Final Blog

I have learned a lot the early childhood field and international childhood, in particular.  One thing that has stuck out to me is the fact that families from other countries need to know where to find information about early childhood education and child care. We need to take the time to educate these families so that they will be able to make and intelligent decision about where to send their children for a quality education. I have also learned early childhood education is more of a focus in some other areas. In the US early childhood education is just now becoming a priority. Last but not least, I realize more that education is not only about the children, but the family as well. Educating the family about health and welfare is just as important as assisting them in finding quality childcare.


ONe goal for the field related to international awareness of issues and trends and the spirit of collegial relations is to learn all that I can about international early childhood education.  I want to learn all that I can so that I may incorporate some of my findings into my own classroom.  I also want to make my classroom more diverse so that my children will at least have some knowledge of those they may not come into contact with.

Alternative assignment

I have learned a lot from the UNESCO website. For instance, there are 52 field offices worldwide including Paris, France. One thing I discovered through this website is that 10.5 million children under the age of 5 die from preventable diseases every year in the the developing world. That is something we do not think about since we live in a country in which medical services are readily available to us and most importantly, our children, regardless of our circumstances or ability to pay.  With more education and resources, the 10.5 million children that are lost yearly could be cut down drastically.  It should be our mission to educate everyone so that losses like these do not happen as often. For instance, HIV is one of the number one killers of Africa's residents.  Although there is no cure for it, it can be prevented if, people are made aware of how it is transmitted.  Education plays a major role in every country but the lack of it is evident with some of the issues faced in those countries.


The following are the most important statements to me:

In a world of 7 billion people, UNESCO believes that everyone has the right to education. That's why it promotes a holistic view of lifelong learning that includes early education, primary, secondary, and higher eucation, work skills for youth and adults and literacy- a fundamental right and the foundation for lifelong learning and education for women and girls.


UNESCO considers education to be the best insurance against poverty. It stresses the important of educatin for sustainable human development and supports countries to improve access and quality and to redress inequalities in their education systems.


UNESCO champions the efforts of 75 million teachers to provide quality education, and advocates for the training and recruitment of an additional 2 million teachers to achieve Education for all by 2015.


UNESCO believes that education remains the best vaccine against HIV. As the lead agency in EDUCAIDS, the Organization supports education programs on HIV to provide accurate and reliable information about how people can prevent HIV, about treatment, and caring for people living with HIV.


Reference:


UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education”  retrieved from  (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/)

Sharing Web Resources

I recently discovered a website, http://www.earlychildhood.com/,  dedicated to teachers and mothers of young children age 0 to 8 years old. This website has links for classroom ideas as well as teacher and professional resources such as state licensing requirements.  One of the links on the website that I decided to explore further was the Earlychildhood NEWS link.  Once I clicked on the link, I found some amazing information like activities and curriculum for infants. It is so hard to think of activities and projects for infants and since that the age I am currently working with, I want to do all I can to educate them properly.  I believe this website does add to the excellence in the early childhood field. It gives information about making the classroom better as well as helpful information for parents.

Week 5

I have learned a lot from the Global Children's Initiative website.  One thing that stuck out to me was the areas that the global program focused on:

• reframing the discourse around child health and development in the global policy arena by educating high-level decision-makers about the underlying science of learning, behavior, and health, beginning in the earliest years of life;
• supporting innovative, multi-disciplinary research and demonstration projects to expand global understanding of how healthy development happens, how it can be derailed, and how to get it back on track; and
• building leadership capacity in child development research and policy—focused on both individuals and institutions—in low- and middle-income countries to increase the number and influence of diverse voices and perspectives that are contributing to the growing global movement on behalf of young children.

I was unaware that there were so many organizations and projects that are specifically centered around children. For example, the Un Buen Comienzo is a project in Santiago, Chile which means, "A Good Start". Its focus is to improve the quality of early childhood education through teacher professional development.

Last, but not least,  the Global Children's Initiative is building portfolios, with the help of faculty, that focus on early childhood development, mental health, and children in crisis and conflict situations.

Resource:

 Article: Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010). Global children’s initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/