Sharing Web Resources

What specific section(s) or information seemed particularly relevant to your current professional development? 








The website I chose to research was NAEYC. I feel like I have gained more knowledge about the website and publications and I can definitely use it as a resource in my work with young children. I knew a little bit about NAEYC before doing research for this assignment. One of the most relevant sections to my personal development is the section labeled 'professional development'. I think this section of the website provides me with the most valuable resources for professional growth and development. I think that the publications are the other most valuable resource for me.




Which ideas/statements/resources, either on the website or in an e-newsletter, did you find controversial or made you think about an issue in new ways?
I did not really find anything that I thought was controversial. I did find things that were interesting to me and stretched me way of thinking about things, but not really any issues that stood out to me or anything that I thought to be controversial. 

What information does the website or the e-newsletter contain that adds to your understanding of how economists, neuroscientists, or politicians support the early childhood field?
Ironically when I was browsing the website this week I found an initiative presented on the website encouraging early educators to meet with members of congress. You can register online to be a part of this movement. I think it was interesting that I saw this online after the main topic for this week was how other career fields contribute to the Early Childhood Field.  I think this sounds like an interesting idea. I have attached a link to this section of my blog so you can check it out yourself if you would like! I wish I could attend this because I think it could yield some positive results.

Link: http://www.naeyc.org/conference/specialevent

What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain from exploring the website or e-newsletter?
I don't know that I gained many new insights so much as I feel as though I gained a new valuable resource to use in the future. Because I have used this website a little bit before I am somewhat familiar with the different resources provided on the website. I think it is something that I will use in the future. The most important thing that stuck out to me was the event on Capitol Hill. I am excited about the collaboration that is happening with Early Childhood Educators and workers in other career field areas well. I'd like to explore this topic and learn more about it as well.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

In the beginning I thought I was going to have success contacting someone from around the world. As this process has continued, my success has seemed less likely. I do hope that I will have better success further in the semester so that I can communicate with a colleague from around the world. As a result of the lack of success I was having, I chose to listen to a podcast instead in order to complete this project. 

The podcast I chose to listen to is called “The Poorest Children in America”. Here is a link to the podcast: http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/09/17/poorest-children. The podcast is by Jonathan Kozol and it tracks the lives of the poorest children in America, and where they go. It is from September 17, 2012, so it is also fairly current. 

This podcast was very interesting to me. I very much appreciated the fact that this man has literally followed and tracked the lives of the poorest children in America since the 1980’s. He talks about the children’s experiences and how the young children tried to support their families. He also talks about homeless families and how they were moved from a shelter to the poorest neighborhood in the South Bronx. Hearing him talk about the poor living conditions as well as the personal connection that he made with these families was incredible to me. The maltreatment of these families was something I had never heard of before. The lasting emotional damage that some of the families and children incurred was detrimental to some of the people involved. It was so sad to me to hear a mother discussing her experience as a parent in this situation. She felt so genuinely bad about not being able to help her child. She wanted better for her son, but her son unfortunately was a victim of circumstance. Another topic of this discuss was children who possibly had PTSD as a result of living in poverty and being moved from the poor conditions in the shelter to the South Bronx. The last thing that they discussed was what happens to these children once they are involved in the school system. It can be quite a struggle for these children for a few reasons. There is no perfect way for a school system to work, but unfortunately children growing up in poverty go from struggling at home to struggling at school. 

I think I gained a lot of new insights regarding poverty. One of the biggest things was just how different the true story is rather than the statistics. I have some experience working with children living in poverty, but this gave me a broader perspective on the matter. I think there is a misconception about what life is like for children growing up in poverty. We do not always hear the whole story. It is difficult to fully grasp the struggles and problems for these children and families and how to help them if we do not fully understand what they are experiencing.

Sharing Web Resources

I chose NAEYC as my organization. According to the NAEYC website their goals are as follows:

1. Improving professional practice and working conditions in early childhood education.
2. Supporting early childhood programs by working to achieve a high-quality system of early childhood education.
3. Building a high-performing, inclusive organization of groups and individuals who are committed to promoting excellence in early childhood education for all young children.

I chose NAEYC because I have moderate prior experience with this organization. I have considered joining it in the past and this assignment was further encouragement to do so. I have used publications from NAEYC in both my personal studies as well as in my professional work. 

http://www.naeyc.org/

A recent article in the March 2013 issue discussed dual language learners in the classroom. This article was interesting to me and enlightened me in some ways. I found it especially interesting because some of the course resources were able diversity. I think this is an important issue and becoming increasingly more common. There are many more resources that can be found in the publications of NAEYC. I think organization is worth looking into because they really support early childhood development and advocate for young children. 
 

Getting Ready

My plan is to connect with early childhood educators on a global level by connecting with them through social media. I looked up a few websites that I think will help me with them journey as well. The website that I found to be the most helpful was: http://theglobalclassroomproject.wordpress.com/2013/05/05/connecting-collaborating-in-early-childhood-may-globalclassroom-chat/. This website gave me information about how to connect directly with early educators around the world. There is a space on their website that had ‘chat times’ listed where early childhood educators can collaborate and discuss different issues in the early childhood field. At first I had a lot of difficulty trying to find people to connect with, but I believe this website and these scheduled chat times will be a good way for mean to connect with my colleagues on a global level. The two other organizations I have chosen to contact are http://globalearlyed.wordpress.com/ and http://www.unicefusa.org/. Although I have had a little more difficulty contacting these organizations, I believe that I am off to a positive start with this process.