International Early Childhood - Consequences of Learning

I really appreciate the opportunity to learn more from my international contact in Thailand. It was a blessing to hear about her passion that she had for her children. I enjoyed learning about the similarities and differences that we shared in education. One issue that I found interesting when I spoke with my contact and as I researched the issue of poverty, was that poverty in Thailand (29.9%) is a problem just as it is in the United States (15.1%). Another issue that I think is important to share about is with policies. After speaking with the international contacts about some of the poilices, she was able to shed some light on some of the issues that we discussed in class in regard to professional development and high quality programs. There is a lot to be learned from international collaboration and research. Hopefully we can take what we have learned from them and share it with others here. Last, I think that we can take what we have learned from our international contacts and our colleagues here at Walden and use some of the strategies and websites that were introduced to us in this class. We are seeing more and more children in our classrooms that speak different languages and this information that others have researched and shared with us can help us as we seek to provide the best that we can for these children. International Goal - I would love to visit the place where my international contact lives and teaches. I think that it would be a great opportunity to actually work alongside her and see her daily routine.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts - Part 3

Some of the professional hopes, dreams, and challenges that my contact from Thailand shared with me with regard to the children at her school were that all children would be able to attend an educational setting and see it through to graduation. Most children can not afford to go to school and if they are fortunate enough to get to go to a school, very few ever get to graduate. Most have to return to their families and work on the farms. She shared that if they were able to graduate, they usually only received the education that took them through the twelfth grade. The few that she has seen graduate she would have loved to see go to some sort of college, but most have had to return to their families and work with them. It is so sad that many of these children will fall back into the same patterns and situations that their families are in.

Sharing Web Resources

When reviewing the outside link The Early Head Start program and it opened up a multitude of webcasts. One in particular that caught my attention was called A Closer Look at the Early Head Start Home-Based Program Option. This webcast examines how this option can help programs expand opportunities for low-income families with very young children, increase access to services, and enhance program quality.

There is also a link to the National Training Institute where you can find information that has been developed to meet the needs of individuals that are working with infants and toddlers in Child Welfare, Early Childhood Education, Early Intervention, Mental Health, Parent Education and Pediatrics. This link allows you to design your own professional development according to your specific needs and can be used for continuing education.

The e-newsletter that I received talked about play and shared a number of resources that goes along with the issue of play and its importance. Here is what was shared on this issue:

The long days of summer mean more time to play—and learn—with the kids you love. These resources focus on the ways children learn through play, both with their peers and with the important grown-ups in their lives.

As I looked into the Zero to Three journal index, I found several articles that depending on what you were researching, could serve as valuable resources. These articles dated as far back as the year 2000. An article that I chose to look at more closely, that was aligned with issues that I have been studying was called Supporting Quality in Home Based Childcare. This article talked about why families chose the type of home base care that they chose and goes on to talk about the regulations, complications and opportunities that goes along with their working with children and families. There is another article in the index titled Children in Immigrant Families. This article is one that I will be using to gain new insights for the issues of this week’s assignments.

International Contacts - Part 2

After talking to Amy Campbell about the issues of equity and excellence in education in Thailand, I have found out many interesting things. First of all, due to issues of poverty in certain areas in Thailand, many children are not able to attend schools. If these children are lucky enough to have the opportunity to attend the schools, they usually only do so until the age of 12 because they are needed to work in the rice fields with their families. Some children live in a type of boarding school where the parents drop them off and return to pick them up at the end of the 9 months. There is not any type of preschool program for younger children, but they have housed some of the younger siblings in desperate situation. The parents that cannot afford to pay for their schooling with money will pay with bags of rice. Most children however, do not finish school and go on to college but return to their families farms where they continue to work in the fields.

Teachers in Thailand are supposed to have a teaching certificate with a bachelor’s degree. However, she said that there are circumstances where the teachers do not have a teaching certificate or a degree, but because of the poor situations that the children live in, it is not pushed. In certain areas, since the parents are not able to pay for the schooling, the teachers that they are able to hire, do not have degrees in education and are hired with a much lower income.