Final post - Issues and trends

Happy Holidays everyone!

Three consequences about the international early learning field for my professional or personal growth

• I had no idea how difficult it would be to find an international contact – I need to work on networking! (unintended)
• Equity and equality in the field – and how far we have come since the 70’s – but also how much more we need to grow (intended and unintended)
• Poverty – is an international issue and how are other countries ending poverty? How can I apply this international view to my classroom or local community?
• Experiences all children should have in early childhood – DAP - goes with school readiness, environment and a level of quality – universal standards and rating system could be an unintended consequence of this. 

One goal of mine would be to have universal standards for preschool.  I feel like this goal is attainable nationally and internationally with collaboration from professionals in the field.  

Thanks everyone for your kind words and feedback this semester! We had a wonderful group!!

Podcast & Website Review

Tonight I watched a you tube video of Lilian Katz at the 2011 World Forum Foundation. (I can't access a whole podcast for some reason).

Dr. Katz spoke about the differences and similarities in Early Childhood in different countries - like teachers across the world speaking of themselves in the third person ' "Mrs. Frick needs you to sit down" as an example even though I am Mrs. Frick!

She had told a story about Principals of teaching - to which she told her son. The main principal was:
* teach the learner how to show you where he is (please show me one more time)

She told another story about a parent who told her "Don't let my son play with dolls" and she let him because developmentally that is ok and it was his choice.  - - I pose the questions, what would you do in this situation?

Dr Katz spoke of what experiences should children have frequently beyond the test? 
Being intellectually challenged and engaged
define skills in purposeful ways
frequent experience of confidence in own questions
extend conversations with adults and peers
making choices
generating questions
sustained involvement in investigations
overcoming obstacles and set backs, evaluating them
help others to understand each other
make suggestions to others
feeling of belonging

What experiences do you think children should have? 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXel4dZV7D0&list=UU_2LTbe8sJQqjyK0qujq3yA

New insights from this for me were what do I think children should be frequently exposed to? What content is important for life experiences? It's not about right and wrong or even standards but what a child needs at that moment in time.

I also researched the website http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/about-us/

3 new insights from an international perspective:
* Teachers and learners here aren't searching for a specific end goal achievement test but rather a platform for children to learn, be challenged, become international speakers and leaders, contribute solutions to problems, and to contribute to educational standard and norms.  The standards and norms used for UNESCO, are principals used all over Europe and Asia.  American just figured a Common Core and there has been alot of questions/debate on whether to use it or not.  If America is going to surge forward as an educational leader, what national changes need to be made so states can prepare learners?

week 6 Zero to Three

I wanted to explore the podcast section of Zero to three since my last post.  I was able to do that this week and as a parent and teacher, it was enlightening to hear from professionals in the field.   I listened to “Beyond “Use Your Words!”: How Babies Begin to Develop Self-Control in the First Three Years Featuring Brenda Jones-Harden, Ph.D.”.  It was interesting to me as a mom nurturing an eighteen month old at home and teaching 4 year olds at preschool because they talked about temperament from infancy and how that evolves into the temperament of a toddler and so on as well as how important it is for parents to model good coping mechanisms and when it is appropriate to be upset but also to verbalize it to the child.  I understand this with my eighteen month old as I often say to him, “I see you are mad, can you say help me?” etc.  With my 4 year olds in class, I often do not give them this same treatment because I expect them to already be at that step to “use your words”.  This podcast has made me take a step back and (starting next week) to help some children walk through the steps they may have missed or are missing at home for coping… I don’t want this to seem like I don’t model problem solving for my class because I do, but it has made me more sympathetic as to why “Johnny” melts down during certain times of the day and that I need to take a more active role to help him work through it.

One of the links I explored was the Early Head Start link https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/ehsnrc is a comprehensive website that offers information from Breastfeeding to Child Welfare, School Readiness for Infants and Toddlers and so on.  Good Resource parents and educators of young children birth to 3.

Equity and Excellence are represented in the Rally 4 Babies link to promote a good start for infants as well as the public policy tab which supports Federal, State, and Local Policy development for Good Health, Strong Families, and Positive Early Learning Experiences for children.