Taking The Time Out to Say Thank You!

Over the course of these 8 weeks, I have met a group of intelligent, sweet, caring, and most of all supportive people. I am thankful to have gotten to know each and every one of you. I enjoyed reading your blogs and discussion postings, and I appreciate all of the positive replies I’ve received from each and every one of you all. I pray that my responses to your blogs or discussion posting were helpful. I wish you all the best in your endeavors, and I pray that you take what you have learned in this course with you wherever you go just like me because this class has truly improve my communication skills personally and professionally. Until the next time we meet! Live, Laugh, Love :-) 

The Adjourning Phase

I had a part time job working for Victoria Secrets and love the job and the people there. So, when it was time for us to depart because the store was closing, I had a hard time letting. The experience I had there at that store brought about a lot of friendships, and I still miss those ladies till this day. The adjourning phase allowed me to reflect on our accomplishments and failures as a group, and I have come to realized that I wouldn’t mind working with that group of people again. We were a high performance group, and yes it was hard to leave them because we worked well together. Although, we all had different opinions about how the store should be ran; we still established a norm with one another because we had a clear understanding of everyone's viewpoint. During this stage, group roles also solidify, and leader emerges (O’Hair and Wiemann, 2009). We all wanted the store to perform well, and that was our primary goal. So, we all worked closely to make sure that our store was ranked in the top 10 across the nation. When it was time for use to close the store down, we decided to go out and celebrate our friendship with one another. Although, the store was closing, we felt that our friendship with one another should continue outside of Victoria Secret, so we keep in touch. Some time, some of us get together to reflect on all the good days we had at Victoria Secret.

Once I complete my courses, I find it to be hard to keep in contact with my colleagues from my previous class unless they join me in my next class. I think it would be a good idea to stay in contact with some of my colleagues because they have provided me with a lot of insight, when it pertains to the early childhood education. I believe adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because it allows people to reflect back, and decide whether or not if they want to continue working with the group they are involved with or move on to another group. I also believe that people should have the option to opt out of a group if it is not working out for them.

Reference

O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

What kind of Communicator am I?

This assignment was a little hard for me because I couldn’t get my results to come up, so I could read them. After talking to my best friend and my aunt, I found similarities between how I scored myself and how my best friend scored me. He said that I communicate very well with others, and I am an excellent listener. He also said, I don’t like talking in public, but I will if I have to. My aunt and I, on the other hand, had some differences between how I evaluated myself and how she evaluated me. She said her evaluation was based off of my involvement with my family. She said although I can communicate well within the family; I don’t always do so. She said if I would just voice my opinions more often than our family meetings will be less stressful for me at times. The thing that surprised me the most is how my aunt evaluated me because I thought I would have scored higher. I see now that isn’t always true because most people do communicate differently when they are with family than they do with their friends, colleagues, co-workers, etc. I also see that I have to voice my opinions more when I am around my family because my voice should be heard when the situation affects me. Although, this assignment was a rough for me because I didn’t get a chance to read my results, I stilled learned that people do see you differently then you see yourself. I’m glad I let my aunt do the survey because she has helped me to see something that I never noticed in myself. Hopefully, what I have learned this week will help me become a better communicator within my family and profession.

Communicating Differently with People from Different Groups and Cultures.

I have noticed that I communicate differently with people from different groups and cultures other than my own. I can remember my mom picking me up one day from school, and like any other parent, she asked me how my day went. As I was telling my mother how my day went my mother stopped me and said, “What are you talking like you are a white person.” I said, “How does a white person talk?” My mother said, “The way you are talking to me right now.” I said, “I just talking proper mother.” My mother said, “Well, you sound funny to me.” I said, “What did you expect when you decided to send me to a school where it is majority white.” I had a few African American friends, but the majority of my friends were white. At that time, I was in the fourth grade. Now, that I am older, I still find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures other than my own because around my family, when I talk proper, they think I am trying to act like I am a white person. So, I try to communicate with them in a way that makes them feel comfortable, but even then I revert to my old self because I find myself correcting them when they speak, I know that is wrong, but it bothers me when a person mispronounce a word. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family just the way they are, and I wouldn’t change them for the world. I even encourage them to go back to school, so they can make a better life for them and their family. I think it is working because my sister just told me that she just enrolled in nursing school so she can become an RN, and my brother is also talking about going to school now because he has a daughter he has to help raise. I am so proud of them, and I wish them the best in all their endeavors. I believe I communicate differently with people from different groups and cultures because it allows me to adopt to whatever environment I’m in, whether I’m talking to members of my family, my colleagues, church members, friends, or students.

