Getting to Know Your International Contacts

The childhood poverty research and policy center website gives me great insight on poverty in China. China is a country that I dream of visiting someday because it is a country that has a lot of culture and is well known globally. The first insight I gained from the website is that in 2001 five percent of the population lived below the national poverty line (CHIP, N.D.). I cannot imagine anyone living below the poverty line; it means that they can go days without eating. The second insight I gained is that poverty is due to far-reaching process of the economic and social transition. In the 1988 people that lived in the west was 3 times more likely to be poor and by 1998 they were 6 time more likely to be poor (CHIP, N.D.). In fact it seems that things did not get better for those who lived in the west. The third insight is that the Chinese people still continue to live in poverty. In fact, 4.2 million Chinese children are living in poverty and 8.7 million live in disadvantaged condition. Another insight I got is that the Chinese people value education and good health. They do not need to have a lot of money to make sure that their children have the best education or know how to read and write. For example CHIP, N.D. stated that about 85 percent of the population aged over 15 is literate. That tells me the Chinese family do not let poverty stop their children from learning, dreaming big, become an educator, or to be all they can be

. It tells me they are a fighter and achievers.

Reference:

CHIP (N.D). Childhood poverty research and policy center. Retrieved from http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/

Sharing Web Resources

The website I chose is Zero to Three: National Center for Infant, Toddlers, and Families. It can be found at http://www.zerotothree.org. Zero to Three is a nonprofit organization that focuses on helping professionals and parents understanding the well-being of the children. Their mission statement is to promote healthy development of infants and toddlers through adulthood. My goal as a professional it to stay knowledgeable on the issues and trends that affected the early childhood education field, therefore I found Zero to Three to be one of the best website that will work for me because they have information about behavior and development. The site is a place where I can read about why play is important in a child’s life as well as read about early childhood mental health and the steps parents take to help their child build a positive social life style. There are so many great benefits to this website that can help me stay inform in the relevant issues.

 Another website that caught my interest is The National Association for the Education of Young Children. It can be found at http://wwwnaeyc.org. This website is for one of the largest organization that works collaboratively with other early childhood organizations to provide children with a solid foundation academically through adulthood. They have great resources for teachers, early childhood providers, and parents to help keep children safe and healthy through adulthood. Some of the things that can be found on this website are articles about issues that affect the way children are learning or the early childhood professionals, we can learn about steps to take when pursuing accreditation for a learning center, attending conference to stay knowledgeable on the issues that may affected us as early childhood professionals.

One current issue and trend from the Zero to Three website is about children that are facing maltreatment on a daily basis. According to Zero to Three (2012) “Children from birth to three continue to be the age group most likely to be maltreated.¹ Most of these maltreated babies are under age one, and more than 1/3 were harmed during their first week of life. In addition to the negative and sometimes lasting impact on development, health, and mental health, child abuse costs this country a conservatively estimated $103.8 billion each year” (para.1). The goal here is to keep working on creating a better environment for those children that are born in an abusive environment by providing parents and caregivers the necessary tools for a better outcome.

Each of the websites that I chose have a different focus, but both have similar goals is to help individuals that have a passion to help young children as an extraordinary educator by providing those professionals tools to help them accomplish their goals.

References:

http://www.naeyc.org/

http://www.zerotothree.org/maltreatment/child-abuse-neglect/reports-highlight-impact-of.html

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I did not know it was going to be so hard to establish some type of professional contact with overseas individuals in the early childhood education field. My goal was to get in contact with someone in Haiti because I want to share my knowledge and experience to see if I can help make a difference on how children are learning as an individual. Unfortunately I was unable to connect with anyone therefore I have chosen the alternative to complete part 1 assignment.  As far as choosing a website for the part 2 of the assignment, it was challenging because there are so many websites to choose from and I feel like I can learn from every single professional websites. I am looking forward to enhancing my knowledge on issues and trends in the early childhood education field as well as learn how to apply what I learn to my career. With that said I ended up choosing Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families can be found on http://www.zerotothree.org and The National Association for the Education of Young Children can be found at http://www.naeyc.org. I am also looking to learn everything I can about issues and trends.