International Contact

This week Ms. Carmen told me a little more about the educational system in Romania and her hopes for the fture.  The educational system in Romania has undergone several changes in the last few years.  The future of Romanian education looks quite bright, but the process is bound to be slow and the achievements will take time.  Change has been slow and a lot of teachers are not willing to change so there is a teacher shortage.  Textbooks are old and outdated and will take time to update. 

Teachers have opportunties for professional development by attending different workshops, online trainings, and opportunties to continue their education through college classes.  There is a need to continue growing through professional development opportunties.

Some of Ms. Carmen's hopes and dreams are to continue working with children and to improve the education in her country.  She wants each child to receieve a quality education and help those in need.  She wants to continue her work with the Step by Step program.

Sharing Web Resources

The outside website that I decided to explore was the Early Childhood Council in New Zealand.  I carefully looked over the resources page to see what resources are available to teachers, parents, and students.  On the parent's page, there are links to all types of resources including how to tell if your child is ready for preschool, how to tell if the center is effective, and coping strategies after a traumatic event.  There is also a link for the online store.  By reading their newsletter, they try to help all families and make sure that children are treated equally and fairly.  Each child is entitled to a quality education.

The National Head Start association tries to treat each child equally and not discriminate against anyone.  Head Start offers services to children from low-income families and children with disabilites.  Children from middle-income families, however, are not able to attend and it is inequity against them.

References
National Head Start Associationhttp://www.nhsa.org/
Early Childhood Council New Zealand (EEC) http://www.ecc.org.nz/MainMenu

Romanian Kindergarten

When speaking with Carmen this week, she explained a little bit more about the Romanian kindergarten program.   Parents can enroll a child in kindergarten at the age of three, though all children leave kindergarten at the age of six. Since this portion of the educational system is not mandatory, this phase of the educational system is relatively short. Most kindergartens are split into three or four different groups depending on a child’s age.  Children who attend kindergarten in Romanian are often taught foreign languages, physical fitness, and some computer skills and the children are served a meal each day.  The food is usually cooked inside of the kindergarten classroom.  Parents have a choice to send their children to a short kindergarten, which usually ends around 1pm or they can stay as late as 6pm.  This is because so many parents work and this is to accomadate their schedules.  Most of the kindergarten schools are privately ran and some families that can't afford to send their children to school.  These children will not begin school until they are six or seven years old.  The transition is often difficult for these young children.


I would say that the early education field in Romania is not equal to everyone.  Not everyone can afford to send their children to kindergarten programs at the age of 3.  These children do not begin formal school until they are six or seven years old.  They begin formal school already behind their peers and it is hard to catch up.  They are from poor families that don't have the means to buy extra materials to help at home.  This was the only issue of equity that Ms. Carmen emailed me back with. 

Sharing Web Resources

I am researching the National Head Start Assocation. This website is full of useful information involving the topics that we have discussed this week.  There is a section that has information about disaster reflief funds, scholarships and awards, and training sessions for early educators.  Funding a big issue with Head Start.  Every year the politians want to cut funding for Head Start.  They need to look and see what a good program it is and how it helps so many children. 

After reading some of the statements from parents on the blog, it made me look at Head Start in a different way.  All of these parents are so supportive of the program and each one had a special story of how Head Start helped their child and their family.  It makes me feel good to be part of something so special. 

I believe neuroscientists supports Head Start by helping to develop the curriculum.  Head Start focuses on the whole child and involves a lot of free-choice play.  Neuroscientists study the development of children and Head Start goes along with child development.