Assignment: Early Childhood Trends Final Entry

Three consequences of learning about the international early childhood field are:
1. I have gained an understanding of the early childhood field in other countries. Looking at how the early childhood education system works in other countries has helped me see things that don’t work in this country and need to be changed. On the other hand, there are things that already work well. I learned that most of us working in the early childhood field have the same concerns no matter where we live. We are all concerned about the well-being of children, we want adequate compensation and want to create and provide quality programs and services to children and families.
2. I have networked with professionals who are knowledgeable about the field and can continue to be a great resource in the future. Throughout this course, I have found other blogs which share things about the early childhood field in other parts of the world and they share tons of interesting and creative activities and ideas for the classroom.
3. My contacts believe in a play based approach. Kierna from Northern Ireland spends most of her time outside with the children. By talking to her, I have learned more about outdoor preschools and their benefits.
I think one important goal for the field is that early childhood teachers get recognized and appropriately compensated for the work that we do.

One goal for collegian relations related to the early childhood field is that more early childhood studies programs become available and to improve the quality of programs that currently exist.

I want to thank my international contacts for being so helpful and willing to share information with me. I will be taking a break from the program until January so I may not be in classes with some of you again, but hopefully I will. Any of you can feel free to contact me through the blog. I wish all of you good luck and success in the future.

International Contacts Week 7

For the blog entry this week, I have not heard from Sherry from Australia, but I have gotten information from Kierna from Northern Ireland.
Here are her answers to the questions below.

1. What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed
where you live and work?
“At present there is a big debate as to whether qualified teachers are needed
in nursery classes. This is all about finances as it is would obviously be much cheaper to just have assistants who would be paid much less than teachers but be expected to do the same job. There are some teachers in nursery who are early years specialists & it is very hard to ensure that anyone who is teaching this age group has some sort of specialized training. In some cases children as young as 3 are being taken to whole school assemblies, eating meals in the main school with the rest of the primary children or doing time-table P.E (games) rather than having a holistic outdoor play experience. Assistants are not as well trained as they used to be - it used to take 2 years full time study, now you can be qualified in 6 months & there is too much paper work & not enough hands on experience.
I live in N. Ireland, it is part of the UK but we have our own parliament & education minister & a different system than the other parts of the UK. I work in a nursery class attached to a primary school, the children at the school are aged from 3 to 11.”


2. What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?
“At present any professional development undertaken has to be funded by the individual e.g. any further studies have to be done at night, part-time & paid for by yourself. 1 module of a masters costs around £400 & you need 9 to gain a masters! There are lots of privately run conferences & courses & some funding is available from the teaching council. Most nursery teachers network among themselves, sharing ideas & good practice. At present the internet provides the best opportunities for PD - my practice has been greatly enriched by blogging & swapping ideas with colleagues around the world.”


3. What are some of your professional goals?
“I want to provide the best outdoor learning experiences for the children in my class, I want to become known for my outdoor approach. I believe that it is my role to be an advocate for all the young children who come into my class. I want to ensure they have the best experience in their year in my class.


4. What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?
I would love to eventually open an outdoor kindergarten. The biggest challenge for nursery teachers is to make sure that they are valued and
recognized by not only their colleagues but all parents, politicians and the wider community.”

What I’ve learned is that many parts of the early childhood systems in other countries are very similar to ours. Early childhood professionals are struggling to be valued and recognized for their work. In most cases, we need to fund our own studies or professional development opportunities. There are also concerns about what is developmentally appropriate. Children around the world do not get to play as much and are forced into learning they aren’t ready for at younger and younger ages. We also have similar concerns with budgeting and paying quality teachers what they deserve.
Talking to Sherry and Kierna throughout this course has been informative. I’ve learned a lot about the early childhood systems in Australia and Northern Ireland. Thank you Sherry and Kierna for your help with these blog assignments.

Assignment Sharing Web Resources

The first link I explored was called, Resource Themes this brought me to a page with links to topics such as school readiness, Being, Belonging and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework, Sustainability, global warming and climate change, Baby and toddler sleeping etc. I clicked on the school readiness tab. This brought me more links to outside resources. Here is a link to books and fact sheets about school readiness. I also found a journal article about a group of children from Singapore and their experience transitioning to school. The study compared experiences of students from Europe, Australia and Singapore. The results showed that, “Regardless of where the studies were undertaken, the majority of the children in Primary One or first grade reported being happy in school. Most were concerned about various routes to survival, such as finding their way in the large school buildings and grounds, knowing the school rules, making friends, and pleasing teachers and parents."

