My International Contacts-Sharing ideas between EC professionals

                I was able to establish a phone conversation with each of my international EC (Early Childhood) professional contacts. They are Ms. Nestoria Wright from the Philippines and Ms. Pon Wetzel from Thailand. I asked them each of the major questions from the Blog Assignment in the following order

1) What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed where you live and work?

2) What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?

3) What are some of your professional goals?

4)       What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?

As I listened closely to their answers I found that some of their answers were similar to each other. Although I wish I could share in detail each conversation I will try my best to briefly describe the similarities between each EC professional.

My first conversation began with Ms. Nestoria Wright from the Philippines and just in case you haven’t read my previous blog post (week 5) she is currently teaching classes at Minot Air Force Base Health and Wellness center for adults reaching their goals to quit smoking. Her previous experience included: teaching first grade students in the Philippines, receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in Teaching and Education, receiving her Master’s Degree and is currently working on her dissertation for PhD for Walden University.  

The main issue regarding quality with EC professionals discussed in her country by N. Wright (2012) is “modeling character development.” She describes the importance of teachers taking “time to understand their students and helping children understand their parent’s responsibilities… because teachers spend more time with them than their parents or nannies every day” she continues to say “teachers must cultivate their passion for teaching consistency and dedication.” The opportunities available for professional development is described as “limitless” (N. Wright Personal Communication 2012) she expresses the importance of teachers continuing their personal education and teacher’s in the Philippines are provided training by a sponsor for instance if a teacher wants to learn about “common behavioral issues, there is training for that and sponsors can help guide them to attend national conferences, seminars, workshops or meetings…it just depends on what the teacher wants to learn” (N. Wright Personal Communication 2012). Her professional goals include “applying my knowledge in the field, not giving up teaching because I love it so much, I try and take stress management and public speaking courses. Ultimately I just want to cultivate my passion in teaching and share my knowledge with others and pass it on…I want to continue teaching graduate students how to teach and teach well” (N. Wright personal communication 2012) One of her challenges she mentioned was keeping her attitude positive when she comes across difficult students. By difficult students she explains teaching students at the graduate level that are significantly older than her and struggle with retaining information. She experience difficulty with these students in a way that they often question her knowledge and character when she teaches them. However she says “despite them you must still be respectful to them but encourages me to be prepared, try not to take criticism personally…I try and be nice and be positive about those experiences.” (N. Wright personal communication 2012)  

My next phone conversation involved Ms. Pon Wetzel from Thailand; I was unable to mention her in my last blog assignment because I felt the assignment was going to overall look like I wrote a book.

P. Wetzel holds her Bachelor’s (teaching) degree from Thailand and taught pre-school up to 6^th grade. And a Child Development (CDA) credential from the United States.  In our previous conversation she described the major teaching issue in Thailand as not having enough money or a school budget for school supplies. The ways she and her colleagues made teaching work was to be creative in the resources that they had around them for example she compared a child development classroom as having materials to teach the students numbers and counting “in my country we don’t have that we use leftover chop sticks, clean them and bundle them up and lay them on the table to help children move them over to count to twenty, instead of having jump ropes for outside here in America we use rubber bands, tie them together so the children can jump and play…the schools were very poor.” (P. Wetzel Personal communication 2012)

The main issue regarding EC professionals and quality education by P. Wetzel (2012) is budget for schools in Thailand. She describes teachers overcoming this issue by “sharing each other’s strengths” for example “In America teachers go to training together but in Thailand they tell them to go out individually then at the end come back and share what they found out with everyone else…most of the time the teaching came from our ‘old people’ because they are much wiser and they know more” (P. Wetzel Personal communication 2012) Her experience she described was going out into the local community and going to the “old people” to help them find the tree or branch for paint and color or learn how to make clay pots or toys to play. Her answer also tied into professional development that exist in Thailand, going out and learn from the “older teachers” (P. Wetzel Personal Communication 2012) Her personal goals include just wanting to teach in a preschool here in the United States. Her challenges include having a “license to teach” in the schools. “ It’s hard because in Thailand once you have your degree there is already a job for you to teach, here in America you need a license.” P. Wetzel Personal Communication 2012).

One of the interesting similarities I found from both my contacts was there desire to learn from each other or other professionals in the field. I found that they both mentioned similarities in keeping up with the current technology and asking Early Childhood associations to donate and support in placing computers in classrooms. In terms of excellence and quality they both agreed quality begins in continuing professional development and to always train or learn.

Pictures from

http://www.ihbangkok.com/page/33-ih_bangkok_english_language_school_english_courses_for_thai_school_summer_break.html