Sharing Web Resources

Education Week

I have been subscribed to Education Week for quite some time, but never truly explored the site until these blog assignments. This week's issue has been eye opening, so I wanted to see what articles were on the site that dealt with equity issues. Came across the title, "Oregon's 'Equity Lens' Frames Schools' Take on Bias." Immediately I was intrigued, because quite honestly I don't think of Oregon as being a place where diversity would be on the rise. However, I was wrong.

In the article, "Oregon's 'Equity Lens' Frames Schools' Take on Bias" talks about the rise of number of children of the African American race, immigrants and hispanic students are growing rapidly in schools. They noticed a difference in achievement with children of color vs white students. "What they saw was sobering but not surprising: Despite attempts to close achievement gaps between students of color, immigrant students, and low-income students and their more affluent white peers, wide disparities persisted in student performance on state tests, graduation rates, school attendance, and college-going rates" In efforts to increase this achievement gap they adopted an "equity lens" "public policy statement explicitly acknowledging the salience of race and ethnicity in contributing to disparate student outcomes and committing to narrow achievement and opportunity gaps from cradle to career through a focus on race and ethnicity." While I do applaud the effort in Oregon and I want to see the positiveness int this article, it sits a little uneasy with me. It could be the wording.

I encourage you all to read the article and give your feedback. It is quite informative.


Resources

Superville, Denise. Education Week: Oregon's 'Equity Lens' Frames Schools' Take on Bias. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/06/01/oregons-equity-lens-frames-schools-take-on.html?qs=equity

Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative”

Due to me not hearing from my international contacts, I got explore Harvard University’s “Global Children’s Initiative” website. The first thing I saw was that 200 million children do not reach their full potential developmentally by the age of 5. This is largely due to impoverished communities throughout the country. However, the Center on the Developing Child works globally to build a broader movement to achieve breakthrough outcomes for children around the world. They center promotes innovation in countries such as  Brazil, Canada, Mexico and as well as across a broader international platform called Saving Brains.

Saving Brains is partnership led by Grand Challenges Canada, Saving Brains seeks to improve outcomes for children living in poverty through interventions that nurture and protect early brain development in the first 1,000 days of a child’s life.  This organization/partnership has been quite intriguing and I just kept following links until I got to the official website of Saving Brains. I see that they have quite a few innovations that geared towards early brain and child development.

What stuck out to me was their Kangaroo Mother Care innovation. Kangaroo Mother Care improves survival, and potentially neurodevelopment, in preterm and low birth weight infants in hospital settings but its coverage remains low and the impact on brain development has not been comprehensively evaluated. This just had me to think that throughout this program it has been repeated how important that child/mother bond is and how it affects so many things before the child is even born. This is a prevalent issue in India where this innovation is being presented and tested. India has high low-birth weight with their infants which I discussed in a previous post. With this initiative they expect a 3 point increase in motor and mental developmental scores of low birth weight, an improvement in breastfeeding rates by 20%, early care seeking and reduced morbidity by 10% and community workers trained in counseling for KMC and breastfeeding support. I encourage you all to check out the website.

Kangaroo Mother Care

Resources 

http://www.savingbrainsinnovation.net/projects/0725-03/#innovation-summary

http://www.savingbrainsinnovation.net/projects/0725-03/

Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2010). Global children's initiative. Retrieved from http://developingchild.harvard.edu/about/what-we-do/global-work/

Sharing Web Resources

                                       
Education Week (Newsletter): Transgender Students and Bathrooms: What should schools Do?

    

This week I got an email for this article and I was instantly intrigued as the transgender bathroom debates have been going on for weeks now. I personally do have an issue with it. It just personally makes me uncomfortable. However, when you talk about it in the schools, now you have to think about children's safety. For one, there is more going on in these school bathrooms than some people will ever know. I don't think for parents the issue is transgenders using the bathroom, its the questions that parents and teachers are going to get asked by the children. How do we prepare for that? How do we explain that? This is a very controversial topic and makes me wonder what are our priorities when it comes to schooling. Is the fact that a child who identifies with being a girl and wants to use the girls restroom that big of a deal in a school setting?


No Small Change: Targeting Money Toward Student Performance
This article is located in the reports and data tab under Quality Counts. Here you will see a number a list and charts that discusses money and how it used to better resource schools. However, I did note that they are talking about public schools and not necessarily childcare. It is good to note how they are coming up with better ways to fund schools. Just to see what policymakers see that needs to be changed

Getting to Know Your International Contacts

Unfortunately, I have not received a response from my contacts. I will pursue that more aggressively this week. Hopefully, I will hear something soon. 

