Sharing Web Resources

The NAEYC is very relevant to my current professional development because their mission is to serve and act on behalf of the needs, rights and well-being of all young children with primary focus on the provision of educational and developmental services and resources (NAEYC Bylaws, Article I., Section 1.1). 

Strategic Objectives

NAEYC achieves its goals by:

• Providing professional development opportunities and resources for those who work for and with young children
• Convening individuals and groups with diverse perspectives to generate new knowledge and understanding of issues affecting the education and development of young children and their families.
• Setting and publicizing standards that promote excellence in early childhood education and early childhood professional preparation.
• Implementing systems to recognize early childhood education programs and early childhood professional preparation programs that meet NAEYC standards and guidelines.
• Building public understanding and support for activities and services that promote the healthy development and learning of all young children and their families.
• Advocating for public policies-and funding-to support a comprehensive system of high-quality early childhood education for all young children and families.
• Fostering the development of a network of high-performing, inclusive organizations that share the goal of promoting excellence in early childhood education for all young children.

NAEYC seeks to become a more highly functioning organization that exemplifies its mission and vision and is enriched by and continually grows from the ongoing institutional commitment to diversity and inclusion as a core value in its work throughout the Association.

I was not able to find anything about the site to be controversial or make me think about in issue in a different way.

The website contains lots of information that adds to my understanding of how economists, neuroscientists or politicians support the early childhood field.  The website contains several links to different articles and publications about the early childhood field.

International Contacts

Unfortunately I have still been unsuccessful at contacting a EC professional from another country.  I was also not able to open the link to the suggested website.  

In an effort to complete this assignment I listed to a podcast retrieved from (http://sarah-dev.worldforumfoundation.com/world-forum-radio/) with Maysoun Chehab as the speaker.  She is the Regional Early Childhood Care and Development Program Coordinator at the Arab Resource Collective (ARC), a not-for-profit non-governmental organization based in Beirut, Lebanon. She has a Masters degree in Special Education with focus on learning disabilities, and a BA in Child and Family Counseling from the University of Michigan.  Ms. Chehab talked about how she raised awareness about the early childhood field in Lebanon.  She and her team trained teachers and parents to be able to help children readjust after the 126 schools closed due to the July 2006 war.  

NAEYC EARLY CHILDHOOD ORGANIZATION

The early childhood organization I choose to subscribe to was the NAEYC.  The link to their website is http://www.naeyc.org.

NAEYC's mission is to serve and act on behalf of the needs, rights and well-being of all young children with primary focus on the provision of educational and developmental services and resources (NAEYC Bylaws, Article I., and Section 1.1). 

 

Goals

NAEYC expresses its mission in terms of three broad goals:

1. Improving professional practice and working conditions in early childhood education.
2. Supporting early childhood programs by working to achieve a high-quality system of early childhood education.
3. Building a high-performing, inclusive organization of groups and individuals who are committed to promoting excellence in early childhood education for all young children.

Vision Statement

NAEYC's efforts are designed to achieve these ends:

• All children have access to a safe and accessible, high quality early childhood education that includes a developmentally appropriate curriculum; knowledgeable and well-trained program staff and educators; and comprehensive services that support their health, nutrition, and social well-being, in an environment that respects and supports diversity.
• All early childhood professionals are supported as professionals with a career ladder, ongoing professional development opportunities, and compensation that attracts and retains high quality educators.
• All families have access to early childhood education programs that are affordable and of high quality and actively participate in their children's education as respected reciprocal partners.
• All communities, states, and the nation work together to ensure accountable systems of high-quality early childhood education for all children.

The issue or trend from this particular website that caught my attention was “How do early childhood education programs meet the challenge of engaging families in their child’s early learning and development?” NAEYC’s Engaging Diverse Families (EDF) project sought answers to this question. The project's goals were to develop a research-based definition of family engagement, identify exemplary family engagement practices in early childhood programs, and share what was learned with the field of early care and education by assembling a tool kit of materials to help programs more effectively engage families in children’s early learning (NAEYC 2014).  This topic was interesting to me because this is something I struggle with in my current program.  Although, I feel that I have some teachers that do a great job of engaging with their parents and families there are others that do not.  From reading this particular article I am able to gather several ways to help improve this issue in my program.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

For this blog assignment I have began the process of trying to contact several international early childhood professionals, via the Global Alliance of NAEYC website through email. My initial email to these professionals gave a brief description of who I am and what this assignment requires.  I am looking forward to establishing communication with professionals from different countries.  I am very excited to see if they face the same issues and trends we face here in the United States.  

I am currently an active member of the NAEYC and look forward to learning more about the organization throughout this course.