Continuing to share information from Web resources

As I continue through this course, I gain new knowledge or insight each week. This week as we talked bout other fields that can have an influence on early childhood. I took another look at the www.nieer.org site and found that they conduct research in the areas we talked about this week. There is a whole tab section on economics and finance at the same time there is an additional tab on governance and accountability. It's not that I can say I never knew, but I guess I never paid much attention until this week to the other fields that play a role and have an impact on early childhood education. What I like about the NIEER site is that even though it is based here in my home state of New Jersey the information on the site is about all states. While my local state would be my primary focus, it is interesting to take a look at what other states are doing. If a state is working a plan successfully then maybe in some ways we could try it here. The site does include other information pertaining to quality, assessment, access, teachers, state programs as well as more. This site touches on all aspects and topics I believe have an impact on the early childhood field in one way or another. This week for me really tied together how other fields and early childhood work together, or should work together, for the betterment of our children and thus the betterment of our country in the future.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

My attempts to contact someone in another country for this assignment did not work out. I received no responses back other than one to tell me the address was incorrect. So I chose the podcast option, however I seem to be having difficulties getting in contact with members from the podcasts.

 

On the other hand, I looked into the childhood poverty website as suggested since I am awaiting a response from the podcast. The information gained through this site is amazing. I chose to read about China and the poverty level there. According to the site the overall poverty rate is 4 to 8 percent of the urban population. On the other hand, what I read about the children in China was alarming. I had a misconception that China’s education for children and healthcare was greater than it is. The western and eastern sections of China differ. There are 80 percent of children in Western China, according to www.childhoodpoverty.org, while it is 15 percent higher in Eastern China and the percentage in Western China is lower than the national average by 9 percent. The reason for the differences lies in the cost of education, some can afford it while others cannot. Additionally there are families without health insurance living in China, just as there are here in America. The reason in China I feel is the same as the reason here in the United States, as I am sure is the reason everywhere, health insurance is not affordable.

 

I hope that not only on in international level, but a local and national level here in the United States that we can better educate our children and families to reduce the amount of people living in poverty.

Sharing Web Resources

The website I subscribed to the newsletter for is the National Institute for Early Education Research, www.nieer.org. This website works with state and national policy holders, as well as other organizations to work to achieve effective, high quality preschool programs. I am looking forward to receiving newsletters and browsing the website to gain more information and knowledge of what is happening in early childhood education. With a more in depth up to date knowledge of the research taking place I will become a more effective educator for my students and a more informative colleague for my fellow educators.

Expanding Knowledge and Research

For part one of this assignment, I have emailed a few different people in hopes of establishing a collaboration to learn from educators outside of the United States. However, I have not received contact back, so I may have to pursue the alternative for this course if I do not hear back from anyone.

For part two of this assignment, I subscribed to the national institute of early education research website. This website will give me information on current issues involving early education. As a preschool teacher of four year olds, this website will be insightful to give me information involving new insights into what is taking place before children get to my classroom, while they are in my classroom, and therefore what will happen upon entrance to Kindergarten and public school. Another plus to this website is it is created by Rutgers University here in New Jersey where I live.

My Supports

When I think about the supports I have on a daily basis compared to those supports a child in my classroom may need, I come up with two different answers.

The supports of a child in my classroom could mean something as similar as pictures with words cards for my ESL learners to an open classroom layout to the child who may have a physical disability and everything in between or beyond. Supports in the classroom include partnerships with families, the back up of administration, and relationships with colleagues. These supports help insure a child is and feels successful each day when they are at school.

However, for myself my supports come in different means. My job brings a paycheck which brings money to pay bills, keep my car running, keep food in my house, and allows me to provide for my needs and sometimes my wants. Without my job bringing a paycheck, I would end up without money to pay my bills which means I could end up homeless. However, I have a supportive family of those members I am close to. They have provided me with a place to stay and food to eat as well as loans of money when the need has arose. Without my family as my baseline of support through everything I have encountered I would be lost. I then have my friends. I can say that I have those I talk to about anything, those that I pick and choose what to say, and those that are casual acquitances. I can also say that I have had friends come and go, but the lessons learned in this relationships have helped make me the person that I am today. While I could tell my family anything, I am glad that I have my friends for support because there are topics I do not want to talk with my family about becasue since they are my family, they have their biases and sometimes don't look at the whole picture. My friends provide a different level of love and encouragement to keep me moving on even when life has thrown out the lemons.

I do not believe without my family and friends that I could survive. I have had the unfortunate occurence of being without a job, without a cell phone, without a car and through the help of family and friends made it through. It is nice to know that I have a support system when life throws me lemons, they help me make lemonade.

My Connections to Play

As I thought about this week’s blog, I spoke to my mom. I had different toys I liked at different times so I needed to narrow down my list to when I was four or five. Once I spoke to my mom, I confirmed what I had thought and that is the toys I enjoyed at the age of four and five were my Cabbage Patch dolls and my Smurfs. My sister was 2 at the time and I enjoyed ‘playing house’ with her as well. A quote I found in an article I read by Rollins (2012) that comes to mind in reference to my play as a child, was one by Maria Montessori that states, “play is a child’s work.” Although I cannot recall the author or the whole poem right now, there is something I read once that discusses what takes place in the different learning areas in the room and how when a child says he played all day, he truly was in his mindset working and learning.

