Sharing Web Resources- Week 6

I have been following the Harlem Children’s Zone organization for the last four weeks. During this time frame, I have learned a great deal of information pertaining to the early childhood field. As I clicked on the tab titled “Early Childhood,” I came across a section titled “Harlem Gems.” I knew that this early childhood organization was dedicated in helping the children and families in Harlem but I did not know that they had a program specifically designed to the early childhood field called Harlem Gems.

Harlem Gems is an all-day pre-kindergarten program that gets children ready to enter kindergarten. Classes have a 4:1 child-to-adult ratio, teach English, Spanish and French, and run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. HCZ runs three pre-kindergarten sites, serving 200 children. I found this to be quite remarkable. The fact that they have professionals who are bilingual in Spanish and French is very impressive. I am a little fluent in Spanish but hope to take a language course to refresh what I already know and to expand on that as it will benefit not only me but my students and their families.

I did sign up to receive newsletters through this website but I have not received any recent news lately. Immediately, I went to the search engine and typed in “equity.” A link popped up titled “Workshop Descriptions” and I clicked on it. Upon reading the article, I found that it features four workshop series, one of which includes engaging the community and assessing needs. It went into depth about how developing a strong and ongoing relationship with the community is critical to ensure an initiative is addressing needs that are important to the community, that the initiative evolves as the community does, and that community leaders and adults understand the role they need to play as role models for young people as well as how the surrounding environment strongly affects children’s growth and development. This information really did add to my understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education. I learned this week that not many families are able to access education for their children. At least this organization is involving the community in deciding what needs need to be met and how to exactly go by doing that.

Other insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field that I gained this week from exploring this website are:

• Strong leadership at multiple levels forms the lynchpin of a successful initiative.

• A strong commitment to setting, measuring, and analyzing both intermediate metrics and long-term intended impact is critical to ensure that a neighborhood-based initiative can continuously assess and modify programs and practices to achieve its mission and to sustain committed high level funders.

• Collaborations with other organizations can be an effective and efficient way to bring together services and expertise for families you serve.

References:

Harlem Children’s Zone (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.hcz.org/  

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

For this week’s blog, I was so taken aback by the issues related to excellence and equity in the early childhood field that I wanted to share with my colleagues what I have learned, in addition to the insights I gained about early childhood systems around the globe from Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website (http://developingchild.harvard.edu/initiatives/global_initiative/).

In an article titled “Early childhood care and education: Worldwide challenges and progress,” many developing countries are now focusing their attention to “early” childhood education of children from birth to age four. Apparently, there is a huge debate on where the brink of education begins for a child. According to this article, it is believed that many “researchers claim that growth and development starts at birth or even during the prenatal period” (Teachers College, Columbia University, 2009). Regardless if this is true or not, learning during the early years is critical for any child in every country. It is even revealed that the quality of such programs must be beneficial for children. There are not only inequities in the early childhood field in America but also in countries such as Zambia.

After thoroughly exploring the Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website, three insights I gained about early childhood systems around the globe are as followed:

• Out of all three of the domains that the Global Children’s Initiative has begun to build a portfolio of activities for, each of these domains is being guided by a designated faculty working group that will facilitate continuing cross-disciplinary collaboration.

• International discussions of child-related policies and practices often fail to make the vital connection between child survival, one of the developing world’s most pressing issues, and child development, an equally important prerequisite for productive and harmonious societies.

• The Global Children’s Initiative is the centerpiece of the Center on the Developing Child’s global child health and development agenda.

References:

Teachers College, Columbia University. (2009). Early childhood care and education: Worlwide challenges and progress. Current Issues in Comparative Education, 11, 1–44. Retrieved from http://www.tc.columbia.edu/cice/Issues/11.00/PDFs/11_Complete_Issue.pdf

Sharing Web Resources- Harlem Children's Zone

For the last couple weeks I have studied the Harlem Children’s Zone website. At the heart of their work is the desire to prevent another generation of young people in Harlem from being lost to poverty. I found this organization to be very inspirational in decreasing poverty in a section of New York that often falls prey to this issue.

As I visited the website, the section that caught my attention was the issues that this organization addresses. One issue that I have educated myself enormously on this week is poverty. In an article by the founder of HCZ, Geoffrey Canada, titled “Winning the War on Poverty through Education,” Canada talks about his fulfillment in ending the long-lost war on poverty and providing a high quality education for all children. This information is particularly relevant to my current professional development because there is so much that I can do as an educator to help end this war on poverty. Children should not have to suffer such an ordeal and more importantly, every child should have a means to education.

What I found interesting on the website is how HCZ has this elaborate growth plan that benefits only the children in Harlem. I really commend Canada for initiating such a great organization that has turned many of the lives of children and their families in Harlem around. What about the rest of the cities in the country that are overpowered by poverty? What can we do to ensure that they have a growth plan that focuses on the children and their education? I feel that if there is a way to get funds to this particular program, then there should be a way to get funds to other programs as well that are deemed effective in the early childhood field.

I actually ran across a current article via the website that was published just yesterday announcing Geoffrey Canada as the recipient of the second Harvard Graduate School of Education Medal for Education Impact, the highest honor given by the Ed School. Clearly, economists, neuroscientists, and politicians give a huge thanks to a man who has devoted his life to the succession of all children. No one really has a problem investing in this program because its outcomes are unbelievable. This organization is life-changing for children who thought maybe an education was out of the question. With an organization like HCZ, the future is very bright for not only children and their families but for this nation.

