Blog Assignment: Sharing Web Resources

• Provide the name and link for the organization you selected, and a brief description of the organization’s focus, 
• Identify one current issue/trend from the newsletter and/or from the website that caught your attention
• Share if there was anything else you learned from studying these resources related to the topic of this week

·         Pre[K]Now: A Campaign of the Pew Center on the States

http://www.preknow.org/ 

(Newsletter: http://www.preknow.org/signupform.cfm ) This is an amazing site with endless resources.  I especially like the "Advocacy Toolkit" feature.  In the newsletter, I was also able to look-up my own state and its progress towards milestones for quality pre-k programs. 

"

"North Carolina

North Carolina has been a model state for early education, particularly in expanding the availability, affordability, and quality of early childhood programs and integrating pre-k and comprehensive early education services in an innovative way."

ThThe site also provides information on what quality pre-k should look like. 

High-quality pre-kindergarten is the first step in education reform. A vast body of research demonstrates that early learning programs develop children’s cognitive, social-emotional and physical readiness for success in school. This solid foundation is proven to contribute to higher literacy and math attainment, lower grade retention, reduced remedial and special education needs and increased high school graduation rates.
When students have a high-quality pre-k experience, they are better prepared and motivated to achieve at higher levels, multiplying the impact of other reforms. The alternative – helping children catch up in later grades – is both more costly and less effective. The evidence is clear and compelling: Successful school improvement plans, like a child’s development, benefit most from investments made in the critical early years.

Pre-K: The First Step in Education Reform

In these tough economic times, policy makers need to prioritize investments in proven programs. For elected officials seeking to improve school performance, 50 years of evidence shows that high-quality, voluntary pre-kindergarten is among the best strategies for education reform. High-quality pre-k saves tax payers money; improves children's cognitive, social and emotional skills; decreases the need for grade retention and special education services and helps to close the achievement gap.

Getting Ready—Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

What an exciting assignment!   

Establishing Professional Contacts & Expanding Resources

By Saturday of this week, share in your blog the steps you took this week to locate and contact the two professionals, how far you have come in your attempt to establish communication: 

This has proven to be a very interesting assignment.  I am fortunate to work at a NAEYC accredited program and to  be a NAEYC member.  I have had the opportunity to utilize my contacts with the organization to find a fellow professional internationally.  I am current communicating with an EC professional in Canada and will keep everyone posted.  I also am very fortunate in that our local NAEYC affiliate here in North Carolina (NC-AEYC) is having there annual conference in my city next week. 

On September 17, 2011 I will be participating in:

Regional meeting of the National Dialogue, an unprecedented conversation between NAEYC and it's Affiliate network at the local, state and national levels to explore whether or not we have the optimal "relationship" in place to move a national agenda around young children forward in today's economic, political and educational climate.

Also, describe the process of selecting the early childhood organization, and which website you decided to study:

I chose to organizations to study over the next 8 weeks

 

Pre[K]Now: A Campaign of the Pew Center on the States
http://www.preknow.org/

and

The Canadian Association for Young Children
http://www.cayc.ca/ 

Both of these organizations are new to me as a EC professional and will hopefully provide additional resources throughout this course.  The Canadian organization was recommended to me by my professional/international contact.

 

 

Daily Supports

 

• I am fortunate to have amazing supports in my life: from loved ones, practical everyday support, and physical support.  My husband is my first and foremost supporter in my life.  He is my rock.  He supports my education journey with patience and encouragement, he supports my profession by advocating to anyone who will listen about the importance of early childhood education, he supports our family by working 50+ hours a week and spending every free moment on the floor wrestling with the kids, he supports my elderly parents (my father is a paralyzed on half of his body due to a brain tumor) and we spend a lot of time helping them out... the support is endless.   He also supports me emotionally, when I cry, I cry on his shoulders.  But as we all know, we need more support than just one amazing person. 
•  
• My best friend, who happens to be my direct boss & supervisor at work is also a magnificent support.  We laugh, we share frustrations, we support each others educational journey, we vent about husbands- I am so blessed!
• Last, but not least are my children ages 11 & 4.  It is amazing how much children can support you without evening knowing it.  They encourage me everyday to be a better person, a better momma, a better teacher... the list is endless.  They make me laugh, and that supports my soul.  As a family, we have been through a lot over the past few years, they make it all worth while, it would be impossible to survive without all my wonderful supports.
•  
• Hypothetical challenge: Losing My Job
• This situation would require every support I have access to, and I would lean on all of them!  My husband would provide encouragement and emotional support as I struggle with emotions of rejection, depression, feeling inadequate, etc.  My best friend could provide career support and connections to the profession of early childhood education, she would also be a shoulder to cry on.  My children would help me relax and ground me to being a parent first, a professional second.  I would laugh and cry and then would hug me and understand.  In this scenario, any person would need supports, the more the merrier.  Another support would be the unemployment office, local community childcare referral organization, your educational family/colleagues.... the list is endless.

My Connections to Play

Just Playing Quotes:

Whoever wants to understand much must play much.
~Gottfried Bern 

Life is playfulness…We need to play so that we can rediscover the magic all around us.
~Flora Colao 

Play is the highest form of research.
~Albert Einstein 

Helpful sites:

http://thingstodooutside.com/ 

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/make-these-items-with-your-kids-and-go-play-outside.html 

http://www.livestrong.com/article/170633-kids-games-to-play-outside/ 

Essential Play Items:

I love nature, as a child all I would need is imagination and a friend.  We loved collecting nature items and turning them into pieces of art.  We built stick forts, we made mud pies, we threw pine cones and hit them with sticks for baseball, we used trees as bases for tag...  it was so much fun not having "items" to play with, but simply using our imagination.  Although, I do have found memories of using store bought chalk.  :)

Play was supported by our parents, a safe community and nature itself.  We were told to go outside and come home when the street lights came on.  We were not allowed to watch TV all day, or play with electronic devices.  Our parents did not entertain us, they gave us creative ideas for our own imaginative play.  I remember discovering the world through play and experimenting.  I made sense of the world through role playing and imagination.

