My International contact (Ms.Jay) Insights

-The Philippines

            I was thrilled to run into an educational professional from the Philippines. Her name is Nestoria Wright. She is one of the few Minot Air Force Base Health Educators and Individual Tobacco Cessation Counseling representatives working on base.  Our school age program previously participated in National “Kick Butts Day” a Campaign held for children learning and becoming aware of harmful uses of smoking, using tobacco and the effects on the human body as well as diseases cause by the drugs and prolonging living a long healthy life. Mrs. Wright along with some fellow Airman set up booths that encourage children to understand what smoking does to our bodies. One particular booth was a breathing simulation of comparing healthy lungs to a smoking lung. The Teens were able to demonstrate with a simulated contraption of pumping air into the lungs threw a tube and release the air also threw the tube. The lungs were not human lungs but pig lungs. The children were amazed as they watched how full the healthy lungs breathed and how little the darkened deformed lungs breathed. It was during this booth that Mrs. Wright was standing by and we exchanged information.

 Earlier last year I ran into her as she was teaching classes at the School Age Program for adults wanting to quit smoking and mentioned her experience of teaching first grade students in the Philippines, Receiving her Bachelor’s Degree in Teaching Education, received her Masters Degree and is currently working on her dissertation for PhD for Walden University.  I finally met with her yesterday to discuss issues related to excellence and equity.

During our meeting she spoke very passionately about her job and her experience teaching first graders in the Philippines. I will share a brief description of our session as she shared with me a great amount of information. I would rather go into detail about what she shared during our entire interview however, I’m pressed for time.

First, I thanked her for meeting with me and discussed a little bit of her educational background. I found she received her Bachelor’s Degree at 19 years old and was immediately hired to teach at a private school. She mentioned her family was able to pay for her education and taught at a wealthy school. I asked her if she noticed any issues related to quality teachers or a quality education program as well as excellence in teaching children. She began to explain how as a teacher discrimination in the classroom as well as internally should be minimized. Focusing on a child’s “strengths and weaknesses using assessment tools should be a balanced,” (N. Wright Personal Communication 2012) She mentioned the importance of “setting judgment’s aside and be flexible,” “If you’re a teacher and you do not have a bundle of patients or our passionate about teaching then you’re in the wrong job.” (N. Wright Personal Communication 2012) Bottom line she says “teachers must have cultural competence, must be fair, have honesty and respect family values and beliefs”

The issue she runs into the most that personally affects her is children getting vaccinated, she described her experience even in the present of encouraging parents to vaccinate their children so the spread of diseases don’t “jeopardize the health of other children” (N. Wright Personal Communication 2012) She helps parents understand the importance of vaccination for children’s health but also respects their decision to not have their children vaccinated on the other hand should their child get sick, she asks that the child be removed from attending classes until the child is better.

 N. Wright also discusses the importance of school readiness and compared her teaching experience at the private school in the Philippines to her internship at the public school. Her emotions changed from excitement to sadness concerning children attending public schools having not enough funding and hardly any support. She describes children unable to afford school lunch and how she would always try and buy children bread to eat from the government school lunch trucks.

The picture to is a plate full of white rice, fried pork tips called lechon pronounced (le chone instead of saying gone add the sound of ch at the begining) and a type of sauce for the meat.

 She hopes that the education budget system will improve and changes are made. She continues to say “It makes me sad to know that public schools don’t have any supports. I know some children have to work at a farm just to help the family survive, and if there is no food kids don’t have good health so they can’t function in school, life is hard but what can I say but no education no progress”. (N. Wright Personal Communication 2012)

 Lastly, she discusses how people living in her country know that education is the key to survive and if they want “greener pastures” people take their education from the Philippines and strive for a better life in the United States.  For example her brother is a Dr. in the Philippines and she says the average medical Dr. only makes 50,000 pesos a month which is only equivalent to about $1,200 dollars a month to live on. Educators and teachers only receive 15,000 pesos a month which is about $300.00 dollars a month for a teacher that has a Bachelor’s degree. I was amazed.  She continues to work hard at her profession and whenever she has a chance she sends money for her nieces and nephews still living in the Philippines to pay for their private school.

At the end of the meeting I wish I had recorded our conversation so that I could reflect more on her knowledge and wisdom a bit more. I enjoyed our conversation and was definitely enlightened. Some of her experience helped me realize some of my mom’s personal experience to still work and send money every year for my cousins to attend school. I concluded that for excellence and quality begins with the child and their health. Their health and survival comes first before education. If they are able to continue their education then they are fortunate.

