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.