Getting Ready—Expanding Horizons and Expanding Resources

Part 1:

The World Forum site and radio/podcast station were not available at this time. Therefore, I will be completing the alternative assignment for Part 1. At first I thought I would just pick one of the 2 sites at random. However, I realized I wanted to know more about the organizations before I chose which one to learn more about over the next 8 weeks. So, I went to the Charity Navigator website.  On this site you can discover many things about non-profit organizations.

After conducting some research I decided to focus on the Global Fund for Children. There were a few factors that helped me to decide. One of the most important factors was that I found that the Global Fund for Children only makes an annual revenue of $6,222,710 compared to the $641,045,550 (more than 10 times higher) revenue of Save the Children. It got me thinking that any additional exposure that can be granted to The Global Fund could help them to do that much more good work.

This mission statement, retrieved from Charity Navigator, speaks to how the organization focuses on not only direct service to children, but contributions to social change in different ways.

Part 2:

For this section I chose to investigate the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE) website and newsletters. Unfortunately I cannot seem to figure out how to actually subscribe to the newsletter. Since it is a quarterly publication I will be able to at least go back and read several previous issues.

I actually attempted to choose a few other options from the resource list first but they all seemed to have broken links. In the end I am glad that I chose NAECTE since my work now and in the future will be focused on educating teachers. I do not know a lot about the organization yet but I definitely look forward to learning more about this organization that focuses on teaching teachers!

My Supports

• Lists & Planners: Without these I would be in a real pickle when it comes to my work life which requires me to be at a different site each day and to keep track of our plan during each meeting.
• Technology: Another support that makes daily function possible and convenient. Without even considering things like computers and phones- how would I get along without my dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer? I have been there in what feels like a past life and it made everything more time consuming and difficult. And, speaking of time, what would I do without the convenience of a microwave? I cannot even imagine...
• Supervisors & Coworkers: These women keep me balanced, sane, and motivated in the complex and difficult work we do. I cannot express my need for and gratitude of their support. What we do can be a bit isolating in its nature because we are out in the field for the majority of the work. However, when we come together their support is invaluable- without them I would be less successful and that would fail the providers, children, and families.
• Family: I have written a lot about my family on my blog. I am very close to my sister and my mom and they, in particular, provide ongoing support for me. I literally could not imagine what I would do without them. To read more about my family you can visit my Personal Childhood Web blog post.
• My Life Partner- Dean: Another support that I cannot imagine living without. He and I have an authentic partnership that I am absolutely blessed to have in my life. The support he provides makes my entire world flow smoothly and he provides some of the best medicine I can think of- love and laughter. To read a bit more about my partnership with Dean you can check out my Relationship Reflection blog post.

A challenge, a plan, a dream...

My imagined challenge is one that could become real in the near future. I am

considering writing a book about a specific idea I have for leaders in the early childhood field. Each of the supports I have written about here would be critical to my success in this endeavor.

The support of my family and Dean would be critical in keeping me sane, motivated, and on-track. Additionally, my sister is an author and I would rely on her heavily for advice about the process of writing, editing, and publishing the book.

I would also hope to ask my co-workers for support by sharing their stories from the field. I have asked a few directors if I could work with them for some case studies of implementing the idea I would like to write about.

Finally, technology, planners, and lists would be absolutely critical to my ability to stay on track. Time management, research, and organizing my plan would be the backbone of my work on the book.

My Connections to Play

Quotes that summarize play in my childhood...

Essential play items...

In my childhood it was all about play and especially play in nature. We were rarely inside and were encouraged to spend as much time outside playing and exploring as possible. In "my day" our parents told us not to come home until the street lights came on. Outdoor and indoor play was regarded as critical to childhood in my family- in fact, in the whole neighborhood. I spent a lot of my time riding my bike and running around our street. However, my grandparents owned a summer home on a tiny beach and I spent countless hours digging, swimming, and just playing in the sand.This is where I formed many of my happiest childhood memories.

