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.