Final Blog Assignment

As we end this course and do this final blog I have learned quite a bit from my classmates and from reading the different articles and journals that was assigned to us. I leave this course with new knowledge and full of information about early childhood education.

One consequence is the quality of childhood education. All children need a quality education and they are entitle to get an education and they need good teachers who can give them what they need in order to learn and to be successful in life
I also realize how important it is for policy makers and the effect of how politics,economics and neuroscience has on early childhood education. Policy makers should make sure that there is enough money in the budget for the different programs in early childhood education because the sooner we start working with our children the better it is for them as they move fromdifferent levels and as they develop by age. The economist will help the community by pulling out the different resources that is available for needy families and children. They also can reach out to the different companies to get funds for the families through out the community and they can report back to the policy makers to let them know what area in the community that needs the most help.
The third consequence is poverty I did not know that there are so many children that is in poverty I knew about poverty in other countries because you see it on t.v. and I was under the impression about maybe a handful in the U. S. until I read about it through the readings we had to read.
My one goal would be to continue to help families to help themselves for the better and to help the children who are in need also. I would like to have some input with the community on how we can better help and serve families that are in need of housing, healthcare, education and with jobs for the parents who is not working. 

Getting to know your International contacts Part 3

I choose the podcast alternative because I have not received any response to the emails that I sent out.
The ideas or insight I gained about issues related to international early childhood eduction is UNESCO advocates for Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) programmes that attend to health, nutrition, security and learning and which provide for children's holistic development. ECCE is part of a range of programmes that promote inclusive education.

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova launched a dynamic new partnership for girls’ and women’s education, at a high-level forum at UNESCO Headquarters on 26 May, in the presence of United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and international leaders of the political and corporate world. We have similar views because over in the United States we also advocates for children rights to better education and health insurance. I also agree that the early the children starts to learn the better it would be for them in developing their cognitive and motor skills.

Getting to know your International contacts

The insights that I gained from this article is that the Global Childrens Initiative meets the need of all children and it invests in economic positive health outcomes and a strong civil society in all nations from the poorest to the affluent. Global Children's Initiative seeks to advance the centers mission world wide by doing research, public engagement and leadership development agenda in child health and development that is grounded in science and engages all proffessionals and non professionals to help with the different programs.
There are 3 strategic areas
1. reframing the discourse around child health and development-this is where the policymakers are educated on how important the learning of science, behavior and health begining in the early years of life.
2. supporting innovative, multi-disciplinary research and demonstration projects-which means to go world wide with the understanding of how healthy development starts, how it can get off track and back on track again.
3. Building leadership capacity in child development research and policy-this is where everyone comes together all over the world and contributing to the global movement on behalf of the children.

The additional information is that the center is world wide and the Global Childrens Initiative is connecting with others who is taking a learning approach to child health , survival and development in the earlest years.

Sharing Web Resources

The information that is particularly relevant to my current professional development is the headline in the newsletter that I received from the Child Defense Funds tittle Wake-Up Call for Action. The newsletter states that our since our country in in a rutt because of the unemployment, foreclosures, homelessnes, hunger and budget cuts from both federal and state which is putting the children well-being into jeopardy. The newsletter also states that the gap between rich and poor families continued to grow and that millions of children fell into poverty.
The statements that made me think about the issues in a new way are one in five children is poor and they are our nation's poorest age group plus every 32 seconds another child is born into poverty. Another statement is that American education, once the envy of the world, is in deep trouble with more than 60 percent of fourth, eighth and 12th grade public school students reading or doing math below grade level. For Black and Hispanic children, it is nearly 80 percent or more. Children of color, now 44 percent of America’s children, are at increased risk of being uninsured and in poor health and being killed by guns.
The newsletter help me to understand that we need to invest more in our children, the policy maker needs to invest more money for programs that will benefit the children, and the big corporations need to pay their taxes and quit looking for loop holes to get out of paying taxes and help our children. Our children need a strong foundation in education to get an early head start in order to prevent poor outcome and put on the right track toward a positive and healthy development in order to be successful later on in life.
The insights that I gained from reading this newsletter is that we all need to ban together for our children, the politicians and the business out in the community needs to make sure that our children has what they need in to get a good education, have quality health care, have access to resources to help the parents to be able to take care their children like a paying job to be able to put shelter over their heads and food on the table to get the nourishment that the children need to help them develop into healthy  positive children.