Play has changed a lot since I was young. Gone are the days of sending your child out into the neighborhood and telling them to come home once it starts getting dark. I think most parents are too scared to send their child out on their own like it used to be. I recently heard someone report that there is no more "stranger danger" now than when I was a child but I'm not sure that's true. Even if it is true, our streets don't feel as safe as they used to. In many neighborhoods people don't even know each other unlike the days of making sure you behaved because everyone on the street knew your mom.

Another major difference is that children do not have connections with nature like we did when I was growing up. Children often have limited or no outdoor play time during the school day and parents are frequently lax in ensuring children spend time in nature every day. This is my one hope for young children. I hope they will be reintroduced to nature and have a chance to spend quality time in it.

My thoughts on the role of play throughout life...

Relationship Reflection

Relationships and partnerships are important to me because I feel that I thrive on human contact. Through my relationships I gain a deeper understanding of myself and have opportunities to take in the world through the point of view of others. There can be challenges to developing and maintaining relationships. I have learned a few over time.

One challenge is that it is important to know what you expect from each relationship and to know what the other person expects from you. This requires time and communication with that other person. Another challenge to maintaining relationships, especially as adults, is that they take time and effort. This can be easy with people we spend a large amount of time with like spouses or colleagues but it can be difficult to make time in our busy lives for people who are not in our daily circle. The final challenge that comes to mind is that we have to be ready and willing to let some relationships go when they become unhealthy for us. Although it is important to make an effort to maintain relationships there are times that some can cause us harm and we have to be able and willing to look for those signs and let go when it is for our own good.

I have been able to maintain a series of relationships over the years and the one that comes to mind first is the very strong relationships I have with my sister. I wrote about her in my childhood web because she is like the other half of my brain and has always been a critical part of my life. I would definitely say that what we have is a partnership because while I think a relationship is more about finding something that makes us happy a partnership is about collaborating to find happiness and satisfaction for both parties. There is nothing negative about having a relationship that is not a partnership it is just that those relationships do not cause us to actively seek out ways to make the other person happy in the relationship. One special characteristic of my relationship with my sister that makes it a partnership is that we will always find ways to help the other person to grow and become a better version of ourselves. We want each other to be as happy as possible.

A second relationship that is important to me is that with my mom. She and I have what I would also consider to be a partnership for the same reason I feel that way about my relationship with my sister. My mom and I want the best for each other and will do what we need to in order to help the other to gain happiness.

I have a few friends that I consider to be important relationships in my life. In these relationships, although I want them to be happy and they want the same for me, I would not say that they are partnerships. I love these friends and I wish them the absolute best but I would not say that either they or I actively seeks ways to make the other happy. I have the same types of relationships with my work colleagues. We have strong and positive relationships and we support each other in our work but I would not call them partnerships because there is little opportunity to collaborate because our field work requires that we work in isolation from one another most of the time.

The final relationship that I want to make sure to mention is one that is extremely important to me. That is the one I have with my significant other, Dean.  Ours is a partnership in the truest sense of the word. Everything we do is for the purpose of helping each other, ourselves, and our relationship grow. While I was getting ready to write this blog I started looking for some non-academic descriptions of the difference between relationships and partnerships. One that I found that I think describes us perfectly is that relationships are about seeking pleasure while partnerships are about seeking purpose. That is not to say that there is no pleasure but rather that in a partnership of a romantic variety you are not chasing some high of nervousness and excitement but instead finding pleasure in the stability of your love and friendship.

In my work as a coach in the early childhood field the main point of my ability to be successful is in developing positive relationships. We say that all of our work is done through relationships because without strong relationships it is impossible to affect change. Because it is my job to help others determine goals and improve practices I must first forge strong relationships with the providers that I coach. Every day I work on developing stronger active listening skills and reflective practices that include continuous self-reflection and working on my skills in helping others reflect.

When I Think of Child Development...

"They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel."

~ Carol Buchner

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

~ Frederick Douglass

There are two lasting bequests we can give our children: one is roots, the other is wings.

~ Hodding Carter

“Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers.”