Strategies that I can use to help me communicate more effectively with the people or groups I have identified are:

Family

·         Learning how to be open, affectionate, emotional and instrumental supportive, mind reading, being polite, discipline, having humor or sarcasm, having regular routine interaction, and structural stability (O’H air & Wiemann, p. 166, 2009).

Friends/Colleagues/Church Members/Students

·         Being available, caring, honest, trustworthy, loyal, and empathic. The extent to which you and your friends share these characteristics helps build the relational contest of your relationship (O’H air & Wiemann, p. 167, 2009).

·         Studies have also revealed that children who form successful friendships with others perform better academically and demonstrate fewer aggressive tendencies than those who do not (O’H air & Wiemann, p. 166, 2009).

Reference

O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2009). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Communication (Jessie on the Disney channel)

For this blog assignment, I chose to watch an episode called Jessie on the Disney channel. It was very interesting to try to figure out what the characters’ relationships were based on the ways in which they were communication. While watching the show without sound, it seemed like Jessie was care taker because she was the only adult around besides the butler. She was the one waking the children up in the morning and making sure they weren’t killing one another. There were four kids in the house, and they were all of a different race. For instance, there were two Caucasian one Indian child, and one African American child. They seemed to be related to one another because they lived in the same household and they were showing a lot of affection towards one another when something went wrong. Also, they all had their own private rooms and pets in the house.

As I was watching for feeling and expressing based on the nonverbal behavior, I saw that they children loved one another. They seemed to be very happy and cared for by Jessie the care taker. The children expressed anger when they were being irritated. For example, Robby was mad at Luke because they used his lizard as a bowling ball to knock down pins. His facial expression was not happy; he seemed to be very angry at Luke.

After watching the show with the sound on; my assumptions about the characters were right. For instance, Jessie was the children’s nanny, and they children had close relationship with one another because they were adopted, which made them brothers and sisters. That would explain why there were showing so much affection for one another.

I think my assumptions would have been more correct if I had been watching a show I knew then I would have known the characters a little more, and their relationship with one another. The more you watch a show the more you will know about the characters and why they act the way they do.

Reference

O’Connell, P. (Producer). (2011). Jessie [Television Series].  [With Debby Ryan, Peyton List, Cameron Boyce, Karan Brar, & Skai Jackson]. Los Angeles, CA: Hollywood Central Studios.

"Modeling Competent Communication Skills"

I thought long and hard about a person I admire the most who demonstrates excellent communication, and that person is my Godfather. My Godfather is full of wisdom, faith, love, determination, and charisma. He is the man that keeps me on my toes. He is that person that when he speaks everyone listens. He has this demeanor about himself that stands out over any person he come in contact with, which make him an effective communicator. I would love to pick his brain, so I can get a glimpse of his wondrous wisdom. Being around my Godfather just makes me want to be more like him. I try to model myself after him at times, and friends are always coming to me for help. I even had a friend say, “It’s just something about you. You have this Orr about you.” I believe that Orr comes from my dad because now I am more confident when I speak, and people want to hear what I have to say. So, yes I would love to model some of my own communication behaviors after my Godfather because it makes me a better person. Because of him, I am more responsible, independent, wiser, and my faith is stronger in Christ.

Professional Hopes and Goals

I have enjoyed collaborating with you all to make this class one of the best class ever for me. I would like to thank you all for your blog posting, and the response to my blog postings. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors here at Walden University. Live Laugh Love!

 The hope that I have for children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is for them to be able to connect with their peers, so they can feel a sense of welcome and trust. I hope to take what I have learned from this class, and continue to challenge myself to do better so I can better serve the children and families in my program. I want to go beyond the “culture surface” of the children and their families, so I can prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards their needs. Hopefully, this will help me move closer to my goal to become an anti-bias teacher.

Another goal that I have set for myself related to the issues of diversity, equity, and social justice in the early childhood field is to learn as much as I can about those issues, so I can find out the ways I can get involve so I can help children and their families. I want to become an advocate for young children and their families, so I can help those who can‘t help themselves. I want to run a private preschool, so I can help the low-income families who can’t afford the education they deserve. Dr. Derman-Sparks (Laureate, 2011) states we find these joys to be self evident that all children are created whole and endowed with extraordinary intelligence with dignity and wonder and worthy of respect; the embodiment of life, liberty, and happiness, every girl, and boy is entitled to love to dream and belong to a loving village and to pursue a life of purpose.

