Final Blog Assignment

Although I was not successful in establishing contact with an international early childhood professional I did explore some websites whereby I was able to still share my professional growth with my instructor as well as my colleagues. I learned a great deal as well as enhanced my knowledge of the early childhood field from exploring the following websites: http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/; http://www.worldbank.org and http://www.hcz.org, 1)I learned from an article that I read about a  girl  wanting to stay home and go to school. The parent wanted her to leave school and work because the family was a family of poverty .The girl  threaten to take her life, so with the help of the school administration ,they were able to get funding  from worldbank to pay for the child to go to school and stay home. Ten dollars does not seem like much, but to this family it’s just like winning the lottery. Poverty is a very deep issue in an international country 2) I learned that the international early childhood field is just as strong if not stronger, they go above and beyond to make sure that children are in quality program, just as we do here in the United Stated.3) I learned that Education is universally recognized as one of the most fundamental building blocks for human development and poverty reduction.

My one goal for the field related to international awareness of issues and trends and the spirit of collegial relations would be to keep the line of communication open with our international contacts, with our field being so diverse, our paths will inevitably crossed again at some point in our lives. It would also be interesting to see how issues and trends will change over the year, which is another reason I feel we should keep in touch.     

As we come to the end of this course, I want to first thank my instructor for her weekly guidance throughout this course. In addition to all my colleagues, thank you to those of you who challenged me during our weekly group discussions, my wish is that as you continue on your professional path you will continue to be advocates for all children and be very successful in the early childhood field.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

The Harlem Children Zone Newsletter couldn’t have come at a better time. I thought for sure that I was going to have to resort to the alternative choice again. I enjoyed reading this e-newsletter. I was pleased to learn that StudentFirstNY includes a vast number of members from across the ir state. The fact that the name itself says it all, the student come first. I cannot wait until the next newsletter to read more about this program. It mentioned that the president Geoffrey Canada has joined the board of StudentsFirstNY, which is dedicated to education reform in New York State. He co-wrote an op-ed with New York City Mayor Ed Koch that explains what the new organization is trying to accomplish and why they feel this effort is so important. Their article was featured in the New York Daily News.

StudentsFirstNY, which launched last week, already counts 100,000 advocates, educators, parents and citizens across the state as members. These New Yorkers, and many more who will join them, recognize that we are approaching a critical moment in the fight for quality public schools.

The mandate is as simple as our name suggests: Put the students ahead of the bureaucracy, ahead of the unions, ahead of politics and parochialism and squeaky-wheel-gets-the-grease decision-making. What do our kids need to compete and learn most effectively? Focus on those things and deliver them.

References:

  http://www.hcz.org

/http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/battle-city-school-wars-article-1.1059377#ixzz1s5IusGyR

Sharing Web Resources

I chose worldbank.org. The area I selected to search is Early Child Development. I found that World Bank's Early Child Development (ECD) is part of the Child and Youth Group in Human Development Network (HDN).Their primary mission is to  improve World Bank's staff and clients' knowledge of ECD programming and to improve the quality of World Bank's lending for ECD. Two ways in which they accomplish this mission is by: 1) Maintaining a knowledge base on ECD to support World Bank's operational staff in designing ECD projects and increasing the lending for ECD as part of World Bank's Education For All (EFA) and Health and Social Protection (HD) portfolio. 2) Extending the knowledge base on ECD and building capacity among World Bank's task managers and field practitioners in the design and preparation of ECD interventions. This website did add to my understanding by making me aware that worldbank is part of the Child and Youth Group In Human Development Network (HDN). I learned that the most common source of financing for early childhood programs is the regular budget of the government. Budgets for ECD usually come out of Health, Education or Social Services budgets. Other financial options are : Families, social organizations, private sector and international organizations.

Reference:

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTCY/EXTECD/0,,contentMDK:20259114~menuPK:527328~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

Once again because I have not gotten back any responses from my international contacts, I have to use the alternative method. This time I chose to use www.worldbank.org. One of their goal is working for a world free of poverty. I chose Yakutia ,a region of the Russian Federation in the Arctic Circle. I learned that the demand for preschool slots in Yakutsk city, are high because of the birth rate is on the rise.  12,000 boys and girls on the wait list and it is expect to grow says Sakha Republic Education Minister ,Afanasy S. Vladimirov. Many preschools are shabby—many facilities are without running water or toilets. Preschool managers need training, teachers need to learn more modern and child-focused techniques, and the quality assurance systems need improving. Using best Russian and international examples, they are drawing up concrete proposals to enhance early childhood education, increase access to services and ensure the quality of those services (http://web.worldbank.org/).

 World Bank is coming into play with support for an investment project to help introduce innovation in early childhood development and education. That will include spending wisely through teacher training, new materials and renovated or brand new buildings. It will also include more involvement from parents and the community, as well as broader public sector involvement. The project will fund construction of       weatherproof kindergartens and renovate salvageable existing buildings, or reconstruct ones that are too damaged  (http://web.worldbank.org/).

I think it’s a great thing that worldbank is going to take care of Yakutia, because of the high birth rate; they have quite a long waiting list. Whereas although our own population is constantly growing also, our preschool waiting list is nothing compare to theirs. Another interesting fact is their early childhood development and education programs not only get new materials, but renovated and even sometimes brand new buildings, where as our educators have to come out of their pockets to ensure their classroom have supplies and materials and at times are subject to working in buildings older than their parents which may not be up to certain codes according to the state regulations.  When we think about the future leaders we are educating, a person would want the best and not cut corners at any cost.

Reference:

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/ECAEXT/0,,contentMDK:23065520~pagePK:146736~piPK:146830~theSitePK:258599,00.html