Getting to Know Your International Contacts

My convocation was with one of my friend’s who is the supervisor at the Oliver Gospel Mission here in Columbia SC. Their mission is to see that the broken and homeless are sheltered, given the gospel of Jesus Christ, and equipped to live responsibly.   This area is, surrounded by corn and soybean farms that often employ migrant farm workers, is a few miles away from one of the most impoverished communities in the state. A state that historically has had a very high poverty rate.  We are fighting poverty by adhering to the ideology that poverty is self made by those individuals who refuse to work and can only be undone by deciding to work and the impoverished neighborhoods a short distance away is a public university that graduates about 800 teacher education students per year, 80% of which come from its surrounding communities. I often wondered what situated knowledge my students bring into teacher education courses regarding issues of poverty. How do they build understanding about poverty, what discourses influence their understanding and what impact might this have on their professional practice as teachers?  Understanding the discourses of poverty is crucial for teachers.

I learn that the poverty rate in our community is large then I was thinking. Some of the information I was told I could not post but it was very sad. The number of children I told me that com though his program was 259,429 (24.4%). As a teacher, what do we do? Early Heat Start was form to combat this problem but it seems as if the problem is keeps growing larger.   

I learned so much this week about poverty and our children.

Sharing Web Resources

The purpose for the Center for Child Care Workforce is to provide a voice for individuals that work in the child care field.  In addition, this site provides them with the most recent information on early childhood for personal and professional growth.  The mission of this site is to, formidable the nature and expanse, continues to be transformed by policies and practices that are, more often than not, conceived, developed and evaluated by people who are far removed from the actual work and day-to-day realities of working with children and shaping their young lives (CCW).

            This website is user friendly, it is structured in a way that anyone can use it even you. Yes you! Once entering the site you will see across the top six tabs that are window to other areas of the site. The first tab is the home tab; this will always bring you back to the home page of the site.  Next is the About Us tab, here you will find the mission statement and developed trainings. Following that you have Research and Resources tab; under that tab you will find Early Childhood facts, Wage Data, State Compensation Initiative, Special Populations, Parent Outreach, Licensing Requirements, Quality Rating Systems and Oral Language Development. Right next to that you will see a tab marked Take Action with in this tab you will find, Worthy Wages and Worthy Wage Tales. Fourth is the tab labeled Public Policy under this tab you will see Federal and State Initiatives. The last tab on this page is the News to Use under here is Latest News, Articles, Newsletters and Books.  This will guide you to each link on this side and you can learn some many things about the child care workforce.

            The information available on this site will help you with better understanding child care, resource to help you become a better early childhood educator and show you how to be a voice for your center and early childhood.  The best way to navigate your way in this site is to start with the mission of the site, then go from left to right to get the best results from the page.  Each tab is a guide for the next tab on the page to help you better grasps what the website has to offer.  

I’m going to highlight three areas on the site I will be News to Use, Research and Resources, and Take Action.  Under the tab News to Use they have great articles on early childhood that can assist you in many ways then one. Next is Research and Resources it gives very helpful tips, in addition to fact on child care. The third on is Take Action, this tab gives helpful information when it comes to Wages in child care.

For me this website opened my eyes to a lot of things going on in child care.  It let me know that I have a voice also and it should be heard.

Website:

Center for Child Care Workforce

 http://www.ccw.org/

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

I emailed Haiti's Step by Step Program and is waiting on a reply from them. Once i get a reply I will post it on my blog page for the class to read. I chose them because I know that they are still trying to rebuild from the earthquake. Reading about this program gave me and idea that i will be taking back to my center and we will be sending them books in the spring.