However, I did learn a lot about poverty in India and how it affects the children in that country.

The country I chose is India. The first and second insights that I will share is the fact that India’s indoor air pollution is among the most serious threats to health for children of under five years old. A rather large number of pregnant women in India are exposed to biomass-related indoor air pollution which increases the risk of low birth rate. 

Why is biomass so common in India? Well, that reason being is that biomass is cheaper and some families lack access to modern fuels. Biomass such as wood chips, particular types of garbage, corn and even animal fats, can all be converted into energy. 

The second insight is how do we combat indoor pollution. There are two ways to go about doing this according to Child Poverty Insights. One is to replace biomass fuels with safer fuels. And the other is to reduce the amount of smoke generated by bio-fuels. Could you imagine living in an environment where you had to constantly inhale the smoke of animal fat and garbage?

All of this information is mind blowing to me. It honestly allows me to see how fortunate we are here in U.S. I couldn't imagine bringing a child into such a hazardous environment know these dangers. 

References

http://www.unicef.org/socialpolicy/files/Child_Poverty_Insights_TERI_June_2013.pdf

Sharing Web Sources

Sharing Web Sources

The website I've been subscribed to for quite some time is Education week! I get weekly emails with different articles each week. This website is basically everything education for leaders and policy experts in the pre-k field! This website is source for data, news, tools and more to help those in their research from a policy standpoint and teachers that are in the classrooms.  It has blogs, "opinions", discussion boards and so much! I haven't read as much as I should but its a good resource to have in your back pocket! They even have a tab for teachers that's like a teacher's corner that deals with everything teachers. One article title that grabbed my attention quickly was, "Catholic School Allows Transgender Teacher to Keep His Job". So there are a variety of topics. I sure will get back to looking at this site more often. It's really jammed pack with great things. Its a must have!

References

Education Week http://www.edweek.org/ew/index.html

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Establishing Professional Contacts 

and Expanding Resources

I sought information from the UNICEF Ireland and New Zealand. Both of these countries are fighting two different things. I chose these two countries because they both fighting for very important causes to help our children now and in the future.

In New Zealand their focus is basically on all areas that affect the human being from birth well into adulthood. Their focuses are child poverty, child protection, child labour, HIV and AIDS, environment and climate change, child survival and development and sustainable and developmental goals. All these factors could make and/or break a person. And they are willing to shine a light on these issues in this country so that children can have a fighting chance.

In Ireland they are for similar issues Those include health, innovation, education, nutrition, water and child protection.

I decided to sign up for the Harlem Children's Zone newsletter and explore their website in the coming weeks! They are doing great things the families in their communities and are making huge impacts in the lives they come across. The numbers alone are mind blowing to me. For instance, 1,450,000 healthy nutritious student meals prepared by HCZ  food services, 7,000 youth across HCZ are participating in Healthy Harlem fitness and nutritious programs. Which means they are decreasing the possibility of childhood obesity and helping children build healthy relationships with food and exercise.

Resources

Ireland https://www.unicef.ie/mission/saving-lives/health/

Harlem Children's Zone http://hcz.org/

New Zealand https://www.unicef.org.nz/

My Supports

 (I'm here on the right)

The other two in this picture are my co-workers. We are in the same classroom Monday- Friday from 8am -3:15pm. We just started working together in January. I became a permanent substitute teacher in their class after their teacher passed away from lung cancer. We all work together in the special education department working with children with emotional and behavioral problems. I had no idea what I had gotten into or the task that was before me. Entering into the classroom I quickly realized that I was out of my element. These children are from broken homes and neighborhoods that breathes negative energy. The three of us together have formed a team and a bond that I never would have imagined coming from this school. Each of has something that the other doesn't and together we're a perfect match. We love on the children the same. We want them to feel special and loved even when the world around them tells that they shouldn't feel that way. These people hold me accountable in my day to day walk with Christ. They understand that I am growing and I can even confide in them when I have fallen. The other young lady in the picture says that I have helped her calm down so much, because I am pretty calm. The guy in the picture is constantly making us laugh, but is also a great instructor. The kids get to see this positive bond lived out in the classroom everyday. I pray that we have planted some time of positive seed. These are my daily supports and without them in this part of my life I couldn't imagine. I believe God puts people in your life for a reason and I am glad his placed them at this moment in my life.