WEEK 6: Sharing Web Resources

 

Some outside links that I explored was the health link. It lead me to I am moving I am learning project! I Am Moving, I Am Learning (IMIL) is a proactive approach for addressing childhood obesity in Head Start children. IMIL seeks to increase daily moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA), improve the quality of movement activities intentionally planned and facilitated by adults, and promote healthy food choices every day. It presents the goals and the objectives  of the IMIL.

 

I really like that there is a specific site that you can go to and it is birth to five funding opportunity. It is a pilot program. The pilot FOA will allow applicants to craft a proposal in one application that adopts a comprehensive birth-to-five programmatic approach. This pilot also will provide the opportunity for applicants to propose to reallocate funding between Head Start and Early Head Start based on the needs in the community.

There is a link to click on for on the road for school readiness.  They want to implement actions to take, choosing a curriculum, cultural and linguistic responsiveness, and ways to improve the program. The head start program is working with schools to promote school readiness for children.  I think that it is awesome that this program is on board to helping children from lower income be prepared for kindergarten! This is one way to eliminate these children from being on the same level as other children.

 

Some information that I found on the website is there are professional development trainings that is offered  by Headstart. They have trainings such as leadership, family engagements, and many other trainings. They also have conferences that help in the areas of communication, connectivity, parent engagement, and policy issues.

 

When exploring on the website I found that October is Head Start Awareness month.  I think it is awesome that they have awareness month. In this week’s discussion we read about a barrier being awareness of these programs that are available. This is one tool to help prevent families not being aware of their resources around them.

WEEK 5 Blog: Getting to know your International Contacts

WEEK 5 Blog: Getting to know your International Contacts

 

 

The Global Children’s Initiative has begun to build a portfolio of activities in three domains:

 •early childhood development;

•child mental health; and

 •children in crisis and conflict situations.

Global Children’s Initiative : The first priority in this area is to adapt the successful work the Center has conducted in the United States for a broader range of strategically selected audiences, in an effort to energize and reframe the global dialogue around investments in the earliest years of life

As part of its Global Children’s Initiative, the Center is launching Núcleo Ciência Pela Infância, its first major programmatic effort outside the United States. In collaboration with local experts, this project aims to use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families in Brazi

 

Zambian Early Childhood Development Project

While a large number of studies have investigated the impact of early childhood experiences on children’s developmental, health, and educational outcomes in developed countries, relatively little evidence is available on early childhood development in sub-Saharan Africa. To address this knowledge gap, the Zambian Ministry of Education, the Examination Council of Zambia, UNICEF, the University of Zambia, and the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University launched the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project (ZECDP) in 2009, a collaborative effort to measure the effects of an ongoing anti-malaria initiative on children’s development in Zambia.

 

 

Sharing Web Resources: Week 4

Blog: Sharing Web Resources 6162

 ·         The section that seemed particular relevant to my current professional development would be how the HeadStart Association website provides links for ways one could help others from hunger. Examples of the Summer Feeding Program, lunch and breakfast program, snack program and many other programs that could give me better ideas of how I can provided for these children. Children must be healthy to learn and learn to be healthy!

·         Headstart is at risk of losing funding which could affect the program. As we have talked about in our class it is important for children to have a quality education during the early years of life. The Headstart program is a wonderful program for low income families to help these children become successful later in life

·         Politicians support early childhood and with this program could help many children stay on a successful path. Politicians say they want to improve early childhood programs. Also economist think that it does the economy good if you invest in early childhood education.

·         I did not realize the amount of resources and programs that are available through one program alone. We need to take advantage of the resources we have and grant money that is offered and really use it. Some people do want to spend the time to be able to receive these grants. We just got a grant through our school system for Fresh Fruit and Vegetables at snack time for our students. It takes time but there are so many resources out there to help our children with education!

Getting to Know Your International Contacts- Part I

Blog 3: Getting to Know Your International Contacts

I choose to read about China’s Poverty since I have still had no response on my connections from another country.

