My Final Post for Walden University 6163

   During the eight week course I have taken through Walden University, EDUC 6163: Building Research Competencies, I have learned a great deal. The most important think I have learned is that I have much more to learn about research. I have retained the basics elements of a research plan and in the future I hope to grow on this knowledge. There are many things to consider when starting a research project and following it through to the outcome. Before I conduct any type of research there are many things to consider first. Does my research include any of the following?

Informed consent with adults

Informed consent with children

Deception of participants

Confidentiality concerns

Risk/benefit considerations

Cultural concerns

Research with indigenous participants

   In research the participants should be limited to a specific ethnic group. So I will have to take into consideration cultural concerns. I will not treat minority groups as objects; I will treat them as subjects (Naughton, Rolfe, & Blatchford, 2010). I will take into consideration the different background, culture, family structure, social economic status, and behaviors of the diverse families that will be participating in the research. The research will be discussed to the families in the language they will understand. As a researcher I must embrace the differences of the diverse families and will not impose or compare my thoughts and beliefs.

   I am learning the many aspects of research and how important is to consider the many different elements it takes and steps that must be made before the research even takes place. All of the above are just one part of the research process among many more that I will need to study and learn before any type of research can take place.

European Early Childhood Education

The site I decided to learn more about, provide by Walden University EDUC 6163, Building Research Competency was European Early Childhood Education. I f you join their organization it seems to have a wealth of knowledge for anyone in the early childhood development field. The purpose of the EECERA is to collect papers that address development of new research methodology, give up to date current knowledge and present developments, applications and policy implications. I found this information under the special issues tab. They have a team of contributors providing papers that includes a variety of countries. The EECERA provides educational research for anyone who wants to become members of their website.

Concerned Aunt

   I have a niece and a nephew that was diagnosed with autism when they were approximately five years old. They are currently seventeen and twenty-four. My husband and I were watching TV one night about fifteen years ago and we heard on the news about how pig secretion can help with Autism. Back then, I researched the information and I found this study that was conducted by the National Institute of Health and Human Development, it was titled, The use of Pig Secretion to Treat Autism, http://www.nichd.nih.gov/news/releases/secretin.cfm, retrieved on November 14, 2012. What they reported was that three children with autism spectrum disorders who under went upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and intravenous administration of secretin to stimulate pancreaticobiliary secretion. All three children increased pancreaticobiliary secretory response when compared with nonautistic patients. Within five weeks after the intravenous administration of the secretin, they show dramatic improvement in behavior, eye contact, alertness, and expansive expressive language. The clinical observations suggested an association between gastrointestinal and brain function in subjects that had autistic behavior.

   I did tell my sister-in-law about this study, but she never looked into it. I thought it was very interesting and I was in hope that she would keep an open mind. I never brought this topic up again because it is somewhat personal and their family’s business as to what they want to do or not want to do when it comes to their children. I just thought I would pass this on for “food for thought’. I also have included other websites I found interesting about this topic.

The Informed Parent

http://www.informedparent.com/legacy/article-transitional.html?secretinuseinautism

Secretin Trials: A drug that might help, or hurt, autism children is widely prescribed but is just now being tested.

http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/19475/title/Secretin-Trials--A-drug-that-might-help--or-hurt--autistic-children-is-widely-prescribed-but-is-just-now-being-tested/ 

My Topic

   The career path I have chosen is education. What I mean by this is not only to learn, but to teach. I have been working with students of all ages for about eight years to date. All of my students have different challenges in their lives such as culture, drugs, pregnancy, children, homeless and many more, this list goes on and on. I have already earned Maters in Adult Education and know I want to further my knowledge by obtaining an early childhood development degree. By doing this I will be able to further understand my students and help them with their individual needs. My ultimate goal is to gain the understanding of why so many kids “fall through the cracks”, and help prevent this from happening. I came to the realization that it starts from an early age, even before birth, and I wanted to learn all about how to help prevent any child from becoming an “at risk youth”.

