Final Blog Assignment

Teaching is leaving a vestige of one self in the development of another. And surely the student is a bank where you can deposit your most precious treasures. ~Eugene P. Bertin

This is a quote that I have applied to my teaching profession. As  I continue to proceed through this program I realize that I will forever be a student in which my experiences and the people that I   come in contact with make precious deposits into my knowledge back.

The resources and conversations that my colleagues have shared with me has left a lasting  impression on my  professional career. The research and resources has made me more aware of issues and trends that occur not just around me but across the global. I really enjoyed reading my colleagues Laura Mastroianni post. She always had something very interesting to read on her blog site. I enjoyed reading the conversations that she had with her international contact, Swati the director of TULIPS (The Universal Learning Integrated Program) in Mumbai. Swati proves that the shape of passion for children is the same across the world. A quote of Swati’s that I will forever appreciate is, “A teacher should teach her student how to live life, how to enjoy success and how to endure failure.”

Just as I have learned several things and been inspired by the contact that Miss Laura has had with  Swati; I hope to follow in their same example of continuing to motivate and inspire others about the world of educations.

Blog Assignment: Getting to Know Your International Contacts(Alternative)—Part 3

Sad to say the up and down communication with my international contact did not  last.  I was really excited about getting to learn more about the Northern Territory of Australia. After over a few weeks of waiting for her to return my email about the questions in regards to this assignment I never received a response from her again. I pray that all is well with her health as I mentioned previously that she had been ill.

So for this reason I was left with the great option of exploring  another  resource, UNESCO’s “Early Childhood Care and Education”. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural  Organization seeks to  contribute  to the building of  peace, the eradication of  poverty, sustainable development and intercultural dialogue through education, the sciences, culture, communication and information. One of the organizations main objectives is attaining quality education for all and lifelong learning.

Exploring the website, there was so much information to review and discover. Within my  search I  came across the UNESCO Institute for  Statistics which provides cross-nationally comparable  statistics on education, science and technology, culture, and communication for more than 200 countries and territories.

One of our major focuses of this course has been quality child care and educators. In the report Teachers and Educational Quality: Monitoring Global Needs For 2015 chapter 2 discusses teacher training, qualifications and education quality. The report discusses that there are two issues that make the development of cross-nationally comparable indicators of teacher quality difficult, availability of data and uncertainty about the measurable characteristics of effective teachers.  In a number of countries the minimum standard for primary teaching is an upper secondary qualification, typically a specialized program for training teachers which is not designed to lead to studies completed at a university. The entry standards for teaching vary widely across countries.  In a few countries less than one-half of their teachers reach the standard.

The  report  also distinguishes that  many  countries that  have  set  mandates and qualifications are not  meeting  them making  it  difficult to  set cross-nationally comparable. Many countries that are not  meeting their  standards have lowered them to meet qualifications set. Other countries that are meeting  their standards have  raised their  qualifications  with a negative effect that  appears that they are not meeting standards.  This alone has a major impact on the fate of our next  generation as countries are continuously  lowering their standards only  so than can meet them. Another reason that research over the past decade suggests that many developing countries have lowered their standards and qualifications is to control cost.  Many countries are bringing in large numbers of unqualified or less-qualified teachers or by supplementing school capacity with teacher aides and community volunteers. This too has had an effect on lowering the average qualification and experience level of the teaching force. From this report it expanded my knowledge to what  type of education children around the  world receive and why  it  is important  to  continue to  advocated for equity and  equal education for  all children.

 

Reference

http://www.uis.unesco.org/Library/Documents/teachers06-en.pdf  Teachers and Educational Quality: Monitoring Global Needs For 2015, retrieved  June 16, 2012

Excellence and Equity of Care and Education for Children and Families (Part 2: Availability, Accessibility, and Affordability)

This week has been a very hectic one. I have been dedicating 12-13 hours of my day since Sunday to making sure that my center is meeting the needs of all children that attend and that care and quality meet excellent standards.  This course has helped me so far by providing me with current research and policies supporting quality child care.

