My links

I wrote my last blog stating that I have chosen the website Center for Child Care Workforce. Since then I have been looking into the other site more. I found out I could ask to receive the newsletters from NAEYC for free of charge. So I am not going to look at both of those websites. 

The link for the Center for Child Care Workforce is http://www.ccw.org/

The link for NAEYC is http://www.naeyc.org/

I have not received any newsletters from either of the company. Today I received an newsletter from the MAEYC. Which is the the Michigan Association for Early Childhood Education. This association is made to gear towards Michigan but off of NAEYC. One issue that the newsletter talked about was revising the per-pupil formula. It is in the process of being approved in the Senate.

The issue on the Center for Child Care Workforce that I have chosen from their website is Worthy Wages. This is an initiative that they have created to get the word out there that early childhood education does matter. They are asking people to have events for Worthy Wages Day which is May 1st.

Contacting an Early Childhood Professional

I had a hard time getting in contact with an Early Childhood Professional from a different country. I emailed all of the people in the Asia and Africa section on the NAEYC website. Most of the emails came back to me saying email failed. When asking my technology guy at my work he said it may be because they do not have the same software as us. That our systems may not be compatible with theirs. About five emails went through but I did not get a reply from any of them. I going to keep on trying to contact other professionals from the different countries that were on the list. My sister however has a friend that taught kindergarten in China for two years. He is going to help me out with the best of his ability.

 The website I have chosen was the center for childcare workforce. The reason I choose this is you can sign up to receive emails from them. I am also specialization in public policy and advocacy. This website seems that it has a lot of information about it. I would love to be part of NAEYC or National Head Start but I do not have the money for the membership. I can't wait to explore this website more in depth. 

My Supports

Support is something everything needs. I feel my supports are not object but there are multiple people.

My biggest supporter is my husband Bryant. He is there threw think and thin. There are many times I come home stress out because I have so much work to do. He is the one that keeps me calm. 

My second supporter for my career is my co-workers. They are always there for me. Giving me ideas to do with the children. They are also their as a resource when I need help. 

I also believe Facebook is a big support to me. There I connect with past classmates and professsors. It is nice to stay in contact with them. 

With out any of the people above I feel I would not be as strong of a teacher I am now. We are all who we are and our supports have been the ones to help is get where we are. If it was not for them the impact might of been me giving up. Especially this past year I had a really challenging year. 

To come up with a challenge that I have not faced yet is very hard. I know there are many more challenges to come but I can not think if them. This past year I had a death of a dad in my classroom, a child being taken out of her home, a child that hurt me and my co-worker that we had to be seen by a doctor, a parent accusing me and my co worker of things, parents in prison and a parent going to jail for a few weeks. So even though there are many challenges ahead of me I can not really think of any that I have not faced. This past year was rough but I would not have it any other way. It just made me a better teacher. I now know things I could have done differently and things that I did good. So my supports for all these challenges were the above ones listed.

My Connections to Play

"Every path has it's puddles"

-Unknown

"My curfew as a child was when the street lights came on"

-Unknown

I had a homemade kitchen. I could not find one that even looked close to it. It was really basic but I loved it.

When I was younger we had a sandbox with a play house built above it and it had swings attached to it. 

When I was a child I always played with my siblings and neighbor hood friends. My family supported me by letting me have friends over, letting me go to friends house and letting me just have fun. 

I think play is so much different now then when I was a child. When I was a child we played little house on the prarie. We were outside all the time. We did not have all the technology children have now.

Relationship Reflection

Having a postive relationship is important for people. Postive relationships can help you when you are having a tough time. The following people are people I have a great relationship with. They have been there for me and help me get through tough times. 

This is my husband Bryant. We have been together since 2006. This relationship is positive because he is a great listener. He fully supports me in anything I do even if its not something he agrees with. In the same way some challenges is also us having different views on things. We get through these challenges is just listening to each other and compromising.

The above is my family. I also have a positive relationship with all of them. We are always there for each other. We all have our own lives but when it comes right down to it we are always there for each other. Some of the challenges we face is living in different states. 

Everyone above is their for me even in my professional career. If I need something they find a way for me to get it. They are all supporting me going back to school. 

"Children are happy because they don't have a file in their minds called "all the things that could go wrong"."

- Marianne Williamson

"If a child cannot learn in the way we teach, we must teach in a way the child can learn."

 -unknown

"Children do not care how much you know until they know how much you care."

- Teddy Roosevelt

"Children have to be educated but they have also to be left t educate themselves." 

-Earnest Dimnet

Testing for Intelligence?

Testing is hot topic in education. The questions is should we do testing or should we not do testing. I believe testing needs to be done. I do not believe in standardized testing though. When I was in elementary, high school and even college I always hated standardized testing. I do not feel it leads to the correct intelligence of the person taking it. For example when I was testing for college entry exams I always did poorly. I was placed in a lower class because of the testing. One professor even moved me to a higher class because I was to advance for the class.  Many students, myself included, have test anxiety, especially when it is timed.

I believe testing should be natural. In my classroom we do anecdotal note taking to "score" the children. I know this can not be done as the children get older but testing can be different in the classroom. First off, I think they should go away with timing the test. I believe if the timer is gone children will have less anxiety and do better on the test. Also teachers should look at other documentation for scoring then test. Children learn differently and teachers need to keep that in mind. 

The country I picked to see how they asses their students was Germany. The reason I picked Germany is because I have a lot of German in me. I searched so many websites I could not find a lot of information on assessments in Germany. The information that I found was that they do assessments based on what are the children's needs. "In grades one and two, the focus is on direct observation of the pupils. In grade three pupils also begin to be familiarized with written class test and certain subjects"(BRIGITTE LOHMAR, 2013). In the first two years children get their reports at the end of each year. After that they get them at the end of the first half of year and then again at the end of year. 

Resources

BRIGITTE LOHMAR, T. E. (2013). The Education System in the Federal Republic of Germany 2011/2012 . Secretariat of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education .