Getting to Know International Contact - Part 3

My friend Tami who teaches in China has not gotten back to me about the questions this week, but she did send  me some information about about the schools in China vary from the U.S.  She teaches first grade, this is what she told me:

I can only speak from my experience at the int'l school. It is much more rigorous. Students are expected to work a lot more at home. They are pushed to be reading on level 14(DRA) by the end of Kindergarten. Know their addition and subtraction facts and be able to write. Some of this comes from being an IB school. We do teach Everyday Math for our math curriculum. Although it is supplemented with higher level expectations. The Korean students in my class have school on the weekend and in the summers to learn Korean. It is quite rigorous. They are expected to sit and do exactly what the teacher says. They don't think much "outside" the box. That is one of my biggest challenges is to get the Asian students to think for themselves. They are often told what to think and how to think.


Her response was interesting to me.  Currently teaching kindergarten, I cannot imagine my students reading at a level 14 by the time they leave me!  It also makes me sad because it seems like they are not allowed to be children.  They are expected to sit and do exactly what an adult tells them all day. 

Sharing Web Resources

I continue to enjoy the National Association for the Education of Young Children (naeyc.org) site.   On the front page of the site was a link to an excerpt of the book Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves, by Louise Derman-Sparks and Julie Olsen Edwards.  The article addressed the topic of Halloween and how to celebrate in a way that does not offend the beliefs of any family.  The article gave an example of a director at a child care center in a university who had the children make funny hats and have a funny hat parade around the campus in place of Halloween costumes and candy.   There is also a link to a position paper about Quality, Compensation, and Affordability in early childhood education and another link to a position paper aimed at policymakers on behalf of children and families addressing quality and affordable child care for all children.  Every time I am on this site I find something new and interesting I can use.   

Getting to Know International Contact - Part 2

I unfortunately have not been able to get in touch with my friend Tami again, so I visited the Global Children's Initiative from Harvard University for this week.  One issue that is important that I had not thought of is mental health issues in young children.  The site states, " Mental health concerns constitute a massively underaddressed issue that has significant implications for the broader health and development of children and societies. There is an urgent need to identify the scope of the problem within and across countries and to develop evidence-based approaches in policy and service delivery that are responsive to diverse cultural contexts".  I have seen more and more children coming into school with some sort of mental health issue. The site also touched on educating high level decision makers about how young children learn to ensure they are making decisions that will have a positive impact on children.  It was interesting to read what is happening with young children all over the world and that there are caring adults who help to ensure they get the early care and education they need. 

Sharing Web Resources

The website I chose is naeyc.org.  It is an amazing site with a vast amount of resources!  Along the top there are links to publications, conference information, resources, and a link specifically for early childhood professionals.  If you roll over the resources link you will see links to other resources.  My two favorites are the links to play and back to school resources.  Under the back to school resources is a link to a great resource to share with families; Message in a Backpack.  There is a different message to share each month on a variety of topics, reading books at home, supporting writing at home, letting kids be kids, building social and emotional skills, and much more.  Each message is in English and Spanish.  There is nothing on the site that I found to be controversial.  There is also links to federal developments in the early childhood field, for example, a report on how President Obama's new job bill impacts education.  On insight I did gain from the sight is more background information on The Common Core State Standards.  The state I am teaching in adopted them this year and it was interesting to read NAEYC's' position on them. 

Getting to Know My International Contact

I was able to contact a friend I used to teach with here in Las Vegas.  Her name is Tami Lence and she is now teaching in Xiamen Fujian, China.  She is teaching first grade, which she says is a big change for her from third grade she used to teach.  I am hoping to hear back from her in a few days regarding more information about teaching in Xiamen Fujian.  Until I do , I have done more research on the city.  Xaimen is a major city on the southeast coast of the People's Republic of China, and was ranked as China's second most suitable city for living.  In looking at http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/, I discovered that most of China's poor communities are located in the western regions of the country.  There is also poverty in the cities, due to unemployment.  This was taken directly from the childhoodpoverty.org website:  In towns and cities, high employment pressure is the critical issue in urban poverty. By 2003, 22.47 million urban residents in China were reported to have incomes below the poverty line.  Among them, 1,793,000 were employed, 5,184,000 had been laid off, 907,000 were retired and 4,091,000 were unemployed.

I cannot wait to continue my talk with Tami and find out more about her experiences teaching in China.  I am excited to broaden my knowledge about education and discover how poverty is impacting children around the world. 

Sharing Web Resources

The website I chose was www.naeyc.org, The National Association for the Education of Young Children.  This site is full of wonderful articles, links, ideas, and other information for early childhood professionals.  “The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) was founded in 1926; it is the world's largest organization working on behalf of young children with nearly 80,000 members, and a national network of over 300 local, state, and regional affiliates.  NAEYC is dedicated to improving the well-being of all young children, with particular focus on the quality of educational and developmental services for all children from birth through age 8.” (Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org) 

When you first pull up the site, there are two rows of links across the top that cover everything from the vision of the association, to membership information, to resource links.  At the top, there is a “Conferences” link that gives information about the NAEYC Annual Conference and Expo held every year.  There are also 4 columns down the front that highlight important news and events, periodicals, and quick links to other early childhood sites.   My favorite link under the “Resources” tab at the top of the screen is the “play” link.  It has information about the value of play in the early childhood classroom.  What I love about this link is that is has 3 smaller links within it.  Links to play information for parents, teachers, and my personal favorite, play information for policymakers.  There are articles and excerpts from books discussing the importance of play in the classroom and ideas for integrating standards into engaged learning and play.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Part 1:
I currently have 3 friends teaching in other parts of the world (China, Morocco, and Norway) and have sent all of them e-mails.  I am not sure what grade levels they teach, but I am quite sure one of them works in the early childhood field.  I am excited to hear back from them and hopeful that they will be a good resource for me.  

Part 2:
The website I choose to use as a resource is naeyc.org.  I like the format of their site and have already found many resources helpful.  One resource I love and will use this year are messages in a backpack.  They are notes for families on a variety of topics: the importance of play, building social and emotional skills at home, building fine motor skills, etc.  The notes are available in English and Spanish, which will be fantastic for the families I work with.  I plan on sending one message home a month to help my parents understand what they can do at home to help their child succeed in school.  I am excited to explore this website more and learn all I can. :)