Extending Web Resources

The link I followed was Zero to Three.

http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/

 ZERO TO THREE is a national nonprofit organization that informs, trains and supports professionals, policymakers and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers.  Neuroscientists have documented that our earliest days, weeks and months of life are a period of unparalleled growth when trillions of brain cell connections are made. Research and clinical experience also demonstrate that health and development are directly influenced by the quality of care and experiences a child has with his parents and other adults.

ZERO TO THREE mission is to promote the health and development of infants and toddlers.  We know that as babies, the way we are held, talked to and cared for teaches us about who we are and how we are valued. This profoundly shapes who we will become.  Early experiences set a course for a lifelong process of discovery about ourselves and the world around us. Simply put, early experiences matter. We encourage you to learn more about very young children, early development and the work of ZERO TO THREE by exploring our site.

http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/Healthy_Beginnings.pdf?docID=9822

Equity and excellence in early care and education

From birth, babies look to trusted adults to meet their needs.  When their needs are met, babies thrive. When their needs are not met, their social-emotional development (mental health) is compromised. In either case, babies’ brains are learning what to expect from the world, and whatever happens during the first three years becomes part of the brain’s hard wiring. The zero-to-three age range is the time when the greatest amount of development occurs in the brain.

Even though the brain is constantly growing, changing, and forming new connections during early childhood, recovering lost connections becomes much harder with age. Babies are born with just a portion of the connections they will later develop. Through their relationships with caregivers and trusted adults who talk to, play with, and comfort them, the brain will build many connections. In fact, a newborn’s brain produces many more connections than will be needed during childhood. The connections that are not used or needed become weaker and are eventually tossed away, or pruned from the brain.

http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/areas-of-expertise/training-and-professional-development/forging-a-new-framework-for-professional-development-2.pdf

Issues and trends in the early childhood field.

In 2007, ZERO TO THREE was awarded an ECEPD grant for Project CLICK (Cradling Literacy in Children in Kentucky), a partnership of ZERO TO THREE, Save the Children, and the Eastern Kentucky Child Care Coalition. Over the course of three years, and using ZERO TO THREE’s Cradling Literacy:  Building Teachers’ Skills to Nurture Early Language and Literacy from Birth to Five professional development curriculum, the project trained and mentored early childhood educators in enhancing language and literacy development in children ages birth-to-5 years who were located in six high-need counties in Eastern Kentucky. The Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina served as the project’s independent evaluator.

References

http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/areas-of-expertise/training-and-professional-development/forging-a-new-framework-for-professional-development-2.pdf

http://main.zerotothree.org/site/DocServer/Healthy_Beginnings.pdf?docID=9822

http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/

Issues of Equity and Excellence

Equity and Excellence

Equity and excellence is strongly associated with poverty and social disadvantage. Meanwhile, many affluent parents pay to send their children to private schools, which is not only expensive but saps the state funded sector of many able pupils and aspiration parents, both of which could act as peer role models for other students and parents.

UNICEF is profoundly committed to securing safe, rights-based, quality education for each and every child, irrespective of his or her circumstances.

For UNICEF, quality education is education that works for every child and enables all children to achieve their full potential. With this in mind, we have worked to create a rights-based, comprehensive educational model that embraces a multi-dimensional concept of quality and addresses the total needs of the child as a learner. Child Friendly Schools are now the major means through which UNICEF advocates for and promotes quality with equity in education (http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_61667.html).

Quality of education and child-friendly schooling

On any given day, more than 1 billion of the world’s children go to school. Whether they sit in buildings, in tents or under trees, ideally they are learning, developing and enriching their lives.

For too many children, though, school is not always a positive experience. Some endure difficult conditions, like missing or inadequate teaching materials or makeshift sanitation facilities. Others lack competent teachers and appropriate curricula. Still others may be forced to contend with discrimination, harassment and even violence. These conditions are not conducive to learning or development, and no child should have to experience them.