   All kids have the capacity to succeed in school and in life. Yet far too many children fail to meet their true potential. Many students, especially those from poor and minority families, are placed at risk by school practices that sort some students into high-quality programs and other students into low-quality education the purpose of this research is to find out ways I can help kids before they reach this point. 

Topic

The “Nocebo Effect”

Subtopics

1. Is there a link between the numbers of stressful events experienced during pregnancy and does this lead to increased, risk behavioral problems in children?
2. Do birth complications contribute to violent behavior and potentially lead to violence?
3. Can good nutrition and a loving environment help the fetus to develop their brain in a positive way?

   I have much to learn in the research process and this class has already helped me to understand the process, now all I have to do is apply it. I am open to any suggestions anyone has to offer me, thanks Tammy.

Healthy Children

 

   Physical activity of children seems to be the hot topic of conversation of everyone around the world. We need to care for our health early on and continue throughout life. We know from research that physical activity of infants and young children support healthy brain development and helps children become successful learners. We can do this by engaging children in healthy habits such as what we eat and how often we exercise.

   However accessing a child to find out if they are healthy or not depends on how often they have access to health clinics or doctors. Yes there are required times in school age children to have physicals and blood work before entrance into certain grades, but, how often they are seen in between is also very important for access their overall health. Health care is an issue for many different countries, as well as the United States.

These are just some interesting things I found as I researched this topic:

Prevalence of Obesity Among Children and Adolescents: United States, Trends 1963-1965 Through 2007-2008

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_child_07_08/obesity_child_07_08.htm

 Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Children: National Health Interview Survey, 2010

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_250.pdf

Why Do School Aged Children Need Health Insurance?

http://familiesusa2.org/assets/pdfs/school-kids-need-insurance.pdf

Zero to Three

   Zero to Three (http://www.zerotothree.org/) is an excellent source and a wealth of knowledge; I go on this site every week to find out what is new and the current news, September 2010. This week I went directly to the “Down load of the week” tab. This is current information and the pamphlet is titled, Expanding Access to Early Head Start: State Initiatives for Infants and Toddlers at Risk (http://www.zerotothree.org/public-policy/pdf/expanding-access-to-ehs-paper.pdf). This is always an ongoing issue with early childhood education. This pamphlet tells about how research shows that young children growing up in poverty experience poorer health, developmental delays, learning disabilities, hunger, and are reported in more cases of neglect than their peers. This can result in becoming non-successful in school and less likely to become productive adults.

   Despite the difficult economical times 23 states have at least one initiative that builds on federally Early Head Start funded programs. Out of these states nine have initiatives that have extended the day or year of services, nineteen have expanded the number children and pregnant women served, and two states provide assistance and resources to child daycare providers. This is definitely taking steps in the right direction and a start in providing the assistance and programs needed for the growing demand for this progress.    As proven by these states currently implementing these (EHS) initiatives, hopefully more states will follow in the efforts of making this program available to more infants, toddlers and families. However I am very sad to say Kentucky is not one of these states listed in the initiative progress.

Resource

Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
http://www.zerotothree.org/. Retrieved on October 12, 2012.

Economic return on early childhood investment

While surfing the internet this week I found a very interesting and knowledgeable person, James Heckman. James Heckman is a Nobel Memorial prize winner in Economics, and is an expert in the economics of human development. Heckman has proven that investing in early childhood development has great economic gains. In this video I found on youtube http://www.heckmanequation.org/about-professor-heckman, he articulately expresses the importance of early childhood investment. He states that early childcare is not only a social issue, but also an economic issue and education is at the heart of the economy. We need to invest in childhood development to gain skills for workforce development, and in turn, we will have less high school dropouts, and crime. He states a proportion of ages 18-25 are going on to college and others are dropping out of society. This creates a top half and a bottom half in which the bottom half is not working or contributing to society, creating a drain. This man sparked my interest and I decided to find his website, which has a vast amount of knowledge and videos to watch. I would highly recommend anyone interested, to visit his website http://www.heckmanequation.org/about-professor-heckman.

