Relationship Reflection

I am blessed to have strong healthy relationships with people.  Over the years I have learned that to maintain relationships both people must value the relationship equally.  Trust and honesty are also vital components of healthy relationships.

As I am getting older I am improving the relationship with my parents.  My mom and I have always had a difficult time communicating however, we both have tried to work on it together. My girlfriend Danielle have been friends for 19 years.  She is the friend everyone should have.  She is honest, loyal, and dependable.  She tells the truth even when its not warranted, lol.  Se has helped me to be a better woman and an accountable woman.  What makes us last is our effort to stay connected even with life changes.  I have been in a relationship for 4 years with the man I believe was created just for me.  He taught me to love.  We laugh and battle the challenges of life together.

I have strong relationships with many people and they all have some attributes in common? We love hard, we are honest with each other, we value the relationship equally, we invest time in developing our relationships, and we accept each other as we are.

International Reflection

I have learned a lot through the blog post assignments this course.  I have been exposed to and explored many sites which have expanded my interest, increased my knowledge, and increased my awareness.  I have realized all over the world the fight for quality education is occurring and some countries are taking larger steps than others to eliminate disparities involved with quality and access.  There is some comfort in knowing that we, meaning early childhood professionals worldwide, speak the same language and have a shared understanding of what is important.  There is evidence that we are all fighting and advocating for families and children.  I will continue to explore sites, stateside and internationally, as we can all learn and become inspired from each other’s work and progress. 

I wish my classmates well in their endeavors to advocate, inspire, and change; one step leads to way to many steps…..

UNESCO

I visited the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization site and was delighted to see that the areas of education regarding quality, access, and investment are areas being discussed all over the world.  We as educators know these issues are not isolated to one country or region; instead, they are issues that affect the field of early education worldwide.  After exploring the sight, there are three issues discussed that directly relate to my professional goals of advocating for best practice and access to early education for all children.

Currently, I support pre-k and pre-school teachers in areas of instruction and best practice within their classroom.  So often, I have encountered teachers that depend strictly on the curriculum that they forget or ignore best practice.  Best practice should be present whether there is a set curriculum or not however, many teachers depend on the curriculum to create routines, manage behavior, and foster positive classroom climate.  Some of us, speaking from experience, have become lazy and dependent, yet we wonder why our children are all over the place, why they do not participate in engaged play, and why nothing instructional can be accomplished during the day.  The policy brief from September 2004 is focused on curriculum in early care and education.  Within the brief, it states the pros of an established curriculum: common approach to pedagogy, identification of specific areas to be taught, establishes a standard level of quality.  However, what is also just as important is that ECE should be tailored to meet the child at their individual level of social emotional and cognitive development and should be directed by the child.  Because of this, an established set curriculum may not be the best option for early childhood educators, instead the identification of specific guidelines or framework.

The second insight which gave me hope was reading about Brazil’s mandatory education fund for early education.  The fund entitled, Fund for the Development of Primary Education and Teacher Development (FUNDEF), is comprised of money from state, local, and municipalities’ budgets.  In 2000, this fund increased early enrollment to 96.4% and has allowed access to early education from ostracized populations.  Due to the success of FUNDEF, policy makers are drafting a bill which would mandate educational funding for children ages 0-6.  A statement made by Severiano Alves, a member of the Brazilian congress, summarizes how we all, especially law and policy makers should view early education “ignoring or belittling the problem of early childhood education, to me, is a serious mistake. Imagine a primary school classroom with children from rich families who have gone through private pre-schools and are well prepared for learning, and those from poor families who have little idea about learning, let alone having any developmental base to begin learning. Imagine the kinds of problems this situation can create for the teacher, for the children themselves, and eventually for the entire society. Instead of working on bills to remedy problems, I would prefer working on a preventive, more economical and effective, measure – investment in the early periods.”

Aside from funding, quality is also an important component when discussing access.  In New Zealand, home based services are offered for families of children aged birth to five.  Within this program, homes are clustered and managed by coordinator.  The coordinator places children in approved homes for a specific amount of hours per week.  The program, managed by the New Zealand Dept. of Education, provides specific funding per child for each home based program.  Additionally, each home based program is monitored by the government and must stay in accordance with the Education Order.  This program services a range of families, which has increased in population due to an increase in mothers working outside of the home.

