Sharing Web Resources-Week 4

I found that the section that contained a link to journals written by members of the NAECTE to be relevant to my current professional development.  This is because the current journals offer a variety of information about the current issues and trends in Early Childhood Education along with current research based practices to use in the classrooms.  Some of the journals are from the perspective of a current teacher as she explores teaching.

 

The newsletters made me think of the early childhood field in different ways because sometimes as a teacher we forget the details that go into making early childhood successful and thrive in all areas.  We do our jobs as teachers but the newsletters for this organization made me feel like these people are working hard to make it more successful for everyone involved.  They are constantly holding conferences and fundraisers to help the education in general.  This is an issue many districts are facing, shortage of money and organizations like this are trying to help these districts.  This also adds to my understanding of economists in relation to the education.  I think it also deepens my understanding of the way politicians relate to the education field because some of the newsletters talk about the mayor of the cities and other politicians and their impact for this organization.

 

I also learned from this site that there are many teachers world wide trying to make a difference in education.  From shortage of supplies to larger classroom sizes, these teachers are working together to come up with the best solutions possible.  This site even has a forum for teachers to communicate in about current issues and trends in the field and this alone has taught me the wide amount of issues that take place world wide in education.

Getting to know international contact

to listen to the podcast featuring Delfana Mitchell from http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/.  She discussed her work with her organization housing children and how the area she is from; Belize City is the number one area for child abuse. Her organization houses these children.  She discussed a child who came to her after not talking for a year from the physical and mental abuse he faced.  They began by home schooling him and finding things he likes even though it was difficult for him to understand what they were doing.  One day while they were horse back riding he started talking about the abuse he faced as a child.  This was the beginning of him starting to talk again.  Although he would go in and out of talking throughout this time, he eventually was starting to talk non stop!

 

The country from the website that I picked was India.  I found out that India has the second largest population in the world and out of that population, 260.2 million people are living in poverty.  Of these people in poverty, many of them are children and sadly they live very rough lives.  It states, Almost half of all children (about 62 million) under the age of five are malnourished and 34 percent of new-borns are significantly underweight.⁸ Important achievements have been made in health and education” (Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre).  There are programs in place that are run by the local government.  They are based on food needs, employment, and children needs.  These focus on getting the children the nutrition and living needs that they need to survive better in this struggling country.

 

These issues go along with the overall consensus that children are the ones who are truly struggling when it comes to poverty.  They come from families that live in poverty and are being malnutrition and are struggling with their everyday life.  Their futures are impacted greatly by the negative effects poverty has on one individual.  It is true that poverty is everywhere and especially evident in countries outside of the United States where a dollar is a lot of money to some of those people.

 

 

World Forum Foundation.  (n.d.).  Retrieved from http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio/.

 

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre (CHIP). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/

Sharing Web Resources

I subscribed to the newsletter for the organization that I picked, National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators.  The newsletter starts by giving an award to the teacher educator for the month, someone who made a difference or did something remarkable for their organization.  The president of the organization then gives details on ways to become more active in the association.  One topic or issue they bring up in the newsletter is that of a fund raiser to help the children in education.  They talk about needing more fund to be able to bring more people into the organization to make that difference.  It then lists four tasks that were thought to need more work in the coming months.  Those included more research based practices, establish the NAECTC as an expert source for educators, highlight highly effective teachers, and revising a position statement to include more.

 

I don’t think that this newsletter touches on the diversity and demographics this week but I do think it touches on the idea.  The idea behind the fund raising event is to recognize those people that may not have a lot or need more in terms of education.  I think this could include many that are diverse and struggling in life.  They have 47 members and have a goal to get up to 60 for this event.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I have chosen to do the alternative assignment because I could not gain access in order to communicate with someone else.  Although, I feel the insight from someone else from a different part of the world would have been great I also feel I can learn a great deal from the podcasts as well as my other group members who may be communicating with someone else.

 

When going about picking the early childhood website it was a bit overwhelming at first since there was so many.  I began by clicking on each link and trying to find something that immediately caught my attention.  The one that I ended up choosing was the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators which can be located at http://www.naecte.org/.  I chose this because it combines teachers from the United and States and all over the world with one common interest, early childhood teaching education.   It promotes growth of their teacher members through current issues and trends and provides ample discussions for educators to learn and grow with one another. I am hoping that I can learn about other organizations through my group members and be able to pick up some helpful tips from them about their organizations.