Resource

http://www.heckmanequation.org/about-professor-heckman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO2oFtY7tZA&feature=fvwrel

Our Future

   The resources of this week in the Walden University EDU-6162-1, Issues and Trends in Early Childhood Development class, reminded me how important education is not matter what age we are. I also have a Masters in Adult Education and I am very passionate about learners of all ages. Long standing educational gaps and low high school graduation rates was the issue that stood out the most for me because this issue will effect the growth of all economies and lead to not enough qualified workers to run the countries. This is why high-quality, early education is important for children birth to five years of age. On the United States Department of Labor website it stated that the future of unskilled workers depends largely on the education system and the government to provide supplementation to help low-skilled workers and their families http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/herman/reports/futurework/conference/trends/trendsVII.htm.  

   Qualified teachers are an essential component to all preschool programs. Children who are educated by teachers with higher educations in related fields of child development are more sociable, exhibit better language, and perform at a higher level on cognitive tasks than children who are not (Bowman, Donovan, & Burns, 2001). Quality education not only takes qualified teachers, it also takes much needed funds to support the programs.

   Another good resource I found was The National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force brings together leading experts in child development, early education, and state police to help states develop tools to measure, assess and set standards to help improve early education (PEW Charitable Trusts Programs http://www.pewtrusts.org/news). The benefits to the Task Force’s recommendations’ are that any state can use this to guide them to create an effective accountability and improvement system. The Task Force aims to help the states overcome the challenges they might face and effectively confront the issues. Some of the issues that might be a challenge are developing new approaches to assess children and programs and improve early childhood services because of structural, conceptual and technical challenges (National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force, 2007).

     There are many resources available to the people that want to learn and research how important education is and how we go about using the knowledge to help others. I feel the common denominator is we all seek to help children, learn, grow in all ways, live healthy, physically and mentally, and most important become productive members of our society. To do this, we as educators need all the help available to obtain this ambition.

Resources

Bowman, Barbara T.; Donovan, M. Suzanne; & Burns, M. Susan (Eds.). (2001). Eager to learn: Educating our preschoolers. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. ED 447 963

Programs at a glance: The National Early Childhood Accountability Task Force, PEW Charitable Trusts. Retrieved on June 18, 2012,  http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=23460

Childhood Poverty

After reading The Crisis of Childhood Poverty it lead to think about how poverty can lead to lifelong learning disabilities, can be passed on from generation to generation, and can lead to lifelong emotional and physical health issues, http://www.childhoodpoverty.org. I wanted to learn more about how poverty can lead to these issues and one resource I came across was Theories of Poverty and Anti-Poverty Programs in Community Development http://www.rupri.org/Forms/WP06-05.pdf. This article has some very interesting theories about all of the above consequences of poverty. This paper states that most rural community development efforts is to relieve causes or symptoms of poverty, it makes a difference to which theory of poverty is believed to be responsible for the problem being addressed. This paper explore five competing theories,

1. Individual deficiencies-
2. Cultural belief systems that support subcultures in poverty
3. Political-economical distortions
4. Geographical disparities
5. Cumulative and circumstantial origins

This paper helps to understand the theories and shows how they shape different community development practices that address sources of poverty more effectively than comparing to one single theory. This resource also explores the relationship between individuals and their community in placing people in poverty, keeping them there, and potentially getting them out. This resource seems to support that idea that individuals are shaped by their community, and communities are a consequence shaped by their individual members.

Resources

Bradshaw, T. Rural Poverty Research Center. Theories of Poverty and Anti-Poverty Programs in Community Development, retrieved from, http://www.rupri.org/Forms/WP06-05.pdf, September 18, 2012.

CHIP-Knowledge of Tackeling Childhood Poverty. The Crisis of Childhood Poverty, Retrived from http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/, on September 18, 2012.

