Sharing web resources- week 6

I followed a link that was called The Early Head Start National Resource Center.  The first topic I noticed was about infants and toddlers and biting.  My students are not infants and toddlers but I have three biters.  This particular area took me to an online lesson that provided information regarding biting and what to do about it.   

The newsletter I received this week,  from zero to three,  focused on little kids and big questions and gave a link to online parenting podcasts. I decided to listen to one about the influence of media on young children.  I struggle with the amount of TV or computer time children are exposed to.  Ellen Wartella talks about that there is educational media and that babies are engaged with media.  She stresses how you can pick media that is appropriate for all age groups and how to be cautious about selecting media. 

https://s3.amazonaws.com/zttpodcastseries/podcast/Ellen%20Wartella%20FINAL.mp3?s_src=podcast&s_subsrc=media 

New insights that I learned from the newsletter is that zero to three has made a contract with the National Center on Professional Development Systems and Workforce Initiatives.  Their goal is to help develop comprehensive professional development system. I think this falls into place with equity and excellence because early childhood programs that use zero to three may look to this as an important part of the staff development of early childhood educators.





 

Part 2... Podcast and Harvard's "Global Children's Initiative"

After looking over several podcast from the World Forum website I came across TJ Skalski, who the principal of the Mother Earth's Children's Charter School in Alberta, Canada, which is the only Charter school that has a focus on the indigenous people. It was interesting to listen to her speak about how the MECCS has evolved over the last several years.  When Skalski became principal she was the 5th one who had come in 5 years.  She discusses that when she arrived that children were missing strong work ethic, they were damaged, wounded, hungry, depressed and were feeling like they had no worth.  Her goal was to give them hope, build their dreams and inspire them to do something with their lives. 

Skalski, T. (Performer). (2010, April 16). Tj skalski [Audio podcast]. World Forum Radio. Retrieved from http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio


Reviewing the "Global Children's Initiative Fact Sheet" was very interesting.  Three insights:
1) Mental health is under-addressed.  There are significant implications for the broader heath and development of children and societies urgent need to identify how big this issue really is getting.  Their goal is to identify the problem and develop appropriate ways to meet the needs of children and their diverse cultures they come from.
2) Another goal of the "Global Children's Initiative" is to use science-based and a developmental perspective to work with children who are in crisis and conflict situations. 
3) Lastly, there is a push to educate people in leadership positions internationally about the investments of the earliest years in life.

Global children's initiative. (2011). Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/

Looking a little deeper... zero to three

•  A specific section that really has stuck out for me is the mental health section under the behavior and development tab.  Currently, I have three students who are currently under evaluation for mental health issues.  It is something that I have not dealt with and I am trying to do my best to help them through their day.  It has proven to be challenging to help them each individually and to use strategies that are very beneficial for them.  They are all very different children, but they share the same common characteristic of violent outburst.  I would highly recommend looking through some of the articles. 

I read an article from the website called, getting ready for school begins at birth. The article gives great ideas on what to do with your child, but it does use the term "school readiness." I have grown not to love this term because all kids are ready for school, they may not have certain skill sets, but will be coming to school regardless if they are ready.  To me, the term feels like you have to be 'ready' in order to attend school.  However, besides the term the article offers great ideas for parents, one that would be very beneficial to handout to parents to help in all academic areas and social/emotional development.   I wonder if a different terminology would be more appropriate?

I searched for neuroscience on the website and I was linked to a podcast called, Early childhood development and public policy: closing the gap between what we know and what we do.  It talked about closing the achievement gap here in America and how research as proven time and time again that a early start helps children who at risk tremendously in the future. This issue I think is really important when we are considering issues and trends in early childhood.  We see it all the time the achievement gap when children are in elementary school and we see children from low-socioeconomic backgrounds being referred to special education services.  This falls into education reform and working from the bottom up, instead like Dr. Grace mentions this week working from the top down.  We must start with our youngest learners!

Link to podcast  

Professional Contact... slow to respond, going with podcast

Since I last posted I have established 3 professional contacts.  They agreed to work with me and answer questions, however I have yet to hear back from them after are initial e-mail.  So with that being said, I am on to the podcasts.

