Research that Benefits Children & Families Uplifting Story

My third year teaching my students and I had the opportunity to participate in a research project that involved working with dolphins.  A colleague was working on her Doctorate and wanted to find out the effects of an outside stimulant with special needs children.  At first the school district was reluctant to let us participant.  The district eventually gave consent when they realized that the data could provide valuable information on how to stimulate some of these children.  You must understand that most of my students were non-verbal and getting them to respond at times was quite a challenge.  The Doctorate student established an agreement and program with the local aquarium.  The aquarium had a special tank that they setup for us to use with the children and the dolphin, so that there would be no outside interference.  Some of the participants would attend visits to the dolphin with class and other times with a parent or guardian.  The study was very rewarding.  The children were asked to hand a block to the teacher/instructor and then they could touch or throw a ball to the dolphin.  At first we wondered if it would work as the children would not comply.  The Doctorate student had the dolphin come to the children and rub their leg, hand or arm to stimulate them.  The first time a child responded everyone at the tank cried.  After that it was incredible as to what these children would do to get to touch the dolphin.  We even had two children that jumped into the tank with the dolphin.  Children that were non-verbal and often non-responsive were now responding to a dolphin.  Within a few weeks their parents and I were able to get the children to respond to simple task when we showed them their picture with the dolphin and reminded them that they would be going back to visit soon.  This was the most amazing research project that I the opportunity to participate in and that had a positive outcome for all those involved.  The effects provided to be long lasting.  Two years later they started an equestrian program to see if it would have the same effect with the children as the dolphin.

Personal Research Journey

After reading the chapter and working with this week’s assignments, I can honestly say I’m glad my job is not researching.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy learning new about new topic that I can help my student’s parents or ideas that I can implement into my classroom.  I am not an analytical person and research is not an area that I am comfortable with completing.  The reading has introduced the process of researching a topic more formally than I was taught in the past (It has been a long time since I took classes).  I thought I knew what was entailed in research, I was mistaken.   I’m open to any suggestion and support that anyone can offer.  I wasn’t intimidated by research until I finished reading chapter 2.  So with that said, I am looking at this course as a challenge that with the strength of the Good Lord I can conquer.

While researching sites for our discussion topic this week I came across the Austrian site and found it to be very informative.  I plan on using it again for future research.  I look forward to sharing and exploring websites with my fellow colleagues during this course.

Final Blog Assignment

There are many consequences that I learned about the international early childhood field for a professional and personal development.  One in the UAE is that there are unrealistic expectations for Primary schools due to high competition and lack of school places.  The lack of schools is also seen in the Italian communities.  The second consequence is the lack of standards in both places and the fact that no one monitors what is in place.  The schools do their own thing in educating the children.  The final consequence is found in Italy where the teachers and administrators are not on the same page when it comes to trainings and the curriculum that is used in the school.

The goal for the field related to international awareness of issues and trends is that there is more of an understanding for the need of a set of standards for everyone to follow.  The spirit of collegial relations is that valuable friendships have been made, with whom we can share and exchange vital information with each other.  The ability to community with individuals from different parts of the world to learn how they teach or use some of their strategies for particular situations is awesome.  I have enjoyed conversing with my international contacts and learning about the different education systems.

Getting to Know Your INternational Contacts -- Part 3

My post http://stuckngermany.blogspot.com

For this assignment I asked both of my contacts for information on the four questions.

1.      1. What issues regarding quality and early childhood professionals are being discussed where you live and work?   My contact (#1) from Italy said that there are so many children who would benefit from a quality program but there just aren’t enough there to help all the children.  My contact in UAE (Abu Dhabi, #2) said that until recently early childhood was not given much importance, as it was regarded as merely babysitting.  She said that everyone there has to have a labor card or work permit to work in any organization.

 

2.      2. What opportunities and/or requirements for professional development exist?  Contact #1 said she believes there is a lot of information and research but too often she has seen people with knowledge at their finger tips and ignore it.  There are special trainings designed around the curriculum and yet when the teachers return to their classrooms they fail to implement or even more frustrating when the administration does not let you implement the program correctly, as they never attended the training.  Contact #2 said that the education ministry has realized that ECE is equally an important field and therefore teachers have to have at least teacher training to work as a preschool teacher. For this reason the ministry of education offers training program which they are insistent that every unqualified teacher must take.  

3.      3. What are some of your professional goals?  Contact #1 Promote early identification of developmental delays and to help teachers not be afraid to mention their concerns to parents.  Contact #2 – The ministry of education has also begun to realize the need for standard curriculums that cater to the developmental needs of the children.  Companies are now hiring qualified individuals in education and curriculum to develop and prepare the curriculum, this is where I would like to work.

