Getting to Know Your International Contacts Part 2

This week’s podcast came from The Whole Child Podcast website.  The title was Early Childhood Education:  Balancing Expectations and What Young Learners Really Need.  This podcast included the following professionals:  Thomas Armstrong (an award-winning author and speaker with more than 40 years of teaching experience from the primary through the doctoral level), Laura Bornfreund (a senior policy analyst for New America Foundation’s Early Education Initiative), and Walter Mckenzie (a lifelong learner, teacher, leader, and connector. A director of Constituent Services for ASCD, McKenzie served 25 years in public education as a classroom teacher, instructional technology coordinator, director of technology, and assistant superintendent for information services), Jennifer Orr (a 1st-grade teacher at Annandale Terrace Elementary School in Fairfax County, Va.) and Wendy Ostroff (a cognitive psychology, child development, and metacognition expert).

The beginning of a child’s education is as important as any other time while in school.  Children being exposed to high-quality education programs are important for lifelong development of children who are of low socio-economic status and can provide returns to its community that are many times more beneficial.

Standards and academic achievement is the current focus today and many believe that learning and testing is coming to early.  Curriculum and assessment should be based on the best knowledge of theory and research about how children develop and learn, with attention given to individual children’s needs and interest within a group and in relation to programs goals (Whole Child Podcast, 2013).

The Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” was founded in 2006.  The initiative believes that the strength and sustainability of any culture depend on the magnitude to which it increases chances early in life for all children to attain their full potential and interact in accountable and productive social responsibility. 

Their mission is to advance their vision by using science to enhance child well-being through innovations in policy and practice.  The initiative has three strategic objectives:

·         To reframe public discourse about the early childhood period

·         To support innovative, multidisciplinary research and demonstration projects and

·         To build leaderships capacity in child development research and policy.

Based on these three objectives they have begun to build a portfolio of activities in three domains:

·         Early childhood development

·         Mental health and

·         Children in crisis and conflict situations

After listening to this week’s podcast I have come to the conclusion that issues in early childhood education is universal.  Many have the same concerns and many are attempting to come up with a resolve for these current and ongoing issues such as the Global Children’s Initiative through Harvard University and it all comes back to one thing advocating for children and families so that their lives can be strengthen and for the long term benefits of receiving early learning. 

References

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

The Whole Child Podcast—Whole Child Education

http://www.wholechildeducation.org/podcast (October, 2013)

Sharing Web Resources

I continue to assess the impact that I have on children's lives as I learn and grow in my early childhood profession.  The section of the Global fund for children that I believe is relevant toward my professional develovopment is the impact  they have on children.  The Global Fund has helped more than 9 million children but they continue to meet more in hopes of reaching another million by 2015.  This affords children the opportunity to an education versus having to go to work, it also strive to keep children from catching infectious diseases by providing health services, protects them from slavery and to escape the slavery that some children already live in  and these opportunities simply allow children to be just that "children". 

The Global Fund sets out to find grantees in marginalized communities and help with funding, they invest in groups as they are identified and help them to expand.  They keep community organizations who thrive to help children  informed and provide them with the support that they need to continue to grow and to ensure success they determine if their efforts are successful by looking at the outcomes of those that they helped to ensure that they are helping the lives of children.

"We believe that money alone is not enough—for lasting change, you need strong leadership and healthy organizational development. We support our partners through management assistance, capacity building, networking opportunities, and additional strengthening services" (Global Fund). 

Funding in every organization is important.  One insight that isn't new to me is that it is important is making sure that when working with children is to ensure that the impact that is measured on the lives of the children that I served is a positive impact and if not ways to better this impact.  Although most grantees that the Global Fund supports are small the impact that they have on children's lives are huge and this is my goal to have positive impacts that will changes children's lives forever.

References

The Global Fund for Children http://www.globalfundforchildren.org

Getting to Know Your International Contacts--Part I

Childhood poverty affects many children and families on a day to day basis. After numerous attempts to contact child care professionals in other countries without any replies I chose to listen to some podcast.   I had a very difficult time finding a podcast concerning poverty in other countries however I did find a podcast on the website The Whole Child, the name of this Podcast was titled “The New Poverty:  Dealing with Economic Change”.  

The podcast participants included professional Deborah Wortham, Superintendent of the School District City of York, Pa, Felicia Dehaney, President and CEO of the Nation Black Child Development Institute, Kathleen Budge, Coordinator of the Leadership Development Program and William Parrett, Director of the Center for School Improvement and Policy Studies.  

