Friday, October 11, 2013

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

6 comments:

  1. Hello Liz,
    The video you shared really touched me; seeing how much this girl has benefited from the Head Start program gives me hope for all children growing up in poor families.
    Thank you for sharing!
    Ghayna Alsafadi

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  2. Hi Liz,
    Sharing information and educating children about immigrants’ issues encourages children developing empathy and supporting other children of immigrant families. This awareness is very beneficial and constructive.
    Thank you Liz!

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  3. Ghayna and Rawana,

    Thanks for your response and for watching the video!

    Liz Thomas

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  4. Elizabeth, I like what you said about “Laura and John Arnold donating $10 million in emergency funds to head start.” I think that that is a great thing. It is sad however, that it would have to come to the point of a possible shutdown of Head Start after so many years of pushing Early Childhood Education. I enjoyed your links.

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  5. Very interesting resource! I completed my student teaching in a Head Start preschool and I learned a lot about the work they are doing to help young children. The video made me think back to a few of the children I had interactions with in the Head Start preschool. Some great things are being done in Head Start and it is awesome to see the lifelong effects it is having.

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  6. Hello Elizabeth,

    Your post is very interesting. I am always hearing about people talk about Head Start programs but I do not have a clear understanding of what Head Start really is. I like how you add the video link to help people like me receive a better understand of the program. Thanks for sharing,I can not wait to take some time out and browse through the article.

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