I also found links to an initiative called, Kids Matter Early childhood.
Their mission statement is "KidsMatter Early Childhood is a national early childhood mental health promotion, prevention and early intervention initiative specifically developed for early childhood services, including preschools and long day care. It involves the people who have a significant influence on young children’s lives parents, carers, families and early childhood professionals, along with a range of community and health professionals – in making a positive difference to young children’s mental health and wellbeing."


There are four components.
Component 1 is building a sense of community to promote feelings of belonging and connectedness between children, families and staff.
Component 2 is developing children’s social and emotional skills.
"Social and emotional development involves developing the ability to recognize and manage emotions, show care and concern for others, make responsible decisions, establish positive relationships, and handle challenging situations effectively."
Component 3 is working with parents and carers.
Component 4 is helping children who are experiencing mental health difficulties.

I did not find any further information about the topics of access, availability and affordability. I think the KidsMatter initiative is extremely important. There should be more organizations like this. It is important to intervene early when it comes to mental health issues because it has an impact on everything in that child’s life. Mental health issues can affect school performance, friendships, family relationships and future employment. In order to have the most productive members of society, we have to get them on the right track early. Too often, children’s mental health issues get misdiagnosed or completely overlooked. I feel this issue is just as if not more important as school readiness or developing early learning standards.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

Some of the issues surrounding excellence in Australia are the new standards they have put into place. One of them is national Curriculum framework.

One issue this framework focuses on is the importance of play. Educators must promote learning through play. Activities must be child oriented and initiated, but there is still intentional teaching.

Australia now has something called universal access which states that all children must have fifteen hours of preschool per week. My contact told me it used to be ten hours.

Australia's government has implemented National Quality Standards which are divided into seven areas that contribute to the quality of early childhood education and care. These areas have been identified by research and are:

1.Educational program and practice

2.Children’s health and safety

3.Physical environment

4.Staffing arrangements (including the number of staff looking after children)

5.Relationships with children

6.Collaborative partnerships with families and communities

7.Leadership and service management

This means that for the first time there will be consistency all across Australia in the Early Childhood sector.

Many of the issues of inequity in Australia are similar to the US. For example, there is the issue of low wages for early childhood educators and a high turnover rate. An article called, Crisis in Childcare Industry explains the situation. “Attending Saturday's crisis summit, Ballina Childcare worker Lisa Cheal said she can barely afford to pay her own car rego, but still buys supplies for the young children in her care. "I live week by week on the wages of a childcare worker," she said. Ms Cheal estimates she's spent $850 out of her own pocket this year for basic supplies such as craft materials, books and cushions for her young class and most childcare workers do the same. "I've been working with children for 15 years, and my family is always telling me to leave," Ms Cheal said. "They can't understand why I stay. I'm studying for my early childhood teaching degree, and if I did leave for a primary school I'd get $60,000 - but I love the infants,” she said. "It's a constant emotional battle.”

There is also an achievement gap between students from higher and lower income families. This article, written in 2007 describes the achievement gap and the reasons behind it. Australia has made some changes in their educational system since this article was written. With their recent implementation of quality standards across Australia, the achievement gap may decrease.

In the UK, there is an organization called the British Association for Early Childhood Education which is similar to NAEYC. Participation with them is voluntary, but they provide support, advice and information on best practice for everyone concerned with the education and care of young children. This organization represents England, Scotland, Whales and Northern Ireland.

One project I learned about which helps one disadvantaged group in Northern Ireland is The Toy Box Project which helps The Travelers. They are one of the most disadvantaged groups in Northern Ireland. “Travelers are a distinct ethnic group within Irish society. Their lifestyle and culture, based on a nomadic tradition, sets them apart from the settled population.” A support worker goes to traveler’s homes with a toy box full of toys, art supplies, books and natural materials. The support worker encourages children to learn through play, builds positive relationships with each family, supports parents in enrolling their children in preschool and helps parents build confidence to engage positively with preschools to support their child’s education. This project was created to reduce inequality and to increase enrollment in early childhood programs and primary school.

 

  

Assignment Sharing Web Resources #2

The website that I have been looking at is Early Childhood Australia. This week, I took a look at their Everyday Learning series. They had topics ranging from play, friendships, dealing with anger to going green. These articles are meant for parents or anyone who cares for children. However, you have to pay for the articles. Next, I explored the link called Child Development, Family, Health, and Education Research. which brought me to a list of topics and ages. I clicked on infants to see what was available and then clicked on play. This brought me to a list of websites sharing articles about the importance of play. I will bookmark this page for future reference.

The next link I clicked on was called supporting best practice. This led to more lists of topics and fact sheets from other websites. Some useful links are babies, toddlers, early childhood practices, Diversity and inclusion, and assessment and evaluation.