Access to education that is of poor quality is tantamount to no education at all. There is little point in providing the opportunity for a child to enroll in school if the quality of the education is so poor that the child will not become literate or numerate, or will fail to acquire critical life skills (http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_61667.html).

UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for developing countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, good water and sanitation, quality basic education for all boys and girls, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of individuals, businesses, foundations and governments.

Two weeks ago a UNICEF and World Health Organization report showed conclusively that poor people in rural areas are overwhelmingly those without these most basic necessities for life. In Maslow’s hierarchy of needs food, water and shelter is the most important necessity that one requires for survival.

UNICEF appealed for the inclusion of nutrition security as an essential element in every national development plan – as critical as clean water and indispensable as education as one of their goals by 2015. It was recorded that 20 million children under the age of five, around the world suffer from severe acute malnutrition. In the report UNICEF identified some of the effects of malnutrition beginning with pregnancy and stunting growth and development. Since children are our future, we must advocate for them, because they are not able to speak for themselves. UNICEF really works hard to help families that are in need and the funding for education for our youth. Organizations like this one is very great for many states and we as teachers should be total involved and should get the parents involved as well.

　

References

http://www.unicef.org/education/bege_61667.html

http://accordcoalition.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/Lib-Dem-89_- Equity_and_Excellence.pdf

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

Ways in which UNICEF is relevant to my current professional development:

UNICEF helps many countries and recently the organization just help clean water in Cerritos II, Honduras
UNICEF staff visit a small community in western Honduras to see how the lives of residents have changed since the installation of improved water and sanitation infrastructure. With support from UNICEF, the National Autonomous Service of Aqueducts and Sewers (SANAA) recently installed improved water and sanitation infrastructure in the area. Twelve months ago, this programme brought tap water to each of the 40 homes in this community, changing residents’ lives completely. “Before the water was provided, individuals were getting sick three times a month. Some developed an itchy rash, and they said it was because of water. But now it doesn't happen anymore. The community health centre confirmed that water-borne diseases have declined.

Early childhood education and school readinessUNICEF strives to improve young children’s capacity to develop and learn, and to ensure that educational environments provide the tools they need to flourish. UNICEF wants to ensure that no child is at a disadvantage and that all girls and boys can realize their fullest potential, both inside and outside the classroom. UNICEF work on behalf of school readiness rests on three pillars: children’s readiness for school; schools’ readiness for children; and the readiness of families and communities to help children make the transition to school. Together, these pillars bolster the likelihood of a child being able to succeed in school. Children’s readiness for school helps them make a smooth transition from home/pre-school to school in terms of their preparedness to learn and to the new learning environment. Schools’ readiness for children ensures that learning environments are child-friendly and adapted to the diverse needs of families and young learners as they enter school. In turn, families’/communities’ readiness for school connotes a positive and supportive environment at home, which facilitates children’s learning and the transition from home/pre-school to school.

Global economic crisis and recovery

In many parts of the developing world, children and poor households are being hard hit by the cumulative effects of the continued high food prices, economic slowdown and fiscal adjustments. As households cope by compromising essential expenditures, children's rights to education, health, and protection have come under increasing threat. Many governments are facing increased social demands, but decreasing fiscal resources to address them. Despite signs of recovery in some parts of the world, economic recovery will not be soon or strong enough to protect many children and the poor. UNICEF is working within countries to provide ongoing technical assistance to partner with governments in education, health, social protection and socio-economic policies.