There are so many good people out there who have devoted their life to children and their future. It is one of the reasons why I decided to go into the early childhood field in the first place. I wanted to reach children at an age that is the most important in gearing them in the right direction. I learned that yeah, poverty is out there but just acknowledging it is just the beginning. Educators like Geoffrey Canada founded an organization that has proven successful beyond the eyes of society. It is amazing what a vision can start out to be and what it grows to become. I know that the early childhood field is a field worth investing in because children are the essence of this world. We need them more than we know. It is truly great what great insights I gained from exploring HCZ’s website. It is one of the many successful organizations that are leading us into a brighter future.

Getting To Know Your International Contacts- Part 1

I still have not received any response from the three early childhood professionals from South Africa, Philippines, and Bulgaria. I am not giving up hope because I know that even if I received one email from one of the professionals that I can learn a great deal about early childhood education from their standpoint.

I listened to the podcast of Susan Lyon on the World Forum Radio. After her encountered with a young boy’s conception of the word “city,” she began pondering about the way children think. This led her to bring the “100 Languages of Children” exhibit to the San Francisco Bay area (the Northern side) subsequently visiting Reggio Emilia. Upon deeper inspection of listening to the podcast with Susan Lyon, I learned that she communicates her passion for young children and how children see and understand the world around them.  Throughout her professional career she found ways to advocate for young children through her projects and exhibits.  It is with these projects that opened the door for collaboration between public and private schools, discussion groups, round tables, and professional development.  

After reading about all the countries presented to me on poverty on the website of the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s page, the one that really intrigued me was Kyrgyzstan. I was unaware of some of the information that this website displayed. Even though Kyrgyzstan’s health and education levels are still much higher than in countries with a similar income, I still find it troubling how the use of kindergartens has declined from 30 per cent at independence to 6 per cent in 2001. Kindergarten is an important year for all young children to grow and develop certain skills that are vital to learning.

Three insights that I gained from studying the website are as followed:

• The importance of education in young children’s lives is vital. Education helps in the development of young children, physically, mentally, and socially.
• Poverty is perceived as being generational and we have to do everything in our power to prevent poverty cycles.
• No child under the age of 16 should be working in any country. School should be the number one priority. 

Sharing Web Resources

Last week, I was asked to contact two early childhood professionals from around the world. At first, I e-mailed seven early childhood professionals. I then realized out of those seven early childhood professionals, only four bounced back. I haven’t heard anything from the other three but I am waiting patiently. I took it upon myself to email nine more early childhood professionals but all nine of those bounced back. So, in total I e-mailed sixteen early childhood professionals.

In the meantime, I did the alternative assignment on the early childhood organization The Harlem’s Children Zone. The link to the website is http://www.hcz.org/. The Harlem’s Children Zone is one of many early childhood organizations that main focus is ending poverty for children and their families. It is an organization that is helping make a difference for children and families who did not believe in a better outcome in life. I liked what I saw on the website so I decided to subscribe to the newsletter. The types of issues that The Harlem’s Children Zone newsletter addresses are community, education, children, poverty, and health. The newsletter does a great job focusing on all of its issues.

Out of all the issues that the website presented to me, one issue that caught my attention was the education. Since 1970, The Harlem’s Children Zone has worked with families of young children who missed school on a daily basis. The goal of The Harlem’s Children Zone is to get all of their children into and through college successfully through a wide range of programs. They operate pre-school programs, after-school programs, and high-quality charter schools.  It is really quite remarkable what this organization is achieving with the children and families of Harlem.

Besides cultural diversity, I learned that there are many other issues that need to be addressed in the early childhood program such as poverty, health, and community. Every child needs to be in a community that supports and encourages education. We all have to work together to ensure that our children’s future is bright. 

Contacts for Early Childhood Professionals Around the World

Over the last couple of days, I have waited patiently for one out of the seven early childhood professionals that I have contacted to e-mail me back. Six out of the seven early childhood professionals that I contacted bounced back (the one from Philippines). Hopefully, my contact from the Philippines will contact me soon. In the meantime, I will search for additional early childhood professionals and will let my fellow colleagues know any leads that I may get. I sent e-mails to South Africa, China, Philippines, Singapore, Hungary, Ireland, and Lithuania. My e-mail went like this:

My name is Stacy Thomas. I am in my fourth Masters Course in Education at Walden University Online. As my first assignment, I was asked to establish contacts with early childhood professionals around the world. I am interested in developing a professional relationship with you so that I can gain insights from how early childhood education over there is different from here in America. Thus, from the insights I gain from our conversations, I hope to take some of the advice that you share with me and implement them in some of my classes. Over the next eight weeks, if you decide to communicate with me once a week, I would love to learn as much as possible about your work, the state of the early childhood field in your country, your concerns, as well as your hopes and dreams. My email address is stacy.thomas9767@gmail.com. I hope to hear from you soon!

Stacy Thomas

With the websites that were provided for me to study, the early childhood organization that caught my attention was The Harlem's Children Zone. I know for a fact that it is a community-based organized that is specifically designed to enhance the quality of life for children and families. I have never been to New York but if I ever decided to visit one day, I would be honor to contribute my time to such an organization. I remember watching 60 Minutes a couple months ago and how impactful I found the segment on The Harlem's Children Zone. It is amazing how even education still perserveres when life is trying to knock it down. I have really enjoyed studying this website and I definitely look forward to learning fresh information on the topic.

I know that I have not established any contacts, but for those who have, was it a difficult process to tackle? And if so, how did you find the means to not give up?