Children Defense Funds.org

Getting to know your International contacts

I have not receive any feed back from the professionals outside of the U. S. so I did the alternative  activity. Podcast and researching the website http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/. After looking at this website and reading it I learned that there are over 600 million children world-wide live in absolute poverty and that poverty is passed along from one family to another affecting the childs health and education because if  a child is hungry they can not function like they should because they may be sick from not eating right or their health may be at risk. The Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre is  a collaborative research and  policy programme which involves Save the Children, the Chronic Poverty Research Centre (CPRC) and partners in China, India, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. Running from 2001 to 2005, it aims to contribute to global poverty reduction efforts by understanding what causes poverty and how can it be prevented and teaching or training others how to pull from poverty.

Sharing Web Resources

Rev. Charles Arko-Nuno
2kdotcom@ghana.com

Mr. Eric Atmore
Cecd@iafrica.com

National Headstart Association
Head Start is a cornerstone of our nation’s commitment to give every child, regardless of circumstances at birth, an opportunity to succeed in school and in life. Children who have been through Head Start and Early Head Start are healthier, more academically accomplished, more likely to be employed, commit fewer crimes, and contribute more to society.
http://www.nhsa.org/news

National Blackchild Development Institute
For the past 40 years, the National Black Child Development Institute has been steadfast in its mission to improve and advance the lives of Black children and their families, through advocacy and education.
http://nbcdi.org/

Current Issue
Senators Franken, Casey, and Snowe Author Letter Supporting Head Start
The three Senators authored a letter urging the Chair and Ranking Member of the appropriations subcommittee that funds Head Start to support Head Start and other early learning initiatives.

I am just glad that people are still rallying and fighting for Headstart because it is truly needed to help our children. I am a headstart parent and a former headstart student.

Reflection

What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?

The insights that I gained from taking this course is that research is not easy to do. You have to take out time to pick your topic and get the right information that you need to make your research valid.

In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?

My ideas about doing research has change by taking this course because I found out that there is more to do than just pick a topic. I learned that you must know how to do research correctly and that there is more than one method to use.

What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?

What I learned about conducting research in early childhood is that the information must be valid, research must be done correctly, and you must have ethics to go by and to make sure that the researchers stay within the guidelines.

What were some of the challenges you encountered and in what ways did you meet them?

By reading and doing research, was very new to me, I met the challenges by reading the different articles and text that was assigned in the resources for us to read and also by looking at other articles on the internet. In our application assignment, I choose information that I did not know about to get a better understanding of the topic.

What are some of the ways your perceptions of  an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?

My perceptions of early childhood professional have not been modified because I am still learning and still new to the early childhood program. Later on in the program as I learn and grow in the field of early childhood I can then say how my perceptions of early childhood has been modified.

www.eecera.org

The 21st EECERAAnnual Conference Switzerland Geneva-Lausanne 14th to 17th September 2011
"Education from Birth: Research, Practices And Educational Policy" focuses on what practices exists for early education and what should be developed? What are the educational policies in this respect and what could be promoted?
EECERA Annual Conference is the largest conferences in Europe and it attracts over 600 researchers from all over the world. EECERA's encourages and supports cross-national collaborations and publicatons through its Special Interest Groups (SIGs).
EECERJ is the only European early childhood journal cited in the prestigious Social Science Citation Index which identifies scholarship from across 50 disciplines including "education."
EECERA is the leading international contributor to the development of research policy and practice in the developing field of early childhood.

Child Welfare

The topic that I choose will be Child Welfare because it is concerned with providing services to children and parents to help them fulfill their responsibilities of raising their children and to use resources out in the community if necessary for a healthy family unit. Child Welfare commits to the children and families needs and also assist in meeting the physicals, emotional, social, education, and moral needs of children. Healthy children must have care, protection, nurturance, control and guidance and they must have a sense of trust and security.Child welfare also deals with fostering the rights of children and parents  this also includes the right to confidentiality.
The positive contribution  would be policy makers making sure that the laws protect the children and their family and to make sure that they improve the laws that is already in place to make them better for the children. Another contribution would be to trained the teachers, social services workers or people who deals with children everyday to notice any changes in the children development sometimes a trained eye can see a lot.