4.      4. What are some of your professional hopes, dreams, and challenges?  Contact #1 she wants to change children’s lives for the better and to know at the end of the year that I have done my very best to teach them.  Her dream is to find a way to make districts provide more than just the minimum services for special needs children and to ensure that their services are not based on funding but rather on need. Contact #2 stated that she loves teaching, but somewhere down the line I would like to get to the things behind the desk and be part of the preparation and building a curriculum that is developmentally appropriate based on all the knowledge and learning that I am getting.

The conversations that I have had with my contact in Italy, I can tell she and I have the same passion for working with special needs children and that she wants all of her children to be successful.  My contact in UAE has given me the opportunity to look at the education system of another country that is totally different from what one is a custom.  I would like to say thank you to both of my international contacts for their support during this course.

Sharing Web Resources Week 6

Upon exploring some of the outside links I found one on titled "Military Family Projects" which works to provide awareness with military families and communities.  The link lead me to various articles and topics that offer support and suggestions for the military families, child care and how to deal with a wide range of stressful topics, such as deployment. 

Another link lead me to the Early Head Start Resource Center.  Upon thoroughly searching this site there were links to such topics as: birth to three (offers information on best practices and research in the field), tip sheets (on challenging behaviors, curriculum, screening & assessment, family engagement & relationships,etc), webcasts, TA papers (News you can use, EHS program strategies, and home based program options), news you can use (this months discussed working with children and music), EHS program strategies (five reports illustrating the experiences of Early Head Start programs in meeting the challenges of planning), home-based program options (four publications are for different audiences and address different aspects of the home-based program option; they are intended to be used collaboratively).   I also found a early moments matter toolkit that offered a training program for professionals/trainers with parents and/or staff such as: home visitors, teachers, or family advocates.  There was so much information that after an hour of reading and searching I still had not looked at all the topics. The web address for this site is http://ehsnrc.org

The site zero to three offers information on equity and excellence in early care and education.  The studies showed that this is an on going issue and the it is becoming more and more in demand as both parents are having to work to support the family.

Once issue that was discussed this week was knowing how to best support young children through seperation or divorce. The article offered strategies to help babies, toddlers, and preschoolers navigate this major life change, with the support of loving adults they can continue to feel feel safe and secure throughout the divorce and make a good adaptation to their new family dynamic.

http://www.zerotothree.org

Getting to Know Your International Contacts--Part 2

One insight that I have learned through conversations with my international contacts is that there seems to be some common issues when it comes to including immigrant children into the countries early childhood program.   Both contacts have said that the UAE and Italy are not receptive to supporting non-nationals.

Another insight is the Reggio Emilia schools were founded in Italy and are used as models ffor many countries, especially the United States.  The philosophical model of her nursery school and kindergartens focused on constructive theoretical foundations with a learner-centered curriculum.

My international contact in Italy said that if all the countries would look at the Reggio Emilia program that uses the child’s natural curiosity of learning and implement this into the early childhood program then we would have well rounded children.  We should be addressing the holistic child and not what is best for the politicians.

My contact in the UAE does not have a standard curriculum being used at this time.  They have some basic standards that are very open to interpretations.  There are apparently ‘new’ standards currently being written in Dubai (one of he seven emirates, UAE comprises of) with the aim for ALL private Nursery Schools to be inspected and graded on a Rainbow system.  She feels that there are huge gaps between private nurseries and school expectations: no standards being enforced; unrealistic expectations of Primary Schools due to high competition and lack of school places; and many different Nationalities living in the UAE all with their own curriculums, standards and expectations.

Sharing Web Resources

Relevant information to my current professional development on the zero to three website was the availability of Federal agencies that work with implementing programs for children with special needs in this age group, while providing an overview of the agency.  The information that is provided is current and up to date, providing valid resources for early childhood.

On the site was a new video titled “Starting Life Without a Home” that caught my attention.  This video brought tears learning that 1 in 4 infants and toddlers are homeless or born into homelessness.  This is heart breaking and yet at the same time makes me angry.  Our country is spending so much money on re-establishing a country that we went to war with instead of spending that money on our own children and families.  There should be no reason that we have homeless if we (country) can afford to spend that amount of money on a war.  Stop the war and start loving our own!  This video was created off of a Congressional briefing where Congresswoman Judy Biggert is fighting to protect infant and toddlers that are homeless or living in or at poverty.  Her information is provided by the National Center on Family Homelessness.

The zero to three website has a section called Action Center where you can join policy networks, advocacy alerts and tools that can be used to assist educators or parents, a contact source with other advocates, and policy video library.  There is a lot of information on this site regarding trends and issue along with the information how to help fight for early childhood rights.  I find something new every time I look at this site.