Consequences of Learning about the International Early Childhood Field

By browsing through the international web sites, I was able to come into contact with resources I could use in the future. These resources will give me additional perspective in the subjects I study.

I have learned about the many directions the early childhood field is taking and the many problems that are being solved. 

I have discovered that there are many interesting pod casts on World Forum Radio.

I have discovered that many countries have similar challenges with children who speak a language that is not the main language of the country they live in.

I feel more connected with early childhood professionals around the world and have come to realize that the solutions to the problems that I or others solve here can be shared with professionals around the world that have similar problems.

The goal that I have more myself and the early childhood field is to find ways to make it more likely that children will learn in their native language while becoming fluent in the language of the country they live in. 

Thanks to everyone for sharing the pod casts, web sites, and thoughts of early childhood professionals around the world!

UNESCO's Push to Teach in a Child's Mother Tongue

I went to the UNESCO site and looked for information about policies related to bilingual education. UNESCO is encouraging the production of books in mother tongues no matter how remote the language. Using the slogan “Books for Mother tongue education”, IMLD [International Mother Language Day] 2013 aims to remind key stakeholders in education that in order to to support mother tongue education, it is essential to support the production of books in local languages”. Here is the link for that: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/international-mother-language-day/

 

 I watched a film about how languages are disappearing and about how on cyber space a small percentage of the languages spoken around the world are used. This is a danger because perspective is often related to language, so with lost languages, we are losing perspectives. Here is the link to that UNESCO film: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/events/prizes-and-celebrations/celebrations/international-days/international-mother-language-day/  

I also looked at an interview of Colette Grinevald. She promotes education in a child’s mother tongue and also a model that includes both the mother tongue and the tongue of the land the child lives in. She said, “Mother Language Day should literally celebrate the languages of all the mothers of the world and send them the message that they have the right to speak their own language to their children, because they have important things to say in that language to their children.  It should be the day of all the languages in the world including the ‘little languages.’ Out of about 6000 languages no more than 200 have the status of national languages and a few hundred more have established literacy.” Here is the link to that interview http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/languages-in-education/single-view/news/colette_grinevald_speaking_your_mother_tongue_is_not_a_disability/

 

As the English speaker in a class full of Hispanic children who also have a Spanish speaking teacher, I was excited to see all the information about bilingual education on the UNESCO site. The model in which equal numbers of non-national and national language-speaking children learn in both languages was also mentioned. I have recently become aware of this model. This model would be useful in unifying the future population of the United States into a bilingual population with no problem communicating in Spanish or English.

Passion and Commitment: Two Qualities of Highly Qualified Teachers

This week, I was able to get to the World Forum Radio through google and was able to download a podcast through itunes. Passion is a quality important for teachers, so this week I chose a podcast related to keeping a person’s passion for teaching alive. Three teachers, including Nancy Flanagan, shared with the host of “Teacher’s Aid” their thoughts on what has helped them keep their passion and enjoyment for teaching alive. Here is the link to that podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rae-pica/id368754208

 

The author of Real Talk for Real Teachers suggested that teachers not just do what they were supposed to do, but instead include their own interests in the classroom . He also wanted teachers to know that all teachers have bad days and all teachers fail and make mistakes. He mentioned that fifteen years ago he was not able to “get to” all the students that he “gets to” now.  He said that one reason he believed students enjoy his classes was that the students knew that he had been teaching a long time, that he is committed. He said that students appreciate commitment and want to emulate it. He said it affects students when they think a teacher will just go get another teaching job somewhere else.  Another teacher mentioned noticing what is good about your class and focusing, for example, on who did their homework rather than on who did not. Another teacher said do something the kids will remember in 20 years, and another said to make sure we as teachers take care of ourselves.

Sharing Web Resources: National Head Start: Good News, Immigrants, and Migrant Workers

I was surprised and pleased to see this right when I opened the National Head Start web site: 

“This week, more than 7,000 at-risk children will be able to return to their Head Start classrooms after philanthropists Laura and John Arnold extended up to $10 million in emergency funding support to the National Head Start Association.”

