The three consequences I have learned from listening to the pod casts and from the Children's Fund website.
1. There are many programs that are out there, such as the cradle to prison pipeline awareness campaign. The consequence of learning about this is my new awareness that some children from birth are at a great disadvantage and there are ways to help them.
2. Another consequence is through learning about the work of Irma Allen and Meridas Eka Yora, I have realized that even though there are children that have it very tough there is always something we can do to help them. The situation is never hopeless.
3. Another consequence is in my realizing that I can look internationally for answers to some of the problems we have in the United States.
One goal I have for the early childhood field is that we become aware that the same issues that affect us locally, are also effected by the international community. Sometimes we think of issues such as poverty, as happening far away, in another country. My goal for the future is for increased international awareness.
I would like to thank my colleagues and Dr. Klein who have supported me in this class. Some of you, I have had in classes before and I have also met new colleagues. I love the support that each of you gives to me. I also enjoyed reading the blogs, because as one person, we can learn a little bit, but as a group we can learn so much more.
Saturday, December 24, 2011
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3
This week, I listened to the podcast on the world forum foundation website.
http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio
I listened to Susan Lyon. She brought a 100 language exhibit to San Francisco. This website has information about the traveling exhibit. http://www.boulderjourneyschool.com/Pages/Visitors/Exhibit.html
She started teaching children with learning and emotional disabilities. She saw windows into children's minds that were quite different. She tried to understand how children learned about the world. I personally, also find learning about how children learn fascinating. Currently, she is working with an Italian architect to rehab a San Francisco structure into the first Italian immersion preschool.
This week, I explored the web page for Unesco's "Early Childhood Care and Education". http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/
One of my professional goals is to become a Behavioral Specialist, this is the step above my current position. I learned from the Unesco website about a program called The Programme for the Education of Children in Need. This program was formed in 1992 and offers a future to vulnerable children through education. The field I am in, I work and will work with children with behavioral problems. Some of the children have had rough lives. I feel so much compassion towards these children. It was heartbreaking to read the issues that go on internationally. "Many are left to fend for themselves on city streets. Others are forcibly enrolled into armies, made to work for pitiable wages or sold into sexual slavery. Wherever they are, whoever they are, exposed to violence and exploitation, abandoned or without food and shelter, education remains one of the few routes left to address their intolerable and desperate plight." (From the Unesco Website).
Another one of my professional goals is to focus my work on the children who live in poverty. The insight I learned this week is "Because poverty may lead to diminished access to medical care, increased exposure to environmental risks, and malnutrition, ill health is also often a consequence of poverty. Accordingly, ill health is both a cause and a consequence of poverty: sick people are more likely to become poor and the poor are more vulnerable to disease and disability." We have been learning about consequences, intended or unintended in class. I feel that the ill health is an unintended consequence to poverty. I had not thought about the unintended consequences regarding poverty before reading this article.
My last professional goal is to eventually lead group sessions to help children express themselves. I found it interesting that there is a conference on the day that I am writing this blog-12/17/11-entitled Freedom of Expression is a Human Right. This is taking place in Iraq. There is a new draft legislation that would limit freedom of expression. This may end up passing. I found it interesting even though the conference is not focused directly on children, but on all people and the freedom of expression. I feel strongly that many children with behavioral problems do not have the freedom of expression and I would like to have groups that would allow the children to openly express themselves.
http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio
I listened to Susan Lyon. She brought a 100 language exhibit to San Francisco. This website has information about the traveling exhibit. http://www.boulderjourneyschool.com/Pages/Visitors/Exhibit.html
She started teaching children with learning and emotional disabilities. She saw windows into children's minds that were quite different. She tried to understand how children learned about the world. I personally, also find learning about how children learn fascinating. Currently, she is working with an Italian architect to rehab a San Francisco structure into the first Italian immersion preschool.
