NAECTE

The Name of the organization I am looking into is the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators. Here is the linkNAECTE. The purpose of the organization is to:

• To promote the professional growth of our membership
• To discuss educational issues specific to our membership
• To advocate for improvements in early childhood teacher education
• Provide a forum for consideration of issues and concerns of interest to educators of early childhood teacher educators
• Provide a communication network for early childhood teacher educators
• Facilitate the interchange of information and ideas about research and practice
• Use, as vehicles, the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, conferences, resolutions, position papers, and other publications
• Cooperate with other national and international organizations concerned with the study and education of young children

(NAECTE.org,  2013)

Looking on the site I found a book that one of the members wrote that has to do with the issue/trend that we were learning about this week. The book is Global migration and education: Schools, children and families. written by Adams, L., & Kirova, A. in 2007. (NAECTE.org,  2013). It would be great to be able to check out that book and see how it compares to what we have learned in class. Also I saw that in their newsletter they want to incorporate more classroom ideas and activities, which I think would be very helpful. 

I have yet to get in contact with someone from a different country and I even tried contacting two more. So unfortunately I think I am going to have to go with alternate for part one from last week.

Setting up Communications

I have taken a step to set up communications with Suzana Kirandziska from Macedonia
Foundation for Educational and Cultural Initiatives of Macedonia (FECIM) and with Siobhan Fitzpatrick from

 OMEP Irish National Committee Nippa - the Early Childhood Organization, in Ireland. I hope to hear back from them by this weekend. If I do not hear from them,  I will try to contact others, before I have to use, the alternative route.

The organization that I chose to research is the National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators. As an educator in Kindergarten I feel that this organization better suits my needs in the education field. 

I hope that everyone was able to make contact with someone. Also if  anyone has any pointers on establishing contact that would be great. Good luck and I look forward to reading all the blog posts.

My Support!

      I have many people and things in my life that support me. My parents are my biggest supporters. They are always telling me how proud they are of me and how much they love me. They are always willing to help out in any way they can, which means a lot! I have a busy schedule with working full time as a Kindergarten teacher, I have a part time job as well, and Grad school to top it all off. I have a house of my own and its hard to keep up with everything. My parents are always telling me to come over for supper because they know I probably haven't had time to go to the grocery store, so I will just eat cereal again:) They want me to focus on my classes and not to worry about the little stuff. My dad will go to the grocery store for me and he will come over and shovel my drive because of all the recent snow we are getting in my hometown. My mom makes a point to bring me out to lunch sometimes, just because she knows I need a break from the day to day life, and it is much needed.
      My friend Amber is always there for me to lean on, when I am having a break down moment when everything seems to be piling on way to much. Sometimes I will call her and say I need to have a drink and she will pick me up and take me out. Or she will surprise me with a text message and say how good of a friend I am, even though I haven't talked to her in a week or so, because I am so busy with life. She just lets me know that it is ok, and she is supportive no matter what.
      My coworkers are always there for me as well. They have been great this year with me going to school. They help me plan my lessons and they help me decorate my classroom for all the different holidays and so on. They know I have homework to do and they also know I love my job, so they are trying to help me any way I can.
     The benefits from these people are amazing. They are saving me time and my parents are even saving me a little money by providing me with supper still:) When it seems like I just can't go on or that I am super tired, I just think of these great people who are helping me achieve my goal of getting my Masters.
       A challenge is that I know that I am taking time away from there busy schedules as well. My co-workers have their own classrooms to get ready and their own lessons to plan. My parents have a budget they have to maintain as well, and so I decline their offer of supper and having my dad get my groceries for me, even though I always give him money and somehow I always manage to get it back. Sneaky Man:) When they are all busy all the shopping and shoveling and decorating comes back to me and it takes more of my time and then I get frustrated and discouraged. It always has worked out and I know that it will continue to, because I know I have a great team that has my back.
       There are also things in my day to day life that help me out that are not people. My job supports me  buy giving me a paycheck, so I don't have to worry about how I am going to pay my bills. It also reminds me why I love what I do, and why I chose to go back to school to further my education. It might sound funny but music also helps me through my day. I have to have music on all the time. It just calms me down and makes me stress free for a while. Although it can be distracting also, because I find myself lost in the music instead of my work. 
        There are many things that can give support and there are many things that will be a challenge as I continue. I just keep taking it day by day and I remember all the people and things that help me through the day. 

My Connections to Play

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

“Children learn as they play. Most importantly, in play children learn how to learn.” – O. Fred Donaldson 

My family was very supportive when it comes to play. We didn't live close to any other kids, so we had to find ways to entertain ourselves. It helped that I grew up with four sisters and we made life very entertaining. We live by a bunch of hills and we would go exploring all the time. We would ride bikes and go hiking in the hills. In the winter is was sledding, and snowboarding. Inside, I would dress up and play house, and my mom and or sisters would play with me and be any person or character I wanted them be. We also played a lot of cards. My grandpa taught me how to play pinochle when I was in third grade and I love it. We have card parties all the time, and a lot of my aunts and uncles and cousin will come over.  
Play was an important part of my childhood. I have some great memories of playing with my sisters and  cousins when they would come over. As I am sitting here typing this sitting in my parents kitchen after supper with some of my sisters we are reminiscing about all the things we use to do. 