A Great Resource

   ZERO TO THREE is a national non-prophet organization in Washington D.C. Their mission is to promote the health and development of young children. The website gives specific information about early experiences in childhood development that helps all people involved in the lives of children. The website has tools and resources for adults who influence the lives of young children. ZERO TO THREE has three main goals:

1. Train professionals and build networks of leaders
2. Raise public awareness of early childhood issues
3. Influence policies and practices

   Navigating the ZERO TO THREE website is very simple and user friendly. The main page has such topics as, Featured Resources, What’s new, and Downloads of the week. At the top of the Home Page it has six tabs to click on for information. The tabs consist of Home, Behavior and Development, Maltreatment, Care and Education, Public Policy, and About Us. There is also a search tool in the same row at the top of the home page to help you find anything that might not be mentioned. The left-hand side of the home page has the ZERO TO THREE mission statement. At the bottom of the home page there are three tabs to click on, Military Family Projects, National Training Institute and Early Head Start. Below these tabs is the contact information for the ZERO TO THREE Organization. You simply need to click on http://www.zerotothree.org/, and just get started. It will take some time to absorb the information this website has to offer, but time will pass by very quickly because you will never get bored with all the things the ZERO TO THREE website has to offer.

   ZERO TO THREE has been a very useful website to help promote understanding about critical issues affecting young children and their families. It has a large networks to distribute its work to many originations such as, child care centers, home visiting programs, clinics and hospitals. ZERO TO THREE has provided reliable, science based resources on how to promote young children’s health and development. It seems ZERO TO THREE has become the go-to source for professionals and parents alike.

Resource

Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
http://www.zerotothree.org/. Retrieved on September 13, 2012.

Exchanging Thoughts and Ideas

I have decided to communicate through other Blogs, it was very hard getting someone to respond to me from other countries and it seems everyone has a blog. I can communicate with many people via Blog, and from many different countries. We all have a common goal and that is the children.

Contact 1. http://blogs.worldbank.org/education/blogs/emiliana-vegas

Emiliana Vegas's blog

Should developing countries shift from focusing on improving schools to improving parents?

Submitted by Emiliana Vegas on Thu, 2011-12-08 19:34

I travel to many developing countries in the context of my work for The World Bank. I visit schools that receive financial support and technical assistance from the Bank to improve the learning experiences and outcomes of students. Each time, I ask teachers in these schools what they think would make the biggest difference in the learning outcomes of their students. The most common answer is “better parents.” I often wonder if this response is, in some conscious or unconscious way, an excuse to help teachers explain the poor outcomes of their students (especially those from the poorest households) and their low expectations of what their students can achieve. However, both common sense and solid research indicate that parents matter.

Reply: I also think that if education was more accessible and affordable to adults it might make a difference in their children’s lives. I am 43 years of age, the youngest of ten and the only girl. I am the youngest of all my cousins too. I am the only one in my family that had graduated from college; this is a very sad situation. I am currently working on my Master’s in Early Childhood Studies, this is a topic that is very important to me, and we are educating the future of our existence. Education has not been easy and I have many student loans, however, I will continue to be a positive role model in a world full of negatives. It is very easy to blame parents, but we have to take into consideration the community as a whole.

Support

My support system is my family. We support each other and I could not imagine what life would be without each other. We not only work together we play, laugh, cry, and live with each other. I don’t think I could face any difficult decisions or challenges without the help and support of my family. I feel sorry for all the people in the world that do not have family. Who they turn to when they have a crisis? Who do they share when they have a success in their life?

Family is the reason why it is so important to keep the culture and traditions alive, so we can pass it on from generation to generation.

My Connections to Play

Quotes about Play

“Culture arises and unfolds in and as play”.

Johan Huizinga
Dutch historian

“Play energizes us and enlivens us. It eases our burdens. It renews our natural sense of optimism and opens us up to new possibilities”.

Stuart Brown, MD
Contemporary American psychiatrist

“Play is our brain's favorite way of learning”.

Diane Ackerman
Contemporary American author

“Play gives children a chance to practice what they are learning”.

Fred Rogers
American television personality

BENEFITS OF PLAY

1. Play enables children to find out about themselves and the world. It allows them to:

 

A discover
B experiment
C create
D concentrate
E express ideas
F develop speech
G develop muscles
H invent
I · learn new skills
J· learn how other people behave
K role-play (pretend to be someone else)
L· share possessions
M use the imagination
·N co-operate with others
O show off (children like to let others know what they can do)
P act protectively towards someone less powerful than themselves.

