Sharing Web Resources

The “Zero To Three is a national nonprofit organization that provides information to parents, professionals and policymaker; in order to increase their knowledge and understanding about early development in young children. The Zero To Three website provides information from behavior/development, care/education to public policy. Also, on this particular site there is a place where parents can go to retrieve information about different resources and they can view a podcast, where questions about the early childhood development may be answered. I like the Zero To Three website and have always used it throughout my educational career thus far. Not only, is the information provided on this particular site is reliable, but it is very resourceful to be current with the changes and policies within the early childhood education/development.

One focus on The Zero To Three e-newsletter was shared resources for subscriber about science-based information on how children grow, learn and develop. Parents are given information on child-rearing issues and challenges, play/activities that promotes learning and bond between the parent/child and age-based information on child development.  There are so much information provided to help parents learn much as they can about the childhood education and what it means to them. As an educator we learn through scientific studies that the first three years of a child life is crucial, because the children are developing both their brain and entire body. Therefore it is so important that we take child development seriously. Another focus about the issues that’s’ current was on “Working Families” how they are trying to live the American dream, while providing the best life for their children. Parents who wants the best for their children find themselves working very long hours in order to make sure ends meet, but still are finding themselves label as low-income families.

Resource:

 (2012). Zero to Three National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and
  
     Families. Early Experiences Matter. Retrieved from http://
  
     www.zerotothree.org/about-us/

Getting Ready—Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

There were two steps I took to obtain contact with other professionals from around the world.

The first step was I took time to open up a social media channel, known as face book.  I

remember an old co-worker who use to work with me took a job in Dubai a city within United

Arab Emirates as an Elementary teacher. I have already started my contact and I am hoping to

hear from her soon. The second step I use to do my search was to select one of the offered

 website, in order to make connect with another professional, in other part of the world. I had

somewhat of a time get on the webpage, but I was able to get on this particular site, where I 

were able to look into the WoFoNet, “Your Global Early Childhood Community Network” http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/. On this particular website, we have to join by creating an account and after that we can login every time we want to go back on that site.

                     "My Supports"

Family

·         Husband Albert is a wonderful and patience supporter of my educational journey. He always asking me do I have homework or did I finish my homework. There are times when my husband would have to calm and quiet the children down, so that I concentrate and gather my thought in order to successfully complete my homework assignments. There are times when I get stuck or frustrated on an assignment I have to do my husband would try to help me figure things out the best way he can. My husband

·         Daughters and son: Destiny, Desirae, Deanna and Jonathan keep me on my P’s and Q’s. Sometimes each of them can be very helpful, especially when they cleanup around the house without me or their dad asking them to do it. Not often, but they would ask me what do I want them to do. Of course, my response is “I need to do my homework, so please no arguing, yelling, fighting and asking me lots of question, go to your daddy for what you guys need”.

·         Grandson: Zakkari is about five months old and he has a special affect on my life. Every day I cannot wait to get home from work, just to see him. When Zakkari hears my voice a big smile comes on his face. Then when I look at Zakkari and say “how was your day” he would start gurgling, as though he is trying to tell me about his day. Zakkari brings joy in my life I forget about any stressful situation I may have experienced earlier within that day.

·         Mother: Lela is very supportive and she always expressing how proud she is of me, because I was the first person in her family to graduate from college. My mother has always been there for me. She always tries to give to me when I am in need of: advice, money or just a hug followed by “I love you”.  Another way my mother is supportive is by always encouraging me to press forward when I talk about stopping or giving up.

Church Family

·         Senior Pastor/Pastor /Sisters/Brothers in Christ:  My church family is very supportive both at church and through their telephone calls to me. I am always receiving encourage words, good advice and because of my fellowship with them I feel the love from them. Since I have built a relationship with each and every one of them my love, prayer life, faith and christian life has become stronger in God.

Work

·         Colleagues (teachers) and Supervisor is supportive to me by helping me complete the tasks require on my job. I receive valuable information and advice from both my colleagues and supervisor. I can truly say my colleagues keep me knowledgeable of upcoming events such as: home visits, conferences or meeting that is taking place around the center.  My supervisor helps me to stay on task with my paperwork, by asking for it before the due dates.

