Consequences of Collaborative Learning

I am so excited to share that I finally received an email reply from a professional whom I contacted. It is not an international contact, but an early childhood educator who spoke via radio on “World Forum”. I cannot begin to explain how I felt when I saw the email. Needless to say, I was surprised to hear from someone since it is at the close of the course. None the less, I am overjoyed. I would like to take just a little time to share what this professional had to say before I address our week eight assignment. The professional who took the time out of her busy schedule to write me was Susan Lyon, Ed.D. She is instrumental in bringing and promoting Reggio Emilia, Italy here in the United States. She spoke of high quality care and education for infant, toddler, and preschool children as a critical issue in the field of early childhood. She further commented that all children should be cared for in places that give them opportunities to thrive, and women should have choices that are all of high quality as they look for care and education for their children. She said that there are many ways to advocate for high quality care an education, but the most “powerful” way she has found is to work with schools both public and private in raising the quality of care by investing in the professional development of teachers. She posed that we should ask ourselves, “Why are we doing what we are doing with children?” There was much more that she elaborated on, but I will suffice the above for getting across her main points. Three Consequences I learned: 1. That there are positives happening globally for children. We can learn much from each other no matter where we reside. 2. Never give up. Someone will eventually contact you. I have not given up on establishing an international contact. 3. Reading and researching about happenings around the world can inspire us to continue our work with children in our own communities. My goal as related to international awareness: 1. I will continue to discover and rediscover positives in the international field of early care and education in hopes that I can one day be as Susan Lyons and bring to pass something like Reggio Emilia, Italy to a small rural Idaho community. Good luck to everyone in reaching their goals.

UNESCO and Cultural Diversity

I am continually interested in and try to keep abreast of issues concerning linguistic and cultural diversity in education.

In visiting the UNESCO website, I was immediately drawn to an article under the tab of Latin America and the Caribbean. Once there I found the following linguistic and cultural diversity facts fascinating:

There is a critical issue of losing languages. Out of 6,000 languages and dialects in the world, there is a threat of losing 50%.

Almost every two weeks, a language vanishes. When languages disappear, cultural and intellectual heritages also leave. Languages are our path to knowledge and they are unique making them an important support for human growth and development.

Linguistic diversity is connected to natural diversity. Together, both promise that there will be future generations to carry on progress.

In the country of Peru the Quechua or Aymara are the dominant languages. However, the schools still use Spanish when teaching students. This presents problems for children as they struggle to learn how to read and communicate.

CARE (National humanitarian organization) has stepped in to aid schools in Peru. They work to create classrooms that have essential materials for learning a second language of Spanish.

They also provided training to teachers helping them to understand intercultural and bilingual education requisite by Peru. They also put together and distribute information and organize workshops directed to local authorities, families, and civil society members educating them on the significance of bilingual education.

Efforts like those listed above give hope for preserving mother languages (UNSECO, 2012).

It is interesting to note that educators in such countries as Peru have to contend with linguistic and cultural issues just as we do here in America.

Reference:

UNESCO. (2012, February 20). Education for sustainable development – preserving linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved from the UNESCO website at http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/resources/online-materials/single-view/news/education_for_sustainable_development_preserving_linguistic_and_cultural_diversity/

Equity and Excellence for ELL Children

In spending time on the NIEER website I found information on the current status of ELL learners in California. In an article by Rebecca Plevin on News Media America’s website titled Limited Preschool Access Dims Success for Latino Children-And California’s Future. It can be found on the following URL:

http://newamericamedia.org/2012/02/poor-preschool-access-dims-success-for-latino-childrenand-californias-future.php

I have spent a good part of my life working with Latino families and continue to embrace connections to that culture today as I work with Latino and ELL learners as an elementary teacher. In California, many young Latino children are not receiving a much needed boost for academic success and yet they make up more than half of all children under the age of five. High quality preschools only see fourteen (14) percent as enrollees. Fresno County has more migrant children than any other part of the state, and they are lucky enough to have a migrant education program that strives to alleviate such a gap by providing high quality one- on-one help through a home visiting program.

In Filer, Idaho, we have an ELL program that provides small group extra help for ELL children. The program begins working with children in kindergarten. Having been a part of that program, I know that it is a good program. However, in working with those students, I can see that such help needs to come well before kindergarten. Being a small rural community, the closest Head Start programs are in towns further away, and I am not sure how accessible it is to the children in my town. My next step is to find out if Head Start in Buhl and Twin Falls serve the children in Filer. Also, are there any Head Start home visiting programs in Filer?

I just love how these articles plant ideas and encourage me to search for avenues of support for children and families in my small world.

LEARNING MORE

 

I have not given up on establishing an international contact, and put out new feelers at the beginning of this week.  I have yet to receive a response, but will let you know if and when I do.

