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?
I hate to be a downer, but I have tried contacting early childhood professionals in the past through the same website and the emails always bounced back. However, I love to listen to the podcasts. They put our work in perspective, especially the way children around the world are facing similar issues such as poverty, maltreatment, neglect, abuse, and the list goes on. The podcasts also affirm that early childhood professionals around the world are ready to address those issues and work on behalf of the children. I will be reading your reflections on the Harlem Children Zone. So many people have chosen that site, and that makes me even more interested. Good luck with this course and the upcoming ones.
ReplyDeleteI think that your email was excellent; it is clear that your lack of contacts is not from a lack of trying. I too, was discouraged because I had several emails returned to my inbox as undeliverable. I then started to research the colleges in other countries to find professors of education that may be able to help me contact someone and so far I have had one positive response. I hope that this week holds some replies for all of us that have not obtained two contacts.
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