Establishing Professional Contacts
By email, I have attempted to establish two early childhood
contacts outside the United States. One
is in Singapore and the other is in Kosovo.
Unfortunately, both attempts have been unsuccessful.
On the World Foundation Radio, I listened to a podcast of a
conversation with Meridas Eka Yora. He
has established 3 schools for children orphaned in the tsunami that hit
Indonesia in 2004. One of the more
striking things that he said was, “We have to be fathers and mothers to these
children before being their teachers.”
This reminded me of a staff meeting in which the Director of a private
school told the us, “Our number one goal is to return them (the students)
in as good or better condition than how we got them in the morning.” For many of our students, we must be their fathers and mothers before being their teachers. In
addition, Mr. Yora spoke of using a holistic approach and that the students
were each other’s family now. He also
addressed the issue that some children cannot accept what happened to them during
the tsunami; losing their biological family and home.
Expanding Resources:
National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators (NAECTE)
I have selected this early childhood organization because I
support their purpose statements and believe that this organization will be
beneficial to me as I further my career.
In the 2012 winter newsletter, it was stated that this is the only
professional organization designed exclusively for early childhood
professionals in 4 year programs (NAECTE, 2012). They promote professional growth, discuss
educational issues, advocate for improvements in early childhood teacher
education, provide a forum for consideration of issues and concerns of interest
to educators of early childhood teacher educators, provide a communication
network for early childhood teacher educators, and facilitate the interchange
of information and ideas about research and practice (NAETE, 2012). I look forward to looking back over past
newsletters to learn more about the educational issues that have been addressed
at past conferences.
NAECTE. (2012, Winter). Retrieved from
NAECTE. (2012, Summer). Retrieved from
Hi Dianne,
ReplyDeleteI like the resource you chose. I agree, it will definitely help when you begin teaching adults. I need to look into that one more.