Reference

Laureate Inc. (2011). Diversity and equity work: Lessons learned (EDUC6164: Perspectives on Diversity and Equity ed.). MD: Walden University.

Welcoming Families From Around the World

The name of my family’s country of origin is India. I choose this India as my country because I wanted to know more about it. After reading about India, I have come to an understanding of how I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards my new family. For instance, I will be sensitive to their needs because moving to a different country where people might not understand your culture must be hard. I will be patience when it comes to communication because we have to be able to communicate with one another. I will also make them feel welcome by encouraging them to get involve with their child’s education, as well as, asking them for their input about the classroom environment. I will try to include some of their holidays, so they can feel somewhat at home, and so the other children can experience something new. I have learned over the last couple of years working with children that they learn so much just by experiencing and exploring different things. I want my children to learn about diversity, and in order for me to teach them, I must educate myself by staying current on the new information about diversity. Therefore, I will learn all I can about my new family and where they come from, so I can prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards their needs.

I hope that my preparations will benefit both me and the new family by drawing us closer. I want them to understand that I am here for them, and I want them to be able to trust me because building a strong relationship with your family can go a long way. All I want to do is give them an environment, where they can feel welcomed and loved because leaving behind your home and love ones is hard enough.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

This year I have come to the realization that my administration staff is bias towards the four year old teachers. At the end of the school year before graduation, the four year old hall is responsible for giving the children a spirit week. While planning for the spirit week, the administration staff started changing the way we did spirit week. They didn’t want us to watch movies, have a cook out, or water slides like the three year old did last year. When we would ask them why they couldn’t do those things, they would say we were doing too much, and we had to change everything we had planned for them. Now, do you know how frustrating that is for a teacher who has to plan for graduation, end of the year field trips, graduation parties, and finish a NAEYC book? It was a massive headache, and they weren’t going to make it easy for us.

I tried my best to ignore the other teachers when they would talk about the administrative staff, and how bad they were treating us, but it was hard. I just couldn't figure out why they were so hard on us, and why they would let the three year old hall do whatever they wanted to for graduation. At the end of the year, I had a talk with the principal about how the year ended. She said the reason she was so hard on the four year old side was because she couldn’t trust the majority of them. She said besides me, and my co-teacher, she couldn’t trust the rest of the group. So, that’s why we couldn’t do what we wanted to do for spirit week. I don’t think that was fair because the three year old hall gets to do what they want, and the four year old has to go through hell before we can do anything. I am a skilful teacher, and I don’t think it’s fair that my children and I have to suffer because my principal don’t like the teachers on the four year old hall. As, a professional, I think she needs to reexamine herself, and how she runs her program because bias towards individual teachers is not professional at all. She is not giving everyone an equal opportunity, which what a person in her position is suppose to do. If I were her, I would take more classing on professionalism, and learn how to operate a center without bias or prejudice because she is not going to gain any respect from her employees if she continues. Although, I love my job, I believe my administration staff needs some work on their leadership.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

Dr. Sue defines Microaggressions as:

·         Brief everyday indignities

·         May be verbal, behavioral, or environmental

·         Are communicated intentionally or unintentionally

·         Contains an insulting message

·         Often causes severe psychological stress and harm

 All of which I believe happened to my brother in this scenario.

When my brother was only 17 years old, my mother and I brought him 2006 dodge magnum with rims to match the car. It was his graduation gift. Since we brought him that car, he has been harassed several times by police. One day when a police officer, pulled my brother over and asked him, “How did you get a car like this? Are you selling drugs?” My brother replied, “No! My mom and my sister brought it for me for a graduation gift. Several times after that my brother was pulled over by the same police officers for the same reason. It had gotten to the point that they were making me angry because I knew who had brought the car, and I knew my brother was a good kid. My mother and I went to the police station to talk to the captain about the incidents that was happening to my brother. After talking to the captain about the harassment it stopped, but the damage of racial profiling stayed with my brother. He said, “They made me feel like he wasn’t supposed to have a car like that because he was young and black.” He also said, “They made me feel like I wasn’t anybody.” I believe my brother suffers from a severe psychological stress because till, this day he doesn’t trust any police officers. Most people who have authority, abuses it by mistreating people, and that's not right. Police officers are supposed to protect and serve us, not to harass and cause severe psychological stress and harm.

