When I think about research...(Week 8)

• What insights have you gained about research from taking this course?
• One of the biggest things that I have learned from this course is learning to break apart a research study and analyze the content. This includes the authors, publication, and the whole process of what it takes to make a research study. 
• In what ways have your ideas about the nature of doing research changed?
• The process that it takes to make a valid, ethical, and sound research study intrigued me. before this class I never thought that the process was this indepth. I knew the parts of a research topic and thought to my self all the time i wish i could do something like this but it looks way to hard. It is hard. However this class has shown me the way that it is done. 
• What lessons about planning, designing, and conducting research in early childhood did you learn?
• When children are involved the more difficult it is to plan research, design research, and conduct research. Getting consent can set back your research. Creating an environment that is stable, and not overwhelming, and creating a relationship with the children so they feel comfortable working with you but not interfering with the research aspect of what you want are all obstacles i never really considered. 
• What were some of the challenges you encountered—and in what ways did you meet them?
• One of the challenges i had was the week that we learned about variables. I, from the time I started learning about research in middle school to today, I have a hard time understanding the difference between independent variables and dependent variables. This course also brought to my attention variables that are unseen by many researchers and create invalidity in the research. THis is because the researcher did not expect this to weigh on the outcome. THrough lots of help of others weigh in and talking with the professor, I understand how to look for those things and understand variables better. 
• What are some of the ways your perceptions of an early childhood professional have been modified as a result of this course?
• I have changed as a early childhood professional. Research is a major part of being a early childhood prfessional. Sharing knowledge through research is how we grow as a field. I want to contribute and learn more. 

Thank you to everyone in this course. It has been a joy to work with all of you. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and understanding of the course content, opinions, and experiences. I have taken away much from this class. I wish everyone the best of luck in all future endeavors!!! Happy Holidays! 

Week 5-Research Around the World!

                The Website that I looked at was the Early Childhood Development Virtual University (ECDVU) Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). Some of the topics that this program researches are:  “Building Community Leadership for Quality Substainabilty…” in preschools, nutrition of children (without mothers), parent collaboration for effective teaching, and more(Early Childhood Development Virtual University, 2005). The one that I looked more into was the nutrition of children. It specifically looks at children without mothers breastfeeding and bottle feeding as part of its study. I find this interesting because is it a hot debate among nutritionist and professionals in the United States. In context to some of the infant health issues, this study has shown how nutrition at birth can make a huge difference with health outcomes in the future.

                I was really fascinated with what ECDVU-SSA was what it is all about. The program looks at the “…strengths and expertise that exists locally and regionally” (Early Childhood Development Virtual University, 2005). The program takes into account the peoples opinion and their life. The program works to enhance technology education to support communication with Africa and benefit the education of the professionals, families, communities and children. The program’s ideas creates a great picture of what is to come for Sub Africa.

The ECDVU "generative curriculum" encompasses the following characteristics:

  a learner-focused approach - drawing as much as possible on the learner's experiences in their personal and professional lives;

  an ecological approach - placing individuals, programs and policies into an interactive and dynamic context and seeking to plan activities and interventions to maximize resonating impact throughout the larger ecology;

  a capacity building approach - aiming to strategically strengthen the capacities of participants to effectively fulfill their mandates in their professional position and to be accountable to their constituents and the broader ECD community in their countries. Although most education activities claim this as a general 'purpose', the ECDVU program addresses capacity development in a specific, strategic manner.

  a co-constructive approach - encouraging each learner to draw upon provided curriculum material as well as their own in-country experience and data to derive their own perspectives and applications;

  a multicultural approach - considering ideas, research, and goals pertaining to child care and development from many different cultural sources, including (but not limited to) African and Euro-Western sources;

  a cohort driven approach - encouraging collaboration, reciprocal learning among peers, and consolidation of networks within and between learners representing each participating country.

  an historical approach - exploring 'how we came to be here' vis à vis the evolution of various theories and constructions regarding children and their care and more recent international development activities focusing on children's care and development.

I think that this was really interesting. I felt that these approaches used by ECDVU could be used in many facets of the early childhood field. As we develop our professional careers to keep some of these approaches in mind, especially ones that deal with multicultural approaches.

Reference

Early Childhood Development Virtual University (2005). http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/major_reports.php, http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/generative.php, http://www.ecdvu.org/ssa/about.php

Week 2 Research that Benefits Children and Families

If I had no restrictions and no limitations on a research topic where children and families benefited I would chose researching and creating simulation where play, child centered learning, and exploring learning were done from early childhood programs up through high school.

Play changes as children develop. Children will be the center of the learning. Standards would exist but revised for each individual student through lessons. I would observe children's performances in school, stress levels, and success in assessments made by teachers based on their level of learning.

I want to look more into how curriculum, standards and assessment are benefiting children throughout the past 10 years. SInce i have been in school and in college and in the teaching profession, there have been so many changes. Most of these changes have been strict about what children need to learn. Modules have been placed in the NYS education system.http://www.engageny.org/common-core-curriculum

Week 1-My Personal Journey

Hey Everyone! I am looking forward to this simulation! The topic that I chose for my simulation is Potty Training. To go deeper I am looking at what strategies to use in helping children potty train and how potty training affects children socially and emotionally.

The reason why I chose this topic is because I am a toddler teacher with very little experience in potty training. I want to find the best method to use on children and how to create a potty training "program". In the past year many parents have voiced concerns on the toddler program. I came into the toddler position with parents asking my how I am going to do it. I really didn't have any clue. In the past two months I have come up with a plan for children based on what the children's parents want but there are things lagging due to some parents wanting force or some not really worrying. THe problem with both is that these children have to be potty trained before they go to preschool. THe conflicting ideas have created more of a headache. I would love to get a handle on information that deal with potty training and be a source for parents and for other toddler teachers in my school!

