out of a family budget. Money is clearly a support we all need but you would be surprised what you can do without in your life and still be a happier person for it!

My phone and my computer— I COULD NOT live without those. You can take away my money, ha-ha but not my phone and computer. First of all, I couldn’t be in this amazing program without my computer. I also do a lot of online selling to help supplement our income. I really would be lost without my computer. I need my phone because it is my sanity to the outside world. Being a stay at home mom, I need to be able to have communication with adults on a regular basis. That is my support to keep me sane! I am sure I would learn to live without it but it will not be anytime soon. I did downgrade my smartphone and monthly cell service to a prepaid phone because it was a $60 a month difference.

If I was to tie this altogether when looking at young children and those that are in inclusive classrooms, children need us. They need certain tools, people and curriculum to help them learn and grow. Just as we adults need certain things in our lives, children are even more vulnerable to the need of supports. So just like I said I could absolutely not live without my phone or computer; think about a young child trying to live without his toys, books or parents. These are all supports for him and we need to make children our priority. We need to find out what the best supports are for them and provide it to them.

My Connections to Play

We don’t stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing ~George Bernard Shaw

Play is the only way the highest intelligence of humankind can unfold ~Joseph Chilton Pearce

These are both quotes that I always had hanging in my office when I was a Center Director for Early Childhood.  Play is so critical to every aspect of life, young, middle age and old.  Play keep us alive, active, stimulates our brains, and especially helps to develop children in a way in which is crucial.  When children don’t play; they lose focus and therefore can not learn properly.

I remember as a child playing, and playing, and playing.  I played with my cousins, my neighborhood friends, and my friends at school.  I even played (GASP) alone with toys and games that did not require to be plugged in or charged.  Some toys that I remember fondly as a young child are pictured below!

My Little Pony was my favorite childhood toy and the best thing is that it is making a comeback and my daughter loves it (even my 2 boys will play with them)

My favorite childhood game and again- we now have this game for my kids. It is just so much fun and I used to play it for hours when I was younger! My kids love it just as much as I did.

,

My family definitely played a huge role in supporting my play during my childhood.  My grandmother was fortunate enough to stay home so all of us cousins (15 of us) were always at her house.  Many of us took the bus to her house after school everyday and spent many of our summer days at our grandparents house.  We would play endlessly together.  Our families really knew the importance of making sure we spent time together PLAYING! We rode bikes, we ran to the playground, we played hide and seek and just created amazing memories.  We always slept over each others houses and would stay up all night long (well at least it seemed).Our parents always made sure we had time to be together and be kids.  I feel as though my school supported play as well because we played tag in the school yard, kick ball, games of cooties (gasp again) and we chased each other until we fell down and scraped our knees.  We did these things because the teachers knew it was healthy for us and they were not worried about our parents filing a law suite because I scraped my knee playing tag!

I could write 20 pages about what is wrong with play these days.  It is not the children that are to blame for it either.  I hear so many people say stuff like “well kids are just different these days, not the same, they don’t act the same, they are lazy”  They were not born that way.  We, as a society, have allowed them to become this way.  Children don’t play outside anymore because we created all these games for them to be addicted to.  Children don’t ride bikes for 8 hours at a time with their friends because parents don’t tell them to.  Parents let them have video games, let them sit on the couch and society says its OK (most of the time).  Society, schools and parents have let competitive sports take over kids lives.  We have forgotten how to say “NO” and “enough is enough”.  Kids do not have time to be kids because they are at the soccer field, baseball field, football field and dance studio every single night of the week and weekends.  I played sports, danced and was a cheerleader when I was growing up.  However, I still had plenty of time to be with my cousins and friends.  We were not expected to practice and play games 6 out of 7 days a week like most sports are today (at least not in my community).  My kids play one sport at a time and it still takes over our lives.  I think the other issue is family time and it seems as though more parents were available to their kids back when I was growing up as opposed to today where parents seem to have to work way more to make more money to keep up with having the best gadgets, being in all the best sports and so on.  I think that if parents did not work so much their kids would have more time with family and friends.  In my opinion we have let materialism take over our lives.

