Sharing Web Resources

• http://www.preknow.org 
• What specific section(s) or information seemed particularly relevant to your current professional development? 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?
• This site has information for educators on:
•   Pre-K Teachers Resource Center
  
  Virtual Classroom Tour
  
  Community-Based Pre-K Providers
  
  Teacher Profiles
• I also found information on program assessments interesting & useful:
Pre-K Assessment

Controversy and conflict have surrounded the assessment debate in education since the 2000 passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which brought a renewed emphasis on accountability in education. Also since that time, state spending on pre-k has increased by over $3 billion to $5.2 billion (FY09). As of 2008, one million children were enrolled in state pre-k programs nationwide. The incredible momentum for both pre-k and accountability in education has prompted critical questions: Should pre-k programs be held accountable? If so, how should program effectiveness be evaluated, and how should progress be measured for each individual child?
Pre-K Now believes assessments and evaluations of both children and programs are vital for the success of any state pre-k system. Different assessments provide different data: on the needs of individual children, the effectiveness of a program's practices, or the success of state pre-k policies. Above all, assessments must be adequately funded and developmentally appropriate. This paper outlines our recommendations for successful assessment policies, drawing on decades of important research, particularly the excellent work done on early assessment by the National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force (PDF) (largely funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts) and a 2008 National Research Council (NRC) study.

•  
• 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?
•  There is a section in the website labeled: Pre-K Advocates.
• Pre-K Advocates Pre-K Now recognizes that pre-k advocates share a common cause but often don't have access to common resources. From state to state, pre-k challenges and solutions vary, yet the insight gained from each campaign is valuable to us all.
  Gathered here are facts, research, presentations, and honest dialogues about pre-k. Advocates developed these resources, and every usage of them creates new knowledge and experience that increases the effectiveness of advocates across the nation.
  
  What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain from exploring the website or e-newsletter?
• I discovered ways to advocate for children with my local business and community leaders:
• Business & Community Leaders At Pre-K Now, we understand the importance of business and community leaders' involvement in the movement for high-quality pre-kindergarten. In many instances, business and community leaders are the most effective advocates for young children, and in that spirit, we offer examples of and resources for leaders who are helping advance high-quality pre-k for all in their states.
  /

International Contacts

My international contact is an Early Childhood educator from Ontario, Canada. She is a registered early childhood educator that has been working at a theme based / Montessori daycare for the past 5 1/2 years.  She hopes to someday continue her education and get a BA in early childhood studies in Canada- I hope to encourage her in this endeavor as we communicate and exchange ideas/information over the next several weeks, and beyond.

 ________________________________________________________________________________
On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 4:25 PM, Amy Smith <amy.smith3@waldenu.edu> wrote:

Assignment: Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

As it is never too early to establish professional contacts, the Assignment for this course provides the opportunity to establish contact, to talk with, and to learn from professionals who live and work in different parts of the world. There are no specific rules for these conversations; simply ask your conversation partners each week about their thoughts and insights regarding the issues and trends you are studying in this course...

This week, issues related to poverty are the focal point of your studies. Ask your conversation partners to help you understand the specific issues of poverty they encounter in their professional lives as well as those they are concerned about throughout the world.

• Introduce your conversation partners to your classmates at Walden
• Share what you have learned so far from these exchanges
• Describe your new insights and information about issues of poverty

Thanks so much Kim!  All I need is your thoughts on poverty in Canada, and how it affects (you/children) in the early childhood field. __________________________________________________________________________________
Hi Amy

I am not sure how it works there (United States) but here (Canada) a lot of our lower income families can apply for subsidy and if they qualify they have some or all of their daycare fees covered by the government.  This allows for their parents to go to school or find a job while their children are taken care of.

This helps a lot of our families especially single parents who struggle financially to take care of their families.

However there is only so much government money and spaces to go around and there are some families who are left out of the program which is unfortunate.  In some extreme cases like these some day cares will lower the fees temporarily to allow for the child to still have a spot and their parent still be able to find a job or go to school.

A motto in Ontario is "No Child Left Behind" and this means that in most cases the government will help in any way they can to make sure that a child receives the best early childhood care they can whether they live in poverty or not.

Kim Loxton
____________________________________________________________________________________

I plan on communicating with Kim on NAEYC and compare organizations in Canada to the U.S. for the benefit of young children. 

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.