This week, I explored the web page for Unesco's "Early Childhood Care and Education". http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/
One of my professional goals is to become a Behavioral Specialist, this is the step above my current position. I learned from the Unesco website about a program called The Programme for the Education of Children in Need. This program was formed in 1992 and offers a future to vulnerable children through education. The field I am in, I work and will work with children with behavioral problems. Some of the children have had rough lives. I feel so much compassion towards these children. It was heartbreaking to read the issues that go on internationally. "Many are left to fend for themselves on city streets. Others are forcibly enrolled into armies, made to work for pitiable wages or sold into sexual slavery. Wherever they are, whoever they are, exposed to violence and exploitation, abandoned or without food and shelter, education remains one of the few routes left to address their intolerable and desperate plight." (From the Unesco Website).
Another one of my professional goals is to focus my work on the children who live in poverty. The insight I learned this week is "Because poverty may lead to diminished access to medical care, increased exposure to environmental risks, and malnutrition, ill health is also often a consequence of poverty. Accordingly, ill health is both a cause and a consequence of poverty: sick people are more likely to become poor and the poor are more vulnerable to disease and disability." We have been learning about consequences, intended or unintended in class. I feel that the ill health is an unintended consequence to poverty. I had not thought about the unintended consequences regarding poverty before reading this article.
My last professional goal is to eventually lead group sessions to help children express themselves. I found it interesting that there is a conference on the day that I am writing this blog-12/17/11-entitled Freedom of Expression is a Human Right. This is taking place in Iraq. There is a new draft legislation that would limit freedom of expression. This may end up passing. I found it interesting even though the conference is not focused directly on children, but on all people and the freedom of expression. I feel strongly that many children with behavioral problems do not have the freedom of expression and I would like to have groups that would allow the children to openly express themselves.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
More on Sharing Web Resources
This week I explored some of the outside links on the Children's Defense Fund (CDR) website. http://www.childrensdefense.org/ One of the areas that I found very interesting is a page that has links to other organizations called the Outside Partners Page. This is a page that thanks various organizations that have donated money to the CDR fund. The organization Robinhood http://www.robinhood.org/home.aspx targets poverty in New York City. Robin Hood's partners with poverty fighting nonprofit organizations in New York City. They also create funds such as the 9/11 fund. Another organization that captured my interest was The Annie E. Casey Fund. http://www.aecf.org/ This organization was founded by Jim Casey and his siblings in honor of their mother. Jim Casey had an abundance of wealth because he was the man who founded UPS. Their mission is to "help vulnerable kids and families succeed."
Today I searched a new area of the site. Previously, I read a small amount on Haley's Farm and I learned that it is a 157 acre farm that belonged to Alex Haley the famous author. This was all the information that I had read. Today I found out exactly what the story is behind this farm and the good that it does. The CDR purchased this farm in 1994.
Acccording to the CDR website, "The Children's Defense Fund and its many programs have transformed Haley Farm into a vibrant training ground for the next generation of leadership, advocacy and service for children and families."
This week in class I learned a great deal about equity and excellence in early childhood education. The CDF website addresses many of the issues I learned about. CDF states, " Inequities in funding and resources place poor children in low-performing schools with inadequate facilities and often ineffective teachers." CDF goes on to say, "Practices such as tracking, retention, out-of-school suspensions, and one-size-fits-all zero tolerance policies continue to contribute to the discouragement, disengagement, and eventual dropout of countless children in America." This was something new that I had not thought about before. The inequity does not stop at the preschool level, this carries on into the child's entire schooling.
One thing that I find very informational on the CDF site is the listing of statistics. I want to share the following statistics with my classmate, because I found this very eye-opening and added to the knowledge of what we learned about this week.
Schools serving mostly African-American students are twice as likely to have teachers with one or two years of experience than are schools within the same district that serve mostly White students.
Only 22 percent of local education agencies (LEAs) reported that they operated pre-k programs targeting children from low-income families.
Students with limited English proficiency make up 6 percent of the high school population (in grades 9-12), but are 15 percent of the students for whom algebra is the highest-level math course taken by the final year of their high school career.
3,000 schools serving nearly 500,000 high school students offer no algebra 2 classes, and more than 2 million students in about 7,300 schools had no access to calculus classes.
Only 2 percent of the students with disabilities are taking at least one Advanced Placement class.
Today I searched a new area of the site. Previously, I read a small amount on Haley's Farm and I learned that it is a 157 acre farm that belonged to Alex Haley the famous author. This was all the information that I had read. Today I found out exactly what the story is behind this farm and the good that it does. The CDR purchased this farm in 1994.
