Shanae's Blog

The website that I choose to review was http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/index.php. This website was related to offering educational resources in Sub-Saharan Africa. The resource is basically a virtual school /university that caters to those who would like to pursue the field of early childhood education. This website is a valuable resource because it provides an opportunity for those who may not normally have chance to a quality higher education get educated and serve their country. The website offers courses in professional leadership, child development, and the principles and practises of early childhood education. There is also a news letter on the website that showcases some of the happenings that are taking place with the students of ECDVU. This website is extremely valuable and useful to promote learning for educators and their future students.

  The research topic that I would explore if I had the opportunity would be how can childhood cancers be prevented or reversed within the womb.  Curesearch.org provides these statistics about childhood cancer: Every day, 43 children are diagnosed with cancer. 12% of children diagnosed with cancer do not survive. Children’s cancer affects all ethnic, gender and socio-economic groups. The average age of children diagnosed is six. More than 40,000 children undergo treatment for cancer each year. If I could I would try to have the mothers of an unborn child screened so that the cancer if detected could be treated early. Or I would try to figure out if there was a pattern or some type of genetic code that is more prevalent in mothers that give birth to children that have or develop cancer. I have not thought about how this would be conducted without harming the mother or the fetus. However, maybe there could be some way to test the amniotic fluid or a method along those l...

     The research topic that I chose to explore is poverty. This topic became very pertinent to me within our last course. I choose to explore how children that have to deal with the effects of poverty have lasting issues into adulthood. I think that this issue is very important because poverty is a worldwide issue that can effect anyone at anytime. In addition, your neighbor could be living in poverty and you may not even know.      A resource that I plan to use is the Baltimore County Library resource database. This database is excellent and I have used it to help me find many articles relevant to topics that I was exploring.

     Learning about international early childhood field has been enriching as well as informative. I was able to acquire many new resources and as well as a great deal of new information. I was also able to expand upon my knowledge of previous resources such as the NAEYC website. From this course, I have been able to get a better understanding of issues that effect children not just on a global level, but on an international standpoint.      Issues such as poverty resonate within my mind and have awaken my sense of curiosity on several issues. I was also able to learn about economists and politicians as early childhood advocates which was very interesting, because I was unaware of these professions contribution to the field. In addition, I was also able to become extremely familiar with the NIEER website and all of the great information that it has to offer. I also appreciated the feedback and research that my fellow classmates provided. All of the af...

     O ne of the main issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals that is being discussed where I live in work is basically the compensation. It is extremely difficult to be compensated justly in my area even with experience and a degree. Many people do not want to be in the field just based on the amount of work and patience that is required, but not being compensated for. In addition, many people in my area think that what we do is just daycare or a place for their children to stay during the day. II would say that you only have about 50% of parents or less that are really concerned with what their children are actually learning.       There are many opportunities for professional development throughout the city. There is the Baltimore City Childcare Resource center which offers lots of opportunities for educators to expand their horizons. The resource center offers courses from basics like CPR and First Aide to sign language and ...

     For this weeks assignment I looked over the resources on the Center for the developing child's website. When I researched the site I came across several things that I found interesting. I learned that Brazil is trying to make great efforts for its policy makers to promote reform in the sector of early childhood education. These efforts include ideals such as offering an executive leadership course for policy makers. This course is used to help policy makers gain more knowledge on the inequalities in childhood education and how these inequalities can be reformed. In addition, Brazil is also gathering together groups of professionals called "innovation clusters " that work to address a specific unmet need in the field of early childhood education. These clusters are made up of researchers and developers who will assist in the advancement of the field.  In addition,  the website is working to translate all of its resources into Portuguese for its Brazilian aud...

     While researching the NIEER website. I appreciated the web resources that linked directly to YouTube videos. I feel that as an emerging educator that technology must be Incorporated to assist in sustaining my professional development. The YouTube videos not only are informative, they make the topics more interesting to read about and view. There are many article on the website that have opposing views on topics related to early childhood. These resources helped me to gain a better understanding of early childhood education and some of its initiatives at the present time. The state of preschool and head start portions of the website allows the reader to review the current state of affairs in those sectors. There are many articles that bring to light how economists feel about investing in children's education. Here are the links for two of those articles:  http://talkbusiness.net/2017/03/forward-arkansas-group-says-state-needs-20-million-investment-to-keep-...

     The organization that I selected is the National Institute for Education Research. The website for this resource is www.nieer.org.   The primary focus of this organization is to conduct and analyze research that pertains to early childhood education. The purpose of the research that the organization conducts is to improve and monitor programs in the field of early childhood education.      One article in particular that stood out to me on the website was entitled States Lack Information, Policy for Young Dual Language Learners by Alexandra Figueras-Damiel. This article was very interesting to say the least. The article basically explained that states that are being allotted money to support young dual language learners (DLL), may not be utilizing the resources adequately. The author suggested that some states have not reported a correct number of dual language learners, so in that respect some children  may be missing out on assistance. I...

When completing the blog assignment this week I was able to browse several podcasts on the World Forum website. One I chose to listen to was given by Ebenezar Lartey. The video was about how Lartey went about building connections in early childhood education to promote change within the African community. Lartey stated that he did not have much knowledge of the Early Childhood Education field at first, however as he learned more about the profession he spread the word and is advocating for children and their rights. The link for the video is here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a526o1HJgT8  . The way that I attempted to establish a connection with the World Forum was by subscribing to their youtube channel. This will ensure that I receive notifications, when a new video or commentary appears. The website that I chose to explore was the National Institute for Early Childhood Education Research http://nieer.org/publications . I chose this resource because there is so much...

   When I think of the term supports, I think of not only people but things that support e each day and help me to remain calm and organized. Each day or almost each day, I try to center myself , by using my faith and giving myself a positive pep talk. I feel that a good day must first start with having a positive and clear mind. I also try to make a list of tasks each day of things that I need to accomplish so that my day will run smoother. I do not usually complete all of the tasks , but I do try to get some things done each day, and I feel more accomplished at the end of the day knowing that I have completed at least one thing. In addition, I would say that my child is my support, being with her motivates to get up each day and to do what is necessary so that she can be taken of.  She has such a positive attitude with me. If it seems that i am down, she knows just what to say to cheer me up. In addition, I have very good family support, If I need help with ...

                                           Play represented for me:                                             Essential Play Items for my younger self:              When I was younger people, mostly, your parents supported play by encouraging outside time. After school, I would do my homework and then head outside to play with my friends. We would play cooperative games such as hide and seek and tag. We would also ride bikes and do cheers in the neighborhood. My parents would often tell me to go out and play and give me a set time to come in. The time was usually, when the lights on the street lamps came on. I was an only child, so I had every toy and game imaginable. My parents would also encourage me to in...

     Relationships and partnerships are very important to me. I believe that relationships are what make the world complete. With this being said, relationships whether personal or professional shape a person, their thoughts and their experiences. I believe that without some type of relationship or human contact people would be devoid of feelings such as compassion, understanding and empathy. There are several people who I have positive relationships with.  The first person that I have a positive relationship with is my daughter. I try to maintain a positive relationship with her and be a good female role model to her because I grew up without a mother. I strive to show my daughter what it means to be understanding, fair , and compassionate. I also try to instill morals in her at an early age so that she will be able to identify with people's feelings and with ideals that are right and wrong.  Another person that I try to maintain a positive rel...

Several quotes that were meaningful to me in regard to child development are                         These quotes are an excellent representaion of the idea of child development and growth.