When I think about play now versus play when I was younger, I realize how much has changed. Today children are on computers, playing video games, or watching television. I have often heard people make reference to these things as babysitters for children instead of parents interacting with their children. When I was a child my television time was limited and I did not have a computer in my home until later. My sister and I played in our play room or outside in the yard as did the friends we had. The adults in my life would perform one of two tasks during play, participate along with me or watch. This tells me that my play was self-initiated and I directed the play experience (Berger, 2009). I would like to hope that in collaboration with the parents of the children I teach that my students would go back to play and spend less time with technologies. I would also like to hope that my classroom is child-centered and play is the most important element in my classroom. There are too many skills developed through play to go without play experiences. Children develop problem solving skills, fine motor and gross motor skills, social skills, and emotional skills just to name some (Almon, 2002). This summary of play leads me to the second quote among a list of quotes on play I found (Jeanneweier, 2012), it states “play is the beginning of knowledge (Dorsey, 2012).”

As I reflect on my own play experiences as a child and what I have come to the unfortunate realization of play today, my hope is to help advocate for more play opportunities both in the classroom and at home. The quotes that I used here represent what play should be now as much as it represents play for now.

Almon, K. (2002). The vital role of play in early childhood education. Gateways, 43. Retrieved from http://www.waldorflibrary.org/Journal_Articles/GW43almon.pdf

Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York

Publishers.

Jeanneweier (2012). 25 quotes about the importance of play. Retrieved from

http://move-with-me.com/blog/25-quotes-about-the-importance-of-play

Rollins, S. (2012). Theories About Play in Early Childhood Education | eHow.com retrieved from http://www.ehow.com/about_5444159_theories-play-early-childhood-education.html#ixzz211FMFNFR

Relationship Reflection

As I read the resources for this week and thought about this blog assignment, I had to stop and recall my own childhood as well as relationships I have in my life currently. I am still amazed at how revealing true reflection can be and how much more effective I am in my professional and personal life when I take time to reflect.

When I thought about the relationships I have, I could not help but thinking about relationships I have had in the past. While relationships today are reflective of the here and now, I believe relationships from the past can have an impact on the person we are today. There were quite a few people who were friends at the time that I would not even know now. On the other hand, I have people I was friends with in high school and youth group as a teen and young adult that I keep in contact with through facebook. In addition, what I found as I reflected is I had teachers I loved and hated to leave as well as teachers I had that I was not sure if I would survive their course. The teachers I loved were the ones who took the time to get to know me, not just as a student but personally. This was especially important when I was a junior in high school and lost my grandfather. A couple of my teachers were more concerned with my make up work than with how I was managing. While the ones I often think of still today were concerned about me and how I was coping with the loss. Prior to that I remember my fourth grade teacher who was used to teaching sixth grade and taught us on such a level, he often made me feel defeated with the work I could not seem to accurately complete; work given to fourth graders on a sixth grade level was not appropriate. These interactions are important reflections for me today as an educator. I want to be a teacher my students and their families remember for not only teaching their children but for taking the time to get to know the child as an individual person (likes, dislikes, family dynamic). I want my students to know that yes I am their teacher, they are with me to follow directions and learn new things, but what they did over the weekend or on a vacation interests me because it is important to them.

This brings me to my current relationships. My family has and always will have an important role in my life. They have helped make me who I am. They are there to offer guidance, support, advice, love, and care no matter what. Growing up my parents provided my needs and told me what to do, now they are in more of a supportive role since I am grown and no longer living at home. My sister and I growing up would often fight and argue, now we talk and spend time hanging out. One of my cousins is actually one of my best friends and her daughter will grow up to call me 'aunt.' Each member of my family in one way or another has had an impact on my life, some more positive than others.

After my family, would be the relationships with my co-workers. To have a positive working environment the relationships one has with his/her co-workers needs to be positive. What I have found with previous co-workers is that even if you do not care for the person, if you can be cordial the environment is more positive and conducive to learning. Additionally, I do have previous co-workers that I am still friends with, although not close we do keep in touch with each other. Presently, I have a couple of co-workers that I have closely bonded with and we share life happenings. This is important for me because sometimes there are things that happen at home that I do not always want to share with my family, but need someone to 'vent to' about it and those I am connected to at work have become friends to me because of it.

Finally, I would have to say my relationship with my boyfriend is one of importance in my life. We began as a long distance relationship for the first 3 months prior to my moving to NJ, then we hung out and spent actual time together for 8 months, then due to finances on both parts became roommates in addition to being a couple. Living with someone else is not easy. I have left and come back once. There are times when we do not agree, see eye to eye, have the same interests or desires, and sometimes fight. I have learned, and am still learning a lot about myself through this relationship. I am learning how to compromise on some issues, stand my ground on others, all the while sticking to who I am. This relationship is truly teaching me how to fight for those things that are important.

Relationships are important for all of us and different relationships have different impacts and meanings depending on the person. As educators, we need to understand that just as the students we teach are different so are their relationships and how they form them with others.