In our course this week we continued to discuss Excellence and Equity of Care and Education for children and families. As we continue to place focus on the trilemma of child care quality, affordability, and availability as mentioned in the article, The child care trilemma: How moral orientations influence the field, I found myself wanting to gain insight on what the parents themselves want  from a center or a facility. ChildCare Aware of America formally NACCRRA- has dedicated a section of their website to the parent perspectives. This section can be located in one of their main categories Public Policy. The National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies, has conducted  several national parent  poll that  focus  on understanding  what parents  look for  in child care, the  assumptions that  make  about  licensed  centers, the  availability  of  care  that  they  have in their area, and current  policies they  would  support to  strengthen quality  child  care. On study conducted  to better understand parents’ views and experiences in the current economy regarding child care, as well as the types of changes they support to improve the quality and availability of affordable child care, NACCRRA  conduct a nationwide telephone survey of 1,000 parents with children under the age of 12; The Economy’s Impact on Parents’ Choices and Perceptions About Child Care completed September 2010.The survey concluded that many  families are  still  struggling are  worse off than they were  before. The survey shows that 31 percent of parents rate affordable child care as the most important factor in helping working families. The  greatest concern when  parents  were  asked  to  identify their single greatest concern about  child care  nearly  four  in  10 chose  quality  as  their highest  concern for  their  children’s care, the  cost  of  care  is  their  second  biggest  concern.  Fifty  one  percent  of  families  with  children  under the  age  5 say  that  they  worried  at  least  some  of  the  time  about  paying  their bills. Many  families also  worried that  they  total family  income  would not  be  enough  to  meet  their  family ‘s expenses and  bills  worrying  about  being  able  to  afford  child  care. Due  to  many  parents  economic  situation more  than one in 10 said  that  they  have  had to  move  their  children to  be  closer to relatives for their help or moved their  child to  a  child care  setting  of  lower  quality.  Though  most  parents were  experiencing  difficulty  many of  them  still  were willing to support increased funding  for  child care to improve quality  care even if it  increased  their  taxes by  10 dollars a year. The study concluded with NACCRRA making recommendations to Congress and the states. Some of them where: Require that inspection results and substantiated complaints be publicly posted on the Internet so that parents have access to current, accurate information and can make informed choices about child care, require all paid providers caring for unrelated children every week (like a business) to be licensed, and  require 40 hours of initial training (before working with children or within the first few months) and 24 hours of annual training,(Training should include child development, guidance and discipline, CPR/first-aid, recognizing child abuse and neglect, and related health and safety issues).  This survey shows that regardless of families economic situation the value of quality care is still a very important indicator of child care.

The Economy's Impact on Parents' Choices and Perceptions about Child Care http://www.naccrra.org/public-policy/resources/policy-library-recent-reports/economys-impact-on-parents-choices, retrieved June 9, 2012

Lash, M., & McMullen, M. (2008). The child care trilemma: How moral orientations influence the field. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 9(1), 36–48. Retrieved from http://www.wwwords.co.uk/pdf/freetoview.asp?j=ciec&vol=9&issue=1&year=2008&article=5_Lash_CIEC_9_1_web

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 2

It has been a task to stay in contact with my professional contact over the course of the last few weeks. Last week was more successful than others. My professional connection contacted me with the sad news that she has been ill. I finally got to get to know more about the young lady that I have been afraid that  I would never get to communicate with again.

Cheryl is married and has two children and three grandchildren. She is 45 years old and has been working in this area for 20 years. Mostly for not for profit Child Care Centres. She currently has a advance Diploma  in Children Services and is currently studying for her Bachelor  in early childhood/ children Services and also studying for her training and assessing certificate which allows her  to train educators in this field.

She also provided information about the current position she holds.

The current Centre she is working at as the Director has been opened for 25 years as a community based Child Care Centre and the building is owned by our local council. The community of Gray is in a low socio-economic area. The Centre is next to the primary school of Gray which includes an early learning centre. The age group of the school is from 4 years to 12 years and our centre age groups are from 6 months to 5 years. As a not for profit centre I have to fundraise for all our little extras.

Though the information for Cheryl has been delayed I am slowly getting to know more about her.

She even asked if we could Skype one day!

Contact Information:

Cheryl Anderson

Director

Gray Child Care Centre Inc

8 Victoria Dr.Gray

PH:89321012

Fax:89321761

E-mail: grayccc@bigpond.net.au

Issues and Trends

National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies

Great News!

This past month has been encompassed with a large hill to climb. As I mentioned before many centers across the state of Illinois were at risk of closing due to the state budget shortfalls. Centers across the state have gone without being paid for services rendered in the month of April. This also took place on last summer which took place for two months. Centers are care providers are still trying to recover from last year. We have almost reached the top. On May 21, 2012 I received a letter from Child Care Resource and Referral that Senate Bill (formerly HB164) has passed both the House and the Senate and has been signed by Governor Quinn. This will allow providers to receive funding for families that they provider care for participating in the Child Care Assistance Program through the end of Fiscal year 2012. Please continue to  keep those center across the states in your  thoughts as many  are still faced with  losing  funding  as funding for child care and  early  education is potentially  going to be  cut  for the FY2013.

I just wanted to share this with you all. It is a true sign that our advocating and supporting our future leaders of America is valuable. Let‘s keep fighting together to save the educations of our children.

Now back to work.  For over the past year the NACCRRA has been posting articles about the  budget crisis across the country. There is a section under Program and Services that discusses early childhood focus. This section provides data and news articles about trends in child care across the country. Looking  at  some  of the articles I  realize that we as a country are  in big  trouble  if  we  don’t  solve our  budget  issues. Another thought I had was I can see how hard it  can be  for our  govemnent leaders knowing that funding has to be appropriated to  support the entire country especially  with  the unemployment  rating being  so high. This means that additional funding must be made available in these areas as well. There is just not enough funding to support it all. We just have to keep pushing for more from our politicians.

 http://www.naccrra.org/programs-services

I also wanted to  share this with  those who are looking  for additional trainings in child care.