From the three policies of focusing on improvement for early care of countries from all over the world, I have faith that one day this country of the United States, will follow suit and not just recognize the importance of early care but put their thoughts into actions.

Resources

UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Education. September 2004. Curriculum in early childhood education and care. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137401e.pdf

UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Education. September 2002. Home-based early childhood services: the case of New Zealand. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001373/137381e.pdf

UNESCO Policy Brief on Early Education. October 2003. Mandatory funding for early childhood education: a proposal in Brazil. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001374/137406e.pdf

Web Resources Extended- NCBI

I have visited site for the National Black Child Development Institute (BCDI) numerous times now and have yet to explore the affiliates section, which was one of my initial reasons I chose this website; they have an affiliate close to my home.  There are 27 affiliates of the BCDI located in major cities or counties across the United States.  Of the affiliates listed, only 5 had websites specifically for their city.  Unfortunately, the affiliate near me was not one with a web site :@(.  I browsed through the Philly site (the closest affiliate to me even thought is 2.5 hrs away) and noticed they offered a lot of events for the community including cooking classes, Kwanzaa celebrations, and supports for women with breast cancer.  Meetings for this affiliate are held monthly for both members and nonmembers. 

The Philadelphia affiliate is currently focused on 2 programs; GROW Green Get Fit and Entering the College Zone (ECZ).  GROW Green Get Fit, is a program developed in conjunction with the YMCA, BCDI, and Donna Richardson-Joyner to end childhood obesity.  Through the program, children and their families learn information about healthy eating and nutrition, making healthy changes and choices in behavior, cooking healthy meals, fitness tips, and information of the effects of poor healthy including high blood pressure and diabetes.  Focusing on children, youth, and their families, this program became so successful that land was donated so that a community garden could be created where children could grow healthy fruits and veggies.

Entering the College Zone (ECZ), a program targeted to middle school students and their families, provides resources and support so that they can successfully complete the application process for college. The goal of the program is to encourage parents to participate in their child’s education, while encouraging students to plan for and succeed in obtaining higher education.  

I also visited the site for the Atlanta which had similar postings to the Philadelphia site.  The Atlanta site however, had a link labeled ADVOCACY which stood out to me.  The Atlanta affiliate works with the community specifically, young children and their families, to advocate for quality care and to enhance the quality of life.  Most notably, partnering with early childhood centers to meet NAEYC accreditation, partnering with early childhood organizations to challenge policies and laws and ECZ are the 3 largest advocate focuses. This affiliate is actively involved in making sure the voices of young children are heard.  Access to policy alerts, public forums, and registration drives are just a few of the tactics this affiliate has used to advocate for young children and their families.

After exploring both the Atlanta and the Philly Affiliate sites, the notion that it takes “a community to raise a child” really stands out.  In both cities, there are those who volunteer their time to advocate for those without a voice and who put on programs to support the educational and healthy growth and development of children and those in their communities.  Health is a huge focus in many African American communities and it is evident in the programs the affiliates and the BCDI are promoting.  Although the definition of quality varies from community to community, there is precedence that things can be better, children deserve better, and there are people fighting for that.

Resources:

National Black Child Development Institute Atlanta. n.d. Advocacy. Retrieved from http://bcdi-atl.org/advocacy/

National Black Child Development Institute Philadelphia and Vicinity.n.d.  Retrieved from http://www.bcdiphiladelphia.org/index.html

Global Children's Initiative

I think I have decided to give up on establishing communication with another overseas professional.  It has now been almost 6 weeks and I have no updates at all.  The idea behind the assignment is great however, I think if the university had connections with certain groups or organizations where they knew students would be contacting them, I may have gotten a little farther in my communication.  So from here out, I will do the alternate assignment.

