Final Blog!!!!

Time has really gone by fast and I have enjoyed reading each and everyone blogs. I want to wish each of you the best of luck as you continue on your journey. I have learned many new things throughout this course and plan to use some new resources I have discovered since this class.I wasn't able to make an internationl contact but I have explored many new websites and have learned many things about other countires and early childhood education. It is good to become familiar with the way education is in other countries. I have learned about many different orgainzations that foucs on early childhood educaiton. This is good to know because the early years are important in a child's life and we as teachers need to learn how to prepare for these young learners for a great learning experience. One web resource I found was Smart Study. Smart Start, the early learning division of United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta has joined forces with a coalition of early childhood advocates. The programs focus on low-income, preschool children with risks for reading difficulties, transforming our existing, good programs into programs of excellence. Some of the aspects of the program is implementing Opening the World of Learning (OWL), which comprehensive, integrated curriculum, enhancing classroom learning environments, providing teachers with new ways to help children improve their language, providing coaching and early literacy training for teachers to help them fully integrate literacy throughout their classrooms and engaging families in their child's early reading experiences to reinforce these skills at home. Another web resource was call SPARK. SPARK is Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK GA) was a national initiative funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation from 2002 - 2008 to help communities combine resources and better prepare children for school. Targeting children ages 3-6 who are vulnerable to poor achievement. These are just two of the many other great web resources. I also read about how in Sub-Saharan Africia there is a high rate of out of school children. They have either never been to school or have dropped out. This is sad becaue every child needs to be in school and every child has the right to learn. When you have countries like this and the chidlren are suffering becuae of the lack of education I see the need for stronger global committes and national policies that need to be stornger. As we face the many downfalls of our economy we are seeing more and more children here in the United States dropping out of school and not having the support to behind them to get their educaiotn. It is all a sad situation. Throughout this course childhood proverty has been see as an issue and it is only growing into a bigger issue. Childhood proverty is seen everywhere and so much more than ever. The Childhood Poverty and Policy Centre's Page showed me just how bad the issue of poverty in early childhood is and the affects it has on our children and also our county.. My goal in Early Childhood field is to be the best teacher I can be. I want to make a differene in the lives of my students. I want to make my community aware of the many issues that children are faced with and how that affects their learning ability. I want to find programs and activities to make parents become more involved in their child's education because we are a team working together to give our students the best. I want to not only serve the children I teach but the families as well. If kids come to us from strong, healthy functioning families, it makes our job easier. If they do not come to us from strong, healthy, functioning families, it makes our job more important. -Barbara Colorose Children are like wet cement, whatever falls on them makes an impression. - Haim Ginott

International Contacts

I found many interesting things looking through the UNESCO's "Early Childhood Care and Education" website. The first article I looked at was about "Everyone Has the Right to Education". This is so true. It talked about how everyone does have the right to edcuation from the time they are born. It talked about the adoption of the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals in 2000 and how much progress has been made in our education system worldwide. This website shared information on the efforts to make quality education a reality for all. Global Action Week shared some useful information to raise the awareness of the importance for educaiton to everyone as it focuses on six education goals and there are: Six internationally agreed education goals aim to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults by 2015. Goal 1 Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children Goal 2 Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to, and complete, free and compulsory primary education of good quality. Goal 3 Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life-skills programmes Goal 4 Achieving a 50 per cent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults. Goal 5 Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality. Goal 6 Improving all aspects of the quality of education and ensuring excellence of all so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy and essential life skills(http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/inclusive-education). I hope to see all of these goals met in the year of 2015. The last issue I looked out was discussing how in Sub-Saharan Africa has a high rate of out of school children. They have either never been to school or have dropped out. This is so sad because education in important in everything we do in our life. it discusses how much we need a stronger global committee and national policies that put priority on reaching these children and trying to give them an educaiton they deserve. http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/resources/online-materials/single-view/news/slowdown_in_access_to_education_in_africa/