After that incident, with my brother, I only trust police officers as far as I can throw them, and that’s not very far. I do know that there are some exceptional police officers out there because I have friends who are one, but I also know that there are some prejudice ones out there, as well. My perception the effects of decimation and prejudice cause severe damage to those who experiences it. Most people don’t forget when events like that happen to them. I know my brother won’t and neither will I.

Reference

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2010). Microaggression in everyday life. [Video webcast]. Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

My participants answers to their definition of Culture and Diversity:

Ms. Thompson

Culture to me is beliefs, values, and traditions. I look at culture as a part of my heritage. It is something that I cherish, and it is something that I will pass down to my children because they need to know where their ancestors originated.

Diversity is a group of people who are grouped together by their ethnic background, gender, and language.

Ms. Taylor

I believe culture to be a survival tool for all human beings. Culture is something that helps people to understand where they come from, and who they are as an individual.

Diversity to me is not limited to just a person race, gender, or nationality; it can be use to describe a person individuality which a can separate them from a specific group.

Mr. Jones

Culture is something that you acquire from your up bring which separates one group from another group. My culture defines who I am as person. My traditions, beliefs, values, and behavioral patterns all come from my cultural background.

Diversity describes a particular group of people. For instance, it can define a person by, the way they look, talk, or by their religion.

Which aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied in this course are included in the answers I received and what are some examples?

 Each answer that I have gained from my participants has included several aspects of culture and diversity. For instance, they all believe that culture defines a person. They believe culture is a part of a person heritage that has to be passed down from generation to generation, in order for their younger generation to understand where they came from.

Which aspects have been omitted and what are some examples of such omission?

I believe the participants omitted the fact that culture can be lost. For example, when families leave their native land, their younger generation begins to lose connection with their older generation because their belief systems begins to fade away once they are introduced to other cultures beliefs and values. Also, the lost of someone’s culture can cause a person to have behavioral and emotional issues because they are being taking away from the only thing they believe in and know.

In what ways has thinking about other people’s definitions of culture and diversity influenced my own thinking about these topics?

I have learned that although, evey person has their own way of defining culture and diversity, they all have similar ideas of what they mean. For instance, after reading their answers, I figured out that their answers had a connection with one another. They all believed culture has something to do with their family heritage. Also, they believe that it is important to pass down their family’s tradition to their younger generation, so they would know where they ancestor’s came from.

My Family Culture

When I first read this week blog assignment, I thought it would be easy for me to choose three small items that I would take with me in an evacuation, but it wasn't. I had to think hard about what I would take with me because I never had the opportunity to do something like that. After many minutes of thinking long and hard about what I would take with me, I came up with these three small items, my bible, my wallet, and my grandmother’s red ruby diamond ring. The first item I chose was my bible; I chose that because his word will keep me grounded in any situation. The second item I chose was my wallet; I chose my wallet because it has all of my person information inside, as well as, photo’s of my friends and extended family members. The third item I chose was my grandmother’s red ruby diamond ring. I chose her ring because that was the first piece of jewelry she had ever given me. It may not be worth much, but it is priceless to me.

If, upon arrival, someone told me that I had to give up two of those items, I would give up the bible and the wallet. I chose those two items because my grandmother’s ring is priceless to me. For instance, I could find a bible anywhere, and I could reestablish myself anywhere I go, but I wouldn’t be able to get my grandmother’s ring back.

This week assignment was an eye opener for me because the majority of us live in the moment and not for tomorrow. At this point in my life, I can truthfully say that my grandmother’s ring would be the most valuable thing I would want with me because it reminds me of her and what she stands for. I believe my grandmother to be a true child of God who worships him even when things don’t go her way. She is my inspiration and I want nothing more but to be like her when I reach her age.

When I Think of Research...

During this course, I have learned that I do not want to do a research study because it’s too much stuff to learn and it’s all confusing to me. This class has taken me for a ride that I don’t ever want to take any more. I can say that I have learned a lot of new information from this class, but I don’t plan on doing an actual research study.

Planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood, takes a lot of time and patience. For instance, you have to decide what you want to do a research study on and you have to make sure that it is not personal. You have to design the research in a way that it is beneficial to the early childhood field, and you have to come up with questions, questionnaires, interview time, and observation time. Also, you have to conduct research in a professional manner, so the work that will be shown to other people will be accurate and valid. There is not enough time in my day to do anything like that.