I didn’t come across anything I thought was controversial. Many of their standards for quality care are similar to ours here in the US. I found an article under the link, "Every Child Magazine" called Cultural competence - ensuring individuality is integral to equity, fairness and
social justice.

Australia has recently implemented universal quality standards. This approach is partly an economic investment, but this article expresses the importance of individual children and families and respecting their strengths and diverse backgrounds. “In finalizing the logistics of National Quality Framework implementation (and what
a major initiative and achievement!) we must keep ‘deep understandings’ about children, development and learning in the early years at the top of our ‘to do’ lists. Regulations, rating and results are important, but at the core of quality programs are children and their relations with others.” I thought this quote and the full article were interesting because our discussions were about the perspectives of economists and politicians and the unintended consequences of looking at early childhood programs as strictly a financial investment.

Other than implementing universal standards, I did not find any other information about trends that are different from the US. In both countries early childhood professionals care about high quality, inclusion and diversity, ending the cycle of poverty, professional development, inequality etc. This website has many resources, but a lot of them are for members only or you have to buy individual articles. I wish more of the resources were free, but there are still some links I haven’t explored. The resources I was able to view show a commitment to the well-being of young children.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

One of my contacts, Sherry is from Australia and one thing she told me was that the biggest change in early childhood education is the implementation of a national curriculum framework called The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia which they haven’t had until recently. 

It specifically states that children should be taught through play. “The principles of early childhood pedagogy underpin practice. Educators draw on a rich repertoire of pedagogical practices to promote children’s learning by (amongst eight other points) planning and implementing through play.” (EYLF, 2009, p.14)
This means that the activities should be child oriented and initiated, not
teacher directed.Sherry stated, “Another issue in Australia is that the Federal Government has legislated that every child in the year before they attend school must have access to 15 hours of preschool per week (it is called Universal Access). As up until now children have had 10 hours, it is a big change to staffing, programming and timetabling.
Also the Government is bringing in the National Quality Standard which is divided into seven areas that contribute to the quality of early childhood education and care. These areas have been identified by research and are:
1.Educational program and practice
2.Children’s health and safety
3.Physical environment
4.Staffing arrangements (including the number of staff looking after children)
5.Relationships with children
6.Collaborative partnerships with families and communities
7.Leadership and service management
For the first time there will be consistency all across Australia in the Early Childhood sector.”

My contact Kierna from Northern Ireland also gave me an overview of their educational system.She said one difference between Northern Ireland and the US is that children start compulsory schooling at the age of four instead of five. They call it Primary 1 and she mentioned that it has become less formal over the years. Children now have more play based experiences, but they are still learning to read and write at a very young age. Kierna teaches in a nursery program for children ages three and four. It is not compulsory like Primary 1, but it is free. Kierna said that nursery teachers have to have a teaching qualification which allows them to teach children of any age in elementary school. She gives her class a lot of outdoor time and play based experiences. However, that is not the norm in Northern Ireland. There are classes that do not go out everyday or even have a good outdoor space. Kierna’s practice has been the most influenced by her experiences in Norway. She told me that the French and Polish settings were generally more formal and that she prefers the Scandinavian models.

Assignment: Sharing Web Resources

The organization I chose to learn more about is Early Childhood Australia.
Here is their mission statement. “Early Childhood Australia will advocate to ensure quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from birth to eight years.”
Their values are The rights of children, leadership, excellence, respect, courage, honesty, openness, collaboration, diversity, justice and social inclusion of children.
Their newsletter is called ECA Web Watch. The first issue they discuss on their September issue is child protection week. More than 30000 children are neglected or abused every year in Australia. The newsletter discusses how communities, organizations, adults and children are doing their part to protect children from abuse and neglect. They have created programs for this purpose.

Play a part program Aimed at children aged 0–8, their families and communities, the Play a part program is a local community engagement strategy that aims to prevent child abuse and neglect through the creation of child-friendly communities.

All children being safe program aimed at preschool and early primary children aged 4–6, the All children being safe program uses non-threatening ways to help young children feel strong and stay safe in their communities, and to make people aware of support services available in their local communities.

Another issue that caught my attention was an article called, “For Full-time Fathers The Pressure is On.”

This article looks at how the lifestyles of Australian fathers have changed in recent decades.
Various research programs and studies reveal that on average, Australian fathers
are working more, spending more time with their children and helping with domestic
chores—and the pressure to ‘do it all’ is starting to show.

The newsletter offers a resource sheet which discusses Closing the gap in outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This requires a focus on early intervention/education of Indigenous young children (from birth), their families and communities. I mentioned this because it relates to culture and diversity which is the topic this week.