Link

http://www.kickbuttsday.org/

http://pinoyoverseasjobs.com/20-filipinomapeh-high-school-pre-school-teachers-for-qatar/

http://todayilearned.co.uk/2011/04/20/what-kids-of-the-world-eat-at-school/

Thoughts on Web Resources

Thoughts on Sharing Web Resources

As I explored the Association for Childhood Education International
http://acei.org/  website I found links and resources relevant to my professional development like the Global Campaign for Education. This website encourages professionals to stay updated with education in the news and provides an opportunity to quickly sign up for e-newsletters. The most current news that I also found disappointing is “President Obama’s decision to “cut international education funding” (Global Campaign for Education 2012) the nature of the idea saddens me because I asked myself “Why would anyone make a decision to cut funding in education?” I believe education is the foundation for success. Doesn’t education encourage us to become professionals? Learning starts immediately its human nature. I understand that people can develop hands on skills but without the foundation of learning how are individuals successful? I must be unaware of the details of funding for education however cutting funding seems like a wide and constant http://acei.org/  controversial issue. I don’t believe this information adds to my understanding of how politicians support not just early childhood education but education in general. Since reading this current news takes my interest in politicians a bit lower. This issue bothers me personally because I just don’t see the benefit for our children’s future by cutting any type of funding for children. It seems any type of education program that involve children struggle for funds. Clearly the importance of investing in children’s futures with funding education is not on the top of everyone’s priority list.

Reference and links http://acei.org/http://acei.org/

http://www.campaignforeducationusa.org/news-and-resources/press-room/president-obamas-budget-gets-a-failing-grade-on-international-educatio

Children, Families and Poverty: My Personal Insights

Since I was unable to establish contact with early childhood professionals that expand outside the United States I decided to work with this week’s alternative assignment and share some of my personal thoughts and insights gained from reading information on children families and poverty. The website Childhoodpoverty.org (2012) or CHIP focuses on a few different countries like China,  Kyrgystan and Mongolia. My insights focused on the country of China.

As I explored the website I came across the “CHIP Rationale” to discover some of the general assumptions on children and poverty. I found information that helped me change my vision from a fantasy of children and poverty to the reality of children and poverty living in these countries. The first rational information that became new to me mentioned that some policies set forth to "reduce poverty” (Childhoodpoverty.org 2012) may not positively affect poverty rates and can make matters worse. I was surprised by this rational information because in the fantasy world I would think a policy meant for children and families put into play always makes matters and circumstances better. However the reality of a policy put into place for children and their families living in situations of poverty turns out better for some family matters and worse situations for others. I became slightly unhappy to realize that policies meant to help families, does not necessarily support them all.

I also read case studies on two children and their family living situations in different areas of china. These case studies concerned children younger than 15 years old. These children shared their stories of their parents struggling and working hard to provide better lives for their children’s futures and mainly education matters. The fantasy of these stories shows that all children have the opportunity to go to school and be successful. The reality of these stories and web site information shows that some children have little opportunities to reach or even complete the beginning education level like primary school. The child Xiao Bo mentions his father’s highest level of education as completing middle school. I began to understand that these cases are just a few of many around the world.

 The last insight I gained is just by looking at the photos under the photo gallery. The fantasy of this link is reading the stories (or case studies) knowing and visualizing their circumstances on how the children and family are living and learning, and the reality of the photos of family and children living and learning speaks for itself.

Overall I believe the insights that I gained challenged my vision on children, families and poverty.  I think the difference of my insights before exploring this website gained is not only reading and understanding the information I come across but also coming to a realization that these events are still happening. I provided a link list below to a few of my findings.

Reference Links

http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/

http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=casestudies

http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=publicationdetails&id=46

http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php?action=photos#Chi

Discovering Web Resources

I chose the Association for Childhood Education International
website. I searched for a variety of information under the website and found several resources that include membership online registration, a link to a featured program which is the Institute for International Education Diplomacy which looks like a great program for educators that are willing to communicate with other educators across the world and share great ideas on children and their education. I also found a link to the Association for Childhood Education internet radio (ACEI Radio) and listened to a professional discuss his thoughts on  childhood education curriculum around the world and mentioned a second volume from the first book he published. This radio cast gave me food for thought on information regarding curriculum across the globe.

 From what I understand this association is a global community that supports children, their education, and examines current issues that seem to be familiar across the globe. For example within the link to Global News follows several headlines of common topics that I believe educators in America have conversations about such as supporting quality education, family involvement, children’s rights, and training teachers just to name a few.  It seems a majority of issues educator’s face with child education is Universal. I believe the organizations focus is to provide peaceful global communities. A community that comes together as a whole from different parts of the world with the main focus set on child education. A global community that communicates with each other with not only sharing issues and current events but also positive ideas and practices composed from a variety of studies with children that everyone can understand.