There were some challenges that I encountered while working on my research stimulation. For instance, learning the material, doing my assignments right, trying to understand what my teacher wanted me to accomplish out of my assignments, and understanding this class period. I am not majoring in research; I’m an elementary school teacher, so give me a class about children, not about how to do a research study. Truthfully, I don’t think I accomplish any of my challenges, and I am not proud of that at all.

As a result of this course, my perceptions as an early childhood professional have not been modified because I don’t think I have learned what I am suppose to learn from this class. Honestly, I am glad that this class is over, and I can move on to my next adventure.

Thank all of you for your wonderful postings on my blog and discussion. I enjoyed reading your blogs and discussion posting. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

Research Around the World

While reading the Blog assignment for week 5, I have learned several things from the Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) website. To further develop African ECD leadership capacity as a key strategy in support of child, family and community well-being and broader social and economic development is the ideal goal of the Early Childhood Virtual University.

As I looked further into the research conducted by the students in Sub-Saharan Africa, I noticed that the majority of their current international research topics talked about how they could improve the development of young children in Africa. For instance, they wanted to increase children’s safety, development, father interaction, staff training, and program quality.

The surprising insight that I learned by exploring this international early childhood website was the fact that they are struggling with the same issues as America. No matter where you are in this world if it involves young children than you will nine times out ten deal with the same issues as other countries. Also, I learned that they use the Inclusive Quality Act Tool to measure the quality of early childhood services just like we do in American. I did not know that tool was being used all over the world.

Reference

Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): Developed and maintained by the University of Victoria, Canada, this virtual university is the international gateway for early childhood research worldwide. Through the link below, you can access ECDVU’s Sub-Saharan Africa portal. The second link takes you to a list of current early childhood research conducted by students in Sub-Saharan Africa.
http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/index.php
http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php

Research that Benefits Children and Families—Uplifting Stories

While reading articles about positive research, I came across this website http://childrenshospitalblog.org/stem-cell-research-a-fathers-story/ which talked about how stem cell research helped save a child’s life.

Andres Trevino is the father of Andy Trevino and he has a very personal take on the NIH’s recent stem cell guidelines. Here, he talks about his son Andy’s rare genetic condition, the daughter whose stem cells saved Andy’s life and the potential stem cells hold for curing other diseases (Children’s Hospital Boston, 2009).

Please take a look at this website, so you can see a positive example of research. Although, I am still undecided about research and its methods, I can say that this article has helped broaden my thoughts. I was happy to read about how the stem cell research was able to help save Andy’s life.

You can read the article at this website:
http://childrenshospitalblog.org/stem-cell-research-a-fathers-story/

Reference

Children’s Hospital Boston. (2009, July 7). Stem Cell Research: A Father's Story. [Blog message]. Retrieved March 16, 2012, from http://childrenshospitalblog.org/stem-cell-research-a-fathers-story/

My Personal Research Journey

I have chosen to do research on how to run a private Christian preschool. So far, I have been reading resources to inform on how to determine the difference between high-quality research and self-publish research. I can now tell the difference between the two. Those resources have become vital to my understanding of high-quality research. Another form of a method that has helped me in my growth to become a more confident user of research is the research chart. The research chart helps me to determine whether the articles or journals are published work of professionals. There are certain things that high-quality research article or journal should have, and this chart gives me things to look for, so I can determine if the article or journal is of high-quality. Although, I am starting to learn how to do my own research, and determine the difference between good and fake research, I am still a little scared.

So, if there is anything you guys could suggest that could help me with this process or this course? I would be glad to hear your feedback. This class is new to me, and if you have already done something like this in your previous course feel free to share your insight.

Here are some resources I found to help you understand research articles and journals:

Evaluating web pages. (2007). Duke University Library. Retrieved March 10, 2012, from http://library.duke.edu/services/instruction/libraryguide/evalwebpages.html

Locating and Evaluating Scholarly Articles. (2011). University of Maryland University College Library. Retrieved March 10, 2012, from http://www.umuc.edu/library/libhow/articles.cfm

Finald Blog Assignment

While getting to know my international contacts, I have learned several things about them and their country. For instance, what they do professionally, the issues and trends that their country suffers with when it comes to their educational system and the projects they are developing to reduce poverty in their country.