I think play today is very different then what it was when I was growing up. Now days they are a lot of electronics that kids use to entertain themselves. Some kids don't know how to use their imaginations anymore. They don't go outside and find ways to entertain themselves. In some schools they don't let their students play. They don't have time to let them play in schools anymore. I feel that parents are running into the same problem. Schedules are busy so I feel that they use iPads, or Xbox's, to entertain their kids. There are a lot of good educational games for the Ipads and iPhones , and if used correctly they can be a good way to entertain kids. I also know that a lot of parents set time limits on such devices, so that kids aren't hooked on them. I hope that kids now days can get outside and play and use their imagination. I hope that they are able to play in schools. Kids learn so much from playing, that I hope that it doesn't becoming extinct. 

As a Kindergarten teacher I play with my kids all the time, when we are having Free Choice. We use our imaginations, and we role play. I also still participate in family, card nights. I love it when my family gets together and we play cards and games. 

The first picture is with a new POGO stick that I got for my niece for Christmas. I use to love playing on the POGO stick. The second picture is one of the many outfits that I would play dress up in. 

Relationship Reflections

I have many relationships/partnerships in my life. They all take work to maintain to maintain a lasting relationship. Relationship are important to me, because you need people in your life that you can trust, count on, people that will support you, and watch out for you. The relationships that I am going to talk about are with, my mom and dad, my younger sister MacKenzie, my best friends Amy and Amber, and the relationships that I have with my nieces and nephews.

I hang out with my mom a lot. We will go shopping, go out for supper, or we will pick up my nieces and nephews and take them to the park. I can always count on her to help me with anything, and support me in whatever I do. I don't always agree with what she has to stay and I don't always listen, but I know she always has my best interest at heart. I get very frustrated easily with my mom, and I know, when I get that way I need just a few days away from her.:) She knows this about me and understands that I need my space. My mom is the greatest and I don't know what I would do with out her. 

My dad is another relationship that is very important to me. He doesn't like to take pictures so there is not a lot of them. He has helped me with sports and we both have a love of history. We watch the History channel together and he always thinks he can stump me with trivia questions. We also share a love of movies. I remember wining a contest on the radio to go see Lara Croft Tomb Raider and the first person I wanted to take was my dad. He always supports me and my sisters and I couldn't have asked for a better dad. 

I have four sisters and I am very close relationships with all of them. I am probably the closest to my younger sister MacKenzie. We never really got along when we were younger, and were always blaming things we did wrong on each other. We are three years apart, and it wasn't until I was a senior in High School and her a freshmen, when we really started getting along. She is currently going to Chiropractic School in Minnesota and we call each other at least once week. We will take about everything and anything. This relationship takes a lot of work because she is way more controlling and wants everything her way, and I am avery go with the flow kinda person. They have been times when we will not talk for a couple weeks because we are mad at each other, and then very stubborn, so neither of us want to apologize first. 

My best friends Amber and Amy are so awesome. I am glad that we all became great friends together. I met Amber my freshman year of high school, and we have been best friends every since. Like any relationship with a friend it has been work. We fight and we disagree and for a few years we didn't really hang out together. However, we have stayed friends and had to work to maintain this friendship. 

I met Amy when I was in my early twenties. We worked together at my dad's restaurant and went to school together. We share a passion for teaching together. She is a High School History teacher. Again,we have had to work at our relationship. All three of us have become great friends and we try to have monthly lunch/dinner date to catch up what each other is doing. We all have busy lives but, we make it work to be together. 

These are my nieces and nephews, and I love them to pieces. I want to be a part of their lives, so I make sure that I am at every birthday party, and any event that they might have. Since I don't have any kids as of now, I spoil all of them. I will take each one of them for a day, and spend one on one time with them, so they know that each one of them are special to me. 

Relationships are very important and are something that needs to be worked on. You can't take relationships for granted because life is too short. 

More Quotes

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.  – C.G. Jung

Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened.
Dr. Seuss 

You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room.
Dr. Seuss 

Assessments

I don't really like assessments and I don't think that they give a correct understanding of what the child knows. We do multiple assessments in school, and we collect the data. We use this data to put children in groups or to see what level they are at for reading. They reason we use multiple assessments is because they are all different and tell us different information. For example in Kindergarten we assess kids to see if they know their letters, numbers, or what their Reading level is. So this tells me what they know. It doesn't tell me if they ate breakfast, or if they were able to get a good night's sleep, if they have clean clothes to put on their back. A child might do bad on one assessment and good on another, or bomb them all because they get anxiety about them. There are a lot of factors that assessments don't point out. I know assessments will not go away in the near future, so I will do my best to make sure I give them a fair shot.


I chose to research what assessments they are doing in Fiji, because I would like to go an volunteer there one summer. With the high poverty rate they have not all children are being educated. However this is the approach that the Fiji government is working towards. 
"In September 2005, an inaugural Education Summit was held in consultation
with educational stakeholders to review a 48-page document titled the Suva
Declaration: “Building a Strategic Direction for Education in Fiji 2006 – 2015.”
The document provided recommendations of six core curriculum ‘task-force’ groups on the following primary areas: the child, the curriculum, the school, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), human resources and the community."(Koya, pg. 30). They are working towards an Outcome Based Education. 

"While Outcomes Based Education (OBE) has been advocated in the West as a
means towards achieving quality educational outcomes since the 1990’s in the
USA and UK, the major policy changes in Fiji can be directly linked to FESP
 which adopts the Western Australian approach to outcomes based education."(Koya, pg. 31).
Educational Assessments are changing, so hopefully one day all children will get a good education there.
As I said before I don't really like assessments, but I make sure all of my kiddos get a fair results from them. What I mean by that is, if a student looks tired that day, I will wait till the next day to assess them.

Resources:
Koya. Vaka'uta, Cresantia (Frances). THE QUEST FOR AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT:

 WHAT ARE WE ASSESSING AND WHY?

 An examination of the Internal Assessment Initiative at Secondary School Level

In Fiji . 2008