Trainings are available for professionals to professionals 24 hours a day 365 days a year so there is no need to wait. Trainings are designed to assist professional’s complete annual requirements, CDA certifications, CDA renewal or in-service training.  

There are several topics available. If interested go to the NCRAA home page, from here select  Program and Services, select ChildCare Aware Training. At the bottom of the page select the http://naccrra.smarthorizons.org/ . Then select Child Care provider, this will take you to a list of trainings.  Make sure to input your local zip code to access the training curriculum. I’ve tried other ways to navigate to get here but they did not work.

There are series of trainings, Center Based, Family  Child Care, General Training, Webinars &Blended Learning, Business Education and Spanish Courses, so many to choose from. I found many of great interest. One  that is available is operating standards for High Quality Inclusive Child Care. It consists of operating standards for high quality inclusive child care that will strengthen directors’ ability to reach and include children with disabilities.

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 1

Initially I was contacted by Cheryl Anderson stating that she would love to help me. Cheryl is the Director of a not-for profit community based Child Care Centre in Gray, which is the Northern Territory of Australia.

At this time I have not received a reply to any additional communications. Understanding that being in a very demanding position, priorities are important and it is possible that she has not had the time to respond.

I have moved forward with researching the area in which she services with hopes of hearing from here soon. If no word from my professional contact by Monday of next week I will move on to option B.

A poverty report completed by (ACOSS) Australia Council of Social Services, which was last published in October 2010 shows that approximately 2.2 million people, or 11% of Australians lived in poverty in 2006 – the latest date for which statistics are available ‐ compared with 10% in 2004 and 8% in 1994.

Australian children ‐ over 500,000 – in 2006 lived in households with equivalent income less than 50 percent of the median.

Some additional information that I located was the life expectancy of children. Australia is divided by Indigenous and Non Indigenous. Approximately 83 percent of Indigenous deaths below age 5 occur within the first year of life and, of these, nearly half occur within the first month. Infant mortality for Indigenous infants in the 2002‑06 period was 12.3 deaths per 1000 live births, compared with 4.2 deaths for non‑Indigenous infants (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2008).

Indigenous children currently experience much poorer outcomes than non-Indigenous children, with high levels of disadvantage in early childhood associated with poorer outcomes in health and education.

I found this information about Australia to be very interesting. It has broadened my understanding of the affects that poverty has on other parts of the world.

Reference

www.acoss.org.au

http://www.facs.gov.au/sa/indigenous/pubs/general/Documents/closing_the_gap/p2.htm

Sharing Web Resources

The organization that I have chosen is National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. The NACCRRA promotes national policies and partnerships to advance development and learning of all children. The organization also provides vision, leadership, and supports their local communities ‘network of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies. There website is http://www.naccrra.org/

The organizations website offers a wealth of valuable information. A few areas are programs and services, about child care, public policy, and child care news.

This week I took the time to navigate throughout the site. While doing so I found many great tools. Keeping a focus on this week’s discussion I chose to focus more on the subcategories child demographics and poverty.

A fact sheet, Who’s Minding The Kids? Child Care Arrangements takes a look at recent information from the 2011, U.S. Census Bureau. The fact sheet takes a look at the need for child care according to a parents work schedule.

According to the report of the 20 million children younger than age 5 living with their mothers, 11 million have working mom. Almost one-third, 33.3 million children are living with mothers working non-traditional hours. 1.7 million children live below the poverty level even though their mothers are working. Children under age 6 living in single mother-headed households were about four times as likely as their peers in married-couple households to be living in poverty in 2010:58.2 percent of young children of single mothers versus 13.4 percent of young children in married-couple households. The number of young children under 6 in poverty increased from 6.0 million in 2009 to 6.3 million in 2010.

According to the Census report, in 2010, the number of children living in families in deep poverty (with income below 50percent of their poverty threshold) rose by half a million children. 7.4 million children, or 9.9 percent, lived in families with income below 50 percent of their poverty threshold, up from 9.3 percent and 6.9 million in 2009.

Reading these reports I could not help but reflect on how families receiving child care assistance have been affected by a shortage in their states funding. Many parents barely bringing in any income will soon be faced with higher out of pocket child care expenses. Many families are considering quitting their jobs to stay at home and care for their children. With these actions pushing those already below the poverty level lower than they were before. Within the next few weeks I hope to continue advocating for those families who are risk of losing their child care subsidies and at risk of being without jobs. I could go even further in detail as how they may also be face with putting their children in care that do not meet quality standards.

Reference

http://www.naccrra.org/about-child-care/poverty, retrieved May 8, 2012