Global Children's Initiative

As I explored the Center of the Developing Child @ Harvard University, I gained the following insight:

What is the Initiative about?
The Center on the Developing Child from Harvard University has committed to global work in other nations to meet the needs of all children around the world. Using strategic objectives from the U.S., the Global Children's Initiative has built a portfolio of activities in early childhood development, child mental health, and children in crisis and conflict situations. The plan is to educate leaders of international agencies, publish scientific framework for global work in early education, and research effective ways to translate information on child development to global policymakers. The initiative also wants to focus on the issue of child mental health, an issue that is currently not effectively addressed. There is a group working to develop a focused research agenda.

National Forum on Early Childhood Policy and Programs
This forum works to explain why investing in early education for young children is important. The forum tries to answer the questions of why and how investments should be made and assesses program evaluation research. There are several featured publications and videos to explain programs and policies related to early education.

Child Mental Health Network
This was started by the Center on the Developing Child in 2008 to address the gap of what we know and what we need to know about child and adolescent mental health. It focuses on the child development until young adulthood and using this knowledge of children's mental health to inform policy and practice. The initiative focuses on four areas that account for the majority of child mental health concerns: anxiety and anxiety disorders, depression, ADHD, and conduct problems ranging from disobedience to violence.

Web Resources

When exploring the website for NAECTE, I found numerous helpful resources. I went onto the journals link and saw a journal on Preparing Early Childhood Teachers for English Language Learners. This seemed to include valuable information for teachers who have students that English is not their native language. This article described what occurred during the first year of professional development within a early childhood preparation program. This development helped the faculty move from awareness level to integrated English Language Learners skill development. I found this to be valuable information as we head into a more culturally diverse world.

I did not find any information about the support of economist, scientist, and politicans, but  I found the book resources to be interesting and relate to past topic of diversity, dual language learners, early childhood curriculum and many others. There is a brief description on each book. It includes a book on issues faced by immigrant children and challenges and successes within the school setting, as well as others concerning the issue of diversity.

Contacts and Poverty

I have had no response from the contacts that I sent emails two weeks ago, and I am curious to see if any of my classmates have had better luck. Because I received no communication from educators around the world, I had to complete the podcast assignment this week.

 I listened to the podcast on Susan Lyon. She is an early childhood professional from the San Francisco area. She brought a concept called "100 Languages of Children" to northern California after visiting Reggio Emilia.  She also started the Innovative Teacher Project where she offered participating schools round table discussions on how to use this approach to give children a wonderful environment to learn.

 I have had no communication with early childhood professionals, so I went to the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Center's page. Wow, what great information! I was shocked when I read that 600 million children worldwide live in poverty. I cannot even comprehend the magnitude of this issue. It is definitely an issue that our country needs to improve on.

 I was interested to see how poverty affected children in China. Education is a top priority in China and even poor families say that they would not let poverty prevent their children from a proper education or entering higher education. However, like in other countries, the limitations are still there. There are no additional funds to invest in additional education programs or private tuitions for after school hours. Also, children of poor families are not able to get the vaccinations not covered by the state funded immunization plan. In times of need, poor families often relied on relatives, friends, and neighborhood committees. 60 % of urban households receive the Minimum Living Standard Security Allowance.

Resource: National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators

NAECTE Newsletter link: http://www.naecte.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=29 )

When reading this newsletter, I found the information on developmentally appropriate media programming very interesting, as it relates to this week's topic of discussion. The University of West Georgia's Department of Early Care and Learning expressed understanding of the social and cultural value of the content in which young children are exposed to. As audio-visual programming entertains and informs young children, it helps them to develop their identity, so it is important that young children are provided with media that reflect who they are. Public television is the leader in providing high quality educational programming, in fact, 85 percent of parents trust what their children are watching. As studies show that children watch four hours of television a day, the goal of the Developmental Appropriate Programming and the University of West Georgia Television Station 13 is to offer education, information, and language development to young children in a fun, exciting way. This program plans to meet the needs of area prekindergarten children through service learning, storytelling, puppetry, and exploring culture and traditions.

This issue made me consider the television program that my four year old spends a lot of time watching. He loves to watch the shows on Nick Jr. where he has learned many social concepts, practiced speaking Spanish, explored musical concepts, and much more. He has even answered me in Japanese and often counts in Spanish after watching popular shows on this network. The network's slogan is "preschool on TV," and I believe that it has given my child many social and cultural experiences. There is a wonderful cultural variety on this network with shows like: Dora the Explorer (Spanish), Go Diego Go (Spanish) and Nihao, Kai-lan (Japanese). I feel this is such a great experience for young children to see this on television and then be able to embrace cultural differences as they grow up in our changing society.

Professional Contacts

Part One: Professional Contacts

I have sent contact emails to the following countries: Canada, Netherlands, and Haiti. I received the email information from the NAEYC website. I have not heard back from contacts at this point but hope to hear from them in the next few days. This is the introduction email that I sent to each of them.

Hello,

My name is Tabitha Krueger, and I am from South Carolina in the United States. I am currently working on a Master’s degree in Early Childhood. Right now, I am studying issues and trends in the early childhood field, and we have been asked to contact professionals outside the United States to converse about issues and concerns in the field. I got your email address from the NAEYC website of Early Childhood Professionals and wanted to see if you are willing to communicate back and forth with me over the next eight weeks.

I would like to share some information about me and my career, so that you have a little background to build from. I graduated with a B.A. degree in Elementary Education in 2004 and began teaching that year. I taught fifth grade for seven years, and recently decided to change career paths. My future goal is to open a learning center in my hometown. In order to achieve this goal, I decided to get my Master’s degree and learn as much as possible about the early childhood field. I have a background in education but needed some knowledge about early childhood to be my best.

I look forward to learning about early childhood in your country. Please email me back at your earliest convenience. Thank you for taking the time to learn about me.

Tabitha Krueger                                                                                                                                                                   

Walden University

Part Two: Professional Website

I chose to study and learn from the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators website. This week I navigated to the different links just to see what they offered. I read the e-newletter for summer 2011 and gathered information of upcoming events and information. I read about the conference that was held in Rhode Island in June. I also read about ResearchNet on teacher research focusing on research by teachers at all levels. This is a form of professional development that gives teachers a forum for research studies, an outlet for research results, and profressional development opportunities.