Final Blog

Over the past seven weeks, I have enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with my fellow early childhood professional. During this time I was given insight to issues and trends from another country that are very similar to the United States. Three of the consequences of learning internationally is, shared passion, limited resources and support. During these past seven weeks, I have gained insight to how similar our passion for early childhood amongst the two of us. She has also shared with me the limited resources that she is able to receive because of community she lives in and the opinion of her government officials. Due to this shortcoming, it does not provide much support for her and her program.

One goal that set forth to accomplish is to advocate more for early childhood programs in my local community. By doing this I will still make a substantial contribution to the lives of young children and their families which is my ultimate goal.

International Contacts Part 3

This week I reached out to my international contact Jane, who lives in Kenya. I must say that I am very impressed with her drive and passion for the children in her community. She works really hard trying to educate her students. In our conversations in the past, we discussed the hardships she faces with trying to keep her families involved in the children's education.  With the demand of working overriding the need for education, she does the best she can do with the children and resources she has.

When we spoke about her professional goals she informed that there are places she can go for professional development, but they are too far way for her to attend. In order for her to attend the universities, she would have to to make a sacrifice, which she did not elaborate on.  But what intrigued me was Jane mentioned that she wants to obtain her education so that she can make an impact on her community. She believes that if the younger generation sees that she obtained her education that they would want to do the exact same thing. A humbling way of inspiring the youth in her country to shoot for the stars.

This conversation has raised the issue of the importance of education no matter what country you live in. Early childhood education is and will always be the foundation that education is built on for all cultures.

Sharing Web Resources
Zerotothree.org

As I continue to explore Zero to Three website, it becomes evident that this website is very informative.  As a new Infant Toddler teacher, this website would be a great resource for me. I looked deeper into the Resouces tab I found an article related to Early Learning for Infants and Toddlers. I choose the topic Early Literacy nd found various resources on the topic. One article I found "Learning to Read the World: Literacy in the first 3 years" provides caregivers insight on how their everyday interactions can help to build culturally appropriate language and literacy developmental skills in young children. It expresses the importance of doing this to help children build on these skills in later years.

What I found interesting in tab was at the end of every article are tabs that you can connect to other resources related to the topic.  I also found information that allows me to connect with this weeks topic. Under the same tab, there are resources that guide parents, teachers, or other professionals in ways to find quality child care. Whether it is center based, or a close friend watching your child, there are articles that will guide your decision on what type of care is best for your child(ren). 
As I continue to explore this website I am learning how beneficial the resources are to all who care, provide or educate professionals in early education.

Resource
https://www.zerotothree.org

International Contact - Part 2 

This week we made another frequent connection with our international contact in Early Childhood. My contact name is Jane and she is from Kenya. In my conversations with her, I have learned that issues in Early Childhood are very similar around the world. The only difference would be the available resources to assist the programs policy and or standards.

Jane had shared with me the process she had to undertake when opening her school in Kenya. I found the process there to be familiar to the opening and operating of an ECE program in Maryland. She shared that first one must be trained to teach, fingerprinted by police and have good conduct. Once that is done then you can proceed with obtaining the deed to some land and the public health process.

When it comes to the equity and excellence in ECE, Jane shared with me that the government does not consider ECE programs at all. The parents are usually the providers which are scarce. Government funding is rare in her country and every household can not benefit from it. So in Kenya, there are not many ECE programs and if there are it is up  to the program to provide for the needs of the children.