What If...

If I could do a study on any subject in early childhood education, I would research the effects of toxic stress caused by abuse. By getting the information and data associated with this, prevention of disorders and malfunctions of the brain, as well as socioemotional, mental, and behavioral issues can take place. Benefits would include: prescribing the right solutions to help the child, since medications are not always the answer; really understanding the way the human brain deals with emotional turmoil; being able to  assess and eventually prevent the long-term effects of toxic stress even after damage has been done; and having the knowledge of how to treat children in their mental and emotional health. 

Topic of Research

Hello, all! The topic I chose to research is funding for low-income families. I have been thinking of questions, like what can the government do to help low-income families participate in child care without the stress of trying to figure out how to make it happen? How can communities come together and raise funds that will help? Can we as early childhood educators create foundations or organizations to house funds that are sure to benefit the low-income families? 

This is a passionate topic for me because I believe all children should have the opportunity to attend child care facilities. 

Consequences and Goals

• Post at least three consequences of learning about the international early childhood field for your professional and personal development (any format, any length)
• Post one goal for the field related to international awareness of issues and trends and the spirit of collegial relations

Below are three consequences of learning about the international early childhood field:

1. International awareness destroys ignorance, which is a great thing. I can no longer say that I'm unaware of issues going on with children outside of this country.

2. International awareness changes your view of the profession. It can either make you more diligent to fight and advocate, or it will make you overwhelmed and change your goal to something else. Or it could do both!

3. International awareness can motivate action. When I saw how many organizations and causes were fighting for early childhood education all over the world, it ignited a fire in me to do more than what I am doing.

One goal that I have for the field as it relates to international awareness is to promote that administrators in centers or collegiate programs require some type of international contact, whether it be signing up for a newsletter or joining an international organization, because it establishes a oneness and unity for our children.

Establishing Contacts, 1

This is a very late post, but...

I went to the UNICEF website and chose the country Costa Rica. I chose this country because that is where my favorite Spanish teacher was from, and during my time with her in class she taught us a lot about her country, even a native dance that we performed in the Language Fair competition. I emailed the Costa Rican department of UNICEF and now I am eagerly awaiting a response. Check back with me soon because I will post as soon as I hear back from them!

On another note...

I chose to study the website for the National Black Child Development Institute; unfortunately, the website is either down or no longer in existence. So, I decided now to go with the Association for Childhood Education International.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts 3

My professional goal is to own a fine arts and academic enrichment center that offers the arts and academics to ages two through 102. I want to provide an educational experience that doesn't just include art but fuses art and academics together in one setting. My dream is to have enough funding where parents can apply for grants and scholarships, and we will have fee waivers based on income level, so that all children will have the opportunity to be a part of this kind of experience. Teachers in my center will be paid well and will also be expected to undergo continual professional development, evaluations, and training in order to be the best they possibly can be.

I toured UNESCO's Early Childhood Care and Education webpage to see if I could find any insights that aligned with my professional goals. What I found was that UNESCO has international treaties that protect heritage and culture and the fostering of creativity worldwide. These treaties are in effect in order for historical artifacts, museums, traditions, and the like are protected from extinction and destruction. This may seem to be as far away from my goal as it could get, but in all actuality, it is more similar than you think. I want my center to plant a seed that will enable children and adults to water their own traditions, thoughts, expressions, in hopes that their own heritages and ideas will never die. Art education is that to me: a way to keep alive persons, places, and things that otherwise may lose their voices in the times that pass. 

Reference

UNESCO. (2016). Early childhood care and education. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Sharing Web Resources 2

• Follow some of the outside links that you have not yet explored. Where do they lead?-----This exploration brought me Global Guidelines. Tge following information is a quote from the site explaining what the Globak Guidelines are. "The premises of the Global Guidelines are key philosophies that provide its foundation.
• 1. Children are both the present and the future of every nation, they have needs, rights, and intrinsic worth that must be recognized and supported.
  2. Every child should have the opportunity to grow up in a setting that values children, that provides conditions for a safe and secure environment, and that respects diversity. 
  3. Knowledge about human development is more substantial now than at any time in history. The new century offers opportunities to consolidate recent gains and respond to new challenges that lie ahead.
  4. Children must receive appropriate nurture and education within and outside their families from birth onward if they are to develop optimally.
  5. Attention to the health, nutrition, education, and psychosocial development of children during their early years is essential for the future well being of nations and the global community."
• Thoroughly search one area of the site. What do you find? ----- I searched through the advocacy tab and saw several different organizations and initiatives that spread information about the importance of early childhood programs and the development of children.
• If you receive an e-newsletter, follow a link related to one of the issues you have been studying. What new information is available?---- I do not receive a newsletter. 

Additionally, find out if the site you selected at the beginning of this course offers any information about the issue of this week:

• Does the website or the e-newsletter contain any information that adds to your understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education? ----Yes, in an article summary for UNICEF, the site talks about how UNICEF is yet fighting to close the gaps in education around the globe. Children are being denied education for such things as gender, ethnicity, disability, and place of birth. The inequities do not stop at the borders of this country.
• What other new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field did you gain this week from exploring the website and/or the e-newsletter?----I learned that all children, regardless of geographic location, deserve to have someone advocate on their behalf. 

