So this week’s assignment for my new class “Issues and
Trends in Early Childhood” has not gone as expected. We were assigned the job of locating two
professional contacts outside the United States to be in conversations about
issues and trends they see in the field of early childhood. While I was hesitant at first, I tried with all
my might to find someone to dialog with.
I contacted three prospects and haven’t heard back from any of them.
I tried for England, Madagascar (because of the relationship
with friends working there with the Lutheran church), and Australia. The England contact is an ECE worker who I
love reading her blog. Madagascar
contact was through UNICEF. And the
Australia contact was through the University of South Australia. I was shooting for being well rounded …. Hmmm
… didn’t pan out the way I had hoped. I
am going to try a few other possibilities and see what turns up.
At the same time I will also start pursuing the alternative
option and get hooked up with the World Forum.
Let’s see in two weeks what can happen.
The second part of my blogging assignment is to choose an
early childhood website to explore and learn.
I have chosen to explore the National Association of Early ChildhoodTeacher Educators’ website. What was the
deciding factor is when I looked at their purpose statement it spoke volumes to
me right away. The two directions I think
my journey is taking me is 1st to teach new teachers; help them
learn appropriate practices for the classroom, and/or work to make it more
affordable for teachers to gain the needed skills. 2nd is to own my own childcare
center that is faith based yet runs full day and is available for those who
aren’t ‘poor’ but need to work full time to make it in our changing economy. NAECTE seemed to fall right into place with
both of those possible paths. Then
again, God still may have something different in store for me….
I can’t wait to hear how my classmates did on finding some
professional contacts and which websites they chose! Here’s to a new journey for the next 8
weeks! (Sometimes it feels like my life
lately is based on 8 week intervals….but it’s all going to be worth it!)