Each of my supporters plays an important role in my life. I really appreciate the positive and meaningful relationship I have with each one of my supporters above. Although each of them plays an important role in my life; their role is different from the other. I benefit from the encouraging words, help they provide and the advice they gave to me; because it strengthens me as an individual to become successful in life. Without my family, church family and colleagues at work I would be lonely, my life would be boring and I would probably lack lots of good advice. The love I have between each of these supporters would be gone and limited for sharing with them.

Challenge

The challenge I chose to imagine the needs to raise money for a children foundation such as finding the cure for leukemia. I would need help and support from my family, church family and co-worker to give a monetary donation and to help me push the need for other people to give toward the cure of leukemia also. Due to this important event I understand that it takes sacrifice of giving more than one time and spending long hours to make sure the fundraising event is a success, without my supporters it will be harder for me to do it on my own. Fundraiser/rising money is a way to connect with and meet the new people, so if my supporter is not available to me how can a connection take place with the people they know. In other words, without my support of my family, church family and co-worker I will be limited to resources that are needed for me to push the fundraiser and become a good advocate for the cure of children who is battling with leukemia. 

“My connection to Play”

You see a child play, and it is so close to seeing an artist paint, for in play a child says things without uttering a word. You can see how he solves his problems. You can also see what's wrong. Young children, especially, have enormous creativity, and whatever's in them rises to the surface in free play.

Erik Erikson

Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.

Fred Rogers

   

                When I was a young child I remember all the children had the entire block to play on. It seem like everybody were outside from the young and the old. All the older people was I aunties and uncles and we respected them. The children knew they could not do anything wrong because an adult was watching and would have freely corrected us. In order to keep up with the younger children the older people would have positive things for us to do. The people supported us in setting up different games for us to play in the empty lots we had on the block. For example:  One lot had a large volleyball net in it, another had horseshoes and the other had a place to play baseball.  I remember the adults played alone with us; which made the games better and fun. Another thing I remember is there were block cleanup; where everyone came out of their house to clean up the entire block and afterward everyone played in the water together children and adults just having fun.

                I live back in the time where the statement “It takes a village to raise a child”. The village back then was strong and standing in unity. Therefore when the children were playing the adults was always watching to protect them from harm, hurt and danger. The children knew they were safe to freely play and enjoy themselves each and every day. I remember playing the games like hide and seek, Mr. Freeze, rock teacher, double dutch and red light green light and many more.  My family, friends and I went as far as inventing different games such as: jacks and checkers by using rocks instead of the original pieces because we did not have them. Children in this day and time have not experience what I would call the real play, because the village is not there for their protection. There is so much violence happening throughout their neighborhood it is preventing the children enjoy themselves to play outside freely. So, therefore those different games I once played have not been passed down or even heard of by most children today. I one day hope that things will get better throughout each and every neighborhood, where people can come together again to restore the village. So, that child can feel safe again to play in their homes, outside in the neighborhood or wherever they choose to go. We must not forget children are learning as they play. So, it is important to provide every opportunity we possibly can for children to enjoy themselves through play, while they are enhance their developments skills and learn at the same time.

                I would love to rewind time to go re-live my childhood where I could play like that again. I used to go into my backyard we my sisters and friends and we would pretend to be mothers. We would take care of our babies (baby dolls or the youngest child that was playing with us). We would also pretend to cook food by pulling weeds for our greens/salad, make mud pies for cakes/cornbread and stems for our spaghetti. We would also pretend to sit around on the porch and talk like my mother and her friends.  I remember spending hours outside playing around my neighborhood. Everyone seemed to get alone with one another and if anything happens everyone knew about it. In my neighborhood I can truly say; knew each other, we all live together in peace, respect each other and took care of one another. 