Research Simulation

I never worked with small children before but I was in the Americorps Program working with Chamber's Middle School and I work with teenagers assisting the teacher in teaching reading.  I have a B.S. in Social Work I went into that field because I love working with people in general wether they are children, teenagers or adults.  I like to help and do for other peoples and I also know that I want to work with the little children and this will be a challegene for me because there are so many childre in school with disabilities problems and they will need that one on one help.  I really had not quite made up my mind about what particular issue that I would like to research on because I am interesting in knowing everything about the early childhood program.

Subtopics
1.  In what ways can the teacher help build the children social skills.
2.  How does role play help develop the children social skills.
3.  What are the disadvantages of children not developing their social skills on time.


I think I would like to do some research on social development and some issues I would bring up will be how does play help the children develop  their social skills, What are the benefits of children developig social and how do the children get along with their peers and with adults. Children need to develop not only their social skills but also their motor skills, and their cognitive skills. Because they must learn to think for themselves and learn how to think out side the box. They need their motor skills to be able move around. 

Research

Looking forward to learning more about research and how to ask the right questions to get the right information

My Support

The daily environment that is supportive to me and the ways the factors provide support is my children during their chores around the house, while I cook when I come home from work. For instance, if the chores are complete when I get home frome work, I wouldn't have to do it. Therefore, I can help my children with their homework and including mines as well. Also prepare dinner and spend some quality time with them.

 My co-workers pulling together as a team when one fall behind. For instance, if one of my co-workers fall short or lacking in his or her work, I would give my support and effort to help them to recovery to complete his or her task or work.

Without these support it would be difficult for me to accomplish my work and completing all task or work of my children chores and my co-workers work on my own. However, I will need their support in every areas.

Without the support of my children and co-workers the impact it would have on my life if the support was gone is I wouldn't have the emotional and physical support that I need and my work will fall behind. Also I would have to come with a time schedule to complete all task or work that needs to be done.

'My Connections To Play"

Play energizes us and enlivin us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities.
                                    Stuart Brown. MD

Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning.
                                   Fred Rogers

A child loves his play, not because its easy , but because its hard.
                                  Benjamin Spoek

Play was supported by my parents and grandparents by letting me go outside and play with other childrens along with my sisters and brothers. We played hide and seek, kickball, and teacher. Play is still the same some children go outside and play, but not all of them when they are not in front of a tv or on the computer playing games. Some children still do role play such as Cowboys, Indians, and Teacher. My hope for the young is that they still continue to play because it is healthy to their developement and learning stages. My thoughts on role play is that it helps you to see things in a diffrent light, it help you to grow, and it helps you in your relationship with other people.

Relatonship Reflection

Relationships ae important t me because relationships help people to grow and connect with each other. In a relationship you will find out more about the person or the people you are in a relationship with. You will find out what they like to do and what they don't like and how much they will  put up with. When you are in a relationship you have to have trust, communication and feelings of love for your love ones and for your friends. Relationships can be healthy and unhealthy and what I mean about that is if it is a healthy relationship that means everybody is gettig alone no fighting or arguements of course there will be some fussing but not enough to break up a relationship or stop talking to your families and friends.
My relationship with my realitives and with my co-workers and friends are very postive. My relatinship with my children is very good because we communicate and talk about things that is important to them, I also let them know that I may not agree with everything that the may do but I am still their mother and I will stand by them and for a single mom of four I think I have done a good job at raising some well mannered children. My relationship with my family is ok we all get alone with each other and we do family gatherings and trips together but we still do our own thing. My relationship with my co-worker and friends is that we help and respect one another and try to help each other when needed. The challenges I see in communicating with each other about the things that matter and just being truthful.

Quotes for children

Always end the name of yourchild wi a vowel, so that when you yell the name will carry
author: Bill Cosby

I would like to thank Felicia Bryant for blogging with me and that I wish her the best in her upcoming classes

Testing for Inteligence

All children are born diferent and they are uique in their own special way. Children develop different and they learn to accomplish different task and do things in their way.  I believe thats how childrn should be measure or asess by but not by what another cild has done or accomplish.