Poverty is complex and there are different circumstances to why children and families are in poverty, according to the Podcast members poverty can be, situational, generational, absolute, relative, urban and rural.  Situational poverty is caused by sudden changes due to unforeseen circumstances such as the loss of a job.  Generational poverty is passed down from one generation to the next, may consider this a mindset.  Absolute poverty is the lack of basic needs for survival including food, medical care, safe drinking water shelter and education.  Relative poverty comes from the society one lives in and may differ from country to country. Urban and rural poverty are communities with reduced circumstances.

These professionals discuss ways that professionals can address poverty issues by extending boundaries, understanding your cultural biases, reducing situations and providing safe havens where children can be successful.  If children’s needs are placed at the top of our priority list they believe that we as professionals can make drastic changes and there will be dramatic progress in the lives of our children.

After visiting the website of the Childhood Research and Policy Centre’s page the country that I chose to share information about is China.  

Poverty is an almost exclusively rural occurrence, with 99% of China’s poor hailing from rural China, though national statistics count migrant workers in cities among the rural, not urban poor.  Levels of poverty are higher and more severe in China’s western regions, but nearly half of the poor are in other parts of the country. People living in remote, mountainous areas are two to three times more likely to be poor than those who live in more central areas, and the incidence of poverty among ethnic minorities is two to three times higher than among the Han Chinese. Still, about half of the poor in China are neither living in remote areas nor members of an ethnic minority.  overall, poverty rates for male and female adults and the elderly population is very close – between 12% and 13%. But poverty rates are higher among children under 16 years old: 16% of boys and 17% of girls are poor. Girls are also more at risk than boys of becoming poor.

Reference

Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s page (http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/)

http://www.wholechildeducation.org/podcast/tag/Supported

Sharing Web Resources

The website that I chose was The Global Fund for Children (http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/).  The Global Fund transforms the lives of children on the edges of society such as trafficked children, refugees and child laborers by assisting them in regaining their rights and pursuing their dreams.  The Global Fund has reached 8 million children worldwide. 

                GFC’s approaches are to scout, support and strengthen most susceptible communities.  They scout by seeking organizations that serve the most disregarded children in the world.  The support by investing in under-capitalized organization that provide critical services to vulnerable children and they strengthen by ensuring there is strong leadership and healthy developed organizations.

                One of the issues that are trending with GFC is The Girl Declaration and why it matters.  They focus on the hopes and dreams of young girls in Pakistan as opposed to young girls in Brazil, Kenya and the Philippines.  The Girl Declaration includes the voices of young girls in 14 different countries that voiced/explained what they thought they needed to reach their full potential.  GFC said that there are three reasons why the Girl Declaration is a crucial step forward is because the needs of the world’s adolescent girls are serious and urgent, it was written specifically written by those impacted; girls and because it’s the best change to make an impact that is lasting against the fight against poverty. 

                During this week’s assignments’ we discussed diversity and I would like to share the link to GFC’s Free Online Diversity Resource Guide (https://www.globalfundforchildren.org/the-global-fund-for-children-releases-free-online-diversity-education-resource-guide/ which provides great information.

Reference

The Global Fund For Children. (n.d.). The Global Fund For Children. Retrieved November 6, 2013, from The Global Fund For Children: https://www.globalfundforchildren.org

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

During this week 1 Assignment I have tried to establish contacts with Early Childhood Professionals around the world and have been unsuccessful in doing so.  I have emailed many but haven't received a response back from any and some mailerdaemons were sent back to me as well.  I emailed Mr. Eric Atmore of South Africa who works with The National Early Childhood Development Alliance (no response), Mrs. Bimbo Are of Nigeria who works with Ajoke International School (no response), I also reached out to someone in the Dominican Republic at the following email address santodomingo@unicef.org (no response).  I waited a couple days to see if they would respond and then I emailed jane@aeces.org and moukram@hotmail.com and both of these emails came back to me.  I was disappointed that I haven't received in responses back as I was looking forward to networking with others outside of the United States but it has been a failed attempt so far.  If any one has any ideas that could help me reach someone please let me know.  I would much rather learn from talking and discussing versus listening to a podcast which is my last option.  I will continue to try and make contact with someone but if anyone has any ideas or tips it will be greatly appreciated. 
The organization that I chose to learn more about is The Global Fund For Children.  I chose this website because I always see infomercials on television about funding programs to help children who are less fortunate and I honestly wanted to learn more about how they receive funds, how to they disburse funds when they are received and to also learn how these projects help with the development of young children.  I have subscribed to their news letter and will be exploring their website as a part of my learning.

Latarsha Riddick