Sharing Web Resources

Listed on the NAEYC website is an area that  includes professional development. There is a list of face to face training, online trainings, trainings that are on dvd's, accreditation trainings, conferences, and trainings resources. The one's that pertains closely to my personal and professional development is accreditation and a face to face training that include communication skills for challenging conversations.

The center that I currently am in charge of is about to go through the NAEYC accreditation. There are several things that I need to ensure that I am on top of. The information in this training will give me the essential information that I need to lead my through the accreditation process. On the other hand, being more knowledgeable of effective ways to communicate when put in challenging situations is also a plus. As educators, we will be placed in situations where we will be yelled at and much more. I need to tools to assist me in the more challenging conversations.

A resource that was provided to make me think about an issue in a different way is an article that implies that cultivating good relationships with families can make hard times easier which is from the Young Children column, "Rocking and Rolling: Supporting Infants, Toddlers, and Their Families".
This articles simply state that if educators communicate with parents on an ongoing basis letting them know that they know best but we are here to assist and help them, parents will feel more comfortable talking where more serious issues arise.

The website contains information under heading titled Association Relation that adds to my understanding on how the early childhood field is supported.  It states, "NAEYC and our Affiliates work together to raise the quality of early childhood programs and to continue building the Association as a high-performing organization, strengthened by diversity and inclusion. Affiliates are represented by the Affiliate Council, an NAEYC advisory body providing leadership and guidance to further strengthen the capacity of the NAEYC Affiliate Network" (http://www.naeyc.org/content/about-naeyc).

One insight that I gained this week from exploring the website is the fact that there is an area that includes journal articles and information about educational research. "Voices of Practitioners: Teacher Research in Early Childhood Education is NAEYC's peer-reviewed, professional online journal. Its main purpose is to provide a vehicle for publishing the research of early childhood teachers, who are often underrepresented as authors in the educational research arena. This publication includes informative articles, resources, and tools to promote the participation of early childhood teachers in teacher research.  Voices of Practitioners is published three times a year in February, May, and October" (http://www.naeyc.org/publications/vop/about).

~Getting to Know Your International Partner~

It gives me great pleasures to introduce to you all my international partner, Ms. Bela Frye. She is from Cape Verde, a mother of three (soon to be of five due to her recent engagement), and speaks several languages to include English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Wolof, and Cape Verdean Crioule. She served as a Kindergarten teacher for 2. She currently resides in CO Springs.

One thing that I learned from her thus far in regard to poverty is that regardless of location, someone somewhere suffers from similar issues, homelessness and lack of food being in the lead.  She explained to me the housing situation in certain areas of Cape Verde. Some of the houses are cheaply put together making it easy for families to remain sickly. She also explained that having adequate and safe drinking water can be of concern as well.

She directed me to a website to read about a homeless man, an immigrant from Cape Verde being eaten by rats in Portugal. (http://www.asemana.publ.cv/spip.php?article74939&ak=1)

Please do not read if you are as easily sickened as I am. I wish that there was something that we could do to stop world homelessness and hunger. She mentioned that even though she is no longer in the area, she is always staying in touch with family members and friends.

An insight that I gained this week in regard to poverty is that poverty can be both seen and unseen. There are individuals that are living from pay check to pay check trying to survive with limited resources. On the contrary, there are individuals that are on the streets and looking for help from what ever angel possible. I often see commercials asking for money to help aide individuals from other countries. I've learned that we need to make commercials to help aide people that are right here in our own communities as well.

Web Resources

NAEYC

The organization that I chose to examine in great detail is "The National Association for the Education of Young Children" (NAECY) founded in 1926. It is a professional nonprofit organization which promotes excellence in early childhood education. The organization is dedicated to improving the well-being of all young children, with particular focus on the quality of educational and developmental services for all children from birth through age 8.

The link to the website is www.naeyc.org/

A current issue from the web sight that caught my attention is an article, "Reflections from Teachers of Culturally Diverse Children". This article was great considering the topics that we are discussing this week. The article goes into details and explains the importance of teachers being able to teach children from different cultural backgrounds.

Here is a paragraph from the article that I would like to share:

"Beginning the journey toward increased cultural competence (the ability to understand diverse perspectives and appropriately interact with members of other cultures in a variety of situations) requires teachers to rethink their assumptions and consider life’s issues through the lenses of people who come from cultural backgrounds different from their own". ( Michaela W. Colombo, EdD)


Reference
 Colombo, Michaela W. , EdD.  NAECY Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Reflections_Teachers/

Establishing Professional Contacts & Expanding Resources

~Establishing Contacts~

The very first thing that I did when trying to establish professional contacts was research the areas of the world that were most interesting to me. After browsing through all of the countries listed under the resources, I found that I was drawn into almost all of them. I finally selected four contacts. Two from UNICEF and two from The Global Alliance of NAEYC
1. media@unicef
2. ydionne@ccf-fasge.ca
3. ruzanna@sbsbf.am
4. accra@unicef.org
Thus far, I haven't received an email back from anyone. Yes, I am getting a little worried. My sister n law is from Ghana. I will called her to see if there was anyone that she could recommend but the individual that she had in mind has not returned a response to her email either.

Can anyone that has been successful give me a few tips on where to go to locate someone that is interested in communicating with me? This is such a great opportunity to get to know and meet people from other areas of the world discussing issues that are important to all of our children. Your help with this is very appreciative.

~ Expanding Resources~

The early childhood organization that I chose to study is NAEYC (www.naeyc.org/). This organizations provide information and helpful tips for all children. There were others that really caught my eye. However, I want to become ore familiar with NAEYC and all of the information they have to offer.