Farewell

I have grown so much from learning through this program. I have opened my mind to the issues and trends in the world, and I have equipped myself to grow and learn with students and their families to face the challenges in the future.

One insight that I have learned is about anti-bias education. I chose this program, because this program is called teaching and diversity in early childhood field. I wanted to learn more about diversity and the strategies in teaching to meet diversity in my school. However, once I stated this program, I realize that diversity is part of anti-bias education. If I want to fulfill my dream of treating children fairly and equally, I have to promote anti-bias education in my programs and my daily practices. I have learned many strategies to promote anti-bias education, like the usage of personal dolls, home language and culture support, anti-bias learning environment set-up, and the positive attitude toward differences in the world.

Second insight that I have gained is about the importance of play. Since many schools and teachers focus on school readiness, children are losing time at playing and interacting with others. Children can learn and improve their cognitive development and their social skills in play. That is one thing we cannot teach from books or tests. We should let children play and grow. Our educators should be the supervisors to provide appropriate toys and materials for children to choose from and be part of playing too. It helps build trustful relationship between teachers and children. Children have the right to learn for fun and learn through fun.

The third insight that I benefit from this program is the significance of collaboration. The instructors and colleagues are very professional and supportive. I learned many experiences and stories from my colleagues to be used in my daily practices, and the instructors gave me very professional recommendations for my assignments to help me integrate myself in the whole process of the program. I also learned that a good teacher should be a good team player too. It is crucial for early childhood educators to realize that children are not the only people we have to work with. We also need to work closely with their families, our colleagues, and people from the community. We have to have the skills to work collaboratively with all people who are involved in children’s lives, as they are all part of children’s learning and living experiences. Only if teachers and families are working collaboratively, children can experience consistency both at home and at school. It is important for children’s development.

One of my long-term goals is to promote anti-bias education in as many international schools as possible. I take this one as my long-term goal, as international schools have vey large population of diversity. It is important for children in those schools to acknowledge and respect differences in the world, and anti-bias education can help children build up positive attitude toward diversity and differences in the world.

I cannot believe that I am already here to finish off my Master’s degree. I still remember the day I started this program and how nervous I was. I have met so many wonderful instructors and colleagues. I really appreciate the time we spent together to approach our dreams. It is time to say goodbye as colleagues, but it is also a new start for us to become partners and friends to share our stories and ideas. I hope we all can keep in touch, as we have been through this program together as a big family. I will definitely miss you all.

Thank you Dr. Teri for your patience and guidance in the past 8 weeks, and thanks to all the colleagues that I have in the course with wonderful insights and ideas. I will miss the learning experiences here in Walden, and I will think of you all.

Here is my email, and I am looking forward to hearing from you at anytime. sissiklesch@gmail.com

Thank you all.

Xiyue

International Early Childhood Organizations

The first international organization I was looking at was International Baccalaureate Organization. It is a recognized leader in the field of international education, encouraging students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right. I think that is also what I believe and try to do to my children. I hope my children in the class and in the school can have open and positive attitude toward differences and diversity. I hope they can become lifelong learners with a global perspective in the future too. I was looking at job opportunities at IBO, but currently they do not have any openings of my interests. They have different categories of jobs that I can choose from, I think I will be interested in their communications, project management, language services, and curriculum development domains, once they have the openings there. In order to work there, I have to be open-minded to accept and value the differences and be flexible to work with people who share different languages and cultures with me. Meanwhile, it is an international organization, so I have to be ready to go from place to place according to the needs in the organization. 

The second organization I was looking at is Save the Children. I am interested in this organization, as I know there are more than I know children in the Southwest of China need help and support to have access to early childhood education and to school. I wonder what Save the Children organization do in a world wide way. They work closely with other organizations, governments, non-profits and a variety of local partners to help children and families help themselves. I think that is a great way to help children, as we can give them money and clothes, but showing them the way to help themselves out of their situation to have a better life is more important. When I looked at their job opportunities, there are several job opening in US headquarters, but I am not qualified to do those jobs. They also have international job opportunities, but nothing is posted yet. I do not mind going to other countries to work, since I am like a nomad in some ways. I like to go to places to help people if I can, and I would like to make a change. I think if they have some oversea job openings, I would like to go and help. In order to work in this organization, I must be fully prepared to see what I have never seen before. I have to deal with poverty, the effects of war and conflict, and natural disasters. I have to be a collaborative worker to work with local organizations and government to figure out what is the best for the current situation. I need to be flexible and collaborative.

The third international organization I was looking at is United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). It aims at helping build a world where the rights of every child are realized. They advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because they believe proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future. I want to help all children have the same access to high quality early childhood education to have a good start of their lives too, and I also know that there are so many children in the world cannot have any early years education at all. I hope I can help solve this problem. I did not see any job openings that I am qualified to do, but I hope in the future that I can have the opportunity to do some temporary job in some regions like Africa and Asia to help children and families there.