Play today is SO much different.  Our communities are not as safe, electronic devices rule our children who are less physically active and use less imagination.  Children are maturing faster, and becoming independent from adults, not in imagination, but in worldly topics.  As a mother of two, I fight the battle to get my kids outside without an adult to entertain them.  

Play is SO vital to development of children on every level at ALL ages.  We are loosing our imagination and gaining technological skills.... is that a good trade off?

 

Relationship Reflection

I feel that partnerships in this world are crucial in one's ability to maintain sanity and survival.  They provide us the opportunity to not only be supported, but to support others as well.  I have surrounded myself with many partnerships, both professionally and personally.  They guide me through decisions in life, and they help me celebrate the accomplishments I have achieved.  One such partnership is in my wonderful husband.  He is my rock.  We give each other support, compassion, reality, and encouragement... not to mention adoration, respect, and the freedom to be who we are deep inside.  Partnerships, no matter what the context (personal/professional) are rewarding for both sides.  My husband is my biggest supporter.  I keep him in check and he keeps me grounded.  I consider my relationship with my own children to be a partnership.  We work as a team within our family.  This team is surrounded with trust and respect-these things are critical for working fluently with one another.

 Adam age 11, Juli age 4

 Elementary school graduation, middle school here we come!

Daddy and his princess, 4th birthday party.

Professionally, I have my direct supervisor, who I am honored to say is my closest friend.  She inspires me to be the best I can be in my work.  She believes in me and constantly encourages me to preserver in all I do.  I support her with a dedication to my work and friendship that I didn't know I had deep inside.  We have overcome many obstacles in our work, and together we are stronger.

Ms. Harriet (my best friend and director of my program)

Maintaining a relationship/partnership requires work and dedication.  This is true in the field of early childhood education.  Our partnerships with the children and families requires such attention.  We overcome obstacles and challenges everyday within these partnerships.  Within the profession, we utilize these partnerships for the benefit of the children.  Challenges such as differing cultures, ideas, methods, strategies, and beliefs may inhibit these partnerships, but with an open mind and heart, they can be embraced and leaned from. 

Quotes About Children...

What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.  ~Sigmund Freud

The great man is he who does not lose his child's-heart.  ~Mencius, Book IV

The end of childhood is when things cease to astonish us.  When the world seems familiar, when one has got used to existence, one has become an adult.  ~Eugene Ionesco

Think what a better world it would be if we all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap.  ~Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

  http://www.quotegarden.com/children.html

 

Testing for Intelligence?

What is the most effective way to measure 

children’s minds and abilities? 

Many professionals across interdisciplinary profession recognize that understanding the whole child requires a wider perspective especially in the area of multiple intelligences which includes emotional intelligence.  

Early childhood professionals can learn from different approaches to measuring the mind of children.

Assessment can be defined as a systematic process of gathering a range of information relating to a child, to help identify their strengths and needs, in order to decide on appropriate further action. Assessment can provide a baseline of information against which a child's development can be measured.   

A general guideline for assessment should be structured as below:

 Preparation
Gather a range of information
Analyze the information
Identify strengths and needs
Plan further action

Often times, the whole child is not considered in these standardized tests/evaluations performed in the school age education realm.  I have a 5th grader who has been through North Carolina's "End of Grade Testing" or EOG's.  These were created to hold teachers and school accountable for material learned throughout the year, as a parent, I saw them as culturally bias and they do no consider the holistic child and his/her development.  It did not show my child's creative mind, his outstanding social skills or his strengths as a leader in his community, it did however, show his struggle in the mathematics area.  

In other countries, such as in China education looks very different from our own.  

Since the end of 1976, the education system in China has been geared toward economic modernization.  In 1985, the national government took responsibility for basic education to local governments through the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party's "Decision on the Reform of the Educational Structure and supported this with substantial funding.  The main focus was on science and technology, not the holistic child within the education system. Primary education in China is monitored, but not completely successful with a 90% rate of young children in formal primary, government run school. 

The Law on Nine-Year Compulsory Education (中华人民共和国义务教育法), which took effect on July 1, 1986, established requirements and deadlines for attaining universal education tailored to local conditions and guaranteed school-age children the right to receive at least nine years of education (five year primary education and four years secondary education). 
China's basic education involves preschool, nine-year compulsory education, standard senior high school education, and special education for disabled children.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:8fHSUiDohFIJ:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China+assessing+school+age+children+in+china&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com

Compulsory Education/ Primary School: Assessment term-end tests, year-end tests and primary school graduation examination are devised to examine pupils’ qualified levels. 
4 years in general /5 years in some special universities

Compulsory Education/ Junior High School: Assessment term-end tests, year-end tests and junior high school graduation examination are devised to examine junior high school graduates’ qualified levels.
Scientific assessment for examinations of graduating and entering are organized, and the assessment system of test question are set up progressively.
3 years in general/ 2 years in some special universities

Secondary Education/ Senior High School:  Assessment term-end tests, year-end tests and senior high school graduation examination are devised to examine senior high school graduates’ qualified levels.
3 years

http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EDUCATION/Resources/278200-1126210664195/1636971-1126210694253/China_Skills_Assessment.pdf