I may have caused a debate with this blog and I respect anyone’s comments and if you do not agree with me 🙂

Relationships

Forming and maintaining positive relationships is something that is critical to living a healthy life.  One needs people that they can trust and lean on in times of need.  A spouse needs his/her spouse, a child needs his/her parent,  a child needs his/her teacher, a teacher needs the support of a parent and vice versa.  Relationships are everywhere and to be blunt, they are unavoidable and so we all need to make the best of them, right? 

Although I am not currently in a career, I have always found it so  important to have strong and positive relationships with my co-workers.  When you are at work you are spending the vast majority of your life with people who it is in your best interest to get along with.  I do not mean that to sound funny but it is true.  When I was an administrator in a childcare center, it was a very stressful job and I tell ya, if I did not have strong relationship with my co-directors from the other centers I seriously would have lost my marbles most days! Your work relationships can truly make or break your job and your love for your profession.  I loved my job because I was passionate about it but boy did my colleagues really make a huge difference in me wanting to continue to do my best every single day.  We pushed each other to do our best and we were supportive of each other when things just did not go as we planned.  There were plenty of times when I called my colleagues on the phone and could just cry and let it all out.  They did not judge me; they would either listen or cry with me!  Co-workers truly have a special that I believe no other people have (especially when you have the same values and beliefs).

On a more personal level, my husband fits in with the theme of this post very well because when I made the very difficult decision to leave my passion and my career just one year ago he absolutely was my number one cheerleader! With out his support I would have never had the courage to resign from my job and leave behind an income that was significant to our family lifestyle.  However I was not happy anymore at my job and money has no power over our happiness.  Support, encouragement, and having someone who is on my team when it comes to my happiness and my families happiness is my number one priority in life.  It has not been easy since I left my job as we have had to really make financial sacrifices and deal with some realistic challenges.  But again our support and love for each other has kept us grounded.

Which brings me to my previous job, my relationship with my job and my husband.  My job was very stressful, I worked 50-60 hours a week, I was under a lot of pressure working for the largest, corporate run childcare company in the country.  My work stress was causing stress in my personal life, at home, with my friends, and with my co-workers (we were all very stressed out).  I will not go into details about private company related issues but as far as how relationships can affect my life as a professional persons work was a big deal.  I was no longer doing a good job at my passion because the stress was getting the best of me.  I was no longer available for my teachers, my families at the center, or the children like they deserved.  I knew that it was time for me to take a break.  I needed to find a way to re-group myself so that I could still be passionate about the field and not completely ruin all of my professional relationships.  That brought me here and now I am finishing my masters degree (long overdue) and building new relationships with people from all over the world, learning how to be a better professional and leader in the field, and keeping my passion alive.

 

 

An Early Childhood Quote…

“Since the earliest period of our life was preverbal, everything depended on emotional interaction. Without someone to reflect our emotions, we had no way of knowing who we were.”

 

                                             ― John Bradshaw, Healing the Shame that Binds You

 

This week I read many articles on the topic of attachment and the affects of positive vs negative attachment of children and their caregivers on their later development.  I truly felt that this quote really spoke to what attachment is all about.  Emotional interactions between an infant and young toddler has a critical affect on determining who a child will become.  Through out this course I have grown so much as a professional and leader.  Although I am not currently working in the field, I am still growing and learning so that I can take all of this amazing knowledge and put it to use in the near future.  Thank you to all of my colleagues in this class for your honest feedback, ideas and comments to help me grow.  I especially want to thank Hayiscar@wordpress.com, Playfilledlearning@wordpress.com and Sandrazugner@wordpress.com  for their consistent, honest feedback! Two of these people were in my last class and groups and although they are not in my group now, continue to follow my blog (as well I have followed theirs) and it is very much appreciated! Sandra, I have learned new things from you and I look up to your experiences and have truly enjoyed sharing in them with you! I hope that I will be able to interact with you again in the future!