"The Common Core"

The NAEYC, remains a strong voice and guiding point for early childhood professionals to turn to for research-based knowledge and information. The NAEYC website has many topics that address current issues and trends in education. The topic of “Common Core State Standards” stood out to me this week on the website. The Common Core affects children in grades K-12 and may begin to affect what is expected to be taught at the preschool level. The Common Core is a set of national standards that has been accepted by most states. The idea is to make the standards for English Language Arts and Math consistent across the nation for each grade level and for completion of high school (NAEYC, 2012). I teach at the high school level in Oregon, which has adopted the standards beginning this school year, and the standards have been the topic of many professional development meetings. It is a change that requires much adjustment and worry for our students trying to pass a new standardized test for graduation. Are the standards too high? Are all schools provided the same resources and means to meet the standards?

The article, “The common core state standards: Caution and opportunity for early childhood education,” focuses on the impact that the Common Core may have on the early childhood field and discusses concerns of early childhood professionals. “These [unintended] consequences include concerns about the allocation of time and resources to support the content of the Common Core relative to areas not included in these standards, and about the means by which schools will assess children’s progress in meeting the standards” (NAEYC, 2012 p. 4). Will the Common Core create a large push for language arts and math to be the main focus in pre-K programs across the nation? Are the standards developmentally appropriate? “Especially critical is maintaining methods of instruction that include a range of approaches—including the use of play as well as both small- and large-group instruction—that are considered to be developmentally appropriate for young children” (NAEYC, 2012 p. 7)

Reference:

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). 2012. The Common Core State Standards: Caution and Opportunity for Early Childhood Education. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Childhood Poverty

Unfortunately, I never heard back from the international early childhood professionals that I reached out to through e-mail. So I visited the UNICEF website to read about childhood poverty. I chose to read about poverty in Mexico, because it is so close to the United States and seems to affect our country a great deal also.

Although the economy in Mexico is slightly improving, poverty is still prevalent in the country. “In 2010, 46.2% of Mexico’s residents lived in poverty – a figure that rises to 53.8% among children, who are overrepresented among the poor. Nearly 14% of Mexican children under five are stunted – a figure that is higher in rural areas and reaches nearly 33% among indigenous children” (UNICEF, 2013 p. 1).  The rural areas of Southern Mexico have the worst poverty, with higher under-five mortality rates and maternal mortality rates. Access to health care and sufficient nutrition remain a problem especially in rural areas. “Chronic malnutrition amongst children remains high: 13.6% of under-fives in 2012 (1.5 million) and 27.5% in rural and indigenous areas in the south” (UNICEF, 2013 p. 2). Another problem resulting from poverty is a child’s access to an education. Many children living in poverty in Mexico have to work instead of going to school, making it almost impossible to ever change things for their personal future (UNICEF, 2013).

Reference:

UNICEF (2013, Apr 3). Mexico: Government and UNICEF launch ground-breaking

study addressing child poverty. Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/media_68584.html

UNICEF (2013). UNICEF Annual Report 2013 — Mexico. Retrieved from

http://www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/Mexico_COAR_2013.pdf

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Website Resource

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)

http://www.naeyc.org/

The NAEYC website is an excellent resource with information about a broad range of topics related to the early childhood field. “The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the world’s largest organization working on behalf of young children” (http://www.naeyc.org/content/about-naeyc). The NAEYC provides professional development opportunities, including a national conference for early childhood professionals and by becoming a member you can receive a periodical with research articles related to current topics and issues.

The organizations policy statements are available on their website and provide a great resource for creating your own policies and for learning about what is considered best practices on topics varying from technology to school readiness and literacy. One issue that caught my attention was the position statement on “responding to linguistic and cultural diversity”  (NAEYC, 2009).  The statement reminds early childhood professionals of the importance of maintaining the child’s home language and the value of involving parents in the program. It is a teacher’s responsibility to make sure families feel respected and valued (NAEYC, 2009). Another position statement that caught my attention was on the topic of violence in the media. The statement explained that the research shows that exposure to violence in the media has three proven negative effects on children, “children become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others; they may become more fearful of the world around them; and they may be more likely to behave in aggressive or harmful ways toward others” (NAEYC, 1994 p. 1). Although this information is nothing new, it is still resonates with me because of how much television most young children watch. My family watches movies at home but we do not watch T.V. and it is always surprising to me when I do watch television somewhere away from home. Even the commercials are so violent sometimes. My daughter has not been exposed to much television and is very sensitive to action and drama in movies. Most Disney movies are even too scary for her to watch. I think it is sad what some children are exposed to by television.

Resources:

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (1994). Media Violence in

 Children’s Lives: A Position Statement of the National Association for the

 Education of Young Children. Retrieved from

http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSMEVI98.PDF

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2009). NAEYC: Where We

 Stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved from

http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf

Expanding Resources and Contacts

This week I attempted to contact a few professionals in the Early Childhood field from around the world. I used the list of professionals off of the NAEYC Global Alliance website and emailed professionals in China, Georgia, Nigeria, South Africa, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines, and Singapore. Unfortunately, about half of the emails came back with a notice of "undeliverable." I am waiting to hear back from the others that went through, but I may have to do the alternative assignment.

I recently became a member of the National Association for Education of Young Children, but had not found the time yet to explore the resources on their website. So I am excited about this assignment. I have found many useful articles in the Young Children magazine that is sent out to all the members, and so I chose to further explore the www.naeyc.org website throughout this course. Today I logged in as a member of the organization and found access to many new resources.