Some insight that I gained from the website:

·         1.2 million Chinese children live in absolute poverty and 8.7 million live in disadvantaged conditions.  China has made major strides in reducing their poverty.

·         Rural poverty is estimated to have fallen from 250 million in 1978 to 35 million in 2000 and from 30.7 per cent of the population to 3.7 per cent according to official statistics.

·         China's transition from a centrally planned to a globalized market economy has helped reduce chronic poverty and disadvantage, but also created new forms of vulnerability and poverty.

·          The national poverty line is low by international standards, meaning that many more people live close to poverty.

·         98 per cent of children from poor urban families are accessing education, and the majority of poor families said they would not let poverty prevent their children from attending school or entering higher education.

·         I liked how China wants to provide good quality education for all children. It does not matter if the children are in poverty or not.  Much like the US we want our children to have the best education that they can. It should not matter where you come from!

You can find more information at http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/

BLOG 2: 6162

Blog2 6162

The organization I choose was National Head Start Association. The website is link

http://www.nhsa.org/

 Head Start is a federal program that promotes the school readiness of children ages birth to five from low-income families by enhancing their cognitive, social, and emotional development.

Head Start programs provide a learning environment that supports children's growth in the following domains:

·             language and literacy;

·             cognition and general knowledge;

·             physical development and health;

·             social and emotional development; and

·             approaches to learning.

Head Start programs provide comprehensive services to enrolled children and their families, which include health, nutrition, social, and other services determined to be necessary by family needs assessments, in addition to education and cognitive development services. Head Start services are designed to be responsive to each child and family's ethnic, cultural, and linguistic heritage

 

Issues:

 Cuts resulting from sequestration are scheduled to occur evenly across defense and non-defense programs, such as Head Start and Early Head Start. There are ongoing efforts to convince Congress to exempt defense spending from the cuts. If they are successful, all $1.2 trillion in cuts will be borne by non-defense spending. This would mean that the Head Start/Early Head Start cuts would be absolutely catastrophic—over 200,000 children lost from the program.

BLOG 6162: Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Blog 1: 6162: Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

It has been a struggle trying to contact other early childhood professionals from around the country. I sent out multiple e-mails in which some were wrong addresses and other people were not responding.  I still have yet to hear from one of the e-mails I have sent. I have a friend that teaches English over in Africa. I contacted her and asked her if she could give me 2 of her friends e-mail and let me contact them. I have sent them an e-mail and waiting to hear back from them. I really want to speak with educators from another country because I think it would be interesting to see what differences there are between our cultures and there’s.

 

 

Blog Assignment 2:

I choose to join National Head Start Association (http://nhsa.org/) because Head Start is a comprehensive program for children from age three to five and their families. The goal of Head Start is to bring about a greater degree of social competence in young children, in particular those of lower-income families. Social competence is defined as a child's everyday effectiveness in dealing with both the present environment and later responsibilities. I feel very strongly about the importance of education in children at an early age.

MY SUPPORTS

MY SUPPORTS

I have a wonderful support system around me. I work in an environment where the goal for everyone is the same…. They want what is best for the kids! We all work every day to help benefit the kids around us. My husband is also my support. When I come home and had a bad day he is always there for me and reminds me why I do what I do! Having the support I do helps create a warm, caring environment for the children. It would be extremely difficult to get through the day without the support that I have. If you don’t work as a team then it will be much harder to create a warming environment. If my support system was not in my life it would be hard for me to stay on my feet. As I have said before my husband is my number one support and if he was not there I would have a very hard time. My children are my support system because I go to work for them. I can’t wait to get home from work to see them.

I have recently moved 3 hours away from my family. I have a new job with a new support system. They have been wonderful and very supportive of me.  My husband and children are now my only support system around me.  As far as my work I have many people that have helped me make this adjustment. It is so important to have your co- workers be supportive and to help have the same goals (to advocate for our children). If I would have started a new job and not had the support that I had it would be more difficult to be positive and create an environment that  would benefit our children the most! I am very new in my job so I have needed a great deal of direction and if I did not have the support from my co workers that I have had I would have a difficult time adjusting!