Assessing in African schools is a difficult aspect to assess eventhough quality learning has taken place. Student achievement has been assessed by the size of the class and by the budget. AFR/SO provides encouragement and support to review student assessment in two ways. 1) natioal assessments hat appraise the prformance ofall or part of the educational systemso that schools can be held accountable for results. 2)cntinuous clasroom assessment that enables teachers to monitor student performance.

The concerns that I have is can we be fair when it comes to assessment. All actors must be considerd like the child environment, and background.

http://www.equip123.net/EQ%20Review/docs/Basic EdBriefs.pdf  

Consequences of stress on children development

as a child growing up I can't remember ever worrying about war, hunger, racism, natural disaster, isolation poverty, noise, chaos, disease environmental pollution and violence, but then I thought about as a child when I was in the 6th grade I had gotten sick at school and I can't quite remember how I was feeling that day but I do remember feeling and looking bad and my hair was in a pony tail, my skin was kind of rough, so  maybe about 10:00 or 10:30 my mother came to the school to get me and to take me to the doctor to find out what was wrong. Once there they did blood work and from there they gave me something to drink  like a coke to test me to see if I had sugar. I had to sit for 2 hours and once that was done the doctor came and told my mother I was on the border line to being a diabetic. The doctor gave me some medicine to take and told my mother to change my eating habits and to also have me checked out for sugar every six months, but as I got older I got the test done once a year. Now I didn't have any symptoms like thirsty for water, itchiness or going to the bathroom a lot. What I have done over the years every since I out found that I was on the border line for diabetes I stop eating a lot of carbohydrates like rice, spaghetti's, mac-noodles I also had slacked down on chips and cookies. I found out about 10years ago my mother was diagnosed a a diabetic and the following year 1 had a brother that was diagnosed as a diabetic, and about 4years my baby brother found out that he was a diabetic. My grandmother was a diabetic on my daddy side for about 20 years before she died in 1997.

I choose Louisiana in he United States because when Katrina hit in 2005 they had many problems such as not enough food to eat, hardly no medical services, no clean water to drink, no clean clothes to put on, and they did not have a place to stay. Some people stayed in trailers that was donated by the government and if they had relatives and friends somewhere else who they could stay with they did that. What was done to help the children and adults was that people all over the United States sent money in to help them and people came from all over to help clean up Louisiana. Different companies and business donated bottles of water, clean clothes, medical supplies and detergent to wash clothes with and soap to bath with. 

Child Development and Public Health

The topic that I chose on Public Health is immunization because there are diseases that can harm children or even kill them if they have not had their immunization shots. Immunization protects the children from diseases like the chickenpox, the measles, the whooping cough and the polio and etc.... Immunizations protect children also from serious complications such as deaf, blindness an meningitis. When a child is vaccinated it stops the spread of different diseases that can harm them or others. Parents need to make sure that their child is up on their shots.  In other countries children die from diseases like measles, diphtheria because they have  not been immunized. In the US most children have had their shots and their immune system is protected. 

Ways that this information may impact my future work is that when working with children in a school setting thy must be up on their shots or they can not come to school until that is done or if the shot record is out of compliance the child must go to the local health department to get their shots updated.

Personal Birthing Experience

What I remember about my first born birth is that I was in labor for 13 1/2 hour and I did not know what to expect since this was my first pregnancy. I could not eat any junk food about the only thing I could keep down was some watermelon.  I also remember the pain when they induce my labor because I was not dilating as fast as the doctor wanted me to I guess. Then the nurses is in the delivery room telling me to push and I said I am pushing how was I to know you have to push like you are doing number two.  I was 21 and about to be a mother and I was scared because you listen to other people experiences and you realize your experience is different from theirs.  I chose this experience as a example because it was a real experience and it is one that I will not forget. My thoughts about birth and the impact on child development is that giving birth is a beautiful experience and I always believe that a woman should experience giving birth at least one time. An expecting mother should take care of herself and her baby like eating right exercising and taking her prenatal vitamins and iron tablets.  And if she does these things she should have a healthy child that will develop and do well in school.
One of e things that I learned about the country Africa is that childbirth is the biggest killer of women in childbearing age according to Dr. Adrian Brown chairman of the Charity Maternity Worldwide.