GETTING TO KNOW MY INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS

GETTING TO KNOW MY INTERNATIONAL CONTACTS

Unfortunately, I have not heard from the UNICEF                                                                                  http://www.unicef.org/childsurvival/index.html UNICEF is working to mainstream a multidimensional approach of poverty, to reflect how and where children are experiencing poverty, and to allow a different set of policy responses that would structurally address children being lifted out of poverty in the long-term by addressing their different deprivations. UNICEF recognized the importance of economic policy for children and has sought the help of development economists in mapping out what this might involve. UNICEF was about to be transformed from a UN emergency agency for children to one dealing with children’s long-term needs, questioning how the needs of children and youth can be integrated into the general objectives of development. UNICEF developed the concept of First Call for Children, which means essentially that in bad times as in good, countries should ensure that children’s priority needs should have a first call on resources – a principle accepted by most families for their own children but still only rarely recognized in national economic policy. Dedicated UNICEF officials have been working hard on this commitment to economic policy work in the context of children’s rights.

The Global Fund for Children http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/what-we-do/ The Global Fund recently had a Spring Gala raising over $1.3 million and counting in connection with the event, all funds will go toward supporting innovative grassroots organizations transforming the lives of children worldwide. The gala may be over, but its impact will echo for years to come, touching the lives of children around the globe. The Gala contributions will support grantees that joined the network. Thirty-one grassroots organizations provided critical services to the most vulnerable children in their communities. These dedicated groups are bringing mobile classrooms to working children in Ecuador; providing shelter and care for abandoned infants in Kenya; helping children from Nigeria, Serbia, India, Colombia, Indonesia, and beyond to be safe from trafficking and harmful labor, engaged in learning and microenterprises, and armed with knowledge about HIV/AIDS. The funds we raised are also helping Jackson Kaguri, founder of The Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project, to realize his dream of creating a secondary school for AIDS orphans in his home village in Uganda.

Both organizations keeps the importance and support for our young children. If you are not a member of the organizations you may want to join or give donations as soon as possible. These organization helps those families in need and support the education of our young children to the fullest.

References

UNICEF http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Child_Poverty_Inequality_FINAL_Web_web.pdf

The Global Fund.
http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/gala/

Sharing Web Resources

UNICEF
http://www.unicef.org/childsurvival/index.html

UNICEF is an organization that works with the government, national and international agencies to support the life cycle of the child. The organization helps with early childhood, and pregnancy. The organization also ensures that all children have the access to basic education and by focusing on poverty. The organizations helps with the funds to help children when they are ill with pneumonia, diarrhea and malaria. The organization has given me feedback on the email in which I contacted them but I have not heard any other details from them.

The Global Fund for Children
http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/what-we-do/

At The Global Fund for Children, they help with the funding of our most vulnerable children and youth. The Global Fund reach out to children in need through grassroots organizations. They reach children in their homes, playground, and on their job or any where they can find the child even in remote areas. The Global Fund create opportunities for them to learn, grow, and thrive.

My Professional Contacts

The UNICEF Organization helps children throughout the world and is widely known throughout the country. UNICEF is the leading advocate for children’s rights, they are active in more than 190 countries. The Global Fund for Children envision a world where all children have the opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive. Therefore, The two professional I chose are UNICEF http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html and The Global Fund for Children http://www.globalfundforchildren.org. I email both parties and join their organizations. I also join UNICEF on face book.

"MY SUPPORTS"

Support is having a dependable person to be your backbone and help out when needed.  Someone who is there financially, emotionally, and physically. 

I am the proud mother of five handsome young men, a bachelor's degree, pursuing my master's degree, the assistant director of an early childcare learning center, and a bride-to-be.

My mother is the best support of all.  She's always there for me in every way possible.  She's there when my children father is off working and I have to go on workshops and when I had to go to school.  She suppor me by making sure my  children are in a safe environment while I am gone.  My husband to be is next, he showers me with much love when he is at home and make sure the children are well taken careof.  He also was there for me when I had to go to school, he supported me in every way.  We go out as a family to eat on the weekend, go to movies, and have a great family time.  My young men shower me with much love and we enjoy having family game night.  My students in my classroom shows me much love as the enter the classroom and that's enough support for me to have a great day at work.

The challenge that I would not want to face is not having the support from my family.  It would have been a huge problem of not furthering my education and becoming the person I am today.