Week 3 Getting to Know Your Interenational Contacts

I had no luck contacting international educators. I contacted three and no one responded. It seems like that is a common theme. I went to the many of the websites that were listed as part of our Alternative for this assignment and did not have much success there either. Most of the sites came up as unavailable.  Again, seems like a common theme.

When I finally was able to hear a podcast it was from the Global Fund for Children. I listened to Victoria Dunning speak. She is the vice-president of the Fund.  I was curious as to what the GFC actually did. I learned that they are in the business of supporting Community Based Organizations aka CBO.  GFC feels that the CBO's are in the best position to serve children because they really know what the families in their communities need.  GFC supports the CBO with money, value added services and knowledge management. GFC really focuses on innovation and new solutions to world issues. The GFC has 300 grant partners and surprisingly all of those partners have different focuses and are serving different populations.  GFC really focuses on "reaching children where they are." That is why they so strongly support Community Based Organizations.




Dunning, V. (2012)What Children Need to Succeed: Victoria Dunning’s Presentation at the Foundation Center

Web Resource Sharing

This week I chose to sign up for a monthly newsletter from Earlychildhoodnews.com

It provides links to news articles about early childhood education, developmentally appropriate classroom activities, arts and crafts project ideas and opportunities to network with other early childhood professionals.
I am already a member or NAEYC, so I wanted to see what else was out there.

Looking over archived newsletters it seems that it will be very informational. A few of the newsletters talked about diversity in the classroom as well as special needs students. Both of those topics interest me, so hopefully this newsletter will provide me with information pertinent to my interests.

Initial post for EDUC 6162

For this weeks assignment I chose to use the UNICEF website to see what contacts I could make to professionals in other countries. I  chose to contact Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala. I chose those three countries because I have been to all of them and have some general background knowledge of their educational system.  I have not heard back from anyone, so I may need to reconsider what I am doing for this assignment.

I am a member of NAEYC but have not taken the time (recently) to look at their website. So, this week I did take the time to look over what was on there.  I really like the "Family" section. I think it is a great resource for teachers to use when families have some tough issues to deal with or are wanting more information on a topic. I also appreciate that NAEYC has an accreditation tool to help families look for quality Early Childhood Programs in their area. It is so tough for parents to delve into the world of ECE that they need a tool to help them sift through all that is out there.