Professional Contacts

Unfortunately, I began the homework assignment a little behind schedule, but I am still very much interested in finding individual professional contacts from different countries. Therefore, I have submitted four invitations for friendship from professionals in Costa Rica, Jamaica, Germany, Philippines, and finally Uganda. Hopefully I will hear from at least two of the professionals, but if I happen to hear from them all then I will narrow it down to two. My professionals were found under the UNICEF organization website. This seems like a very rewarding aspect of our class, and I am truly ready to begin communication from either of my candidates!


The professional early childhood organization that I have chosen to research is The National Head Start Association website. It's clear to see why I chose this organization, and that is the fact that I have been employed with the program for over 10 years!


I am truly excited about all the things that I will learn from my contacts about how other countries operate their early childhood programs, as well as learn the differences and similarities between their beliefs and ours! So excited!

Support Systems

  Support Systems are very important to everyday life. Just imagine having a classroom of eighteen preschoolers with no help from an adult daily. It would be a truly haywire experience. This is the first support system that I will talk about since we are all educators; and that person is my assistant. She is like my backbone in the classroom. We are both present to support each other and we both stand in support of the eighteen children that we are guiding educationally and emotionally on an everyday basis. Our family service worker provides support to our parents and our center supervisor provides guidance and support to us teachers.

  Within the home, my husband and I support our children by encouraging them as well as giving them food and shelter, as this was our given duty to do so. My children's teachers provide support to a continual education. My children themselves even provide support to us. We give children chores to teach them all about responsibility; but if you think about it, they are support systems to us because they help us in keeping up with the daily maintenance on our house.

   Not only do support systems occur with family members inside the home, but they occur with family members that live outside of the house as well. For example, when my grandmother or my parents babysit for us on occasion, they are providing support to my immediate family. When I provide transportation to my grandmother to and from the doctor, I am providing support to her. Or when my parents need their dog to be taken to the vet, I am providing support to them as well.

  In conclusion support is the very reason why something ends up successful. When two teachers support each other for the greater outcome of the child, then that classroom becomes a successful classroom. When parents support each other, the greater the chance at running a successful household where children feel loved and are learning responsibility, so that they may be able to run a successful household one day. Support is needed in all aspects of our everyday life!

My Connections to Play

The bicycle is something that I absolutely LOVED to play with as a child. I was a nature child, an 'always wanted to be outside' type of child. I think that I absolutely loved to ride the bicycle well into my middle grade years. I was able to transfer my mind into many different arenas when I rode my bike. At times I pretended to be a school bus driver and other times I raced with my younger brother.

Now this is where my times of dramatic play occurred. Usually it was at my grandmothers home with an aunt whom I was very close to, who happened to be only four years older than me! We would take my grandmothers older dishes and cook all types of cakes and soul food when playing outside. We would play in the mud from sun up to sun down at times! We absolutely loved it! 

Two Quotes about Play: 

All of the adults who were apart of my life growing up supported my play in any way they could. To start, my parents provided the play materials as well as the permission to play for hours on the inside and outside, whichever was feasible. My parents helped me develop in gaining social skills by providing plenty of play partners for my brother and I when growing up. Back then, more hours were allowed for play in elementary school, etc. So these adults were necessary components of gaining play skills as well. Because of these things, I have gained better social emotional development, and it helped me in many adult areas of my life as well such as problem solving.

Today play itself is not necessarily different. What's different is the way that it is viewed. It seems to be of less and less importance in the eyes of some legislators. Therefore, the hours of play have been reduced in many early childcare centers. Play has even changed in the household setting. Nowadays, electronics/technology are keeping children in the house instead of them being outside building communication skills. This has lead to higher obesity rates in young children as well.

Relationship Reflection

The first picture that I have posted is of my family. The older boy and girl are my step-children and the two younger children are my biological children. Of course the older gentleman beside me is my hubby! I love my family because they are my reason......my reason for everything that I do in my life! This relationship is so important to me because we support each other in good times as well as bad. They are always there for me no matter the situation.....free of judgement! Relationships are important when they are supportive, loving, as well as forgiving. Many people can be a relationship that means them and their life no good. The only purpose these types of relationships serve is a learning lesson. I'd rather not have these types of relationships in my life. No relationship is perfect, but when you have people in your life that are willing to work through their as well as your differences.....then you have a healthy relationship.

