YAAAAYYYY!!!

Well everyone, it's been a pleasure working with you all in this foundations course, thanks for sharing the pages of your lives with me.  Let's keep up the good work!  One down, a few more to go!

Examining Codes of Ethics

It is my goal that the following professional ideals will become a part of my life as an early childhood professional.  Some of them I already practice but I hope that over time I will more consistently practice these ideals.

NAEYC Ideals:

I-1.1—To be familiar with the knowledge base of early childhood care and education and to stay informed  through continuing education and training. This is my goal from now on.  I understand that if I want to be effective in this field, I must make consistent effort to staying abreast of knowledge and practice pertinent to this field and my program.

I-2.8—To help family members enhance their understanding of their children and support the continuing development of their skills as parents.  This is an objective of my current early childhood program, about which I am very passionate.  The more parents know, the better cared for their children will be.  I've worked a little to help parents know more about their children from another person's perspective in order to decrease negative parent behavior toward their children (ie: bad-mouthing "you'll never be anything" talk, etc.)  I hope to sharpen these efforts and see more fruit from them.

I-4.6—To promote knowledge and understanding of young children and their needs. To work toward greater societal acknowledgment of children’s rights and greater social acceptance of responsibility for the well-being of all children.  Not only do I wish to inform parents and families, but I wish for greater society to really understand and acknowledge the tremendous value of investing in our children.

 

Division of Early Childhood (DEC) Code of Ethics:

Responsive Family Centered Practices

4. We shall empower families with information and resources so that they are informed consumers of services for their children.  As I continue on this journey of learning more about this field, I am dedicated to learning for myself the resources that are available to families in my community and making families aware of them.

 

I reviewed Karin Chenoweth’s (2010) article, “Learning from Success:  Love Meets Best Practices at a New Orleans Elementary School,” and wanted to document the resources it led me to.  This article is about her visit to one of the schools that was selected by The Education Trust to receive the 2010 “Dispelling the Myth Award” that honors “schools that serve large numbers of children of color and those from low-income families that educate their students at high levels”.  I was first drawn to this article because of its title wondering what it would say about what love can do to make a school successful.  After reading, I was truly inspired by the article, mainly because it depicts a school in just about the worst conditions a school could exist—extreme poverty and crime—yet “just about all the students meet or exceed state standards”.  The answer the principle gives for their success is that the teachers and staff at the elementary school “love our children”.  Chenoweth concludes from her visit that they indeed “love their children enough to teach them”.  This quote stayed with me.  She gives examples of how the teachers and staff at this school “educate without humiliating” and go the extra mile, inconveniencing themselves if they must, to see that their children are encouraged, “motivated and engaged”.  The article really sums up the inevitable success that comes when teachers and administrators are selflessly united and committed to the best for their children and when they actually believe that their children, regardless of the environment in which they live, can succeed.

Here are some of Karin Chenoweth's books that are getting national acclaim and I want to check them out:

It's Being Done: Academic Success in Unexpected Schools (2007)

How It's Being Done: Urgent Lessons from Unexpected Schools (2009)

Some other resources I got into this week:

themindtrust.org 

This one is an Indiana based, non-profit organization that supports educational reform through informing educators and leaders about issues and also offering grants to entities with achievable ideas about changing education.

waitingforsuperman.com/action

 This resource kind of goes along with the one above, education reform and calling people to action.  It's associated with a movie, "Waiting for Superman", that has really made a buzz in this country about the state of our education system.  I haven't yet seen the movie but I definitely want to.

Course Resources

Here's a link to my "Course Resources" page, it has all the resources we received from our foundations course:  http://prospering-early.blogspot.com/p/course-resources.html
Here's a few of my own: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Sylvia C. Chard, Ph.D. and her "Project Approach". I've read a little about this and am interested in learning more about it:

http://projectapproach.org/

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I first heard of Dr. Deborah Stipek from the "Sectors of Early Childhood Education" multimedia program.  I'm very interested in learning about child motivation and found that she's got a few books out about this subject and has been involved in some very interesting research projects. (click on the titles below to get more information)

Motivation to Learn: Integrating Theory and Practice (4th edition, 2002)  

Motivated Minds: Raising Children to Love Learning (with K. Seal, 2001) 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is my local resource and referral agency's blog (that I'm just now taking advantage of thanks to my new blogging knowledge! ) It has a mixture of news and information on both local (Indiana) and national events and issues.

http://childcareanswers.blogspot.com

 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Resources I liked from my colleagues's blogs: 
A Source from Lilliane's "Beach Life": I think I'd definitely like to purchase this book.  It looks like it will be useful in helping me to understand various childcare education tactics as well as be a valuable resource for training my teachers.  Thanks Lilliane! 
All About Child Care and Early Education:A Comprehensive Resource for Child Care Professionals by Marilyn Segal, Mary Jean Woika, Jesse Leinfelder 

Sources from Debra's "DebraAnnDawson":  These appear to be really good resources for teaching and curriculum supplies as well as helping you stay informed of national policy news and events. Thanks Debra! 

http://www.earlychildhood.com/

http://edlabor.house.gov/education/early-childhood/ 

A Source from Venuri's "Early Childhood Wisdom":  Another resource that looks like it will help keep me informed of children and education issues.  Thanks Venuri!  http://everychildmatters.org/