   

2. Play helps towards happiness. A child who is absorbed in play is likely to be a happy child, as play produces feelings of satisfaction and achievement. 

3. Play helps prevent boredom. Preventing a child from being bored is very important, as boredom can quickly lead to bad temper, irritability and destructiveness.
4. Play can help reduce stress. The acting out of stressful situations can help them to seem more familiar and therefore less frightening. For example, by playing 'schools' a child becomes familiar with the idea of going to school.  This will help to reduce any nervousness about school which the child might have. In the same way. playing 'doctors and nurses' can help prepare a child for a stay in hospital. 
5. Play can help divert aggressive instincts. Using a hammer to nail pieces of wood together to make a 'boat' is preferable to using the hammer to hurt someone or destroy property.

My Play

   In my childhood my play was supported by all of my friends. We would play baseball in the street out in front of our homes and have a great time. Most of the time we spent outside, I grew up in sunny Southern California and the weather was always great. This is totally different from the kids today where they spend most of their time playing with electronics and digital toys. This is why we have so many obese children in the USA, because they spend most of their time sitting and playing instead of physical play like riding a bike or playing sports.

   Today play is still an important part of my life as well as all my families’ lives too. We spend much time on the lake waterskiing, fishing or swimming. When we are at home we are swimming or playing “corn hole” outside enjoying the weather. We all have jeeps and we hit the trails whenever possible through the “The Land between the Lakes”, here in Kentucky where we currently live. When it is cold we are inside shooting pool. We all enjoy doing things together. My husband and I have always said, “We work hard all week to play harder on the weekends”.

Relationship Reflection

   Relationships are a very important part of my life. Some relationships have developed over time and others are just starting. There are many different types of relationships such as family, professional, and acquaintances and friends. Family relationships are very important to nurture and maintain.

   The people in your family you cannot choose, it just happens and sometimes it can be difficult to maintain, but nonetheless, very important.

   Professional relationships might take a little less maintenance. You do not have to become best friends with the people you work with, but you do have to keep it at a professional level. However, many times I have developed long lasting relationships’ with co workers that have turned into life long friends.

   Acquaintances are people you develop a sometime relationship with, they are what I like to call hi and bye friends. You know them, but you do not get to know them, maybe because of a busy life, who knows why? They are just people you know in passing. 

   You chose friends and people you want to spend time with, as they do you.

   All of the above take time to nurture, empathize, listen, trust, and evolve and much hard work. Relationships are not one sided, it takes two willing participants’ and develop over your whole life. There are many ingredients to a positive, strong and lasting relationship and all a person has to do is give it time to grow.

To My Colleagues

To My Colleagues

Don't ever be afraid to seek help when you truly need it. We don't enter college as geniuses, and we don't leave college as geniuses. We leave as learners, who are determined to succeed. “Keep on teaching”.

Erich Fromm: Why should society feel responsible only for the education of children, and not for the education of all adults of every age?

Healthy Children

Physical activity of children seems to be the hot topic of conversation of everyone around the world. We need to care for our health early on and continue throughout life. We know from research that physical activity of infants and young children support healthy brain development and helps children become successful learners. We can do this by engaging children in healthy habits such as what we eat and how often we exercise.

   However accessing a child to find out if they are healthy or not depends on how often they have access to health clinics or doctors. Yes there are required times in school age children to have physicals and blood work before entrance into certain grades, but, how often they are seen in between is also very important for access their overall health. Health care is an issue for many different countries, as well as the United States.

These are just some interesting things I found as I researched this topic:

Prevalence of Obesity Among Children and Adolescents: United States, Trends 1963-1965 Through 2007-2008

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity_child_07_08/obesity_child_07_08.htm

 Summary Health Statistics for U.S. Children: National Health Interview Survey, 2010

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/series/sr_10/sr10_250.pdf

Why Do School Aged Children Need Health Insurance?

http://familiesusa2.org/assets/pdfs/school-kids-need-insurance.pdf

A Very Sad Situation

Forty-three percent of active duty service members have children. http://cs.mhf.dod.mil/content/dav/mhf/QOL-Library/Project%20Documents/MilitaryHOMEFRONT/Reports/2007%20Demographics.pdf

Many of these children have to deal with parents that return from war acting totally different from when they left. Vary young children may exhibit separation anxiety, temper tantrums and changing in eating habits.