This course is been amazing. I feel like I can create a great research project on this topic and become a better researcher in general. I like how the resources have broken down the steps! I am thankful and grateful for these resrouces so far!!!

I am looking forward to reading others process on their topics that they have chosen. Reading everyone's blogs have been interesting. All of your topics are going to be very informative and relatable to the early childhood field and to me as a teacher.

One thing I am going to struggle with is making sure that everything is down with care. I am suggesting to myself and others to get it done with time! Researching cannot be done last minute!!! GOOOD LUCK EVERYONE! LOOKING FORWARD TO THE NEXT 6 WEEKS

final assignment

In the past 8 weeks, I have learned so much about the education system internationally and in our own country. One of the main things that I have taken from this course and the assignments is that learning about education internationally allows me as an educator to compare the systems to the United States and what is working and what is not. When looking through the website SAVE THE CHILDREN, it talked about how children really appreciated the fact that they could go to school. Even though it was hard to make it to school every day, they really felt blessed to even have a school or were allowed to go. I believe that children and even adults do not see what a blessing and do not appreciate education. Working internationally is not easy. There are many challenges that people like Bob has faced. The international guidelines and carrying equipment. The government, money, and social life are different. It takes a lot of time and passion. The third thing that really resonated with me was how many people; professional educators do not do more international work. I think that this has been a real eye opener. It has made me more aware of the world’s activity when it comes to education. I am really interested in working somehow with Bob. I have offered him to be pen pals with my children. I have also asked if there is a way I can get involved.

One goal that I have is to sign up with an international organization. Last weekend I had to renew my first aid and CPR. The instructor asked me if I have done this program with them before. She is through the American Red Cross. I told her that I go through it every two years. She wanted to know if I would like to be an instructor. She gave me so many benefits to doing it. One was to travel and being an educator would really boost my resume. I hope in the next few months that I am in the process of being certified to instruct and soon travel.

Week 7 Getting to know your international contact.

This week I heard from one of the contacts  that I had been trying to get in touch with. The reason why I am just writing my blog was due to the fact that he is right now in California getting ready to make a trip to Chile for the second time. His name is Mr. Bartlett (Bob). We went to the same school in high school. He was about four years older than me. I remember him and  his family always hosting international students and always being involved in international club and traveling. I had reached out to him a few times in the past few years to help him with donations on some of his trips and when I was student teaching he helped me connect with a pen pal down their for my 4th grade class. Recently for this course, I have had a hard time getting ahold of him due to him preparing for another trip to Chile. He is going to be restoring another school like he did two years ago. I asked yesterday in an email about if this is what he thought he was going to be doing this for the rest of  his professional career? "I started off in Chile when I was 18 as a volunteer. When the church found out that I was going to school for International education and policy, they took over my education and as long as I did schooling they would pay for it and let me work there. This is what I have wanted to do since middle school. The church gave me the biggest opportunity of my career.....Since then I have come director of the Language department. I specialize in the correspondence between facilities in the U.S and in Chile." I asked him about professional development and what was the most important thing to keep up on as far as working between two countries. He said that it was policy and monetary. Monetary could get "sticky". "very dangerous". That language doesn't always translate perfectly. I asked him what the near future holds for him, especially going back to Chile. "I leave in a week. I will going to meetings with stake holders and then right onto base to build the new school facility. I am all over the place. This time I am going to enjoy the process more. It is my third time going to South America and I know the process. I hopefully will not be as STRESSED!!!! I can enjoy what I am doing"

Over all the conversation was short. However, I saw passion in his email. He was capitalizing words for emphasis. He was cracking jokes and showing thrill for this trip. He hoped to correspond with me when he could when he goes to Chile through some emails and pictures. I hope to hear from him. to get where he is now took a lot of work, dedication, education, passion, and time! THis is what it looks like to be a professional.

Week 6 --Sharing Web Resources

This week on the Zero to Three website I checked out some of the outside links. One of the links that I looked more in-depth at was the Early Childhood Website: https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/ehsnrc. There was so much to do from there. For being 24 and in the generation of the internet, I am not a big fan of it. I never had internet until I was in college. It still feels weird to click a link on something like a webcast. However I found one really interesting from just reading it. It was called “Early Head Start and Child Welfare: A Compelling Collaboration for Supporting Families and Young Children Webcast”. It is an 86 minute webcast where professionals sat around a table discusses ways the two organizations worked together to provide a stable learning environment for children. This conversation brought up how the children were affected developmentally and how to work with children in a child care setting. The great thing about this webcast was that I could take notes with the PowerPoint that they provided with it. There was also a guideline that could be printed out to show when things were talked about. I collected all of these resources. I may not have listened to the whole thing from start to finish but I got to skip around and check out the different topics.

                This week the e-newsletter gives resources about domestic violence and mental health. You can read the descriptions about the books or texts that were suggested. However, you cannot download them without buying them.

This week we talked about the three barriers: accessibility, awareness, and responsiveness. Zero to Three had great resources for parents to use when finding a high quality program. One resource that I found was “Choosing Quality Child Care”. This goes into detail of what questions to ask a facility and themselves while looking. The resource also gives in detail what the program should look like, how it is ran, and what types of things should be seen physically. There were links to regulation laws and liscensing. I thought that that this was an amazing resource that all families should have when seeking child care for their children. The direct link is: http://www.zerotothree.org/early-care-education/child-care/choosing-quality-child-care.html.