Relationship Reflection

            Relationship is important to me because it allows me to be part of a group of people  ( my family, friends or extended family) I can trust and build a positive connection with;  where we together can share our love, common interest, grow together, our opinions and give support to each other. "Human relationships, and the effects of relationships on relationships, are the building blocks of healthy development" (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000, p. 4).

The people with whom I currently have positive relationship with are my husband for over eighteen years, four children, mother and four sisters.

            My husband Albert is a very big support to me. He supportive me throughout my educational experience by taking care of our children when I had to spend long hour doing homework and he was there for my graduation experience. Albert also seems to understand the sacrifices I had to make throughout my schooling and care. Albert always offered help by giving me advice, being willing to read my paper with positive feedback and he was just that shoulder I would always cry on many times when I got frustrated. 

             My mother Lela  encourages me and always give me good advice and that push I need every time I felt like throwing in the towel. She would always say “you don’t have that long to go, before you know it, it will be all over and you will be walking across that stage”. My mother gave me hope and the will power to continue to work hard for every degree I earn so far.

            My children Destiny, Desirae, Deanna and Jonathan all supported me by behaving every time they knew I had to do homework. There are times now when my children would come into the room and see me doing homework and say sorry, as though they disturb me. My children would go ask their father first, before they would come to disturb me.   

            My sister Sadie, Sonya, Pearl, and Bernadette all encourage me to keep up the good work. They all tell me how proud they are of me to the point they all are willing to go back to school themselves. My sisters always ask me about my will-being. They would always give me advice by saying, “don’t overdo it” or “burn yourself out”.

            My relationships with my husband, children, mother and sisters all have a positive impact on my life, because they support my growth and development especially during my educational experience. I can go to them for whatever and they are available which make it a little easier for me at time. The special characteristics I see in my husband, children, mother and sister are patience, supportive, encourages and being mindful of my well-being or space. My family helps me to do my best in school, as I learn different strategies, important information about children growth and development and by learning how to become a teacher who is willing to support each student in my classroom. Good family support will give you strength to accomplish many goals and build you up in areas where help is needed. “The family engagement literature clearly supports the importance of strong partnerships between families and early childhood education programs (National Association for the Education of Young Children, 2009). 

Children’s Quotes

  

“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children”

-Charles Swindoll

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn”

-Benjamin Franklin

“It is not what you do for your children, but what you have taught them to do for themselves, that will make them successful human beings”

-Ann Landers

“We start out as pretty creative beings…Children let their imaginations take them to place they’ve never seen and do things that seen impossible. We encourage it as fun and playtime, but we should celebrate it as the potential for great discovery and accomplishment “

-Harvey MacKay

Testing for Intelligence?

          I believe children developments can be either measure or assessed in order for the assessor can look at the whole child.  It is helpful to assess the younger children. However older children’s abilities can be measure through standardized test in order to see where their strength, needs and challenges are.

          Working with infants/toddlers for the last past thirteen years it has been helpful to assessed children in the area of developmental domains. These developmental domains consist of cognitive, language, physical, social and emotional. I believe assessing these areas will allow the assessor to view the children holistically. The assessment tool such as an Ages Stages Questionnaires and an Ages Stages Questionnaires Social Emotional let us see what a child can or cannot do.  Also, these ASQ and ASQ/SE will help the person administering the assessment tools keep track of a child’s progress as well.

In what ways are school-age children assessed in other parts of the world?  I have chosen do look at the way the children in Dubai are assessed. The Indian Academy in Dubai: Inspire Innovate Achieve

Children in Dubai are assessed against clear and realistic expectations in the form of learning outcome. There are no formal assessment, all planning starts with an observation in order to understand of children interests, developments and learning. Also in Dubai babies and young children are observed and assessed by the way they play, explore and by their individual learning style. After the observational assessment practitioners then begin assessing the child’s developing skills, understanding, knowledge, attitudes and disposition. In programming level teachers designs ways for children to demonstrate their understanding and ability by applying particular concepts and skills.

Reference:

(2012) Assessment. The Indian Academy. Retrieved from HTTP://www.india

          Nacademydubai.com/assessment. aspx