In the Head Start journal, Dialog, I read an article about the acculturation process in mother child dyads, the three ways that the acculturation process can affect the relationships of these mothers and their children, and suggestions for easing the affects of acculturation on the relationships between immigrant mothers and their children. Lara-Cinisomo & Thomas (2013) suggested, “Parental involvement in school provides parents and children with shared experiences in the mainstream culture and increases the chances that parents will understand their children’s acculturation process. This shared experience is likely to decrease conflict” (p. 139). 

I also looked at the section related to Head Start partners. I found a video about a girl that went to migrant Head Start and was being interviewed about her experiences in a migrant family and about her desire to work in the human services field. She was college age at the time of the interview. Here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCIN4NhwfsM. Please watch. It is not long. This video gave me a more personal understanding of equity in early care and education?

Through my exploration of this web site and its links alone, I have come to understand that I have just touched the tip of the iceberg of issues, trends, and resources! When I started looking into links from Head Start, I was impressed with how many videos related to early education I might like to watch in the future. I may use some of them as bed time videos for my nine year old and me to watch together before she sleeps. She has already enjoyed the video “Educating Peter” and asked tonight if she could watch that one again. After it was over, I told her I had another good one. I showed her the Migrant Head Start student interview video. She seemed interested in that too. It is good to let children know that not everyone is so lucky, so that they can learn to share.

References

Lara-Cinisomo, S.  & Thomas, A. A. (2013).  Dialog, 16(3), 127-141 Retrieved from https://journals.uncc.edu/dialog/article/view/118/175

International Correspondents and International Programs

I was able to secure a correspondent from India; however this correspondent has not yet responded. I discovered a blog of a fourth grade teacher who teaches in an international school in Singapore and asked her to ask an early childhood educator she knew if he or she could correspond with me for this course. She found a colleague from India who agreed to do this. I sent an email to this colleague with my deadlines. So far I have received no letter. If I do before the week is over, I will share information from this letter.

Here is a link to the fourth grade teacher's blog:  http://time2wonder.wordpress.com/2013/09/19/teaching-for-understanding/  

Theresa Betancourt, a professor at Harvard, is studying two issues that are not as familiar to people in the United States. She has “been researching former child soldiers in Sierra Leone for a decade,” and she is “designing an intervention for families with “HIV-infected parents in Rwanda.” She is studying how having been a chid soldier as a child affects the mental health of these children when they become young adults, and she is studying how the mental health of these former chid soldiers affects the development of the children of these former chid soldiers. The intervention she is using with families with parents who have HIV is called Family talk. This intervention was used by William Beardslee to help families with depressed parents in the United States. Because HIV can lead to the depression of the person with HIV who sees HIV as a death sentence, this person’s depression may affect his or her children. Children also have many misconceptions about HIV. Betancourt said, “‘You’ve got a parent living with chronic illness, where there’s misunderstanding and miscommunication about it and that parent needs support to still feel empowered and to be able to care for their children’” Family Talk addresses both the misconceptions and the depression. This program could also be used with families experiencing other types of diversity anywhere in the world to help prevent children from developing depression because of the adversity and depression of their parents. Here is the link for those stories:  http://developingchild.harvard.edu/faculty_and_partners/faculty/faculty_spotlights/theresa_betancourt/  

“Un Buen Comienzo (UBC), “A Good Start,” is a collaborative project in Santiago, Chile, to improve early childhood education through teacher professional development.” Both national and global leaders in early childhood education are helping with the project. Not only does the project include professional development for its early childhood teachers, but it also includes a social/emotional and a health component. The program involves 60 schools throughout Chile and is being evaluated by random sampling throughout the 60 schools for program effectiveness. The results from this evaluation will inform future systems of early childhood education. Here is the link for that story: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/ubc/