Haiti
Step by Step Program / Tipa Tipa
Dominique Hudicourt
Email: tipatipa@hainet.net

I was able to pull information from each of these site to use to better my center. Zero To Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families is helpful because my center is expanding that unit so it gave us some up to date information to us. I post all them on my blog so that other people will be able to develop connections with out key players in the field of education


National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencieshttp://www.naccrra.org/  (Newsletter: http://capwiz.com/naccrra/mlm/signup/ )
Zero To Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Familieshttp://www.zerotothree.org/   (May have to use http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/ )
(Newsletters:
http://zttcfn.pub30.convio.net/child-development/from-baby-to-big-kid/ and
http://capwiz.com/zerotothree/mlm/signup/ )

National Black Child Development Institutehttp://nbcdi.org/
(Newsletter: http://nbcdi.org/support/sign-up-for-nbcdi-newsletters/ )
National Institute for Early Education Research
http://nieer.org/ 
(Newsletter: http://nieer.org/resources/newsletter/index.php )

The National Association for the Education of Young Children
http://www.naeyc.org/ 
(Review also the position statements: http://www.naeyc.org/positionstatements )
Pre[K]Now: A Campaign of the Pew Center on the States
http://www.preknow.org/ (Newsletter: http://www.preknow.org/signupform.cfm )
Harlem Children’s Zone
http://www.hcz.org/  (Newsletter: http://support.hcz.org/site/PageServer?pagename=signup )
National Head Start Association
http://www.nhsa.org/  
(Newsletter: http://www.nhsa.org/news_and_advocacy/advocacy/legislative_eupdate )

National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators
http://www.naecte.org/ (Newsletter: http://www.naecte.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=29 )
The Division for Early Childhood
http://www.dec-sped.org/  (Review also the position statements: http://www.dec-sped.org/About_DEC/Position_Statements_and_Concept_Papers )
Children’s Defense Fundhttp://www.childrensdefense.org/ 
(Newsletter: http://www.childrensdefense.org/newsroom/enewsletters/ )
Center for the Child Care Workforcehttp://www.ccw.org/ 
(Newsletter: http://www.ccw.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=78&Itemid=72 )
Society for Research in Child Developmenthttp://www.srcd.org/ 
(Newsletter: http://www.srcd.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=238&Itemid=543 )

"My Supports."

Factors in my life that provide support for me is rest, a working computer, workable classroom size, knowledge and transportation.  Many of this may sound like common sense but they are things we don’t thing about. We all know that lack of sleep or poor diet can interfere with learning. It is proven that overcrowded classrooms and lack of learning resources make it more difficult to teach. People can tell when I experience stress and anxiety in my daily life it is more difficult for me to concentrate. We know that if a student feels excluded by others in the class, learning can suffer. It’s not often that I give serious thought to such things as planning a lesson.  Even if I do think about these things, I may feel like I have no power to change any of them. I would not be able to complete my job and education would I would suffer as a person.

There was a week in March when I had the task of doing all my work via my cell phone. That week we were talking about stressor that young child deal with in life. This will be a task for me because I grow up where mom and dad were there and I did not have to want for anything as a young child. In addition to that my computer is down and I’m my not feeling my best this week, having to complete homework via my Smartphone. With that said please over look my writing this week, will be back in the game next blog.  This was a prime example of how not having a computer and feeling bad in the body will impact your life. For most people like me and many others that are reading this blog this is what our daily environment involves.

"My Connections to Play."

“It is paradoxical that many educators and parents still differentiate between a time for learning and a time for play without seeing the vital connection between them.”

 Leo F. Buscaglia quotes

Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning....They have to play with
what they know to be true in order to find out more, and then they can use what they
learn in new forms of play.

--Fred Rogers of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood 

     

As a child I had access to a lot of things. Those things included the sidewalk, alleys, vacant lots, fields, forests, and streams. My friends and I could play, explore and interact with the natural world with little or no restriction or supervision. Today things have changed a lot. Children have to be monitor at all times because of the world we live in today.

The lives of children today are much more structured and supervised, with few opportunities for free play. Parents are afraid for their children's safety when they leave the house alone. That is why many children are no longer free to roam their neighborhoods or even their own yards unless accompanied by adults. Children's lives have become structured and scheduled by adults, who hold the mistaken belief that this sport or that lesson will make their children more successful as adults.