Web Resources

This week I choose to look at a web resource called Smart Start. Smart Start, the early learning division of United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta has joined forces with a coalition of early childhood advocates. The programs focus on low-income, preschool children with risks for reading difficulties, transforming our existing, good programs into programs of excellence. Some of the aspects of the program is implementing Opening the World of Learning (OWL), which comprehensive, integrated curriculum, enhancing classroom learning environments, providing teachers with new ways to help children improve their language, providing coaching and early literacy training for teachers to help them fully integrate literacy throughout their classrooms and engaging families in their child's early reading experiences to reinforce these skills at home. There are so many families out in the world that can benefits from services like these. This websites also has many useful links that you can follow. One of the resources that I read on was called SPARK. SPARK is Supporting Partnerships to Assure Ready Kids (SPARK GA) was a national initiative funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation from 2002 - 2008 to help communities combine resources and better prepare children for school. Targeting children ages 3-6 who are vulnerable to poor achievement(www.smartstartga.org). This program is helping those who are young to try to acheive success early in life so that when it comes to the real school environment maybe they will have a chance to learn and acheive success. I am going to continue reading up on this website for various resources here in Georgia. The website I often go to and check is NAEYC. This website helps me throughout the school year to help keep updated on changes that may have affect on my job since we just compelted our accrediton renewal process last school term. Some of the articles I read have been discussed during this class at some point. Partnering for success: Community approaches to early learning, building parent-teacher partnerships, and reflections from teachers of culutrally diverser children. There were many other good aritcles that I am going back to read because I know they will help me in my classroom. www.smartstartga.org

International Contact

Applying the Science of Early Childhood in Brazil. This is a project that is taking place and is hoping to use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families and Brazil. This program will be working with many leaders and policymakers to help acheive a more prosperous society. I think this is great sharing the importance in early childhood around the the world. Many countries don't have the means of learning the importance of early childhood but with programs like this they are getting the chance to help the children and families in their country to have a better understanding early childhood education. I would love to keep updates on this and see how the program progress throughout the year. It would be interestering to know how other countries embrace the importance of early childhood in their country and compare it to ours here in the United States. Together, these organizations will engage in the following activities: •Building a scientific agenda and community of scholars around early childhood development; •Synthesizing and translating scientific knowledge for application to social policy. This will include working with the Center’s longtime partner organization, Frameworks Institute, to effectively communicate the science of child development in the Brazilian cultural context; •Strengthening leadership around early childhood development through an executive leadership course for policymakers; •Translating and adapting the Center’s existing print and multimedia resources for a Brazilian audience (http://developingchild.harvard.edu). This week, I listened to World Forum Foundation Radio podcast Episode 9: Barbara Jones. In this podcast, Ms. Jones describes her journey from college graduate to the owner of her own Montessori program. She shares how her disillusionment with the public school system led to her discovery of the Montessori method. She found that what she had learned in college was different from what she found in the public school system and so set out to search for something different. After taking a job at a small Montessori program in southern California, she went to London to become certified in the Montessori method. She then moved to the Maine where she worked for a private school for several years. During this time, she had discovered an old school building that she thought would make a good location for her own program. After several years of waiting, she was finally able to purchase the building and started Pine Grove Child Development Center which celebrated its 25th anniversary. Ms. Jones describes the beautiful original floors and large windows that overlook a large park preserve in which the school is located. This information in this podcast can be viewed from the perspective of equity and excellence. Teacher education and experience and access are two factors addressed in several of the resources for this week. When visiting the Pine Grove website, I discovered that all teachers at this school have a 4 year degree and are required to attend 40 hours of professional development training each year. When listening to the podcasts I just struck me that it would be great if we could take places and turn them into these ideal schools for others around the world. Even though this school does charge a tutition just reading about it kind of made me realzie how places can be turned into a speical place for chidlren and give them a learning experience. It is what you seek when you are a teacher and how you want to teach your children. Episode 9: Barbara Jones. [Audio podcast]. (2012). Retrieved June 1, 2012 from http://worldforumfoundation.org