International Blog Final

One of the consequences of learning about the international early childhood field is the idea that I did not receive a response from any of the three international organizations that I contacted during Week One.  The only information that I was able to learn about was the international early childhood field is what I was able to read about.  Sometimes you learn more hearing from someone that is in the actual field and get their perspective.  Therefore, it would have been nice to have a conversation with an international organization or professional on certain topics and learn their views.

The second consequence of learning about the international early childhood field is not getting the updated information.  The website contained information that was from a few years ago, which was not current.  Therefore, I was not able to tell by the numbers if certain issues in certain areas have increased or decreased.  

The last consequence of learning about the international early childhood field is getting another individuals view and ideas on how you can change the area around you.  Say there is an area in the world that is not struggling much with poverty, talking to that individual about what they have done to maintain a low number of children and families at poverty, this will give me an insight on what I could do to try to help lower the poverty in my area.

My one main goal in the early childhood field is to be able to communicate with the countries around the world and see what organizations that have going on and see what they do to lower certain issues that are a major issue where I live.  It is important for me to be a voice and help out as much as possible in whatever I can help out with! 

International Contacts Part 3

I have not received any e-mails back from the three organizations that I contacted from Week One of this class, therefore I am completing the alternative assignment from this week.  

One insight I learned from viewing the UNESCO's website is reading an article on events going on in education throughout this organization.  UNESCO is an organization that: "works to create the conditions for dialogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples, based upon respect for commonly shared values." (UNESCO, 2010).  This means that the UNESCO organization is trying to help the world with human rights, poverty and several other issues that are common throughout the world.  The long term goal of this organization is to: "Contribute to the building of peace, the eradication of poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information."  (UNESCO, 2010).  This means that in the passing years, this organization is going to reach out to the community around the world and get the help that will be needed to eliminate or decrease the main issues in education.  I believe that this is important because not only are they trying to help decrease the number of issues in education, but the community outside of the education field needs to be aware of what is going on and how the little things they can do can help.  This relates to my professional goals because I want to do whatever I can to help make families around the world more appreciated, even if they have less than the typical average family.  Just because a family has less than average, does not mean that they are not as smart or cannot handle going to school.  

Another insight that I gathered from the UNESCO website is looking at the Global Reports in the Natural Science aspect of the UNESCO organization.  This UNESCO organization mainly originates in Brazil, China and India.  The natural science aspects is trying to reach out to the world and come up with ways to make the world and universe a more "greener" place to live.  This is important because the more we pollute and do not take care of the environment around us, it will lead to other problems years and decades down the road. 

The last insight I gained from researching this website is after reading about what UNESCO does for people and communities.  This organization had a tab on their website dedicated to the media portion of the organization.  I believe that it is important to have the media that they do on this website because it shows different meetings that have been held and what they have discussed with the world.  This is important to have this type of documentation.  


References:

UNESCO.  (2010).  Early Childhood Care and Education.  http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Sharing Web Resources

The section that I chose to focus on this week from Week One's electronic newsletter was the CDF Speakers Bureau.  CDF stands for Children's Defense Fund.  The Speakers Bureau shows a list of several different individuals that are speaking out about several different topics.  A few of the topics that these individuals are speaking out about are: Poverty, Federal Budget, Health and Mental Health, Education, Child Welfare and many more.  The outside links lead to information on different problems around the United States that have the Children's Defense Fund as a part of their state.

The section that I focus on today does not give any information on child equity.  One of the important things that I learned from this website is I learned more about Marian Wright Edelman and why she was so important to the early childhood education field.

International Contacts Part II

I have contacted the three international contacts from week one again this week, I have yet to get a response from any of the individuals.  Therefore, I am completing the alternative assignment for this week's blog assignment.  I also do not have any additional about information on equity from my international sources.

Therefore, I chose to focus on Harvard Universities, "Global Children's Initiative" website.  One thing that I learned from this website was from reading an article on reducing toxic stress in babies.  Carol Gerwin states: "The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) wants primary care doctors to screen their youngest patients for social and emotional difficulties that could be early signs of toxic stress." (Gerwin).  This article states that there are many children that are growing up that are showing sides of stress.  Doctors need to spend time on children and monitoring these toxic stress options. 

Another insight that I gained from this sight is that there are several different activities that can be done with children around the world to yield a healthier development.  One of the organizations or activities around the world that I found most interesting is Science of Health and Development Initiative.  This initiative states that: "When children's biological systems develop in an environment of positive early experiences, they have a greater chance to thrive and grow up to be healthy adults." (Gerwin).  This is important because doctors are trying to enhance the genes, social experiences and environmental experiences that can have an effect on a child's health.  

I did not find any information on podcasts on the Harvard website, therefore I read several different articles and learned from the articles.  



References: 

Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/)

Sharing Web Resources Continued

The electronic newsletter that I chose for this class is named the Children's Defense Fund.  The focus of this organization is on the children and helping the one's that are at poverty or low-income classified.  Therefore, this whole newsletter is important to my field as a teacher.  The section from the electronic newsletter that I chose to focus on this week was part of the Financial Report from 2010.  This report talks about what the president of the organization, Marian Edelman is focusing on.  It also focuses on Key Achievements of the organization, promoting the health of children and the impact that this organization has already had since the past.  I chose to focus just on what Marian Edelman had to state about the organization and what needs to be done.  After reading the section written by the president of this organization, there were several pieces of information that are very eye-opening and hard to consider.  Marian Edelman states: "every 11seconds of the school day a child drops out. A majority of children in all racial and income groups and over 80 percent of Black and Latino children cannot read
or do math at grade level in fourth, eighth, or 12th grade." (Edelman, 2012).  As teachers, we need to reach out to the community and give them tips on how they can help better these children for the future.  She also states that every child in the world deserves the right to a quality education, no matter what the circumstances are.  Another very disappointing fact that Marian states is: "Our country and
our states are spending three times more on average per prisoner than per public school student." (Edelman, 2012).  The world is focusing more on the individuals that have problems later in life, which if giving the young children the idea that what they are doing is okay.  Focusing on the misbehavior of the prisoners is being shown more on television, which children are watching and seeing these occurrences.  

One of the main ideas that Marian Edelman, the president of the Children's Defense Fund, is the community is focusing more on individuals that are causing trouble later in their lives and they are not helping out the young children.  This fact is very heart breaking.  "We must, particularly right now, make sure that we end those massive tax giveaways to the richest two percent, when 15.5 million children are languishing in poverty." (Edelman, 2012).  Having that many children in poverty around the world can drastically decrease if teachers, professionals and the community know the importance of early childhood and start helping them and their families at such a young age.  This part of the newsletter that I focused on this week does not deal with economists, neuroscientists, or politicians.  

One thing that I learned from exploring this e-newsletter is that as a community, we are not paying enough attention to the troubles that young children are having.  This is allowing for more of the world to be in poverty.  Once a child or a family is below poverty, it is much harder for them to get above the poverty benchmark.  


References: 

Edelman, Marian. Children's Defense Fund (2012) : Health Care Coverage for All of America's Children, Ending Child Poverty, Child Advocacy Programs. About Us. Retrieved June 1, 2013, from http://www.childrensdefense.org/about-us/