FINAL BLOG ASSIGNMENT

Sadly, I was not able to get in contact with my International Educator, but I was able to read the blogs of my classmates who was fortunate enough to have someone respond to them.  Through this course, I gained valuable information and I also learned a lot from my classmates international friends.  The sad thing that I learned from this course is that it does not matter where you are from some children still suffer and do not receive the quality Early Childhood education that they deserve.  One reason for this is because poverty strikes all Countries and therefore causing some to suffer and be without.  The lack of knowledge or understanding of the available resources is another factor that children around the world are without.

This course has been an eye opener for me and I have enjoyed participating and learning valuable information that I believe will help me to grow into a great educator.

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR CONTACT PART 3

After many weeks of trying to reach my international contact, I have had no LUCK.  So again I am left doing the alternative assignment. 

After looking over the web site that was assigned, I learned some interesting information.  For example UNESCO organized the first World Conference on ECCE (Early Childhood Care and Education) in September of 2012.  Because ECCE is universal it was so important that participating countries committed themselves to expanding and improving comprehensive ECCE, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantage children.  Another interesting piece of information that I learned was that ‘a policy of universal with targeting can minimize in equity where governments aim for universal access among the target age group but simultaneously priorities the poor” (www.unesco.org).

This article informs me that Early Childhood Education is important everywhere and unfortunately a lot of people miss the opportunity to experience this for one reason or another.

Erica Hines

Reference

Access and Equity (2012). www.unesco.org

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR INTERNATIONAL CONTACT PART 2

Unfortunately, I still have not heard from my international contact, therefore I will exlpain what I learned from reading the article, Global Children Initiative.  I learned that as Educators, we must be willing to help globally  with making sure that all children needs are meet.  This article also informs us that we must address the issue of  economic dev elopment as well.  THis article tells me that regardless of where you are, you still can be resourceful in making a difference in the lives of other regardless of their location.

SHARING RESOURCES

This week, we have to give some of the insights that we have recieved from our resources.  Even though I did read the resources,  I have really been under the weather really suffering with asthma attacks and allergies, I am having a lot of trouble staying focused.  But I will say that I really enjoyed reading the article by Shonkoff “Mobilizing Science to Revitalize Early Childhood Policy,” which explain how it has  been proven early childhood programs help prevent illiness in adulthood. The article summarized the effects of toxic stress on the brain and the benefits of stable relationships in early childhood. As educators it is our duty to know what is being proven by scientist so that it will help us to better prepare our students to grow up into productive members of society.

Erica Hines

GETTING TO KNOW YOUR INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS PART I

Because I have had no luck making contact with someone from another country, I am going to attempt to share three insights that I have learned about poverty in another country. 

After reading the article in "CHIP", I  noticed that in "Asia more than 90 million children goes to bed hungry every night" (www.childhoodpoverty.org).  This is a tragedy, but the article also informs us that 10 million children under the age of five dies from preventable diseases.  These diseases can be avoidable if poverty level was not up.  The article also stated that "most children who grow up in poverty usually becomes adults who live in poverty.  Poverty in China as declined some due to the transition from a centralized planned unto a globalism market but it has created new form of vulnerability and poverty (www. childhoodpoverty.org).

Poverty is a sad situation and need to disappear all together.  In the article, I noticed that Poverty denies opportunity to people of all ages (www.childhoodpoverty.org).



Reference

http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/

SHARING WEB RESOURCES

The organization I selected is Pre-K now.  The link is http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org.  This organization focus is to make sure that all children gain the social skills that they need as well as receive the necessary school readiness skills needed to be successful during their school endeavors.  Since I am employed with a Head Start/Pre-k program it is always interesting in finding information that can be useful in maintaining a safe and productive class.  The article from this web-resource that I thought to be most interesting was the article on "Transforming Public Education Pathway to a Pre-K -12-future".  This article was interesting as it focused on closing students achievement gaps. 

If anyone gets a chance I think that this would be a very enjoyable article for you to read.

Erica Hines

ESTABLISHING PROFESSIONAL CONTACT

For this assignment, I had to make contract with someone outside of the United States who is in the Education field. I have not heard back from the people whom I emailed to make contact with because I just attempted on Friday.  I decide to try to contact someone from Africa because I am really interested in how the Education system work there since all we ever see in the media is that children in Africa does not have the opportunity that American children does when it comes to education.  The second person I wanted to reach out to is someone in Hong Kong, since their education system is stated to be one of the more elite systems.  I wish everyone the best with this quest to learn about other Education systems across the world.

Erica Hines