Acccording to the CDR website, "The Children's Defense Fund and its many programs have transformed Haley Farm into a vibrant training ground for the next generation of leadership, advocacy and service for children and families."
This week in class I learned a great deal about equity and excellence in early childhood education. The CDF website addresses many of the issues I learned about. CDF states, " Inequities in funding and resources place poor children in low-performing schools with inadequate facilities and often ineffective teachers." CDF goes on to say, "Practices such as tracking, retention, out-of-school suspensions, and one-size-fits-all zero tolerance policies continue to contribute to the discouragement, disengagement, and eventual dropout of countless children in America." This was something new that I had not thought about before. The inequity does not stop at the preschool level, this carries on into the child's entire schooling.
One thing that I find very informational on the CDF site is the listing of statistics. I want to share the following statistics with my classmate, because I found this very eye-opening and added to the knowledge of what we learned about this week.
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Getting to Know Your International Contacts-Part 2
I listened to Irma Allen from The World Forum Podcast. http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio She lives in Swaziland, which is near Africa. She is passionate about early childhood and the nature end of it. Her main challenge is to train community people to become teachers. School is different because there are no classrooms. The classroom is the environment in which they live. The nature around them is how they learn. They have to rely on weather, if there is water, they will do an activity on water. They learn about trees, spiders, and land. I found this very interesting since this week we have discussed excellence in education and the issue of standards have been brought up many times. In the United States, we are focused on standards and there is less and less play. The natural environment in Swaziland is how the children learn and it would be interesting to see how our children in the U.S. could benefit from some sort of outside nature type learning where they are free to explore.
Next, I read the information on the Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website . http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/
I learned many new things from this website.
The first thing I learned is about a project in Chile called "New Start". The goal is to improve the quality of early childhood education through teacher development. I am glad that Chile realizes that the start to a quality education starts with the teachers. The goal is to improve all aspects with a main focus on child development.
The second thing I learned is that many countries are lacking in early childhood education. The Center for The Developing Child at Harvard University is connecting with other countries and using their research to help with the early childhood field in areas of health, learning, and behavior.
The third thing I learned is that the third world countries have many issues with stress related illnesses and before they can focus on the education, they have to focus on the health of the children they are teaching. One example of this, is a study in Zambia, by Gunther Fink, on the effects that the mortality rate of malaria has on child development. An anti-malaria campaign was established in 2004 to reduce malaria. Malaria has been significantly reduced, therefore the health of the children has increased. The physical benefits can be measured. The height of the children was stunted and now that malaria has been reduced, so has the stunting of height. Fink, wanted to test the emotional and cognitive progress. This is difficult to do, because he felt he would have to test this against other countries who may have access to more modern ways of living, such as the toys that the children play with. Fink has come up with questions to determine whether a child is on track developmentally. This has caused me to think about the United States and our standards and how it would be difficult in developing countries to measure with these same standards.
Next, I read the information on the Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website . http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/
I learned many new things from this website.
The first thing I learned is about a project in Chile called "New Start". The goal is to improve the quality of early childhood education through teacher development. I am glad that Chile realizes that the start to a quality education starts with the teachers. The goal is to improve all aspects with a main focus on child development.
The second thing I learned is that many countries are lacking in early childhood education. The Center for The Developing Child at Harvard University is connecting with other countries and using their research to help with the early childhood field in areas of health, learning, and behavior.
The third thing I learned is that the third world countries have many issues with stress related illnesses and before they can focus on the education, they have to focus on the health of the children they are teaching. One example of this, is a study in Zambia, by Gunther Fink, on the effects that the mortality rate of malaria has on child development. An anti-malaria campaign was established in 2004 to reduce malaria. Malaria has been significantly reduced, therefore the health of the children has increased. The physical benefits can be measured. The height of the children was stunted and now that malaria has been reduced, so has the stunting of height. Fink, wanted to test the emotional and cognitive progress. This is difficult to do, because he felt he would have to test this against other countries who may have access to more modern ways of living, such as the toys that the children play with. Fink has come up with questions to determine whether a child is on track developmentally. This has caused me to think about the United States and our standards and how it would be difficult in developing countries to measure with these same standards.
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