Saturday, May 10, 2014

Establishing Professional Contacts:
Part I
Our blog assignment for this course is very interesting and exciting, connecting globally with other early childhood professionals. I am so excited about making a connection with early childhood professionals in Jamaica. It will be very interesting to share and compare notes about trends and issues in early childhood especially as it relates to culture and practices.

At first,I went to the resources to make a connection through the Global Alliance NAEYC link. I was disappointed when I did not find Jamaica listed. I checked out the UNICEF link and was satisfied to find them there. I explored the cite and tried to email but the address would not open for me so I moved to my personal connections. This was more fruitful, I spoke to a few people who gave me some connections. I am waiting for feedback from one person.

I have emailed the director of the Early Childhood Commission and is now awaiting her response. I did not think that , having being a Jamaican teacher myself, that I would have such difficulty getting off the ground with this process. I will give updates on how that worked out. I really do want to establish a connection with the Jamaican link.

I have also emailed a past colleague in Sweden to see if I can find a connection there. We worked together a while back and it was very interesting to hear her speak about their elementary system, it will be very interesting to learn about the trends and issues in the early childhood system there. I am working on other sources as well so that I will have options open to me, now that I am aware that getting started can be challenging.

Part II:Expanding resources:
I chose to look at: Association for Childhood Education International( ACEI:)
http://acei.org/

I thought that since I am learning from international resources , I may as well get to know something about other international organizations that are available to me. I am drawn by their mission of "Bright futures for every child, every nation". I have signed up to receive their e-news of program and events, education grants, advocacy, global news and research. I look forward to getting informed at the global level and broadening my horizon on global early childhood happenings. i swill be sharing much of this exciting journey as I blog, watch out and return often to share along with me.

4 comments:

  1. Sherron,
    The first assignment for this course has proven to be more challenging than I thought it would be, however, I am always up for a challenge. As you know I am also trying to establish a connection with an early childhood professional from Jamaica; I have vacationed in the Jamaica on several occasions, it is a beautiful and relaxing country, so I would love to learn more about the trends and issues in the early childhood field in this country. It would be awesome to connect with someone from Sweden; Sweden and Jamaica are on the opposite ends of the world; how different the trends and issues must be. I would love to learn about the differences in the early childhood field from both countries. I wish you the Best of luck. I like the way you decide to go international all the way with both parts of the assignment, that’s using great critical thinking skills. Hats off to you! Thanks again for all your help, talk to you soon.

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  2. Hi Sherron,
    It is great that you have so many contacts with whom you can connect with abroad. I know a few people abroad, however are educational professionals, but not in the early childhood field. Hopefully, one of the contacts I e-mailed will respond to me. Good luck with your search.

    Elizabeth

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  3. Hi Sherron,

    It looks like you will get some connections form your past colleagues in Sweden. Good luck to you with your connections.

    LaNea

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  4. Sherron,
    Keep trying. It's wonderful that you have personal contacts from other countries. I look forward to seeing your blog entries about early childhood trends in Sweden and Jamaica. I think it will be interesting since these seem to be very different places in the world with (from my knowledge) have very different outlooks and lifestyles.

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