Sharing Web Resources

First off, I want to apologize for my late posting this evening! I usually try to get my work done in the morning, but found out yesterday afternoon that my Grandpappy passed away so I've had a hard time concentrating on my school work. But I finally got some motivation to finish it tonight, so here we go! 

While searching through the Pre-K website, I found an article that was relevant to looking through an economists eyes at the benefits of early childhood education. According to Albert Wat (2007), the Pre-K now’s research on several high-quality pre-k programs (for children ages 3 to 4) have confirmed that children who attend high-quality pre-k are more likely to graduate from high school and acquire secondary education. Pre-K now’s research also validates that a more educated workforce increases a nation’s productivity. Pre-K Now’s research concentrated on early childhood education’s impact on the nation’s macroeconomic growth and provides reasoning for growth in investing in nationwide Pre-K programs.  Through studying the research done by Pre-K Now and really focusing on how economists view the importance and value of Pre-K programs, I just wonder what it will take for our society and government to take action and make it available for ALL children. Also in the article by Wat (2007) he mapped out the lifetime benefits of Pre-K.

Some examples are:

Education Impacts

• Lower special education
• Lower grade retention
• Increased high school completion
• Increased test scores

Social & Emotional Impacts

• Fewer behavioral problems
• More self control
• Improved peer relationships

Economy Impacts

• Increased Earnings & Tax Revenues
• Decreased Reliance on Social Services/Welfare
• Decreased Criminal Activity

Child Well Being

• Less child abuse, neglect, and maltreatment 

Improved Health Behaviors

• Less Reliance on Health Services
• Better Health Outcomes

More Skilled Workforce

• Increased Productivity
• Higher employment
• Higher earnings

A new insights about issues and trends in the early childhood field that I have gained from exploring the Pre-K website is that with the ongoing research and studies being done in our field, other professionals in varying fields are starting to see the importance and value of what we do. It makes me feel proud to be part of something that even thought we don’t get the recognition and appreciation we deserve, that I know I am doing something important and making a different for every child that walks into my classroom door.

References:

Wat, A. (2007). Dollars and Sense: A Review of Economic Analyses of Pre-K. Pre-K Now.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

Delfena Mitchell 

Delfena Mitchell is Director of the Liberty Children’s Home, on the outskirts of Belize City. This program opened in the summer of 2005 and is licensed to house up to 40 children, predominantly between birth to 5 years of age. However, older children who have younger siblings in care are and will always be accommodated. All of the children at the care center have been abandoned, abused or orphaned and many have disabilities, special needs.

From the podcast I learned that the Liberty Children's home is located in Central America. Belize City, unfortunately has the number 1 incidents of child abuse in the Caribbean. There are 42 children in Liberty Children’s Home. Children come to the Home because they have been physically or sexually abused, neglected or abandoned. When the children arrive, they are really broken down and need time to heal. So the workers there will give the children time to transition and get them back into school. They get to the know the child and let them open up when the are ready.

She gave an example of one young boy who came to them at 9 years old with 6 other brothers and sisters. He had not spoken in over a year because he came from a home where he was physically abused and observed his sister suffering the same. They started off homeschooling him because he wasn't ready to be in a normal classroom. When they did enroll him in school, he was kicked out in the first week. She took him horseback riding, and in that 30 minutes he began to talk about his abuse from his grandmother and how she would beat him with a stick and he'd take his food under his bed to eat so no one would take it away. Delfana had trouble understanding him at times because he had regressed in language development because of the abuse he suffered. He began to say a couple words as the weeks went on. They would give him informal sessions of school for a few hours a day and let him spend most of his time in the gardens because he loved it. With the combination of his meds and going back to school, he began to change and talk more as the weeks went on.