However, I believe it is far worse for the Iraqi children. Up to 95% of all pregnant women in Iraq suffer from anemia and in turn will deliver weak, malnourished babies. Most of these infants will either die before reaching age five due to lack of food and basic medicine, or will be permanently scared, either mentally or physically http://www.armymedicine.army.mil/reports/mhat/mhat_v/Redacted1-MHATV-OIF-4-FEB-2008Report.pdf  

Crosby Stills Nash Young Teach Your Children - War Video

Early child development

• Early childhood is the most important phase for overall development throughout the lifespan.
• Brain and biological development during the first years of life is highly influenced by an infant’s environment.
• Early experiences determine health, education and economic participation for the rest of life.
• Every year, more than 200 million children under five years old fail to reach their full cognitive and social potential.
• There are simple and effective ways for families and caregivers to ensure optimal child development.

To reach their potential, young children need to spend time in a caring, responsive environment that protects them from neglect and inappropriate disapproval and punishment.
Parents and families are the key to early child development, but need support to provide the right environment. Children benefit when national governments adopt “family friendly” social protection policies that guarantee adequate family income, maternity benefits, financial support, and allow for parents and caregivers to devote time and attention to young children. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs332/en/index.html

Perinatal Mental Health Disorders Prevention and Treatment Act

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs3.asp?ActID=2932&ChapterID=34

"The Philosophical Baby" - Dr Alison Gopnik Interviewed on Freedomain Radio

Learn Something New Everyday

   After doing all the research in just the first week of class I have found out that my pregnancy with the twins had many factors that could have molded their lives. I had a very high risk pregnancy. I was constantly sick and under complete bed rest, in fact, that’s all I wanted to do was rest. I was in the hospital every other day for IV and I could not keep anything down, including my prenatal vitamins. I lost weight the whole time, in the sixth month I lost over twenty pounds. The twins lived off of my stored fat, lucky there was plenty?

   I delivered my son and daughter at seven in-a-half months, my daughter weighed 4.10 and my son weighed 4.9. My daughter had jaundice as well as my son, but my son had many more issues, my doctor said he had three strikes against me. He was white, second born and premature. All of these factors made him a weak little (tadpole) as my friend called him. He was taken to another hospital for neonatal intensive care and he came home four weeks later at three pounds.

   The twins not only had a traumatic birth, but a very bad prenatal experience with other factors during my pregnancy. I was definitely stressed the whole pregnancy. During this week of studies, I have discovered why my twins are the way they are. I would have never guessed it started at conception, but it did. This is another story. I just found all the things I have learned this week are very true and answered many of my questions.

Here’s to all your future endeavors in Child Development

Preschool and childcare are a critical time in all children’s development. We all need to gain the knowledge to provide a warm, nurturing environment and teach age appropriate curriculum. I applaud all of the students in the Walden University Child Development program for taking the first step in gaining the knowledge needed for helping all young children to develop. Never lose the passion and yearning to be a child advocate. “Keep on teaching”.

Three Codes of Ethics, Important to Me

Principles

P-1.1—Above all, we shall not harm children. We shall not participate in practices that are emotionally damaging, physically harmful, disrespectful, degrading, dangerous, exploitative, or intimidating to children. This principle has precedence over all others in this Code (NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved January 13, 2012, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf).

As far as I’m concerned this one is the most important of all, like it says “this principal has precedence over all others in this code”.

II. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND PREPARATION is critical to providing the most effective services for young children with disabilities and their families. Professional development is viewed and valued as an ongoing process guided by high standards and competencies for professional performance and practice.