In today’s world children have very little time to play.  When they do have time, it's often spent inside in front of the television or computers screen. For some children, that's because their neighborhood, apartment complex or house has no outdoor play spaces. Children's opportunities to interact in a naturalized outdoor setting are greatly diminished today.

Relationship Reflection

Relationships are an important part of my social development. We it comes to as I was growing up my relationship with my teachers impact my life because they aloud me to see that I could become something in life. Having a family with a relationship like they had made me a better student, they looked at the whole me.  So today I try to develop positive relationships with families so that they can develop the same with their children

Deloris Ragin Felder:  A mother of four children and one husband.  Having to leave school at the age of 16 to raise her sibling so that her mother and father could work and provide for the family vowed that her children would complete high school and become more then her…. I being the first of her child to talk about going to college said to me whatever it takes if that’s what you want to do i will make it happen and that she did.  Haven’t worked in many years in 2003 set out to fine a job so that I could go to college and become great.  For the five years I was in college see worked and I never had to wonder where I was going to get anything from. She looked at me in my last year of school and said “It’s not the time to give up now history is riding on your shoulders.”

Thomas Lee Felder Sr.:  The father of four great children and husband of one awesome woman.  My father have to drop out of school at the age of 12 to go to work to help his family make ends meat haven’t stop yet…  My daddy as I call him has planted in me the value of hard work and what will happen if you work hard. As we were riding down the road one day he looked, we had a long talk about becoming what people say you would not be.  He told me the story of how he was told because of his educational background he would never own anything.  He said but when you pull up on the land you call home that belongs to me and your mother, the house you stay in that belong to use, and even the cars we drive belong to us. So always remember that hard work will get you where others say you can’t go.

Rena Mae Ragin: My big sister and second mother.  Rena is single mother of three (3) great children Lionel, Marquetta and Nadrian.  I call her my other mother is because we are 16 years apart and her oldest child and I are three years apart.  When you saw her you saw me tagging along for the ride.  The thing that my sister would always tell me is that I can become what I wanted.  When I began to talk about going to college she looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, “go become what they said we want become.”  She pushed me when I was ready to give up on my dreams and goals.

Thomas Lee Felder Jr.: The one that taught me how to fight for myself. This is my big brother he is the father of four children Donta, Aaliya, DJ, and Zi”Quajah (my baby).  He calls his self the smarts of my parent’s children.  He would always call me the brains of the family.  When I was getting ready to drop out of college he told me “that he would sit at the gate with a gun if and not let me out because I was doing something no one else in our family tree have done.”  That pushed me to and had me nervous so I had to fight out that last year of school.

Vanesha Almeda Felder:  The baby of my parent’s four children.  Nesha is a senior in high school and the mother of on child Nevaeh. I was her teacher at home.  My parent would make me help her with her homework.  She would always say to me big bruh your going to be great.

Leola Ragin Parks: One of my mother’s sisters. My aunt was the one that they would call at school when I was acting out (lol).  When she would come from her office she would tell me “that’s not how great people act.”  Then she would turn around and go back to her office and call my mother. The Village Affect!  Got it at school then once I walked in the door at the house.

Pastor Eartha B. Carter: The pastor of Prayer House Mission Holiness Church.  She is the husband of one man Perry Carter for over 15 years.  My pastor always encourages me to become the person God has call me to be.  She taught me the being a teacher is a spiritual gift for God.  With the Father working long side me I can become great.  In addition, she would always let me know and others the “Jesus will turn it around what the devil meant for our bad”.

 

Ms. P. Nelson:  My tenth grade high school homeroom teacher. There is so much I can say about Ms. Nelson that I will hold back because tears come to my eyes.  I can remember my 11^th grade year of high school when on of my teacher told me I wasn’t going to be anything. P. Nelson pulled me aside and said these powerful words “Use what she just to you as your stair case to becoming a great person in the field of education”.  In 2006 the Father called her home to be with Him and I miss her dearly.   

These are just a few member of the Village that had a hand I raise this power black educator.