Establishing Professional Contacts

Blog Assignment Part 1: Establishing Professional Contacts

For this research project we were encourage reach out to a list of educators, however many of the email address were invaded or the educator did not respond. So I will be using the recommended alternative blog assignment. The Global Fund for Children (GFC) is addressing education in a new way in some of the poorest communities around the world. GFC has designed an organization that everyone can get involved with. GFC  “… find[s] and invest in grassroots organizations that enable the most vulnerable children in their communities to thrive. Our strategic support helps our grantees achieve their vision, become sustainable, and reach even more children in need.”

Children do not have an option to choose where they live, however, if they have a chance to be educated and mentored they can change their future. One of the most vital keys to the organization being successful, is the communication that flows through out website, employees and volunteers. I listened to the podcast How Social Media Has Changed Donor Behavior, and What Your Organization Can Do About It. The presenters Julie Dixon and Denise Keyes of Georgetown’s Center for Social Impact Communication, focus on rising funding through the Vortex method. The focusing on the need of the people, the donors need to understand the environment which needs attending, to help the donor to understand how their funds can help make an impact.

The strength of commitment is import not only for the donor, but through relationships. The power of giving should be shared with others and the successful share through media clips and monthly newsletters with call for action. By focusing on the activities that individuals can be involved with allows donors to get involve in a way that fits them best. By using social networks to have a strong harvest communication in the organization, empower the community and helps the story of the organization to be constant and strong.

Tips for Part 2, Expanding Resources

The two website I will be exploring are Zero To Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families and Pre[K]Now: A Campaign of the Pew Center on the States. I choose these two site for different reasons, but one of the main reasons I choose them was because I wanted to learn more about how to help parents and community member information that can make a change in their homes and in their individual children’s lives.

The Zero to Three site focuses on “ZERO TO THREE is a national, nonprofit organization that provides parents, professionals and policymakers the knowledge and know-how to nurture early development.” Whereas the Pre[K]Now focuses on how “State lawmakers play a major role in advancing the quality of Americans’ lives, from helping to protect the air we breathe and water we drink, to educating our children.” (Pre[K]Now).Although they seem similar they are going to give me new perspectives on how to help parents be aware how to help children have a health start in life and help child and parents who may have not.

My Supports!!!

      

My Supports (wk6)

My fiancé and daughter are my true supports. They are my source of enjoyment, entertainment, and companionship. My daughter helps me with chores around the house. My fiancé' whom is my best friend helps me with the yard work and repairs, he typically grills us dinner.  He also helps pay the bill1s.  I constantly have a honey-do list for him. We have been together for 9 years, and without him, I really don’t know what I’d do.

My other supports are my phone, which allows me to keep in contact with my family, and friends. It is also is my camera and my alarm clock. My car gets me wherever I need to go, and my computer helps me to keep up with family, friends, school, advertise, etc. I am very grateful to have been born into these times with things like washers and dryers, dishwashers, baths/showers, and curling irons!

 I have chosen the challenge of being deaf, because my father has hearing aids for damage suffered in the military.

The deaf culture is fairly isolated. It is a smaller community that bonds strongly.  I would need the support from my family if I were deaf. Raising my daughter if I were deaf would have been more challenging, because I wouldn’t hear them cry, or speak, or cry out if in trouble. They sell products to the deaf community, such as flashing lights for cars that lets them know if there are emergency sirens, for example. There are flashing lights for phones and for smoke detectors. There are beds sold that vibrate and flash for an alarm. I would not be able to enjoy movies except when they have ones with close captioning, and then only at the limited times when that service is provided.  They have interpreters for phone calls, in church services, and even at concerts. I think that being able to text has to be one of the best technological inventions for both the hearing and the deaf.  There are cochlear implants, but many in the deaf culture are against them for various reasons. These supports such as texting, flashing lights, and close captioning are ones that I benefit from even though I can hear.
It is very difficult for the deaf to communicate with the speaking population, because those who can read lips only are able to understand a small percentage of the words, and not very many speaking people can use sign language. Not very many hearing people take the initiate to try and communicate with the deaf.

 

Some in the deaf culture are for public school inclusion and some are against. There are interesting arguments both for and against printed on this page: http://www.zak.co.il/d/deaf-info/old/inclusion. One letter includes a very interesting but sad description from the point of an interpreter: the student she signs to has no one to communicate with but her.  Another letter states the belief that inclusion hides bad teachers.
The only real benefits to being deaf that I can imagine are that it would be peaceful and quiet.  I would not hear the irritating noises like barking dogs in the night, airplanes, horns blaring, snoring, whining, or angry people arguing.

