My Personal Research Journey

The topic I chose to research is "How important is teaching preschoolers about culture diversity in the  classroom.?"  The reason I chose this topic is becasue a lot of preschool teachers does not include lessons or activities that reinterate culture in their classrooms.  Many head start centers that I have observed in my community, do not incorporate an enviorment that provide diversity.  Classrooms should provide diversity through instructions, activities, and displays, to teach children about other cultures standards of living.  Does anyone have any suggestions about my topic, or any resource information that would helpful, if so please share the information with me.  I am open for any suggestions.

Final Blog

Learning about the different organizations and exploring websites of other countries has been a great learning experience for me.  Although I never did receive any feedback from my initial contacts from other countries, I was able to gain valuable information from reading my colleagues blogs about the educational experience in other countries.  The consequence that I learned from blogging on a weekly basis, is the livelihood and struggles of families and children in other countries. Another consequence I learned was there are many resources and organizations out there to help families and children  Knowing that there are a lot of organizations that can help with issues and trends faced in the communities was very inspiring to learn.  Another consequence I found to be encouraging and inspiring was receiving newsletters and updates on important issues that affect our children and families.  This was a great learning fun filled course in which I acquired a great deal of information, information that I will be able to use with the families and children I serve.

UNESCO Webpage

The UNESCO website is a great site that contains valuable information on Early Childhood Education issues around the nation.  This website works on behalf of early childcare program, and provides a range of programs that promotes education for children from ages birth to 8.  Through Access, participating countries have committed themselves to expanding and improving comprehensive early childcare and education, especially in early childcare .  Government in these countries ensure an equitable distribution of resources among different populations and those children and families that lives in disadvantaged regions.  UNESCO promotes culture and peace among different countries in an effort to prevent conflicts by tackling causes of problems by dialogue and negotiating among individuals, groups, and nations.  This organization also supports the needs of all population, including the population vulnerable to HIV and young people in school settings.  This organization plays a leading role in educating individuals about HIV.  Gender equality is also supported through this organization.  This organization is responsible for ensuring gender-specific programs, and gender mainstreaming within five areas of competence.

Getting to Know International Contacts part 2

The newsletter I received from Hope to Haiti adds to my understanding of equality in early care programs.  The newsletter I received talked about how ladies at the Belleve Churh of Christ in Nashville sewed fifty pillowcase dresses for children in Haiti.  Many volunteers from twenty congregations across the United States wrote notes, purchases items, sorted, filled, and wrapped 1258 joy boxes for the children of Haiti.  The boxes are on their way to provide toys, school supplies and special surprises to the children in Haiti.  I think is was one of the act of kindness shown by communities that support children and families in need.  As early childhood educators, we are obligated to advocate for families and children in need, and find ways to assist in educating our young children.  Hope for Haiti Organization is doing a great job in supplying children with basic necessities to survive.

Global Children's Inititiave Article

As I viewed Global Children's Initiative, I learned that this organization is committed to meeting the needs of children in the area of economic productivity and health crisis.  Global Children Initiative has a Innovation Partnership with other countries trying to find strategies to reduce development barriers to learning.  This organization addresses issues in mental health and crisis situations, in which I think was very important for organizations to address mental health issues with children and families.  This organization is committed to finding solutions to help fight the problems that families and children are facing with education, health, and nutrition. I was impressed with the research information that this organization is doing to make it better for young children and families.

Sharing Web Resources

I received the newsletter from NAEYC for the October/November issue, and it was very interesing and informative to read the section about voices from practitioners through teacher research in Early Childhood Education. The article discussed gender identity in early childhood classroom during story dictation and dramatization.  I find the topic to be relevant in my current professional because of the cultural diversity issues we are faced with in the education system.  As an educator, it is important to explore issue that pertain to gender identity when working with young children.  The article talks about how children dramitize stories in the classroom, they tend to use gender sterotypes and segregate themselves by gender.  The article talks about the importance of not culturally dividing play domains into separate boy or girl games, because this type of social action create gender identity which may cause gender sterotyping.  I think this was an important topic of discussion, and contained informtion that I can use in the classroom setting.

Getting to know your International Contact Part 1/ Poverty Article

Since I have not heard from my contacts, I decided to read the article on poverty.  I knew that poverty played a major part in America's economy, but I was unaware of the world-wide poverty level of over 600 million children that are living in poverty.  Poverty affects all ages, not only children, but adults as well.  According to the article, a global poverty research project has been implemented to help reduce poverty in countries such as China, India, and Mongolia.  These countries are researching information and forwarding it to policy makers in an attempt to help poverty.  Poverty is a serious issue in America.  We as educators must advocate to our policy makers to help our families and children, when it comes to hunger, medical care, and education.