I went to World Forum Radio and clicked on the most resent podcast which was dated 2/10/11.  I am glad that I clicked on it because I was immediately hooked.  Susan Lyon, the speaker of this particular podcast, got her start in the education world while working with children with special needs.  She told a story of working with a little boy who was trying to read the word "city" and once she told him what it was he said "such a small word for such a big place."  This was her "ah-ha" moment, she was able to see the window to children's mind and wanted to learn more about how they see/understand the world.  She became interested in the Reggio Emilia approach, as she thought it was progressives.  She was so inspired that she started the Innovated Teacher Project (http://www.innovativeteacherproject.org/) in San Francisco. She wanted to see quality work happen in the public sector. The Reggio Emilia Approach was the foundation of pilot project for the San Francisco Unified School District.  There was a focus on the Reggio approach as well as professional development and teacher research. Teachers spent time observing and listening to children and documenting their work.  It was not just teacher collaboration but community collaboration that made it such a success.

I enjoy finding out new organization that have found success in what they have sought out to do.  It is uplifting to see that our thoughts and ideas can happen. 

www.innovativeteacherproject.org

Zero to Three

I chose to look at the nonprofit organization Zero to Three because I wanted to learn more about the organization. Also, because I am a high needs special education teacher for kindergarten and first grade, about have my students cognitively are at a 9 month-3 years age range.  I feel like this website might give me more insight to brain development and more developmentally appropriate activities for some of my students.

http://www.zerotothree.org/

Zero to Three strives to promote healthy development for infants and toddlers.  Their mission is to provide parents, policymakers and professionals with the training and support they need to help improve the lives of our youngest learners.

Check out the video on the front page of the website.  One person in the video I would like to highlight is Richard Atlas, the founder of Atlas Family Foundation.  He use to be a partner for Goldman Sachs and states, "... it became very evident and very early on that the highest return in investment is investing in very young children."  It was nice to see that a non-educational person it is able to see the value in our youngest children. 

One issue/trend that is being promoted was the how important play is to a child's development.  The website provides parents with information on how to play with their child and why play is so important.  http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/play/make-the-most-of-playtime.html

Another highlight of the website is the download of the week.  It offers something educators could give to parents or educators can use for themselves. This week is healthy food development.  It is on the right hand side of the main page. 

Looking abroad... finding a professional contact

Finding a professional contact in another country seems to be more difficult than I thought.  I have e-mailed over 10 people with different organizations and counties.  I used the Global Alliance and UNICEF websites.  I have not made any contacts yet, but feel I might be able to find something in a week or two.  Dr. Dartt also gave me some names of other contacts I might be able to make.  I have also e-mailed professors from my undergraduate degree to see if they might be able to lead me in a certain direction.


I really like the idea of this assignment and I hope that I am able to make some contacts to learn more about early childhood in other countries and more specifically special education.  When I was in my undergraduate I worked with a professor to learn more about special education preschool services in India.  I choose other Asian countries so that I could try and compare. 

I will be looking at the zero to three organization.  I picked this organization because I have used it before and after talking with my mother, who is a birth to five pre-school coordinator, she recommended that I could get a lot out of this site.

http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/

My Supports

Since I am on summer break and only teaching extended school year two days a week my supports look a little different.  My alarm clock is less fequently used (and that makes me happy) and I use my car less, which are huge supports during the school year. 

My biggest support each day is my boyfriend and dog.  My boyfriend, Blake, provides me with the emotional support that I need each and every day.  He always has is listening ears and is willing to listen to my venting while I try and figure out what to do at school or how to handle a particular behavior.  I know that he doesn't understand everything that I talk about, but he does pretend rather well.  My other daily support is my dog, he is my unconditional love and even when I feel lonely I have him and I can always walk with him or take him to the park, which gives me something to do. 

Other supports that I need are a computer (with internet), my phone so I can talk with family and friends.  I also use lists to make sure I accomplish everything I need to get done. I also write all the directions down for our class because it helps me understand the questions being asked better (even though it is time consuming). 

If I didn't have these things I think that I would be lonely with out my boys and it would be vary hard to complete a online graduate degree without a computer and internet.  I would have to reevaluate how I would get my masters.

Hypothetical situation:
My computer broke during my graduate program.  My computer is my lifeline to my graduate classes and if it broke I would have to get very creative.  It would be difficult to feel like I could exist without a computer to complete all my school work (but I do know that I would be just fine).  If it did break other supports would come into place, I would use the public library more frequently and probably stay at work longer to work on school work. I would be a benefit to have each of these supports. The obstacles would be I would have to budget my time better, especially in the school year.  It would be more inconvenient but manageable.