Getting to know someone can be fairly easy, but getting to know someone from another country can be a challenge. Once I established contact with my international professionals, I was very intrigued by their passion towards helping children. They helped show me that there are children all across this world that lacks the educational growth they deserve. They gave me websites to help strengthen my growth in learning about their poverty issues. They also helped me to see that having international contacts are not a bad thing. They have become a great asset to my professional growth.

Hopefully, we will keep in contact with one another after this course is over. I can use some international resources to help strengthen my growth. They seem to be very respectful, positive, and supportive when it comes to them helping me with my blog assignments. Those are the type of people I like have in my circle.

I would like to thank my international contacts as well as, my colleagues that I have gotten to know while taking this course. I have enjoyed getting to know you all. I wish you all the best in the future on all your endeavors. Good Luck!!!!!!

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

I haven’t heard back from either of my contacts yet, so I decided to tell you about some things that are going on in my life, and my hopes and dreams in life. Once I hear back from them, I will post their answers.

Quality is one of the main issues that we discuss in my work place. My principal wants to make our school one of the top preschools in Memphis. For instance, we are now working on our NAEYC book, so we can be NAEYC accredited. Becoming NAEYC accredited will help get our name out there and show people in our community that we are here for children and their families. I work in a community where we serve low-income families, and we are trying to provide the families and their children with most highly qualified preschool they deserve. As, for as professional growth, we have the opportunity to go back to school by using a system called TECTA. TECTA is a program here in Memphis Tennessee that will allow teachers to take up at least to classes per semester for free. All you have to do is take one of their 30 hr seminar, and they will start paying for your classes once you receive your certificate. Although, I have the certificate, it doesn’t help me because I can only use it for a school that is located and establish right here in Memphis Tennessee. Walden University is not located in Memphis, so I can’t use their money to pay for school.

Once I finish grad school, I plan on owning my one school right here in Memphis Tennessee, finishing up my teaching certification, and probably going back to school to get my Ed. D. I hope that one day I will complete all of my goals before I am 35. I am 28 now, so I have time. One of my challenges that might get in the way is starting a family. I don’t have any children right now, but I do want one. So, starting a family will be a challenge for me but I know I can do it because God said all I have to do is ask, and I shall receive.

Sharing Web Resources

While following other links that I haven’t explored yet, I found out some interesting things about the Step by Step Program Foundation. For instance, they are involved in a "Promoting Access to Quality Education and Desegregation of Roma" Project, which is similar to the discussion we are talking about this week in my class. Here, is some information about the project and its goals.

In 2001 the Education Program Area carried out “The Roma Schools in Bulgaria” research. Its findings showed and confirmed the data of some previous research on the nationwide phenomenon of Roma dropouts as a result of interrelated economic, social and educational reasons. This research points to the educational stages, which are critical for Roma children according to the dropout rate.

Based on the above mentioned the current situation and needs, and considering the results of all projects and the expertise in this area, the Open Society Foundation – Sofia developed an integrated project, whose aim is to promote the provision of equal opportunities to children and youth of Roma origin in the entire education process and to increase their access to high quality education (from nursery to secondary education).

The project objectives focus on retaining the children at school and providing quality education and adequate preparation for social realization through:

• Improving the desegregation policy at a municipal level in connection with the integration of Roma children in mixed schools;
• Supporting the process of integration through attracting, including and successfully retaining Roma children at school hence increasing the opportunity for their passing to higher educational levels;
• Involving dropouts and children not covered by the educational system through strategies like community based programs and improving the receiving schools, where the children will be integrated;
• Supporting Roma children to continue their education through increasing the number of Roma children enrolled in mixed schools and improving their school performance.

This project proposal aims to implement these objectives through a new, integrated approach applied to the educational chain as a whole and involving all participants in the education process. This approach involves comprehensive partnership activities designed to improve the quality of education through teacher training, community development, school improvement and effective use of resources. These activities and trainings within programs as Education for Social Justice, Step by Step, Reading and Writing Critical Thinking, Health and Woman Programs under the School Improvement Initiative umbrella create opportunities for equal access to quality education for Roma children. In that sense, this is a pilot project not only for OSF – Sofia but also for the country.

Also, in the context of the Framework Program (FP), the project seeks to enhance schooling of children at educational institutions and encourage them to pass to higher levels of education. This is achieved through helping them leave “Roma” preschools and schools and enroll in mixed institutions. Again in the context of the FP that foresees measures against racism in the classroom, the project envisages teacher and parent training for overcoming biases.