My Connections to Play

These quotes speak of my childhood. As a child, play was my life. It was what I did all day. It was fun and I enjoyed doing it. My sister and I are very close in age. There are 2 years between us. We were always playing with each other, making up games, playing board games, running around, and pretending. Our job was to play.

Our parents encouraged play every day. I remember being outside for hours on end. Both our mom and dad played with us. They encouraged us to use our imagination. They provided us places inside and outside of the house to play. Our front yard was the place to play. All our cousins would always play in our yard since we all lived on the same street. We didn’t need much to have fun.
We would turn our yard into many different kinds of adventures-  doctor’s office, school, ice cream shop, stores, or a race track to name a few. My sister and I would bring our cabbage patch dolls to join in the fun. Our dolls were our children, and students. We were the parents and the teachers or  whatever we thought of at that moment.

A couple of the toys that come to mind when I was a child that I played with all the time were Barbie's and cabbage patch dolls. I would play with these all day.

Today’s play is much different than my own that I experience. I see less children playing outside. I see and hear more of children playing video games, watching television, or using some other electronic devices. Many of these electronic devices are learning centered. I see fewer children having the freedom to just play and enjoy.

　
　
               My Relationships

　

　
　
　
　
　

This week as we reflect on relationships and their importance we were asked to reflect on our personal relationships. Relationships are important to me because they make life fun!!! In the pictures I uploaded are the two most important relationships in my life: my heart, my soul, and my motivation. My fiance' is my best friend and soul mate for life. I wish my mom was still here to share as we had the best relationship before her death in 2008.

My Fiance makes me laugh, smile,and full of love!!!! My daughter is my heart! She inspires me and challenges me in ways that no one else or thing can. Finally, my love for Jesus and my relationship with him is my purpose in life. These are just a few of the relationships that I maintain that makes my life even on its worst day, better. These relationships define who I am.

These relationships require maintenance and development. For example, my fiance' and I have been together for 8 years. We got together at a very young and have endured a lot together. It took time and real love to grow to the place we are in now. Our relationship is positive because we love each other, we care about each other, and we want each other to be happy. We both try to do the right thing , we try to fix mistakes, and we try to forgive.

In regards to the relationship with my daughter I have to approach that relationship in a totally different manner. I try to encourage her , show her , teach her , and be there for her. In return my daughter gives me back honesty, unconditional love, and perspective. I try to make sure our relationship is positive because I know the importance of a mother’s love but I also know I am not perfect.

Over time I have learned that you have to find out what is necessary to maintain a relationship based on the individual needs. For example, different people require different things and you have to be open and understanding to that. In other words, treat people how you want to be treated, based on their individual needs. It takes work and a one sided friend is not a friend. What can turn a good relationship into a partnership is the ups and downs of the relationship. For example, when you have a relationship where you can be yourself, where respect is given and received, as well as when you have a good chemistry you have the makings of a great partnerships.


I can take my experiences in my past relationships and use them in building positive relationships with my staff, coworkers, parents and students. I think the same characteristics that it takes to cultivate a relationship in my personal life will work to develop relationships in my career. I also believe when working in early childhood education it is even more important to cultivate family like relationships because you are a big extended family.

Young children that attend early childhood programs every day see their teachers and school as their family and I want them to have positive family relationships. I have even noticed over the years that my parents can be just as needy as my students when it comes to needing friends and positive relationships. I believe in our society now due to facebook, cellphones, and email we are a little disconnected from actual face to face contact. I welcome the relationships and friendships because that is beginning of how trust can be developed and it is very important for people to trust you when you are dealing with their children. I believe a key attribute of a successful early childhood professional is their ability to foster and cultivate positive relationships.

When I Think Of Child Development

The quote I selected is “As in the focus of a magnifying glass, play contains all developmental tendencies in a condensed form and is itself a major source of development.” By Lev Vygotsky, Mind in Society.

Vygotsky recognized the value of play as a tool for learning and development for the children.  According to Vygotsky, “the influence of play on a child's development is enormous”. Children satisfy certain needs during play and it is essential for us to understand the characteristics of these needs.  In play, children create an imaginary situation with rules of behavior.  He believed that children should be given opportunities to play in order for each child to develop his/her imagination and conceptual abilities.  (Vygotsky, 1978)

He also argued that play leads to development through culturally planned activities. Play begins as recollections and reenactments of real situations but through their imagination, children achieve an elementary mastery of abstract thought. The development of social rules and language skills are consciously acquired through play too.

