iLEARN, iDO, iTEACH...

The podcast I chose to focus on this time is Susan Lyon's episode. She is responsible for bringing Reggio Emilia's concept of 100 languages to the San Francisco area through The Innovative Teacher Project that she founded. She has always been intrigued by how children learn and how they view the world. This is why she likes the Reggio Emilia way of educating children. They listen to children and set up the environment in response to children's needs and desires for early childhood development. Susan has created this project to prove that the Reggio Emilia style can be incorporated into public and private schools and be successful. Any school can participate and teachers use this project for personal professional growth as well.

After looking at the Global Children's Initiative on the Harvard Center on the Developing Child's website I discovered quite a few different programs that have been initiated from researchers and policy makers. One of them is the Zambian Early Childhood Development Project. This project is a way to collect data about how the early childhood development is doing in Zambia. Many collaborators are understanding that there is a plethora of information about some of the major countries, but certain areas are lacking, like this one.

Another interesting program is the Executive Leadership Program. This program brought all types of people including Brazilian politicians, policymakers, public managers and civil-society leaders to learn an executive leadership course on early childhood development. Yet another program on this website was based on something the Global Children's Initiative to "use the science of child health and development to guide stronger policies and larger investments to benefit young children and their families in Brazil" (Center on the Developing, 2010). 


Thanks,
Cortnee :)




References:


Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010). Global children's initiative. Retrieved from 
http://developingchild.harvard.edu/index.php/activities/global_initiative/


World Forum Foundation. (2010). World forum radio. Retrieved from http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/current-work/world-forum-radio

The website I am researching is the Early Childhood Council based in New Zealand. You can check them out here. The section of the website that seemed particularly relevant to my current professional development is their workshop series. They offer workshops for center managers and teachers. I feel like this is something I am lacking in my area. Because I am in school the resources are limited within my school district. Therefore if I wanted to go to a workshop I would have to search for something outside of my immediate area. It makes it tough for me to build into my schedule.


One issue the e-newsletter addressed was about parent/family involvement in their child's every day learning. The way they addressed it was by creating an application that you can download in the App Store that allows them to do this. It is an online portfolio of your child's growth. You can see information about your child, pictures, learning stories, and videos. Wow! I have websites for my parents that do the same thing, but to have an app for parents/families to use is wonderful and culturally relevant. 


The e-newsletter contained information about how economists, neuroscience, and politicians support the early childhood field in their early childhood curriculum. There is an article within the e-newsletter that talks about how the curriculum is benefiting the country as a whole. It seems similar to what we are talking about in the states, but possibly more so. 


The e-newsletter is full of articles for parents that help them understand what the Early Childhood Council provides. It seems supportive of wanting to keep the connection between school and home. They have a broad amount of information from their finances, to workshops, to reasons for their curriculum, etc. 


Thanks,
Cortnee :)

• Represent the interests of independent early childhood centres; and,
• To promote the provision of quality early childhood education services

The Early Childhood Council is the largest representative body of licensed, quality early childhood education centres in New Zealand. We have more than 1,100 member centres, 38% of which are community-owned and 62% of which are privately owned. Our members employ thousands of teachers, and care for tens of thousands of children" (Early childhood council, 2010). You can read more about them here.

The one thing that caught my eye on this website was the information available for parents. Not only is this website a resource for early childhood educators but also for parents looking for a quality early child care program. On their parent page they have information regarding what to look for, finding an ECE service, planning a visit, and what quality means in ECE services (Early childhood council, 2010). I really feel this is a great resource for parents in the New Zealand area. So many parents do not know what to look for in an early childhood program, it is good to know there is a service for people in their area.

Thanks,

Cortnee :)

Reference: 

Early childhood council. (2010). Retrieved from http://www.ecc.org.nz/MainMenu