Reference

Association for Childhood Education International. (2016). Retrieved from https://acei.org

Getting to Know Contacts Part 2

Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website discusses its collaborative with an early childhood movement in Brazil called the Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância (NCPI). This organization's core activities are as follows:

• developing a scientific community that includes an interdisciplinary group of Brazilian scholars who guide synthesis and application of policy in Brazil
• translate knowledge from scientific to social policy, keeping true to the Brazilian social context
• using an executive leadership course for policymakers in order to strengthen the leadership within early childhood development
• co-designing and testing strategies related to early childhood issues in Brazil
• translating the Center's print and media sources to cater to a Brazilian audience

I gained some insight about an area of the science of early childhood that I had not heard of. Shonkoff (2013) writes that one area that we can focus on in order to create better opportunities for children is adults as better parents and better employees. By channeling adults to be the support system that children need, a buffer to protect against the severity of toxic stress, which science says can cause serious and lifelong consequences (Shonkogg, 2013). It was interesting to learn that there are scholars who not only work on the end of the spectrum that deals with the children but also those who deal on the opposite end with adults, all of whom are hoping to achieve the same goal: better lives for all involved.

References

Center on the Developing Child. (2016). Brazil: Núcleo ciência pela infância (ncpi). Retrieved from 

http://developingchild.harvard.edu/about/what-we-do/global-work/nucleo-ciencia-pela-infancia/

Shonkoff, J.P. (2013). Strengthening Adult Capacities to Improve Child Outcomes: A New Strategy for Reducing Intergenerational Poverty. Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity: The Source for News, Ideas and Action, (April 22). Retrieved fromhttp://spotlightonpoverty.org.

Sharing Web Resources

The Association for Childhood Education International's website has a section called Childhood Explorer. This a publication on the site that details childhood experiences across the globe. One story in particular seemed to tie in with viewing children as investments. This story was about a young boy and his sister who created a nonprofit organization, One More Generation (OMG), to show other youth that they, too, can make a difference in the world. Reading this article showed me the importance of investing in children because they, then, invest in other people and other things; the investments become exponential, and the benefits possibly limitless.

The fact that ACEI is affiliated with China, Hong Kong, Russia, and Taiwan made me realize that my small-mindedness should be deleted. I appreciate that this organization is making a worldwide difference to advocate for children's education.

I did not find any information that added to my understanding of how economists, politicians, and scientists support the early childhood field.

Getting to Know Contacts Part 1

The National Center for Children in Poverty is a website that is very informative. It lists articles, tools, publications, and many other resources that one can use to find out information about poverty and what can be done to prevent and/or help turn it around. The News Room link is one that I find very interesting because it provides up to date information regarding policymaking, news releases, and important facts about child poverty. 

I did not realize that there were so many people and children who suffer from poverty, and even more so that I am currently living in poverty. When your mind is so geared towards how blessed you are, I suppose it is easy to not see how bad things really can be, especially when you know that around the corner is someone much worse off than you. 

International Organizations

The organization that I chose to use to further my knowledge on early childhood is the Association for Childhood Education International. Their website is http://acei.org. This association firmly believes in the education of all students. Below you will find their mission and vision, taken from their website:

Our Mission

Our mission is to promote innovative solutions to education challenges and inspire action that creates positive, sustainable futures for children and youth worldwide.

Our Vision

Every child in every nation will have access to a quality education. This education will prepare children to become responsible and engaged citizens, ready for life in a changing world.

- See more at: http://acei.org/about-us#sthash.rqD9ZoEO.dpuf

My Supports

I am currently living with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law who are my pastors and my daughter's godparents. They are actually taking care of me and have taken over custody of my daughter because I have no income and do not have the means (mentally and financially) to take care of her right now. The biggest benefit of the support they provide is the fact that if it wasn't for them, I would either be in a homeless shelter or on the street and my daughter would be in foster care. I do not want to imagine what would happen to me or my daughter without them, but for the sake of this assignment I will. Without them, my daughter could wind up in some home where she is mistreated or abused, or worse: dead. I could be somewhere not in my right mind. But God has blessed me tremendously to have given me people in my life that love me like He does and love my daughter as if she was actually conceived of them. Without them, my daughter would not eat, have clothes, have a roof over her head, be taught the right things. 

They teach me daily to be the person that God meant and designed me to be. They teach my daughter the same. I would be lost without the support that God has graced me with. I know my daughter would be, too, because I have not provided her with what is necessary.

As for material supports, I wear glasses and contacts because i have pretty bad vision. I know without these, there would be an awful lot I could not do. My vision is so blurry without my contacts that I can barely see what's right in front of me let alone anything far away. 