I enjoyed exploring the international organizations of early childhood field, as it gives me the chance to know the world is a big families that so many people are working so hard to help children to have a better lives everywhere in the world. I am just an early childhood teacher, but I would like to do and contribute whatever I can to help children and their families too.

The national organizations and job opportunities

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the first national organization coming to my mind. I like this organization, as it is a major one that I can always find almost all the information that I need. I should say NAEYC is really new to me, as I started to know about it two years ago. When I started my Master’s degree, I saw many resources are from here, and many colleagues talked about it. I started to pay attention to this organization, and I am really fond of it now. I regularly go back to their websites to look for the information that I need about Early Childhood Education, and the questions or issues about my study. I like how clear everything is about NAEYC, as I can see they truly want the best for children in early years. On the website, it contains the information in early childhood field for children, and educators. I do not think I will take any job that they posted on the website, as I am still new to early childhood field. All I want to do is to be an advocate in early childhood field as a teacher to be with children on a daily base. I wouldn’t mind working in one of the schools that is accredited by NAEYC, like Rainbow School or Children’s village child care, as those schools practice what I believe and want to achieve in early childhood field. I hope families and teachers can be a team in supporting children’s development together.

The second one I chose is the National Head Start Association(NHSA). This organization appeals to me, as it is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization. It stands up for the vulnerable children and their families, and most of time, those children do not have access to high quality early childhood education. It aims at providing high quality early childhood education to all the children, as they believe quality early education fundamentally transforms children and families. I share the same belief as they do, and that is why I am so into the collaboration with families in supporting children’s successes both at school and at home. I did not see any job openings in the website, so I do not know what I can contribute to this organization. However, the same, I can picture myself working in one of the Head Start schools someday to be a teacher there. I just love to have interactions with children.

The third one that I chose is National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE). This one drew my attention, as the members of this organization are from all the parts of United States and all over the world. I feel if we want to help children of diversity, we have to open to the news, trends, and issues around the world as well. We cannot just focus on our own classroom, but to open the eyes and ears to see and to hear what is going on around the world. Our children in the future are going to be global citizens. This organization offers the platform for teachers and educators in the early childhood field to grow, integrate, and communicate about everything happening in early childhood field. The more I learn in my Master’s degree, the better I understand the importance of collaboration. Therefore, I like how NAECTE does to provide the opportunities for early childhood teachers and educators to interchange of information and ideas, and to collaborate to serve children better as a family. From their job postings, I found there is a job to be the head teacher of Tufts University Eliot-Pearson Children’s School, I like it. As this children’s school is part of the university, so I would have the chance to work with undergraduate and graduate students. I think it would be fun to see what new generation of teachers think about early childhood education, while exchange the thoughts, insights, experiences, and stories with them at the same time.

I liked composing this blog, as I feel I can have so many resources that I can refer to about early childhood education. I also had a chance to explore the organizations in the country, which was fun.

Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

Currently I am working in China, in an International school, but I can see some time in the future that I will go back to Washington State. I might teach there as well. Thinking of that, I was looking for the organizations and agencies that I might have interests in, as I never thought of doing any research of that before. YMCA is the one drew my attention. It is a national-wide organization, and it has branches here and there. There are few in Washington State too. I was checking on their website, their mission statement is really inspiring. I like the flexibility of YMCA, as they provide various programs for parents and families to choose from. They can put their children in a full day program, a partial day program, or an after school program depending on the unique situations of each family. Meanwhile, parents will be confident to know that their children are in somewhere safe and stimulating. Parents can better focus on their work, when they know their children are taken good care of. I really like the flexibility of YMCA, and the varieties of their offers to support children’s cognitive, physical and social development. There are job openings for early childhood teachers, and I think I would be very interested in working in the organization. I can work either part time or full time, as long as I can serve children the best. I would like to bring my anti-bias educational ideas and stories to the organization to benefit children. I need to be more flexible and more observant to children’s needs and interests. I need to see children individually, and plan my curriculum to support their development. Last but not the least, YMCA aims at creating safe, caring, educational environment for children to learn and thrive, and that is my goal for all children in the world. I hope every child can have equal access to a nurturing learning environment to show their potentials and to be proud of who they are.

In the neighborhood that I live, there are many communities of origins, like Korean community, Chinese community, and German community. Children all go the the English speaking international school, and white middle class culture is the dominant culture at school. Chinese community offers after school programs to help children from China to practice their English and Chinese, as they believe their children need to learn both languages to thrive as healthy and happy children in the world. People in this community share the same goal is to support their children to be bicultural children, so they can fit in both at home and out of home.  I agree, as their home language is Chinese, and language is the best carrier for children to learn about their home cultures. They always want to have some teachers to work for their after school programs, and they hope the teacher can both speak fluent Chinese and English. I think I might take the chance to volunteer to work there. As I grew up in Chinese educational system as most of those parents did, and we want something new and inspiring for children in nowadays. Memorizing is an efficient way, but not the most inspiring or creative way to educate children. With the educational background I have, the knowledge that I have learned through my master degree, and the working experiences with a large number of ELL students, I think I can be a creative Mandarin teacher to those students.

