Unfortunately, I was unable to make contact with any early childhood professionals outside of the United States, therefore, I was forced to do the alternative blog assignment. I was able to listen to the most recent pod cast from the World Forum Radio.
I listened to Susan Lyon talk about her progression from being intrigued to how children think and perceive things to creating the Innovate Teacher Project in California. Susan Lyon brought the “100 Languages of Children” exhibit to San Francisco after being intrigued by a small child’s perception of the word “city”. During this process she was interested in seeing how children viewed things around them. She visited several schools in her area. Once the exhibit came to San Francisco she worked with Italian education and created several professional development trainings. She wanted to advocate by listening to children and using/creating a environment that children thrive in.
After bringing the “100 Languages of Children” exhibit to San Francisco she created the Innovative Teacher Project in 1994. This project encompassed a net of works. Each month teachers’ were able to attend a round table and present there school and walk the environment. She wanted to show that qualify work can happen in public schools. Susan is now working to create the first full immersion Italian preschool program.
I also explored the website http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/. This website offered a lot information about childhood poverty. One thing I learned is that poverty is cyclical. Children living in poverty today have a higher chance of living in poverty as adults. It is often passed down from generation to generation. When thinking of poverty this is in the back of my mind, however, reading the facts makes it more true to me. However, attempting to eliminate childhood poverty is one way to stop this cycle. An international community has developed the Millennium Development Goals which aims to cut poverty in half, cut 2/3 of deaths of children under age 5 and provide all children with at least a primary education by 2015 (CHIP: Knowledge for tackling childhood poverty).
References:
Lyon, S. (Performer) (2011, April/May). World forum radio. World Forum Radio. [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.worldforumfoundation.org/wf/radio.php
Chip: Knowledge for tackling childhood poverty. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.childhoodpoverty.org/
Hi Amber,
ReplyDelete"100 languages of children" sounds great. I like when someone can take an idea and be creative. I didn't know about this program until now. I especially like the two countries you choose. I was wondering if these international contact have a problem with communication. I know if I was on the other side communicating another language would be quite a challenge. Yet, we have ways to translate in different languages but I never used that device before, I think I will try it to communicate in India and Spanish for my contacts.
Amber,
ReplyDeleteIt looks like the majority of us were unsuccessful in our quest to make connections with professionals. I read with interest the work of Susan Lyon. Children do indeed perceive things differently based on their previous experiences. Also a full immersion Italian preschool would be interesting as well. I wish we can have different quality preschools with different languages where children can acquire new languages at an early age. Thanks for sharing.