Professionals acquire the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to work with a variety of young children with disabilities and their families within natural and inclusive environments promoting children’s overall growth, development and learning and enhancing family quality of life. Finally, professionals continually should seek and interpret evidence based information for planning and implementing individually appropriate learning environments linked to ongoing assessment and collaboration with parents and professional team members (The Division for Early Childhood. (2000, August). Code of ethics. Retrieved January 16, 2012, from
http://www.dec-sped.org/).

If we, as teachers and mentors do not have the education, we are not qualified to teach others. It is our responsibility to always grow as teachers and learn something new everyday that we can pass on. If we do not gain knowledge, how can we pass it on?

Ethical Responsibilities to Colleagues

In a caring, cooperative workplace, human dignity is respected, professional satisfaction is promoted, and positive relationships are developed and sustained. Based upon our core values, our primary responsibility to colleagues is to establish and maintain settings and relationships that support productive work and meet professional needs. The same ideals that apply to children also apply as we interact with adults in the workplace (NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved January 13, 2012, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf).

If we don’t have respect, we don’t have anything.

Quick Links to Help Child Educators, Educate

Class Resources

NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/dap

UNICEF (n.d.). Fact sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved January 30, 2012, from http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf

NAEYC. (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8. Retrieved Feb 1, 2012, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf

Interesting Resources

http://www.childadvocates.org/

http://www.childadvocate.net/

http://www.valuesparenting.com/

Influential Thinkers

"Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten."

B.F. Skinner

"Let men be happy, informed, skilful, well behaved, and productive."

BF Skinner

“Children love and want to be loved and they very much prefer the joy of accomplishment to the triumph of hateful failure. Do not mistake a child for his symptom.”
Erik Erikson

”Doubt is the brother of shame.”
Erik Erikson

Influential People and Things in My Life

1. Students of all ages have influenced me tremendously with their will to overcome many obstacles in their lives and have the perseverance to strive to learn.


2. I have had the privilege of working with a teacher named Karen Dismore in the alternative program in the school district I work in. Karen has had a very rough life growing up and in adulthood with health issues. All of these tragic thing that have happened to Karen throughout her life never slowed her down. She is a great influence and an inspiration not only to me, but to the kids we work with. Karen has written three novels and I feel she is a very accaccomplished writer. I have a goal in my life to write one book that I have not yet obtained and Karen has written three, this is amazing to me.
I have read all three books and I can't wait until she writes another! GO KAREN!!!

1. Scilia
2. Salina
3. Trajan’s War

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3. My Grampa is another person who has left an indelible impression. He was the most kindest person I had ever known. My Dad died when I was five years old and my Grandpa was the only consistent man in my life, he filled the shoes of my father and he also filled his grandfather shoes as well. Right after we lost him I got pregnant. One year and one day after his death I had my twins, one boy and one girl. The saying goes, "for every life lost their is a new to take their place". It took two to replace my grampa.

4. All the teachers in my life have influenced me in one way or another. There are a few that stand out more than the rest, however they have all left some kind of impression on me. The one that made the most influence on me was my high school drama teacher, Mrs Williams. She encouraged us to be what ever we want to be. I was always artistic and she saw that in me and she knew how to draw out that creativity by the things she had me create. I was not an actor, I was part of the stage crew and my job was to create the scenes. Mrs William was very hard on us, but we all loved and respected her.

5. Last but not least, all the armed forces in the great USA are my real hero's. They all are willing to give their lives for our freedom and many have. I signed my son over to the US Army when he was seventeen. He was also an at risk youth and it was his decision to join, I had to allow this, it was the best thing for him. He spent five years in the Army, one year in Iraq and thank God, I was one of the lucky parents, I can still hug my son and say "I Love You". There are many families who cannot do this, and I consider them hero's also, they gave up special people in their lives for us, they will never hug their loved ones again. So here's to all the soldiers and their families, "THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE"!!!!

 

A good Book and a Better lesson

The Rainbow Fish, by Marcus Pfister is about a fish that lives with its parents and stresses the importance of being an individual. The rainbow fish with its bright shiny scales learned how to give up its most prized possession, its scales. The fish not only gives up its scales, it gives up its pride to gain friends.