Sharing Web Resources

The website of the early childhood organization I chose is Zerotothree.org.  There are links on the website leading to an online bookstore; other links lead to the Early Head Start website and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

            The area I chose to research is the behavior and development tab; in this section, there are several tips and tools for addressing behavior problems, mental health, play and sleep. 

            The last newsletter I received was about home violence; it promoted a handbook that provides advice for dealing with children with mental and behavioral problems due to violence. 

            On the Zero To Three website, a search tab is available to get articles about equity and excellence in early care and education.  There is also a Public Policy tab where you can find articles about state and community policy.   

            The Zero To Three website helped me learn about ways to treat children with behavioral problems cause by trauma or maltreatment.  I have also read many articles about promoting school readiness for preschoolers. 

References

Zero To Three; National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. Retrieved from www.zerotothree.org.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

According to my colleague in Jordan, early childhood education started developing during the last ten years.  Private schools offer a better quality education; however, public schools are still struggling to provide a quality preschool education.   This is due to poverty and poor teacher education.  Queen Rania has implemented several non-profit organizations to improve the quality of education in Jordan, such as the Jordan Education Initiative and the Madrasati initiative.  These are long-term projects that are starting to make a difference in early childhood education in Jordan.

            Here in Saudi Arabia, the situation is similar; actually, private preschools offer high quality programs and some of them even implement the Common Core Standards.  However, public schools do not offer quality early childhood programs because they are not considered as an important level in education.  Moreover, very few teachers are qualified to teach young children and very few children attend preschools.  This widens the gap between rich and poor families. 

Sharing Web Resources

Exploring the Early Literacy Tips and Tools on the Zero To Three website; I learned ways to improve my students’ reading skills by playing word games, reading stories and identifying words in the world around them.

A recent newsletter stated that pediatricians were taking on the challenge of improving Well-Child Care by promoting social and emotional health in parent-child relationships.  The goal is to reduce toxic stress in young children therefore to reduce the risk of later adult diseases.  I think that having the community involved in teaching parents to promote healthy development for their children is a great way to improve social and emotional health in children.  

Going through the Zero To Three website, I found an article about President Obama’s new budget plan for the early childhood field.  This plan will support early childhood field by increasing home visits, guiding and encouraging parents.   

While exploring the website, I also came across an article entitled PUTTING INFANTS AND TODDLERS ON THE PATH TO SCHOOL READINESS: An Agenda for the Administration and 113th Congress (Zero To Three, n.d.); it discusses the fact that early brain development is essential for cognitive, sensory and language development.  It also discusses the issue of socioeconomic status; actually, the gap in children’s language learning ability starts very early (from the first year of life). 

References

Rebecca Parlakian, Claire Lerner and Janice Im (2008), Getting Ready to Read: Helping Your Child Become a Confident Reader and Writer Starting from Birth, Zero To Three. Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/child-development/early-language-literacy/cradlingliteracy_ready2read_8-14-09.pdf

Zero to Three (n.d.), PUTTING INFANTS AND TODDLERS ON THE PATH TO SCHOOL READINESS: An Agenda for the Administration and 113th Congress.  Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/federal-policy/2013-federal-policy-agenda.pdf

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

          The first person I had a conversation with is my colleague; we discussed poverty in Saudi Arabia.  Even though we live in a rather rich community in the city of Jeddah, we encounter many homeless women with their children on the streets who came to the country illegally.  It is very common here to see them walking between cars begging for money, which creates a huge contrast considering the brands of the cars in the streets.  There has always been a considerable gap between people living in poverty and the higher class.  Actually, these children do not have access to any education.  Saudi children from low-income families have access to free health care and education; however the schools they attend do not provide a decent education, so most of those children do not attend college. 

I also had a conversation with a former colleague who now lives in Jordan.  She explained that education is free and compulsory for all Jordanian children (until the age of fifteen), and that most Jordanians have health care.  However, poverty is still present in the country, mostly among Iraqi and Syrian refugees who can rarely find jobs and who cannot afford education or health care for their children.   

Sharing Web Resources

The organization I have selected is Zero To Three (http://www.zerotothree.org/); it focuses on the child’s first three years by providing parents and early childhood professionals knowledge to nurture early development. 

                Recent newsletters provided parenting resources which encouraged getting children ready for school; they also suggested ways to promote healthy social-emotional development.   One part of the newsletter also suggested fun indoor activities for children under three. 

                 Going through the Zero To Three website, I have gained a lot of information which helped me improve as a teacher.  I found this website to be very effective while searching for topics as you can find related articles very quickly.    

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Since I do not live in the United States, I have chosen one of my colleagues as a professional contact.  I have also contacted a former colleague who now works in Jordan to discuss early childhood issues and trends.  I am looking forward to learn about trends in other countries and to share ideas with international early childhood professionals. 

            In order to expand my resources in the early childhood field, I have already subscribed to several newsletters (NIEER, NAEYC, Zero to Three and Save the Children).  This has helped me stay up to date with international news and trends in the early childhood field.  

My Supports

The people who support me the most are my husband, who is also my best friend, and my parents and siblings;  I am the youngest in the family so they were always there to offer their help and support whenever I needed them.  My husband and I went through hard times and we provided support to each other, otherwise we wouldn’t have got back on our feet.

One of the challenges we are facing is that we are trying to move to the U.S; my sister who already lives there is helping us through emotional support, she has been encouraging us for a long time.  Even though moving would mean being very far away from my parents, they are the ones who are giving us the most support because they want us to have a better life.  My sister's husband is also giving my husband advice for finding a job because they work in the same field.  Knowing that we have a family supporting us is a great benefit; we know we can count on them whenever we need help.  I think that we wouldn’t be able to take this step without them.