Studying and exploring a variety of links throughout this website encouraged my thoughts on child education. I found myself nodding my head and saying to myself “hmm that’s interesting and I wonder what it would be like to be not only an educator but a member of this Association, or a delegate traveling the world discussing information on children and their education that is so neat!” This may sound funny but I got excited about an educator participating in home visits here in the small town I live in. I found traveling to different states and observe other childhood programs even better. When I learned educators are able to travel out of the country to observe children I found this amazing! I started to wonder is it really possible for an educator is able to be employed and travel as part of the job? It was almost as if I forgot about just reaching the goal of certification in just one state and thought about reaching the goal of becoming a traveling educator. I began contemplating on saving up money to become a member or looking into the diplomacy program and how this would also be beneficial to me. I believe this website gave me insight to new information and to consider different career opportunities not just in the United States but across the World within the field of child education. Below are a list of links within the website

 

Link

Association for Childhood Education International
http://acei.org/

Links within

http://www.acei.org/conferences/annual-conferences.html

http://www.acei.org/programs-initiatives/institute-for-international-education-diplomacy.html

https://www.acei.org/news-publications/acei-radio.html

https://www.acei.org/global-news/page-3.html

Establishing Contact: Unique Early Childhood Professionals

This week I had the opportunity to establish contact with Early Childhood professionals outside of the United States. At first I was excited to contact professionals that share the same concept of caring for children as I thought about where and how to begin. I took a look at the blog resources and narrowed down my interest to three countries South Africa, China, and the Philippines. I thought “Well, what’s the easiest way to contact a professional then by email”. I sent out two emails one for the country of China and the other from the Philippines on Monday. I figured I would wait and check my email every day until I got a response. Every day that I checked “no response” Next I said well maybe I will get on Skype (an internet calling website) and see if I can call one of the numbers listed from the blog resources link.

 I found to contact someone with a Skype account is free (because I have an account) but without a Skype account I would have to add credit to call internationally as the country I was trying to contact charges about $0.03 cents a minute. I thought to myself sarcastically “Great I’m going to have to invest in a calling card or look for people internationally on Skype with an account it seems it would take forever” Logically I thought to myself that maybe I should just be patient. I then sent out two more emails and they came back as an “error delivery” I became frustrated and waited some more. Finally I got an email saying one professional was “out of the office and would not return until around March 3” I thought yes!, I should have contact with at least one professional by Monday for course 2.

It seems for this week’s blog Assignment I was unable to establish contact with 2 professionals and might have to result in completing the Alternative part one and two assignments. If I don’t receive an email in the next few days the early childhood organization website I would use (link) as an alternative would be the Association for Childhood Education International
http://acei.org/ because my countries of interest reside within the website. As a whole I believe education for every child no matter where they live is important. I will also attempt to establish contact with these professionals this week.

            Interacting with the website The National Association for childhood Education International believes in “promoting the inherent rights, education, and well-being of all children in their home, school and community.” They help support the childhood community by providing global resources for the countries that they represent including Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America. They provide links to other childhood organizations as well.

Reference:

http://acei.org/

My Supports by Ms. Jay

When I think about support what immediately comes to mind is my family and those that are close to me. These are the people that know me personally and have an experience of working with me when I’m at my lowest meaning (failure) or at my highest peak of success. These people know what to say and how to say it when it comes to encouraging me to make the right choices. I say on a daily basis I need the emotional support to make sound and safe decisions. Besides my parents and my siblings I believe at the present time the person that I receive emotional support from is my husband. He is there for me when I struggle or have a need. I know this may sound cheesy but till this day I always call my husband my “rock.” I know we have only been married for 5 years but it seems like forever. We have struggled through rough and tough times and yet he is one solid person I know that will not judge me and supports every attempt at a goal that makes me happy.  This is a great benefit of having a supporting husband.

 When I was a military spouse (now retired spouse) one of the tough times that I needed emotional support and he showed it tremendously was when I was pregnant with my daughter. I was an emotional wreck and I struggled to finish college.  Going to college online seemed to be just rumors around the internet. I immediately went from a full time student to a part-time student and (no joke) went to school until the week I gave birth. Finals week happened to be the week before I gave birth. It was because of him that he supported my goal of finishing school. He was the only one pushing me and saying to me “honey I believe you can do it, never quit!” While some of the members of my family just figured I would be a college dropout and turn into a stay at home mom. A stay at home mom was really not on my top priority list but if it was my last and final option I would have stayed home. I was angry during the struggle but I persevered. Without my husband I think I would have just quit school and would not be furthering my education as I write this blog assignment.  Graduating college was one of my greatest accomplishments and a major impact in my life. I can’t imagine what my educational path would look like without the support of my husband.  

As far as the other supports practical and monetary sometimes it seems as If I am on my own, I need to have a goal in order to accomplish a task not to mention that our household grew in size within the past year. Yes my husband provides and works hard to pay all the necessary bills and sometimes we try not to rely on the jobs we have because it seems the economy is unstable.