Children in pretend play show more about what the already know and can do than they do in any other activity. (Sandra Schmit, The developing child in 21^st century).  Play can also help to create the zone of proximal development.

References

Vygotsky, L. (1978). The Role of Play in Development (pp. 92-104). In Mind in Society. (Trans.

M. Cole). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

 The Developing child in the 21^st Century by Sandra Smidt, Routledge

Note of thank you

I would like to give my sincere thanks to my fellow classmates in group one for their comments given and information/knowledge sharing with us. In fact, I would like to thank you for everyone for the continuous hard work and submitting their work on time so that we can give our comments and review.
Of course, most important of all, I would like to thank you Dr. Nagel for her support, detailed information and references provided. She also corrected our work by also providing additional information or references and explanation so that we can understand better. Her dedication to Early Childhood and her dedication to us as students are much appreciated.

Testing for intelligence

To learn at their best, students must be engaged and motivated. Substantial research shows that students who feel both valued by adults and a part of their schools perform better academically and also have more positive social attitudes, values, and behavior. Plus, they are less likely to engage in drug use, violence, or sexual activity. After-school programs can promote academic achievement, but their success requires targeted investment, stakeholder commitments, focused academic support, quality programming, and a process of continual improvement.
Schools and communities committed to educating the whole child engage students in the learning process and provide opportunities that connect them to the community. Students who are engaged and connected to their schools demonstrate increased academic achievement, attendance rates, and participation in activities.
Ensuring that each student is healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged requires us to continually ask questions and examine evidence related to implementation. ASCD’s indicators of a whole child approach provide a guide for continual school and community improvement and serve as a definition of what a whole child approach to education truly requires.
Pupils at Italian schools are tested on average about one test per subject per term, which goes towards the continual assessment of their performance, but does not count all that much. But for serious, GCSE-type, make-or-break exams, from the age of 13 to 18 Italian students enjoy a long exam holiday, all the way up to the maturita exam which they take at the end of liceo, the senior schools in the Italian system. On the other hand, the continual assessments can be rigorous, and if students at the top high schools score less than six out of 10 in two or more subjects they run a serious risk of having to take the year again.
References:
http://www.wholechildeducation.org/

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Throughout the first ten, critical years of a child’s life, the attention that children receive from their parents affect them for the rest of their lives during these years. In the case of a child who was raised in a stable, secure home, for the rest of their lives, they will find that they naturally gravitate towards successful choices in their marriage, social life and career.
My best friend in high was sexually abused by her stepfather. I remember when she started homeschooling. I was so upset. I was too little to understand what was really going on with her. I remember going home crying for hours. However, it was just a few months that I found out why she started homeschool. He took her out of the public school system so that he was able to sexually assault her even more. She messaged me on social media the other day and told me everything that happened to her and how important our friendship was to her and that I only the person in school at the time she could really trust and I did not laugh at her. I realized you never know how much you can really mean to someone just by being kind and showing love. I never would have thought this was going on with her. Her mother was the sweetest person. She told me that she still have anxiety and nervous problems. I remember her having a speech problems when we were in school and students laugh at her. It is so true that a child’s early home environment has a profound effect on his well-being. Beginning in infancy, a problematic home environment can disrupt the brain’s stress response system, reduce the quality of caregiving a child receives, and interfere with healthy development.

                                      Family Value(s) in China

Chinese family values have undergone many changes. There are some aspects of the Chinese culture that are still the same. For instance the father is still the maintainer, provider and protector of the family. He may still have a final say in the important matters concerning his children but no longer does the man of the house enjoy absolute control over his family members. The children of today’s Chinese family are more or less free to choose the career they want to pursue but are required to consult their elders for advice.
When it comes to marriage we find the Chinese to have an elaborate wedding celebration culture. The wedding events include many ritualistic practices. Although they have been toned down over the years they have been retained to a certain degree because they are meant to honor the institution of family.
he father of the house is also responsible for housing and educating his children up until the time of their marriage. Once married the children move into their own homes. Traditionally married couples would also stay with the parents of the groom for a short while before moving out into their own homes.
A unique phenomenon of the Chinese family is the one child policy that has been enforced by law in the country. This policy was introduced as a means of controlling the rapidly growing population and to control the draining of the country’s natural resources.
In the rural areas the families are given some exceptions especially if their first born is not a boy. The one child policy geared towards controlling the population outburst has had widespread effects on the marital relations between couples along with the status and prospects for women in society.


References:


Berger, K. S. (2016). The developing person through childhood (7th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

 "The First Two Years: Cognitive Development"

Globerove. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28, 2016, from http://globerove.com/