 This picture is of my parents! They are just wonderful! They want nothing but the best for my family and my brother. They are both hard workers who have instilled great lessons within the two children that they have raised. The thing that I admire most about them both is the ability to never give up on their children. Even when I made bad decisions like quitting college, they never bad talked me; yet they supported me and believed in me. They have taught me the true meaning of never giving up. They never gave up on me so it makes perfect since to never give up on myself; and this is why I'm pursuing a Master's degree at the age of 37!

My brother, my brother!! I was older so I was supposed to be the role model for him, yet he turned out to be the role model for me! He is a engineer with a Master's degree and he's not even out of his twenty's yet! He was a major push and strong factor in me going back to school. His love and support for my family and I is what makes our relationship so important to me. I trust him with all of my being and this is what i admire most about our relationship!! Trust and dependability!

These relationships that I share have taught me a valuable lesson in life! The belief that my family has in me makes it so easy to believe in the future of the young children that I inspire on a daily basis! As a matter of fact it makes me push myself just that much harder to being a helping hand in making sure that they succeed. The trust that has been exhibited with the relationship that I have with my brother has taught me trust-worthy values that I take seriously on the job. Whether it's gaining the trust of families, their children, or whatever situation their family or my center may be going through.

Thank You!

I have truly enjoyed the time that I have spent with each of you this last eight weeks! Thanks for being so supportive to my blog and the posts that are placed on it! Wishing you all much success on your educational journey.

Children Quotes

CHILDREN QUOTES:

This quote caught my attention because children are just like uncut diamonds. Diamonds take their form when someone shapes them the way they want them to be. Children are almost the same. Positive role models try to shape the child into being the very best that they can be with a positive influence. But in my opinion, the child actually shapes themselves because they are all different. The right guidance sends them in a positive direction, but the final 'shape' comes from the child.

Assessing Young Children

In my opinion, standardized tests are a waste of time and tax payer money. There are so many things that can make the testing results unfair, to say it's a fair procedure. To start, study's have found that if a child doesn't get enough sleep, doesn't live in an appropriate environment, or even if they don't eat breakfast....these facts could affect a child's performance on the test. This is truly sad when the results of the child's test affects their future. Researcher Gerald W. Bracey stated it best when it comes to certain areas that should be looked at when assessing a child, rather than relying in standardized tests. "According to late education researcher Gerald W. Bracey, PhD, qualities that standardized tests cannot measure include "creativity, critical thinking, resilience, motivation, persistence, curiosity, endurance, reliability, enthusiasm, empathy, self-awareness, self-discipline, leadership, civic-mindedness, courage, compassion, resourcefulness, sense of beauty, sense of wonder, honesty, integrity" (Procon.com, 2014). I feel this way because children are special and different in their own individual ways, and results of standardized tests are not capable of catching this individuality.

"Few countries use standardized tests for children below high school age--or multiple-choice tests for students of any age" (Kohn, 2000).

The country that I have chosen to focus on is Germany. In Germany the tracking system doesn't start until age 5. There are 3 types of schools under this tracking system.

Gymnasium- provides an academic, university track education
Realschule- provides a general and vocational education and permits transfer to the gymnasium
Hauptschule- provides a lower-level general and vocational education that often leads to unemployment.

Students who are affluent in socioeconomic status attend the Gymnasium; while the children of migrant workers attend Hauptschule. Students attending Gymnasium through grade 13 receive a school-learning certificate called the Abitur. This provides access to universities after students pass a final exam.

"The 2003 Program for International Assessment (PISA) study showed that the performance of German students correlates more highly with socioeconomic status than does the performance of students from almost any other country" (Rotberg, 2006).

                                                                            References
ProCon.Org. (2014). Standardized Tests. Retrieved from http://standardizedtests.procon.org/

Kohn, A. (2000). Standardized Testing Victims. Retrieved from http://www.alfiekohn.org/article/standardized-testing-victims/

Rotberg, I. (2006). Assessment Around the World. Retrieved from http://www.csun.edu/~Krowlands/Content/SED610/NCLB/NCLB%20rom%202007/Assessment%20Around%20the%20World.pdf