Time for a Short Brain Break! As this course comes to an end.

I just wanted to set some time aside to send my professional thanks to all of my colleagues. I greatly appreciate all of the shared efforts, personal insights, stories, and positive comments throughout this course. I also want to thank each one of you who found interest in the course assignments including discussion and featured blog posts that I posted. I found other colleagues post rather exciting than to read my own. And to Dr. Longo thank you for positively guiding this course with your positive feedback and your help with clarifying some of the assignments. I really felt a connection with each one of my colleagues just by learning about each of you throughout the entire course. It has been a pleasure to be in an online environment to not only meet people but communicate with those in this profession that share similar passions for young children in the field of early childhood. I hope to keep in contact with most of you as I try to stay on this path of learning. I wish for everyone to continue to stay encouraged and motivated in our field of study.

Meaningful Ideals towards Early Childhood Education

When reviewing the ideals contained in the NAEYC and DEC code of standards I chose three from each Code of Ethics documents and will organize, then briefly explain how they are meaningful to me and pertain to my professional life. 

The first group of ideals reflects meaningful ideals towards children:

NAEYC-:

1.3—to recognize and respect the unique qualities, abilities, and potential of each child

 (NAEYC. 2005)

DEC:   1. we shall demonstrate in our behavior and language respect and appreciation for the unique value and human potential of each child. (The Division for Early Childhood. 2000)

            I believe it is important to respect each child and value their development. Professionally if I’m listening to a child not only considering but recognizing their unique qualities then, I’m encouraging the child in his or her unique qualities and developed a positive relationship with the child.  Personally If I attempt to have meaningful experiences with each individual child and these experiences are positive and pleasant most of the time it is definitely meaningful for all of us.

The second group of ideals reflects meaningful ideals towards families:

NAEYC: I-2.1—to be familiar with the knowledge base related to working effectively with families and to stay informed through continuing education and training.

 (NAEYC. 2005)

DEC:   We shall demonstrate our respect and appreciation for all families’ beliefs, values, customs, languages, and culture relative to their nurturance and support of their children toward achieving meaningful and relevant priorities and outcomes families’ desire for themselves and their children. (The Division for Early Childhood. 2000)

                Working with children is important but I also think that families and children are two parts that in respects to their needs are one in the same.  To work effectively with families we must respect and appreciate them as well as their values, beliefs, customs etc. Professionally if we develop a relationship within these respects and there is a reciprocal relationship. Again experiences will become meaningful for families as well as for caregivers. Personally if children and families are among top priority rather than money and material possessions we develop a relationship that is based upon passion for the children and the families we support. Ultimately we learn so much from each other.

The third group of ideals reflects meaningful ideals towards employees and program activities:

NAEYC- I-4.2—To promote cooperation among professionals and agencies and interdisciplinary collaboration among professions concerned with addressing issues in the health, education, and well-being of young children, their families, and their early childhood educators. (NAEYC. 2005)

DEC- We shall demonstrate the highest standards of personal integrity, truthfulness, and honesty in all our professional activities in order to inspire the trust and confidence of the children and families and of those with whom we work.

 (The Division for Early Childhood. 2000)

            Personally and professionally working with others with integrity and honesty is an essential part for building not only a foundation for any type of relationship: with people, children, families, co-workers, mentors, supervisors and managers but also building bridges with other professionals not in the field of early childhood. Without these foundational elements it is unstable and bridges are not likely to cross. Communication, collaboration and cooperation are important with any relationship in a community and programing.

            Overall I wanted to point out ideals reflective of Children, Families, and Programing. It seems everything is intertwined in a web of the Early Childhood Education field.

• NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved May 26, 2010, fromhttp://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf
•  The Division for Early Childhood. (2000, August). Code of ethics. Retrieved May 26, 2010, fromhttp://www.dec-sped.org/

Course Resources to the field of Early Childhood/ Some Additional resources

Three Additional Resources related to the field of early Childhood.

Please click on the links below and explore the additional resources I found enjoy! I figured it would be easier to list the additional resources first before the resources directly from our course sight.  (I chose pink letters to honor breast cancer awareness month.)

1.      Early Childhood Today Magazine Articles link

http://teacher.scholastic.com/products/ect/

I found this website and it caught my interest because I was unaware that Early Childhood had another magazine besides the YC Young Children and the NAEYC organizations

From the Early Childhood Today Magazine Resources link they included the

2.      National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies

This also includes links for military families and information on child care for the specific military branches.

http://www.naccrra.org/index.php

3.       Link to a parenting information website

An interesting website for parents and guardians with great links and sections divided for almost all ages of children.

http://www.parentsconnect.com/parenting-your-kids/parenting-kids/

Resources from week 5 directly from the Walden University Course Learning Resources week 5

Media “The Resources for Early Childhood”
Five early childhood professionals discuss their preferred and trusted resources.

• NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/dap
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on child abuse prevention. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/ChildAbuseStand.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on school readiness. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/Readiness.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf
• NAEYC. (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf
• NAEYC. (2009, April). Early childhood inclusion: A summary. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_ECSummary_A.pdf
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. (2010). Infant-toddler policy agenda. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_pub_infanttodller
• FPG Child Development Institute. (2006, September). Evidence-based practice empowers early childhood professionals and families. (FPG Snapshot, No. 33). Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~snapshots/snap33.pdf
  
  Note: The following article can be found in the Walden University Library databases.
• Turnbull, A., Zuna, N., Hong, J. Y., Hu, X., Kyzar, K., Obremski, S., et al.  (2010). Knowledge-to-action guides. Teaching Exceptional Children, 42(3), 42–53.
  Use the Academic Search Complete database, and search using the article's title. 