This website contributed to my understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education. For instance, it showed me that no matter where you live in this world, everybody goes through the same thing one way or the other. Also, there are people out there who do care and wants to help individual succeed no matter their cultural differences.

Reference

Step By Step Program. (2001). Step By Step Program – Bulgaria. "Promoting Access to Quality Education and Desegregation of Roma" Project. Retrieved February 10, 2012, from http://www.stepbystep-bg.org/display.php?page=project3

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

According to my international contact Emil, the European countries have been largely successful in maintaining public pre-primary education for 3-6s, with high enrolment rates. Yet, the quality and outreach of these services could, in many instances, be greatly improved. Nations vary in the extent to which they view the quality of national early education services as a critical responsibility to be supported by adequate funding, research, quality initiatives and the continued training of educators. In purely economic/educational terms, the return on investments in young children is potentially great. Such returns are foregone when societies do not provide comprehensive supports to families with young children and, in particular, fail to ensure a good start in life for excluded children.

The additional information about issues of equity and excellence that I acquired from my international sources was teacher-guided and collaborative playful learning interactions with relevant content (e.g. emergent academic language, literacy, numeracy, science, citizenship) is particularly promising in this regard, avoiding two often observed but much less adequate approaches in early childhood care and education: the ‘drill and kill’ approach, when the contents and learning formats of primary school are simply copied, and the ‘laisser faire’ approach, when the curriculum predominantly consists of free activities without teacher guidance.

Reference

Emil (personal communication, February 1, 2012) noted her personal experience with Issues related to excellence and equity in the early childhood field.

Sharing Web Resources

While looking at the Step by Step Foundation website, I saw that they had an e-newsletter.  As I look through some of their e-newsletter, I saw that they had an e-newsletter that talk about the well-being of children. The ISSA had launched an Online Databases of Human, Technical, and Institutional ECDE Resources in the CEE/CIS Region, the result of a partnership project between ISSA and UNICEF. The Databases provide rich information about policies, resources, and initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS), which guarantee and promote the rights of young children. In addition to providing details with respect to human, technical, and institutional resources in 26 countries of the region, these Databases also include information on relevant policies and legislative frameworks, as well as information on whether these resources are involved in or prepared for disaster risk reduction and emergency response.

The address of the website is www.issa.nl/issadatabases.html. User login name: issadatabases@issa.hu
Password: user01.

 ISSA Newsletter states across the region, a great deal needs to be done both in terms of designing comprehensive early childhood strategies and of ensuring their effective implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. This statement along is what made me think differently about the mindset of the economists, neurologist, and the politicians.  Are they really looking out for our children, or are they just trying to save money?

The e-newsletter helped me to understand my question that I mention earlier. According to ISSA Newsletter, ISSA and UNICEF welcome the fact that more and more development partners and governments in the region are beginning to pay closer attention to holistic policies and programs for young children. Therefore, greater attention is being directed to child poverty and its implications for the young, as well as the uniquely intertwined health, development, and protection needs of infants and young children (ISSA, 2010).

The e-newsletter helped broaden my thinking by showing me that these databases are intended to be a critical source of information to address this gap and to enable efforts to promote coordination and cooperation among key ECD players.

Reference

Izsak, E. (2010, Summer). ISSA and UNICEF Launch Databases of Early Childhood Development and Education Human, Technical, and Institutional Resources in CEE/CIS Region. Retrieved January 28, 2012, from http://www.issa.nl/newsletter/10/summer/topic2.html

Getting to Know Your International Contacts Part 1

For this assignment, I had to ask my partners that I had established contact with from the Step by Step Program Foundation to help me understand the issues of poverty they encounter in their professional lives, as well as, those they are concerned about throughout the world. One of them replied to me saying, “I am sending you link of the UNICEF study from 2009 where you can find some data about poverty, non-employment and children's well being. She also said, “On UNICEF site, you can find some other studies. The name of this contact is Suzana Kiradziska, and she is the Executive Director for the Foundation for Educational and Cultural Initiatives, "Step by Step" Macedonia.

I went to the UNICEF website and read about the Well-being of children and young people in difficult economic times. I found out that “the main objective of the study was to identify and analyze the effects of the difficult economic times and the current economic crisis on the well-being of children and young people throughout the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.” Also, the study was done to see how many families were most at risk in the difficult economic times.