 I now imagine myself homeless and without a job or any of the support systems.  The challenge for me of not have a home is meeting the other important daily needs such as food and water to survive. Without the basics means of supports: social interaction which is emotional support, education which seems like monetary support and obtaining adequate food, water, and shelter I would not be alive.

My Connections to play by Ms. Jay

When I was 5 years old I remember living in Germany and just beginning kindergarten. Kindergarten seemed like a comfortable place to play and paint. I remember playing and painting because those were the activities I enjoyed most. My parents often provided opportunities to let my older sister and me play together. My younger brother was not born yet and I was the baby. Other people thought my sister and I were twins because we are so close in age. Most of my time playing with my sister was not as enjoyable as playing with toys by myself. I say this because my sister often played “the boss” and as the younger sister I did everything she told me to do and I played with her always in a passive way. The times I was able to go into my own room and play with toys alone was great. So for this assignment I’m going to reminisce of playing alone in my room and with my three toys. I’m so happy to share pictures of some of the toys I played with when I was five.

As I’m in my room I feel I’m in my own territory in my own world. I become “The boss” and I can play with anything I wanted without having to share with anyone.  I go to my toy shelf and pull out

this fisher price camera. This is the closest one I could find, the one I had the actual camera was white and all the strap colors were the same on mine. I received this as a gift from my dad for Christmas. I took this toy everywhere I could take it and pretended to take pictures of everything! I was greatly influenced by my dad because he had a real camera with the same upright features and a big lens. As we lived in Germany I found that he liked taking pictures of where we lived and all the places to visit while traveling throughout Germany. I thought I would be just like my dad and walk around taking pretend pictures of everything. I think if this camera was real, I would have taken thousands of photos. This was a toy I carried around my neck all the time. I remember looking out my bedroom‘s giant window and taking pretend pictures of the weather outside looking at people below. My room had an awesome view of green grass, a nearby park with trees, and hills. Our family household was like living in an apartment building and our apartment was located towards the very top floor of the building.

As the camera got heavy I decide to take it from around my neck set it down and pull out my

 karaoke radio I absolutely loved this toy; I was always singing, dancing, listening to music around the house. With this toy I was able to sing with songs on the radio as well as trying hard not to be so loud when my mother was sleeping. Believe it or not I still have this toy; it is sitting on top of my desk cabinets with some pictures. I don’t have the heart to let anyone touch it or let my daughter play with it. I liked to pretend I was a famous singer like Whitney Houston or Chaka Khan; I was heavily influenced by watching female groups harmonize and sing and dance like En Vogue. Often times my mom would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I told her “a famous singer”

            As my sister got annoyed with my singing I would put this toy away and pull out my

play Mobil toys. I also kept these toys and these pictures represent the exact toys I had when I was 5. I enjoyed these toys because they were not quite like Legos but some of the pieces still had to be put together. These toys brought me into a miniature world. Almost everywhere I went when I was in Germany the houses looked the same as well as the parks and play grounds. Germany was a different culture than my own that I was exposed to and found other children my age also played with these similar toys. By the time I was 8 I had a collection of them.

I believe play today is not as enjoyable as when I was a child because of all the technology. Toys today seem like computers, although I don’t have too much of a problem with computer toys, maybe I think some toys could be losing sight of letting the child explore and use their imagination with them. Today’s generation’s toys seem easy to push a button and something happens and they seem a little high tech. At some point I’m a little jealous of some toys because they were not available like a touch screen or an electronic notebook or babies that cry, wet, eat, and tell you when they are “all better” but I would hope that as a parent I provide my child some tools that encourage her to learn about her world a little independently. I also see these children will be living on earth long after our generation is gone and despite all our parental efforts of raising children to learning academically what ultimately describes the definition of fun is play.  As I grew into adulthood I found that after school, work, and responsibility is finished I sit back and reminisce about my own childhood and not having any adult responsibilities and want to do nothing but play or have free time

The two quotes I would like to share that I feel summarizes play within my childhood and also early childhood education are those by Jean Marc Itard “Begin with the nature of the child and his interests.”(Lieberman, L (1982) I think by my parents giving me opportunities to play based upon my interest encouraged me to explore the toys I had and learn about my world through these toys. With the camera I began to see pictures of my environment and somehow without really realizing it Germany is different from the United States. With my microphone and radio I explored dance, music, singing and playing with spoken words. With my miniature toys my world and imagination with these toys and nature of these toys was endless I played with them for hours. I literally went to sleep and couldn’t wait to wake up in the morning to play with them again or go to the store and add to my collection, I saw that play and toys opens doors to new culture and discovery. Jean Marc Itard also mentions “Education must be in harmony with the dynamic nature of life.” Lieberman, L. (1982) I couldn’t describe how the world naturally influences a growing, playing child better. Whether or not adults see children learning through play, play is essential to enjoying and creating meaningful experience for life.

 

Reference

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