My Connections to Play

Summarizing Play

"Play provides the ultimate curriculum for social, physical, and cognitive advancement. Secondly, by using materials, interactions with others, and mastery of tasks and skills to progress through levels of play, children develop a sense of control of their environment and a feeling of competence and enjoyment that they can learn. Finally, play provides a natural integration between all the critical brain functions and learning domains that are often missing with discrete teacher instruction. Recent brain research shows that this integration is very important to development" (Wardle, n.d.).

"Play helps children weave together all the elements of life as they experience it. It allows them to digest life and make it their own. It is an outlet for the fullness of their creativity, and it is an absolutely critical part of their childhood. With creative play, children blossom and flourish; without it, they suffer a serious decline" (Almon, 2002).

The Role of Play

As you can see from my quotes, I am a firm believer in the role of play, both active and otherwise, in a child's development. No child should have to sit all day or not have the opportunities to create, explore, and imagine. If I had not had play in my life, I would not have discovered who I am. Through play and imagination, I realized that I love art and I love writing stories and coming up with fictitious characters and settings. God showed me a part of who I was through playing. Below you will see three things that were essential playthings in my life...

Art supplies were my everything! I used them to write and illustrate stories and books, to make gifts for the people I loved, you name it. 

I absolutely loved board games, and still do to this day. I grew up as the youngest of ten children, so there was always someone to play with, LOL!

Legos fueled my creativity. I loved building things, making up stories that went along with my constructions.

 

What Was Play to Me?

Play was not just an essential part of my life, but a requirement. My parents fully believed in children being children. We played outside as well as played with games and things in the house. One very fond memory I have of playing is during the summer, after breakfast and some cleaning up, which was usually around noon everyday, my mom set up a big, red Igloo cooler filled with ice water on the porch and put enough plastic cups on top where there would be enough for each of us, and sent my siblings and I outside to play. She would lock the door, and we had to use the restroom before leaving out and it was mandatory that we spent at least a whole hour outside playing. We would make up games, and play things like freeze tag and racing. We double-dutched in the driveway, and played Frisbee across the street. I would pull up weeds and rocks and put them on the grill pretending to cook greens and cookies. Sometimes, Mama would come to the door with Popsicles or Freeze Pops and big cups of Kool-Aid, especially the times our neighbors came over to play, too.

At that time, all my friends' parents believed the same way my parents did. Children were not meant to be cooped in the house all day, "in grown folks' business" as my Mama would say. In school, recess was never taken from us except as a punishment, which quickly got our behavior better for the next day. As a matter of fact, we had two recesses--one in the morning and one in the afternoon. 

How Is Play Different Now?

Play is much different now than it was when I was growing up. Technology has brought about a new age, one in which a child's idea of play is now less imaginative when it used to be more imaginative. Where my friends and I used our time creating things to do, now my students have things created for them. Does that mean that they are not playing? I'm not sure about the answer to that; I just believe it is defined differently now, just as so many things are. With new ages come new definitions and new approaches.

References

Wardle, F. (n.d.). Play as curriculum. Retrieved from                                             http://www.earlychildhoodnews.com/earlychildhood/article_view.aspx?ArticleID=127

Almon, K. (2002). The vital role of play in early childhood education. Gateways, 43.      Retrieved from http://www.waldorfresearchinstitute.org/pdf/BAPlayAlmon.pdf

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are  very important to me because I believe the word of God. He created Eve so that Adam wouldn't be alone. When he put Noah in the Ark, he saved Noah plus his whole family and each animal was saved in pairs. I definitely don't believe that we are supposed to go through things by ourselves, both in the natural world and the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, we have Jesus as our brother, God as our father, and the Holy Spirit as our comforter. In the natural we have friends, parents, siblings, other family members, coworkers, and more. 

I have a positive relationship with my parents and my mother-in-law (who I call Mama just like my birth Mama), who are only a few of many. My parents are incredible people and they raised me to do what is right at all times and to love God. I love them very much. As a child, I gave them a hard time, but they loved me anyway. Recently, I repented to them for my behaviors growing up and it made our relationship stronger. Forgiveness will do that. My other Mama I love dearly. She is a strong woman of God and loves me unconditionally, even though my relationship with her son hit a rocky road; she doesn't hold that against me. She told me I'm her daughter whether I stay with my husband or not.

Relationships can definitely be challenging to maintain and to develop, depending on the person. Trust is a major factor in both the development and the maintenance of a relationship. Without trust, dependability, loyalty, integrity, and forgiveness it is impossible to keep a relationship on high ground. Of course, problems and circumstances come, but if you can have those things the relationship will last, unless God says otherwise. Having these things mutually is what makes a relationship a partnership. When each party gives 100%... a partnership manifests.

Knowing these things about relationships and knowing my own experiences with relationships, I know that my profession as an early childhood educator will be impacted. I have seen the benefits firsthand of how smooth the road can be during the school year when you have a positive relationship with parents, and I have also seen the the bumps, scrapes, and bruises--long days and long nights--associated with negative relationships with parents. Not just the parents, but with the administration, colleagues, community, and the students. Every positive relationship you can develop is beneficial to the child's growth and development.