Global Support for Children’s Rights and Well-Being

• Article: UNICEF (n.d.). Fact sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf
   
• Websites:
• World Forum Foundation http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/about-us
  This link connects you to the mission statement of this organization. Make sure to watch the video on this webpage 
• World Organization for Early Childhood Education http://www.omep-usnc.org/
  Read about OMEP’s mission.  
• Association for Childhood Education Internationalhttp://acei.org/about/
  Click on “Mission/Vision” and “Guiding Principles and Beliefs” and read these statements.

 Selected Early Childhood Organizations

• National Association for the Education of Young Childrenhttp://www.naeyc.org/
• The Division for Early Childhoodhttp://www.dec-sped.org/
• Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Familieshttp://www.zerotothree.org/
• WESTEDhttp://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm
• Harvard Education Letterhttp://www.hepg.org/hel/topic/85
• FPG Child Development Institutehttp://www.fpg.unc.edu/main/about.cfm
• Administration for Children and Families Headstart’s National Research Conferencehttp://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/
• HighScope http://www.highscope.org/ 
• Children’s Defense Fund http://www.childrensdefense.org/
• Center for Child Care Workforce http://www.ccw.org/
• Council for Exceptional Children http://www.cec.sped.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home
• Institute for Women’s Policy Research http://www.iwpr.org/index.cfm
• National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education http://www.ncrece.org/wordpress/
• National Child Care Association http://www.nccanet.org/
• National Institute for Early Education Research http://nieer.org/
• Pre[K]Now http://www.preknow.org/
• Voices for America’s Children http://www.voices.org/
• The Erikson Institute http://www.erikson.edu/
   

 Selected Professional Journals Available in the Walden Library

Tip: Use the A-to-Z e-journal list to search for specific journal titles. (Go to “How Do I...?” select “Tips for Specific Formats and Resources,” and then “e-journals” to find this search interface.) 

• YC Young Children
• Childhood
• Journal of Child & Family Studies
• Child Study Journal
• Multicultural Education
• Early Childhood Education Journal
• Journal of Early Childhood Research
• International Journal of Early Childhood
• Early Childhood Research Quarterly
• Developmental Psychology
• Social Studies
• Maternal & Child Health Journal
• International Journal of Early Years Education

I was not sure if it was ok to directly post resources from the website on to the blog post and hopefully it looks familiar to everyone in class.

Words of Inspiration and Motivation (Ms. jay)

I can relate to Jean Marc Itard’s motivation when he stated from his article “Begin with the nature of the child and his interests.”(Lieberman, L (1982) working with children the focus has always been the child. Part of my philosophy is to find out what interest the child and work on ways the child can learn based on what the child enjoys. Even in my own work environment I try to find out the interests of the children in our program and work with them. Many times I find activities run smoother when the environment is child-centered and children respond well when they are involved in learning that is fun for them. I also try to find out interest of children even with special needs. However, it is not an easy task. A relationship must be built between caregiver and child. I saw the passion of Jean Marc Itard within the statement at the end of the article “Education must be in harmony with the dynamic nature of life.” Lieberman, L. (1982) I agree, even as adults if I am participating in something that is fun I feel at peace and less stressed.

            With Deborah J. Leong she expresses her passion for children and learning through play.   An article “Speak out: Why Children Need Play” (Bodrova, E. and Leong, D.) implies educators that value children learning through play need to show passionately the effectiveness of play towards others and the links of play towards children’s learning and development. She continues to stand firm on how play is important to the lives of young children. She stated, “Early childhood classrooms provide a unique setting to foster the kind of dramatic play that will lead to cognitive and social maturity.”  (Bodrova, E. and Leong, D.) When I think about this statement it just makes sense. I picture myself as a child and thought my social interactions then ties into many social interactions that happen today. I not only learned it through play but also the adult influences in my life. My parents for example teaching the social and cultural norms of the family and still to this day what sticks to me is “use your manners!” and “Be polite” These are social interactions that we learn as children. Even today when I observe children they mimic their parents when they are involved in dramatic play. Pretending to feed a baby doll, setting up chairs and pretend driving to a pretend store. I even observed an older child showing a younger child how to play a game of tag.

The professionals in the video (Multimedia “The Passion for Early Childhood) inspired me and drove my motivation toward this field: each individual shared their passion and motivation, each individual expressed care for the next generation, and each individual had similar goals towards caring for children and their families and wanting to make a difference in their communities.  The speakers not only affirmed my passion but I gained motivation just from listening to each experience. When Mrs. Louise Derman Sparks stated, “Children help teachers figure out who they are…” (Multimedia “The Passion for Early Childhood) I thought about my job and I am thinking that they are directly learning from me but I am actually learning from them without realizing it. Children have the ability to motivate me sometimes with their honesty and character. Children continue to provide that drive in this field because every child is different. They make working exciting; other times not so much, especially when an unexpected situation happens to a child. I gained a bit of wisdom from is Ms. Renatla M. Cooper when she explained her experience of a child she had in her program whose father had lymphoma and passed away. She learned about supporting “what’s best for the child and what was not best for her.” (“The Passion for Early Childhood”) Often times some educators teach without care or for money matters. Mr. Cooper made it clear that if we care about young children we should take ourselves out of the equation and look at what is next for the child.

 I found quotes from each educator that I researched and listened to informational and inspiring towards different areas in my personal and professional life. Children’s interest learning development and the importance of play in my professional life, then opportunities to learn about myself from children and how they matter a little more in my personal life.

 Leong, D (2011) Why Children Need Play .Early Childhood Today http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=10595 Retrieved (27, September 2011)

Lieberman, L. M. (1982). Itard: The Great Problem Solver. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 15(9), Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

(2011, September 12) Multimedia: “The Passion for Early Childhood” Message posted to    EDUC-6005-1 Retrieved from Walden University Learning resources Week 2.