International Contact Part-3

My colleague Sarah from New Zealand has been a delight to get to know. In our last discussion Sarah said she has just finished her two year registration process. After receiving your BA you have a two year practicum, or registration process where you work with a mentor in the classroom, after the two years you must meet 12 criteria. Now Sarah is doing the appraisal process to become a fully Registered Teacher, which must be maintained throughout her teaching carrer. This approach for early childhood teachers is why they have such a high quality system.

Sarah said; "I believe in inclusive education and equality. I want to empower children, so firstly by thinking about ways that the environment can as I take a step back and look for teachable moments."

Her challenges have been having 3 lead teachers in 3 years, she has no desire to be a lead teacher because of the massive amounts of paper work. Her success is her Kindy has been a part of ICT, which is Information and Communication Technology http://www.wonderingaboutict.blogspot.co.nz/ where they use technology in the classroom to build community and extend to the wider community. We have decided that we will skype with each others classroom. Her Kindy is a half day program, so we'll coordinate 10 am her time which will be 2 pm our time but a day earlier (thats a concept I have a hard time with). I am excited to keep this connection and will keep the hope that someday I can go visit this amazing ECE system. 

I have links to so many references because of Sarah and I would love adopt their Learning Stories as a form of assessment in my program. This has been a great experience.

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I have been following The Global Fund for Children. I was interested in the Financial Times appeal that raised 4.89 million dollars to help children around the world. The thing that drew me to the GFC website is how they find grass root programs or people and support their efforts. Their efforts are things like getting children out of slavery and major survival issues.

I went to the link of the Financial Times and learned how they continued the the challenge of doing more with less money because of the economic times. One donor said it's easier to donate millions to one cause but the GFC has investigated people doing the work and support the small project with less money but the result are bigger. Some of the features were to make a big difference with a small grant. This makes it seem attainable to the average person.

This makes me think of the issues we have been discussing all week, providing the important early childhood education to all children, is such a big undertaking. Perhaps by government funds going to state we will be able to address the local needs first.

International Contact Part 2

This has been a most enlightening exchange with Sarah from New Zealand. Early Childhood is a part of the state sector, so teachers must hold a BA in ECE, and are paid the same as primary grade teachers, along with the same benefits. They use the Te Whariki curriculum for ages 0-5. This is where it gets good!

Te Whariki means “the woven mat”, this is an early learning story which forms the beginning of the child’s learning journey.

The learning story is the type of assessment they use, the four broad principles; Empowerment, Holistic development (Their intellectual, social, cultural, physical, emotional and spiritual learning is interwoven across all their experiences.) Family and community, Relationships.

Te Whariki's four principles are interwoven with these learning areas:
            Wellbeing
            Contribution
            Belonging
            Communication
            Exploration

Sarah said she would try to get a Learning Story with a parent’s permission. This curriculum comes from the Ministry of Education. The three main goals they have are Accessibility, Affordability and Quality. There is not talk of standardized testing, academic readiness, it is all interwoven as described above.  This looks and sounds like a model philosophy I hope someday we can achieve in this country.

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This month’s newsletter I received from the Goble Fund for Children has an article on Children’s Defense Fund: Budget Principles. There are critical decisions about the federal budget impact on the nation’s children, I wrote my congressmen through the sites “Be Careful What You Cut”, and have gotten responses from them. Eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit would increase child poverty by 23%. There is so much information in the section called Policy Priorities, I am not well versed in politics but as I follow the these issues, participate with my own voice and get responses (I’m sure they are a mass response) from house representatives and congressmen and learn more about policies regarding children, my eyes are opened.

I just discovered the Research Library there was something called Each Day in America; it talks about what happens with poor children/families each day. I also just realized that I will use this resource library for course work, there are topics to choose from and I feel I just got a new library card.