I explored the Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University, and more specifically the Global Children’s Initiative.  I was amazed to see that the center established a center solely on educating, supporting, and collaboration within ECE, countries around the world.  My first thought is that the United States is not completely selfish and about the development of our nation, well at least not in terms of Early Childhood :@).  I read some interesting things about various programs happening all over the world:

• The initiave has 3 major focuses: early child development, child mental health, and children in crisis and conflict situations.  Within each area, strategic steps and projects have been implemented to address various needs.  Under early development, the center is analyzing ECE programs and environments globally, creating collaboration among global schools, and improving the quality of preschool in Chili.  Under mental health, mental services in China are being assessed; programs have been created to support maltreatment and mental health in Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname. Within children in crisis, collaboration from a science and public health perspective are being generated to support assessment and management of children and their well-being during natural and man-made crisis.
• The Zambian Early Childhood Development Project was established in 2009 to address the lack of information available in early childhood development in sub-Saharan Africa.  An assessment tool was created to measure effect of child development due to the anti-malaria campaign. The tool, which is separate for children and parents, ask questions about home life, school, social emotional development, and education of parents.  The test for children assesses many skills including fine motor, vocabulary, expressive language, attention, and letter identification.
• Nucleo Ciencia Pela Infancia, a projected launched in Brazil in conjunction with leaders, politicians, and scholars works to create and implements policies and programs, based on health and children development, which will benefit young children and their families.

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

Web Resources Pt. 2

This week I returned to the National Black Child Development Institute website and I was slightly disappointed.  I signed up for the newsletter but I have yet to receive one.  I went directly to the initiatives tab and was disappointed when there was little information available and the only recent information was about the National Head Start Conference held in June.  I clicked on other initiatives thinking it would have more recent information but it did not. 

Every time I visit a professionals organizations’ site I explore professional development opportunities; this site mentioned information regarding the annual conference.  The conference, which will be held in October, is offering 2 seminars that I would professionally benefit from; Strengths-based coaching and early childhood educators as advocates for change. Unfortunately, I will not be able to afford to attend the conference.  This week my exploration was limited and slightly frustrating.  I will check back next week in hopes of receiving a newsletter by then.

Update on professional contacts: No change from last week.  I have not gotten a response back.

Resource: http://nbcdi.org/blog/category/early-childhood-education/ 

Web Resources

The National Black Child Development Institute (http://nbcdi.org/) was born during the late 1960’s, during a time when people began to rally together to create social change.  Incorporated in 1970, NBCDI began work to improve the life of the black child (History, 2102, para. 1).  The mission, “to improve and advance the love of black children and their families through education and advocacy”, has remained foremost, as the institute focuses on early childhood education, secondary and elementary education, health and child welfare (NBCDI History, 2012, para. 2).  NBCDI, provides direct services to education professionals, families, and specialist including social workers and other professionals (History, 2012, para. 3-4).  There are core programs which the institute focuses on that accomplishes their vision and promotes nationwide attention: Love to Read, The Parent Empowerment Program, African American Parents Project, SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids, Entering the College Zone, and the National Affiliate Network (NBCDI History, 2012, para. 5). 

This week we focused on changing demographics and diversity and in Dr. Graces’ interview she mentioned that curriculums may need to be adjusted to address the chaining demographics (Laureate Education, 2011).  NBCDI has also begun to address this issue by developing a Cultural Competency Improvement Tool (CCIT) (Home, 2012).  This tool can be used to review the cultural competence in health and nutrition curriculums used for all aged children.  Why is this relevant? The changes in population include increases in Latino, African American, and Native American children and families which have reached epidemic rates for childhood obesity (NBCDI, 2012).  As educators prepare for increased diversity, we must not forget cultural components such as nutrition, food, and nutritional habits that will affect children and families. 

Link to Cultural Competence Improvement Tool:

http://nbcdi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/DRAFT-CCIT-June-2012.pdf

Resources

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). The effects of changing demographics and diversity on children, families, and the early childhood field [Audio].  Issues and Trends in the Early Childhood Field. Baltimore, MD: Author

National Black Child Development Institute. (2012). About: history. Retrieved July 6, 2012 from  http://nbcdi.org/about/history/