In the meantime, I listened to the Susan Lyon from the World Forum Radio.  She is instrumental in bringing Reggio Emilia philosophy to San Francisco and integrated that philosophy in her work with the Persidio Child Care Center.  She began the Innovative Teacher in the San Francisco Bay area.  She continues to work on behalf of children and as present is working to build and establish the first Italian immersion preschool.   I researched the Innovative Teacher website (http://www.innovativeteacherproject.org/innovative/staff.php), and was able to email her and ask two questions.  However, I have yet to hear a reply.  

In my research of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University Global Children’s Initiative website, I found the following global activities of interest:

ü  Un Buen Cornienzo (UBC), “A Good Start”

UBC is a group effort in Santiago, Chile, to increase the value of education for children from four to six years old through teacher development.  They also work to improve health issues, school attendance, and social/emotional development through the involvement of families in their child’s education.

ü  Nucleo Ciencia Pela Infancia (NCPI)

Center on the Developing Child and David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies both at Harvard University, Fundacao maria Cecilia Souto Vidigal, Faculty of medicine at the University of Sao Paula, and Insper work together to assist Brazilian scholars, policymakers, and civil society leaders in Brazil to establish a more equitable society.  They have an agenda of four activities to further their efforts.  Those activities are as follows:

·         Building a scientific agenda and community of scholars around early childhood development;

·         Synthesizing and translating scientific knowledge for application to social policy. This will include working with the Center’s longtime partner organization, Frameworks Institute, to effectively communicate the science of child development in the Brazilian cultural context;

·         Strengthening leadership around early childhood development through an executive leadership course for policymakers;

·         Translating and adapting the Center’s existing print and multimedia resources for a Brazilian audience (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, (2012).

ü  With support from the World Bank, the Center has translated three videos in Spanish.  They are titled, InBrief: The Science of Earlly Childhood Development, InBrief: The Impact of Adversity on Children’s Development, and InBrief: The Foundations of Lifelong Health.  The videos focus on important issues in early childhood. 

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2012). Global Children’s Initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/activities/global_initiative/?tw_p=twt

Professional Development with NIEER

When I visit the NIEER website, I spend most of my time in the publications section.  I find myself drawn to the newsletter Hot Topics, videos, and policy briefs all located in the publication section of their website.  NIEER presents many modes of viewing current trends in early childhood, which are relevant to me as a professional in the education field.

One resource that I cannot seem to get out of my mind is the video, Preschool: America’s Best Investment.  In this production, W. Steve Barnett (an economist) talks about the findings from his research of preschool programs in the last twenty years.  Within this media presentation, he talks about how tax supported cost have grown tremendously over these last two decades due to an increase in special education programs, welfare programs, and the criminal justice system (Barnett, 2008).  He continues to relate how investing in young children now can curb that cost in the future with a 16% return on dollars invested in such programs (Barnett, 2008).  He also followed the High Scope study that compared two groups of children from the ages of 3 to 27.  Both groups where from poor families, and were from the same tough neighborhood.  They were treated equally with the exception that one group attended a high quality early education program and the other did not attend any preschool program.  The findings showed that the group who did not attend a program encountered more difficulties during their school years and needed more special services (Barnett, 2008).  By the age of 27, the other group (attended a high quality preschool program) were 80% less to have ever been arrested, earned 59% more, and were three times more likely to own their own home (Barnett, 2008).

The one statistic from the video that I found most interesting was the fact that research substantiates the need for early childhood education for all children.  James Rohr (CEO for PNC Financial Services Group) cited that one half of drop out students are from middle and high income families (Barnett, 2008).  I have always had the distinct impression that over half of drop outs were from low income and poverty families.  Knowing such data exists, can be a boon to the cause for early care and education.  I can picture more support from all levels of people if they know that all children would benefit from education early on.

As I listened to the voices of Barnett and Rohr, I was impressed that individuals from backgrounds other than early childhood were proponents of an organization that does not seem even remotely close to their world of understanding.  It gave me such a good feeling to know that others who are not educators are interested in children.  You may say that it is only because they are interested in the money aspect.  I do not believe that their hearts cannot be touched as they view the world of a child.  That is why I truly believe that it is through the voices of others that our desire for all children to succeed will be recognized.  

Other new insights for me were more reinforcements in others being involved in the early childhood arena.  It gives me confidence as I advocate for children.  That confidence comes from the reality that those not from the early childhood field understand the needs of children and families.

Reference:

Barnett, W. S. (2008). Preschool: America’s best investment.  NIEER (National Institute for Early Education Research). Retrieved from http://nieer.org/docs/index.php?DocID=112  

CHIP: Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre

The three items that I found most interesting on the CHIP website were the case studies, poverty reports about countries such as China, India, Kyrgyzstan, and Mongolia, and the photo gallery.

Until you see the numbers, read about the personal struggles, and look at photographs depicting the reality of life for those in poverty it seems surreal.

CHIP reports that over 600 children live in poverty worldwide and over 10 million children under the age of five still die every year from preventable diseases with a vast number of those children being from developing countries.  Those facts make it ever important for those of us who can to reach out and make a difference. 