My Supports

Many different supports help me through my daily life. I have a husband who helps support me and our daughter financially, emotionally and physically. Both my husband's family and my family combined offer moral support and although they don't live close by they would be available in an emergency situation. We have many friends that help us through our daily lives also, sometimes we need someone to talk to, or to babysit for a short time, or to borrow something, or to give us a ride somewhere. It is nice to have friends to call on for help and also to return the favors to later! Friends and family are the biggest supports in my life.

I teach Early Childhood Education to high school students, and I am the director of the high school's child development center. At work I have a few teachers in my department that are always available for advice and sometimes just for encouragement. When I started this job a couple years ago, co-workers were there to teach me the ropes and make sure that I had everything I needed. They were very helpful and wanted me to succeed. I still couldn't do my job today without the help of my co-workers.  Working with special needs students; I rely on the special education department for information, tools and sometimes extra staff in my classroom. In terms of classroom management, I rely on the administrative staff for support at certain times. The staff at the high school works as a team to help each other whenever we can.

I have known many families over the years that have dealt with the battle against cancer. If I were ever to face that challenge, I would rely even more on friends, family, and co-workers. I would need people at work to take over some of my responsibilities and at home I would need help caring for my family and for myself. I hope that I do not have to face the challenge of a serious illness. If I did I would need help getting to doctor's appointments and treatments. I might need help paying for the high costs of the medical bills also. It is hard to imagine all the ways something like that would impact my life but I just wouldn't be able to handle all the things I currently do. Other people would have to take over some of the responsibilities. I am lucky to have family and friends that I think would be there to help.

My Connections to Play

"Mastery is the goal. Competence is the reward. And play is the means. Play is children's work. Through toys, games, role plays, and imaginative use of equipment and materials, children develop physically, intellectually, linguistically, emotionally, and socially."

"Play is the great equalizer. It is universal, natural human pursuit."

Reference:

Rivera, M. (2009). The powerful effect of play in a child's education. Education Digest, 75(2), 50-52.

As a young child, I remember wanting to play all the time. It was a natural part of growing up, that I can't imagine living without. Through play, I developed friendships, stayed active, and learned about the world from my older siblings. Growing up in a large family, there was always someone to play with and we always had neighbors that we got together with as well. We lived out of town in the country for much of my childhood and the neighbors, my siblings, and myself explored the area on our bikes a lot. We rode trails, packed lunches, explored abandoned homes, picked berries, and more on our bikes. We talked and developed friendships while we enjoyed the outdoors together. While riding bikes we would talk to each other, making conversation and learning from each other. Other games that we enjoyed playing and did so over and over again through the years are baseball and capture the flag. We always had enough kids to break up into teams and play games that would last all day long. Playing capture the flag was exciting and involved lots of strategy, spying, and running around! 

My parents supported play by making sure that wherever we lived we had opportunities to play outdoors. Every time we moved, one of the first things my dad would do was build a play structure with swings, a slide, and a fort. They always made sure that our house was a safe place for us to live and freely play. Today my role in play is to support my daughter by interacting with her in her favorite play times. She is five and loves pretend play. She loves to play in her bedroom and loves to dance. I provide opportunities for her to play with friends and provide a safe environment for her to explore and play in. I also have to limit her time watching television. Even with how much my daughter loves to be active and play, I have found that television and electronics can be very addictive. I think it is one of the biggest changes that I have seen working with children and teenagers. The role of electronics is very powerful and changes many of their social interactions. They are not as active and many of their interactions are not face-to-face anymore. For my daughter, I hope to find a good balance between play and the media. I understand the importance of play and love to watch my daughter interact with other children and express herself through dance and play. 

I believe that play is important for all ages. Everyone needs to have personal interests and fun physical activity in their lives!

Here are a few pictures from my childhood. Bikes allowed us to explore and play structures allowed us to  develop play schemes and games easier.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships create meaning and shape everyday experiences for people of all ages. For children in particular relationships are of extreme importance. "All learning takes place in the context of relationships and is critically affected by the quality of those relationships" (Edelman, 2004 p. 1). Currently, I have many relationships that affect my daily life. When I think of healthy relationships, I think that loyalty, trust, compassion, respect, empathy, love, stability, and predictability are just a few of the things that hold them together. My husband and daughter are the most important relationships in my life right now, and they shape all of my day-to-day decisions and actions. My friends, extended family, co-workers, students and students' families are other relationships that affect my life.

Relationships are important to me because people in a relationship support each other and uplift each other. They help each other through difficult times, and they bring joy to each other in times of happiness. Relationships are not easy to maintain. Every relationship that I have ever been in takes time and effort to maintain. It takes work to make it grow, but a positive relationship is worth all the hard work. Communication and compromise have been key to maintaining my relationships.

My relationships at work and my relationships at home affect each other greatly. As much as I would like to always keep them separate, both are such a big part of my life it is impossible. My professional experience working with students, families, and co-workers has taught me patience and emotional control. I feel that it has benefitted my personal relationships at home greatly. Having positive and strong relationships at home motivates me to maintain a positive attitude at work and keep striving for improvement. I am dedicating this space on my blog to the relationships most important in my life, my husband and daughter.

Reference:

Edelman, L. (2004). A relationship-based approach to early intervention. Resources and Connections, 3(2). Retrieved fromhttp://olms.cte.jhu.edu/olms/data/resource/1144/A%20Relationship-based%20Approach%20to%20Early%20Intervention.pdf