 

Establishing Professional Contacts & Expanding Resources

To find professional contacts outside the US, I contacted a couple of the bloggers that I follow. My first contact was from Northern Ireland. She has been a nursery teacher for over twelve years and has been involved with Comenius projects which has allowed her to visit schools in Poland, Italy, Norway, Sweden and France. She writes a blog called Learning for Life. Much of her blog focuses on the importance of exploring nature and outdoor play.

My second contacts were two people who have taught together in Melbourne Australia for many years. They have a blog/website called Irresistible Ideas for play based learning. They share many inspiring and creative ideas for classrooms and write about their visits to other area preschools. I have not received any E-mails from them both yet but I am trying to figure out what to ask them first when I do.

The website I chose for part two of the blog assignment is Early Childhood Australia. I looked at a few of the other resources and this one seemed the most interesting to me. I chose this website because it has a variety of links and information to explore. I also subscribed to their newsletters.

I’d like to thank my two contacts for being willing to help. I appreciate them taking the time out of their busy days to answer my questions. I’m looking forward to learning new information from my contacts and through the website.

MY SUPPORTS

There are many factors that help support me in my daily environment namely my husband he not only makes sure I get up in the morning when the alarm goes off, but he is a friend and confidant to me.  I can talk to him about anything that is going on in my life.  He is my soul mate and a great provider to me and our daughter.  He also allows me to manage the household and chores since I  do not  work in the summer which is a major help to him and our daughter.  My husband is someone that I bounce ideas on and he also reads my school work for me before I submit it. My mother also is a major support to me in that I can talk to her about anything and everything that is going on in my life.  She always offers wisdom and humor to some of my situations. My colleagues at work are a source of support to me also they are also people I can bounce ideas off and get positive reinforcements from and helpful criticism.  I love the job because I work with true professionals. I don’t know what I would do without these three major support systems in my life.  Due to my writing this assignment I can see how I have taken them for granted because they have always been there for me.  If I did not have them my life would be very lonely and might not be able to accomplish the things that I am in my life, mainly returning to college.  They are the source of inspiration to me and help keep me motivated.  The support that I would like to have is my husband continuing to be the head of household and me feeling in where I am needed.  I would quit my job and focus on completing my degree.  This support would alleviate my having to contribute financially to the household and allow me more time to spend completing my assignments. My husband would be happy with this arrangement and so would I. Sounds good!!! J

My reason for working so hard!

My Connection to Play

It is a happy talent to know how to play-Ralph Waldo Emerson

 Children need the freedom and time to play. Play is not a luxury. Play is a necessity.

Kay Redfield Jamison

The following pictures are objects that i remember playing with as a child:

When I was little I played with Barbie dolls and fun gadgets. I would pretend they were people and make them talk to me. Growing up I did not have any little sisters so I really relied on my toys to play with. I loved dressing up dolls and pretending that I was in a fantasy land. Playing was a great escape from the reality of the real world.

Play today is different from when I was little. When I was little we got to play in school and go outside. Today's children do not get to experience that because the most important thing today is testing and making sure students pass. It is like the policy makers have forgotten what is like to be kids. We have got to get back to the roots and find out how to ensure that students are learning without jeopardizing a child's right to play.

  I also think play for adults is good also because sometimes as we grow, we forget how to relax and just enjoy being alive.  This also gives our children the opportunity to see by example.  

 My husband and step daughter

 My mother and step dad

 My mother (silver) and mother-in-law (blue)

My new family

A relationship can feel effortless and exciting, successful long-term relationships involve ongoing effort and compromise by both partners. Building healthy patterns early in your relationship can establish a solid foundation for the long run. Changes in life outside your relationship will impact what you want and need from the relationship. Since change is inevitable, welcoming it as an opportunity to enhance the relationship is more fruitful than trying to keep it from happening.  I don’t have close friends that live right near me, but I still talk to my two good friends from college.  We are all very calm people. We don’t argue. Crystal lives in Missouri. Shinika lives in Tennessee.                                             

All of the relationships I mentioned are important to me because I have people to talk to about things that trouble me, and I have people who appreciate who I am and appreciate that I listen to them.  One challenge to relationships is when one person does not seem to need the other person as much as that person needs them. Another challenge is being far away from friends. My mom and my friends are non-judgmental and calm. This has helped us maintain our relationships.

It is important as a professional to be nonjudgmental if I want parents and children to feel comfortable with me. Proximity also breeds closeness, so if the parents do spend time in the classroom and the children do attend school regularly it will help build relationships. Other regular forms of communication would also help build relationships. It would be important for me to focus on accepting people with different beliefs. It would also be important for me to think about what could be making my relationships with parents or children less than warm if I should feel this lack of warmth from the children or the parents or within myself.