CHIP has set some goals to be reached by 2015:

      Halving poverty rates

      Cutting by 2/3’s the deaths of children under five

      Making sure all children complete at least the primary grades in school

It was particularly interesting to read case study of Nan Nan.  Nan Nan is a fourteen year old girl whose parents moved from rural China to urban China in hopes of better employment and to make a better life.  Nan Nan lived with her grandparents for a while before joining her father, mother, and brother in Hefei the capital of China’s Anhui province.  Nan Nan and her family describe the difficulties they face and how they do not feel like they have made enough change in their monetary situation to really make difference in their lives.  They also talk about having no friends in Hefei and that the city people do not treat them kindly.  Nan Nan’s mother says she often wonders why they moved to the city as she never has time for her children because of her long work hours as a fruit vendor, and they only see Nan Nan’s father once a month as he has to stay on the construction sites where he is employed. 

Nan Nan’s story is so sad, but so real.  In 2004, CHIP reported about China’s economic changes in transitioning to a market economy, and its effects on the living standards of it population.  They found that the wealth and living standards of many increased, while this rapid change affected the children in poverty adversely.  They are currently working on initiatives to expand their social security safety net and their social relief programs. 

I visited Beijing and Shanghai, China back in 2001.  I believe that was about the time they were beginning to make some changes.  At that time they were opening up their country to the vast world they had seemed to ignore for decades.  They were preparing to host the World Olympics.  As we visited their factories where citizens worked, I was amazed at the poor working conditions, and I was surprised that they would show us the living conditions of their most poor.  The one thing that I found interesting was that amid such inequality the people seemed to be proud and happy.

NIEER an Informative Organization

Additional Investigation:

Once I really began to investigate the purpose and scope of NAECT (National Association of Early childhood Teacher Educators) (my first choice) I realized that this was not the organization for my beginning.  At first, I felt I wanted to research an organization that I could one day belong to, and NAECT could possibly be a program with depth and breath for a professional teacher.  However, I soon realized that NAECT was probably well beyond where I am now.  I ran across a small insert in their newsletter stating that they were an organization for early childhood professors who taught at four year institutions.  OK, I am not quite there. 

So, I spent this last week participating in deeper research from our list.  I began with the end in mind.  I knew I wanted an organization that not only aspired to leading individuals in the field to becoming professionals as well as providing information on current research and evidence of helpful words for professional teachers.  Therefore, I chose to change my venue to National Institute for Early Education Research.  I have listed their web site and online newsletter below. 

NIEER Focus:

The National Institute for Early Education Research is an organization dedicated to communicating current research data that will “support high quality, effective, early childhood education for all young children” (NIEER, 2012).   They provide information, guidance, and recommendations that is research-based to professionals such as; policy makers, journalists, researchers, and educators. 

They pride themselves on sustaining a vision for early childhood education that promotes excellence, is easily understood, and is valid for policy makers (NIEER, 2012). 

NIEER works together with policy makers at both the state and national level to pass along information supporting best practices, policies, and quality, develop strategies for research and communication to narrow the gaps in applying scientific knowledge to early education policy, form working partners with scholars and research institutions as they assign their staff to investigate new research and analysis, supply media agencies with “research-based perspective on breaking news”, strive to inspire national and state considerations on early education policies, and partner with other groups to working on collaborative inquiry plans and to make the public aware of  current policy and trends in early care and education (NIEER, 2012).

Hot Topic:

A topic that caught my attention was the idea of “kindergarten redshirting” which takes its name from college sports and has to do with parents choosing to hold their child back from kindergarten one year even though the child meets the birthday cutoff date in order for the child to have time to mature and be more ready before entering kindergarten (NIEER, 2012).    This news worthy report links you to a CBS’s 60 Minutes interview with Samuel Meisels (president of Erikson Institute) as well as staff members from 60 Minutes.  One interesting point made is the fact that demographics play a part in which children end up in “redshirting” with the majority being “Caucasian, male, and higher-income families” (NIEER, 2012).

Other Topics: 

Other news worthy issues addressed included, but were not limited to Education Reform: It Takes a Village (professionals from various states speak about the successes and challenges of educational reform), Third Grade Retention Laws Launch Debate (talks about literacy in the early grades is linked to later academic success of students), and Moving Past the No-Program Moniker? (discusses a bill in Indiana that would mandate state funded preschool (NIEER, 2012).

All are great topics and there are more.  I hope you will have time to visit the site.  It could be a great place for resources for this and other courses to come. 

National Institute for Early Education Research
http://nieer.org/
(Newsletter: http://nieer.org/resources/newsletter/index.php)

References

National Institute for Early Education Research. (2012). Mission statement. Retrieved from http://nieer.org/about/

National Institute for Early Education Research. (2012). Hot topics. In the news: Delaying children’s entry to kindergarten. Retrieved from http://nieer.org/newsletter/index.php?NewsletterID=212