There is another charity organization in my neighborhood called Pfrang. Its mission is to help children from poor areas in the North Jiangsu Province in China. Our school is part of that charity organization. I want to contribute more than before, as I only donated money in the past. I would like to take children from our school to visit the schools in rural areas in China, and children from both schools can have activities and classes together for 3 days. I think it is a mutual beneficial way for students from our school and children from local schools. Children from our school, the trip may help them build sympathy and empathy for children and others who cannot have sufficient support from their lives, while students from local schools can learn something new from the outside of the world. Pfrang organization has regular visits to schools in rural areas in Jiangsu, and I would like to be a volunteer to go to those schools to help children. Meanwhile, I would be interested in taking a part-time job in Pfrang to bring more ideas of teaching and learning to the schools that Pfrang sponsors. Learning supplies can only give children the pen to write with, while the way of teaching and learning can offer children the future for them to write about. 

I hope more children can be involved in a caring, nurturing educational learning environment, as all children should have the equal access to high quality early childhood education. I am working on it with many other colleagues, and children’s families, and I think we will do whatever we can to help as many children as possible.

My Wordle

Reflection on the course

In the last eight weeks and throughout the whole Master program, I have grown so much. I used to think teaching diversity only means to meet children’s different learning styles and interests, but now I have a fuller picture of diversity and equity. Diversity is a fact of who students are and a tool to help teachers make our teaching more globalized. 

One of the passionate hopes that I have in early childhood education field is to implement anti-bias curriculum into current curriculum to support children to understand and to appreciate similarities and differences in the world around them. Building the positive partnership with families will be the great backup that we can get. Children need consistency, which makes it essential if families and the school are on the same page for the anti-bias education. As diversity is the trend happening in the world, it is significant if children, families and educators can learn, value, and respect diversity and differences among people. Children should be proud of who they are, and be valued for who they are.

I have been working with many colleagues in the past two years, and we have helped and learned from each other.  Thank you all for your wonderful stories and insights that are shared in the courses. I believe our class is a class of diversity, and I have seen how we respect and value each other throughout the journey. I hope everyone in the course can reach the finishing line of Master journey soon, and let’s keep in touch. 

Impacts on early emotional development

The region I chose is East Asia and Pacific, as I have been to some of the countries in this area. I am in China, so I feel I need to know more about the situation in this area. I have been to Cambodia with my husband to visit an orphanage, and the situation is bad. When we were there, there were 80 children in the orphanage aging from 10 months to 17 years old. Most of them were waiting for people from other countries to adopt them, and some of them gave up the hope. We went there, because one of our colleagues has adopted two children from that orphanage. We went there to travel and to buy them some stationaries. They do not have enough resources to support their study, and they were extremely to see the stationaries that we brought with us. On the way to the hotel, we saw many people walking and resting on the streets, sometimes, people will approach to us to ask us if we want to adopt their child. I feel really bad about that.

From the website, I have learned that the health care is one of the biggest challenges in the region. As there is a large population of poverty in this area, most countries do not have enough money to give free immunization to people who cannot afford them. Many children in this region still die of diarrhea and pneumonia. Those two are still the top two killers on the list, even though they are easily prevented and treated today. The other challenge that I have found is about inequity. Most countries in this region still have a very conservative way to look at boys and girls. Most orphans are girls, and girls still do not have equal rights as boys do at home in many countries here. This inequity prevents children from having the equal rights to be educated to create their own futures. Poverty is another challenge for the children in this area. They barely have enough food to keep them away from starving, let alone having some food with nutrition that they need every day. It is not healthy for their development.

All the challenges that I listed above can have the impact on children’s development. They will not have a chance to know what the world looks like, as they do not have the access to it. They do not have the chance to change their future, as they cannot go to school or have enough educational resources for them to use and learn. They do not have health care when they need to be protected from the diseases. Their parents will even talk about adoption right in front of children, it will hurt children’s feelings. They cannot feel loved or safe from their homes. It will not help them grow to be the resilient people.

I do think no matter how hard it is for parents, they have the responsibility to take care of their children. No one can be better than parents in a child’s life. Children in the orphanage  that we went to have smilies, but I still can see sadness in their eyes. They want to be loved; they want to have visitors to make them feel they are visible to the world; they want to have the same rights as other children to be educated to be able to change their futures. All those needs are the basic ones, but only visiting them cannot help them. We need the whole society and the world to work together to make certain children can all access to education, so they at least have a chance to change their lives in the future.
Reference
UNICEF (2011). Retrieved from:http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html