Since I have establish contact with my two international partners, I have learned that it is better to have more than one contact to collaborate with because sometimes you may only get one responds to your question. For instance, I emailed both of my contacts and only one emailed back in time to write my blog assignment. I have also, learned about the economic crisis that they are facing in Macedonia. For example, “In countries already undergoing difficult economic times, such as the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the global financial crisis exacerbated pre-existing problems such as limited foreign investment and high rates of unemployment and poverty, all of which contribute to extreme levels of social insecurity (Gerovska, 2010).

Reading about the poverty issues in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia has given me new insight on an international level of economic crisis. Poverty is everywhere, and it is affecting our children, families, and educational growth. There has to be something that can be done about our financial and economic crisis all over the world. I believe if you start in your own home than you would be able to help others around the world. But you must take care of home first.

Reference

Gerovska (personal communication, January 20, 2012) noted her personal experience understanding about the specific issues of poverty she encountered in her professional life, as well as, those she are concerned about throughout the world.

Gerovska-Mitev, M. (2010). The Well-Being of Children and Young People in Difficult Economic Times. Retrieved January 21, 2012, from http://www.unicef.org/tfyrmacedonia/STUDIJA_ENG_Final%281%29.pdf

Sharing Web Resources

For this blog assignment, I selected Bulgaria Step By Step Program Foundation as my international website. As for my contact person with the program, I have established contact with Emil Buzov. Emil answered my email asking me what she can do to help me with my blog assignment. Emil is a faculty teacher preparing future students in UNI. She also is an executive director of education NGO. She seemed eager to help me learn more about initiatives and policies of her organization. I am grateful that she answered my email.

Assoc. Prof. Emil Buzov, Ph.D - Executive director

доц. д-р Емил Бузов - Изпълнителен директор

 Step by Step Program Foundation

Bulgaria, Sofia - 1000, str. "Bacho Kiro " 14,

office phones: 00 359 9804942 or 00 359 9805712 or cell phone: 00 359 888 215779

www.stepbystep-bg.org,

emil.step@bitex.com

International Step By Step Association

http://www.issa.nl/network/bulgaria/bulgaria.html

Step by Step Program Foundation/Bulgaria is a non-governmental organization working in the field of the Bulgarian education since 1994.

                   

Vision

Quality education for the XXI century

Mission

As an educational model, the Step by Step Program - Bulgaria spreads ideas concerning the implementation of the following activities through using democratic principles for education:

• Offering educational technologies and strategies connected with interactive teaching methods and organization of the school environment;
• Monitoring, evaluation and research of educational projects;
• Developing specific projects in the field of permanent education as well as training and re-training teachers.

Connected to this, the Step by Step Program Foundation conducts the following projects:

• Infant and Toddler Groups Project
• Preschool Project
• Primary School Project
• Higher Education Project
• Children with Special Educational Needs Project
• Boards of School Trustees Project
• Municipality - Model Site Project
• Special Schools Project

The things that caught my attention about their website was they conduct a lot of projects. They seem to cover a lot of educational ground from infant through higher education to children with special needs to special schools projects. They also invest in re-training their teachers to better their academic skills. I believe that is a brilliant idea because in order to produce successful children, they must have well qualified teachers to teach them. I also believe that if more programs invest in their teacher’s education, then they will be able to prevent a lot of the issues that they have with their children developmental growth. 

Reference

Buzov, E. (2010). Step by Step Program Foundation Bulgaria. Retrieved January 14, 2012, from http://www.issa.nl/network/bulgaria/bulgaria.html

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I have been trying to locate and contact two early childhood professionals outside of the United States. I have emailed two early childhood professionals, asking them to help me with my blog assignment for my early childhood class. I am still awaiting their reply to my email. If they don’t respond back by Monday of next week, I will try to locate two more early childhood professionals somewhere else before I try the alternative assignment for Part 1. I choose those two organizations because I wanted to learn more about their country, and how their early childhood education systems work. I decided to study The Global Alliance of NAEYC because they had several countries that I wanted to explore and learn. I tried contacting Mr. Erica Atmore at the National Early Childhood Development Alliance, and I also tried contacting Emil Buzov at Step by Step Program Foundation Bulgaria. I hope they will contact me back, so I can start my journey of understanding their perspectives on some of the issues and trends explored in this course. Hopefully, you all have stated your journey as well because it doesn’t seem too easy to find contacts on the other side of the world. If you have made any contacts, please inform me on who I can contact, so I can get this show on the road.