Establishing Professional Contacts
I have to admit that I was both intimidated and exited by the proposition of working with international professional resources. Establishing professional contacts outside of the United States, truly made this part of the journey real for me.
As such, I have attempted to contact three figures in the field of Early Childhood. Through The Global Alliance of NAEYC, I have attempted to contact Gerda Sula of the Step by Step Center in Albania and Yvonne Dionne of The Canadian Child Care Federation. Learning about conditions in Albania has interested me since I learned that it is the country of my neighbors' ancestry. They are first-generation immigrants from Europe and we have shared many an evening discussing the differences between Albania and the US and how they are torn between their happy memories of the "old country", the fear they felt before they left, and their desire to provide all they can for their children.
I also chose to attempt to make a Canadian connection, because while I know that there are many similarities between our two countries, I am also aware that they handle their politics quite differently. I am curious to learn how this affects decisions made in the field of Early Childhood Education. I am also interested in whether of not speaking multiple languages creates differences among the Provinces.
Outside of the suggested resources for the week, I have also attempted to contact author and child literacy advocate Mem Fox. She currently resides in Australia, which I have always wanted to visit, and I have always appreciated her candid attitude toward issues that we take quite seriously. After perusing her website, I learned that she will be traveling here to the US later this month as she visits both New York and Hawaii. As such, I am unsure as to whether she will even have time to respond.
As I eagerly await my responses, I took the opportunity to join the World Forum Foundation and explore WoFoNet. I subscribed to receive notifications from the group ECE Researchers: A New Opportunity to Connect with Others Around the World, but otherwise experienced some difficulty navigating the site. I plan to give it another go and am excited to see more of what the site can provide in the event that my other contacts do not work out.
Expanding Resources
I became a member of NIEER (National Institute for Early Education Research) a few months ago in an attempt to broaden my research pursuits after finding a reference to a college in my area that had contributed greatly to Early Childhood pursuits. This organization covers a wide array of EC topics such as Special Education, Quality and Curriculum, State Programs, Access, and several others. I currently receive newsletters and blog updates from the organization. I am glad that this current class will force me to keep up on their new information. Sadly, I have been saving most of their notifications in a special email folder, but have yet to find the time to sit and read through them. Thankfully, this will now be a part of my coursework. I encourage everyone to check out this site at least once--there is a wealth of current information to devour.
I am excited to see what becomes of my attempts over the next few days and how I can use it to my benefit to help improve Early Childhood conditions.
I have to admit that I was both intimidated and exited by the proposition of working with international professional resources. Establishing professional contacts outside of the United States, truly made this part of the journey real for me.
As such, I have attempted to contact three figures in the field of Early Childhood. Through The Global Alliance of NAEYC, I have attempted to contact Gerda Sula of the Step by Step Center in Albania and Yvonne Dionne of The Canadian Child Care Federation. Learning about conditions in Albania has interested me since I learned that it is the country of my neighbors' ancestry. They are first-generation immigrants from Europe and we have shared many an evening discussing the differences between Albania and the US and how they are torn between their happy memories of the "old country", the fear they felt before they left, and their desire to provide all they can for their children.
I also chose to attempt to make a Canadian connection, because while I know that there are many similarities between our two countries, I am also aware that they handle their politics quite differently. I am curious to learn how this affects decisions made in the field of Early Childhood Education. I am also interested in whether of not speaking multiple languages creates differences among the Provinces.
Outside of the suggested resources for the week, I have also attempted to contact author and child literacy advocate Mem Fox. She currently resides in Australia, which I have always wanted to visit, and I have always appreciated her candid attitude toward issues that we take quite seriously. After perusing her website, I learned that she will be traveling here to the US later this month as she visits both New York and Hawaii. As such, I am unsure as to whether she will even have time to respond.
As I eagerly await my responses, I took the opportunity to join the World Forum Foundation and explore WoFoNet. I subscribed to receive notifications from the group ECE Researchers: A New Opportunity to Connect with Others Around the World, but otherwise experienced some difficulty navigating the site. I plan to give it another go and am excited to see more of what the site can provide in the event that my other contacts do not work out.
Expanding Resources
I became a member of NIEER (National Institute for Early Education Research) a few months ago in an attempt to broaden my research pursuits after finding a reference to a college in my area that had contributed greatly to Early Childhood pursuits. This organization covers a wide array of EC topics such as Special Education, Quality and Curriculum, State Programs, Access, and several others. I currently receive newsletters and blog updates from the organization. I am glad that this current class will force me to keep up on their new information. Sadly, I have been saving most of their notifications in a special email folder, but have yet to find the time to sit and read through them. Thankfully, this will now be a part of my coursework. I encourage everyone to check out this site at least once--there is a wealth of current information to devour.
I am excited to see what becomes of my attempts over the next few days and how I can use it to my benefit to help improve Early Childhood conditions.
Since my original post, I have learned that the email address for one of my international attempts is not active, however I did manage to make a connection with a fellow professional in Puerto Rico. I look forward to speaking with her and have high hopes for making additional contacts. :)
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