Establishing Professional Contacts/Expanding Resources

                                     Part 1       ESTABLISHING PROFESSIONAL CONTACTS


          After sending our numerous emails to very interesting  global professionals , only to find they failed to reach their intended contacts, I reverted to observing the professionals World Forum  to establish professional contacts,whose mission is to "promote on-going global exchange of ideas on the delivery of quality services for young children in diverse settings". First I watched the World Forum Video by Tori Hogan and was amazed to see all the wonderful professionals gathering from all over the world under one roof with one aim to best support our young learners. They established that "young children are our greatest assets that any society can have. They went on to say  how valuable they are and that we need to do all that we can to support all children s comprehensive core.As a global community of Early Childhood professionals they all have the same similarities and hopes and realize that it empowers people to take action.The president of the world forum Mary McAleese, President of Ireland came on last on the video and made  a very profound statement that "We get one go around with our children, we who are the engravers on their lives, we have to engrave well". She ended her talk stating that "we have to know and be taught how to engrave well".

Some of the amazing international Early Childhood Professionals that  spoke at the convention were, Wil Mehai (Green Group), Founder, Peoples National Party, Belize and  Amelia Gambetti, for Reggio Children ,Reggio Emilia Italy.

I then listened to several radio pod casts that were very inspiring. The first was from Delfend Mitchell from Belize in Central America. She con firmed that they have the number one incident of child abuse in the Caribbean.She told a heart breaking story of one little boy and how he through their love and support was able to be given a safe pace to heal and learn and be nurtured so that with time he began to talk again and proceed to be successful. Susan Lion was another Early Childhood spokes person  who saw a "window in the children s mind"was inspired by the depth of children s thinking , when one little first grade boy said to her when she was explaining the word city to him "city is such a small word for such a big place. Just love the connections they make , that surpass even my imagination.


                                Part 2      EXPANDING RESOURCES


     The first stop I took on my journey of expanding my Early Childhood professional resources was in the USA as I looked at the National Black Child Institution.  Here I was impressed to see that they have been steadfastly working for the fast forty years and continue to improve and advance the lives of Black children and their families through advocacy and education. They believe "every child deserves a chance  and  are committed to uncovering every chance available to our children".
     They have a annual conference coming up In Ft. Lauderdale October 6-9th 2012. They also have  free newsletter you can sign up for online.


Next I journeyed onward to Australasia to  Early Childhood Australia. They have an amazing podcast to watch on long day daycare, preschool and Family daycare and the ways they do observations and have multilevel classes. I found it interesting that Kindergarten there is three and four year olds , preprimary is five and six year old and then they have A ones which I assume are seven and eight and all of these students are in the same class, amazing.You can sign up for their newsletter which offers information on early childhood growth and learning, early childhood practice, programs and policy emerging issues.
     Their mission statement advocates to ensure quality, social justice and equity in all issues relating to the education and care of children from birth to eight years of age. 
     They incorporated great strategies into there teaching such as open ended participation so each child could participate at their own level. and they made photo journals of all the wonderful things they are doing in the classroom so the teachers, children and families can all see what wonderful things they are learning.


     I moved from Britain to Australia where I examined the British Association for early Childhood Education, called Early Education. I signed up for their free mailing list.They believe every child deserves the best possible start in life and support to fulfill their potential, and that a child's experiences in their early years has a major impact on their future life chances.They are working to ensure effective early childhood education experiences of the highest quality for all children across the United Kingdom. They also have a wide variety of publications and resources some which are free to download ranging from "Going out to play and learn, to making their mark children s early writing.

Great sites , I am very excited to expand my professional resources and  I look forward to reading my colleagues posts.