~ Josef Albers

Student Assessment in Primary Years

No matter the age of the child, all learning does require some measure of assessment in order to understand where the child is developmentally. However, all the way through middle school (at least) that measure of assessment should be focused on all developmental domains in some capacity. When we think about a holistic approach to child/student assessment in terms of school age children some areas of measurement could include:

• Language and Effective Communication Skills
• Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
• Social and Emotional Intelligence
• Physical Development and Health
• Diverse Cultural Understanding and Competency
• Approaches to Learning and Systems Thinking Capacity
• Technological Capability

New Zealand once again appears to serve as a model of the hands-on methods of assessment that are focused on a holistic approach. It seems that their assessment of student learning in the primary school years is driven by student learning and teachers have the responsibility to conduct assessments in ways that reflect what and how students learn. In fact, there are apparently no national tests on which students need to perform in pressurized test-taking atmospheres. Below is an overview of New Zealand student assessment procedures based on the findings of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)  as published in their Reviews of Evaluation and Assessment in Education NEW ZEALAND.

One other idea I would like to note about my own opinion of assessing school age children through a holistic approach relates to the way children are assessed. I feel that the way we assess children in early education programs should be a model for how all learning is assessed. We should be asking teachers to know individual students and to assess their learning (the domains I mentioned above) through observation and collection of evidence- NOT through standardized testing! The focus of rote learning and testing that has swept our nation is not what we should be focusing on. Rather, we need to think outside the traditional box and give students the chance to demonstrate their capacity through hands-on opportunities.

Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

I would have to say that of the list of stressors we chose from this week it was probably chaos that had the biggest effect on me.  My parents divorced when I was quite young and there was always a sense of stress, tension, and animosity between them. My father wasn't absent but he could be unreliable at times. I remember sitting at our front window waiting for my dad to come pick us up for our every other week Sunday visit and there were times he just wouldn't show up. In addition to that my mom was always working or going to school (mostly both) and so my sister and I were shuffled amongst relatives and different babysitters throughout our childhood.

While the shuffling did cause some chaos it also provided for one of the main support systems/assistance which helped us to navigate through the chaos. If you check out my childhood web you will see how much of an effort my mom put into building a strong support system around us. So, even though there was a lot of chaos there was also a lot of love and support from other family members. This is really how we coped as a family with this stressor. I, on the other hand, coped individually in a different way. I formed an extremely strong attachment to my sister. She seemed like the one constant thing, my calm in the storm, and having shared a bedroom she was always right there when I was little. I was a very emotional child and she would help to take my mind off of the craziness by singing and dancing with me or making up silly games to play together. She was my rock!

I researched New Zealand again this week because I have a special interest in this country and how child development occurs there in comparison to the United States. What I found is that I was not able to find as much information as I had expected. I found that poverty is a major stress factor on child development- with poverty rates having doubled between the 1980's and 2014. One of the main ways to minimize harm from poverty is by forming strong attachments between infants and parents and providing nurturing and loving care. There are programs available to help parents to understand how to form these attachments and provide this care.

In 2012 the Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty released a report showing evidence for action to reduce poverty in New Zealand's children. Their report recommended several things- agree upon a measuring system to determine levels of poverty and use it, increase Family Tax Credit amounts, and "add a member to the Work and Income Board who has expertise in child well-being and development issues" (Children’s Commissioner’s Expert Advisory Group on Solutions to Child Poverty, 2012, p. 40). These were short term suggestions that were accompanied by a few others. In the long term some of the ideas were to create a low-income support payment for families with young children, creating a government pass-on law for child support payments in order to create more stability of receipt of these payments, creating pathways for unskilled or under-skilled workers to receive training and education that would lead to stable jobs, and to increase the number of social housing units by 2000 per year until 2020. These are just a few of the suggestions made by the Advisory Group; in total there were 78 specific recommendations.

In 2016, Russell Wills- Children's Commissioner released a document that outlines the progress that was made based on these recommendations during his 5 year term.

Here are a couple of slides that depict some of the changes:

As you can see, 35 of the 78 recommendation were implemented. However, Wills goes on to say there is still a lot to do.  

Resources:

You can find the full report here and the Children's Commissioner's follow-up here

The article about the importance of relationships and attachments can be found at http://www.brainwave.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/Child-Poverty.pdf