I have not heard back from Delfena yet, so I read information on childhood poverty and here are my 3 New Insights Regarding Poverty from http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/index.php

1. There is a crisis of childhood poverty is heartwrenching. An estimated 1 in 4 children (that's over 600 million kids) worldwide are living in poverty. In many countries there are over 60% of children whose family are living in poverty.
2. One of the effects of poverty is that over 10 million children under 5 years of age are dying from diseases that can be prevented. I believe that children, especially in developing countries that are bearing these effects, should have more advocates because these children are bearing both the physical and emotional costs of poverty such as death, malnutrition, poor health, life-long learning difficulties and lost opportunities.
3. Poverty tends to be passed on to children from their parents. This is why I love my job teaching in a Title 1 school. At my school 90% of our students are on free/reduced lunch (living below the poverty line) and 220 children out of about 500 benefit from our FUEL program. (FUEL program is through Kroger stores.... people buy FUEL bags of snacks for our students in the program to take home every Friday for days they can not benefit from food at school. I believe teaching my kindergarteners and giving them a good start to their education is the first step in tackling childhood poverty. To give them the necessary tools (to read, write, and do math) they will need to become whatever they dream to be.

Sharing Web Resources

Pre-K Now believes that the success of public education begins in Pre-K.  In 2001, they began a campaign to encourage more states to invest in high-quality Pre-K programs. In 10 years, the amount of state investment has increased over 50%. The Pre-K Now campaign ended in 2011, but left with a challenge for all policy makers to move away from our current K-12 public school system to a Pre-K-12 one. 

Here is a short video giving an overview of their campaign...

 

 There are two current issues in the field that I am facing in my own career that has been unintentionally left out of our course due to the time constraints. As a kindergarten teacher, I am implementing the new Common Core standards this year. These standards have changed the expectations for what children must know when entering and "graduating" kindergarten. This means, that the early learning standards must change to align with our new common core standards. I also believe with the amount of knowledge my students must know before leaving, they would be more successful if they had exposure to letters, numbers, reading, cooperating with others, following directions, and listening to a teacher in a pre-k class. This is why I chose the Pre-K now campaign because I am a huge advocate for their focus and goals.

Looking at a graphic of data that shows the increase of investments in Pre-K by state, I was disappointed in Tennessee's growth (my home state). Click HERE to see the visual and see how your home state has grown. I was happy to see that they more than doubled their investments, but I don't feel that it's where it needs to be. For example, in my school district, ONLY qualifying families (low-income) may enter the public school pre-k system. It is my belief that EVERY child should be given the opportunity for public school pre-k. Our pre-k teacher at my school is WONDERFUL and prepares her students for kindergarten. Every year they are my highest students and are reading. Imagine how far I could take my students if they ALL came prepared to kindergarten! The possibilities are endless! 

Every being in my body wishes that this campaign was still alive so that I could become a Pre-K now advocate! I love everything I have read about this campaign and it is my hope that I can aid in the education to the country that Pre-K is as important as Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade when it comes to education!

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I emailed 8 different professionals off of the Global Alliance website and 5 emails were immediately sent back saying that the email addresses did not exist or they were not accepting emails for some reason. The 5th email was from Africa and I got a response today! She let me know that someone had already approached them about our assignment, and that it may be better (and more interesting for my peers and professor for our assignments) to contact a different organization. So she asked if I would like some other contacts. I emailed her back immediately to let her know I would LOVE some recommendations of Early Childhood professionals to contact. I am looking forward to her response! As for the other contacts, I have yet to hear back from them.

If I do not hear back from any of the contacts and continue to have no luck in contacting early childhood professionals (I'm not giving up yet!) I believe I may need to choose the alternate assignment for Part 1.

 I chose to follow the Pre-K Now website and I signed up for their newsletters as well. As a kindergarten teacher in a high-poverty area (and as a pre-K teacher at heart), I truly believe the Pre-K should be required before a child enters kindergarten. So when I read Pre-K Now's overview, knew I would be interested! The Pre-K Now website states:
"Through its successes, Pre-K Now changed the national conversation about pre-k education, and in its final report, challenged the nation’s policy makers to transform public education by moving away from the current K-12 system to pre-K-12."

 I look forward to browsing the website throughout this course and reading up on how the organization is working on their goal of requiring Pre-K for all students.