Getting to Know My International Contacts—Part 1

So finally I heard back from one out of the two people I contacted!! I was excited yet sad at the same time. I was excited because I get to learn more about early childhood in Canada. On the other hand, the lady I contacted from Nigeria still has not responded to me so I decided to move on. I was able to contact someone from a group I am part of on LinkedIn. It is an international early childhood group; I kept asking myself why I did not think of contacting someone from the group previously. I was able to get in contact with someone from Italy, he responded very quickly to my email. So although I could not get in contact with someone from Nigeria I was able to have two international contacts which Is still what I wanted.

My first contact’s name is Mr. Don Giesbrecht from Canada.  He is the President and CEO of the Canadian Child Care Federation. He is also the Executive Director of Assiniboine Children’s Centre (ACC) in Winnipeg. Don has been President of the CCCF since March 2006 and was appointed to the Federal Government’s Ministerial Advisory Committee on Child Care Spaces in September 2007.  He has also been working with the CCCF on diversifying its funding and

revenue base and has been very active in its fund development work.

My second contact’s name is Mr. Gianluca Grassi from Italy. Mr. Grassi works for Reggio nel Mondo and is the communication manager. He loves to write and loves working with children.

Unfortunately, both of my contacts have yet to respond to me so I was unable to get issues on poverty from them and instead went on the website of the Childhood Poverty Research and Policy Centre’s page. I decided to read about childhood poverty in Mongolia. From reading about Mongolia, I learned that some children never even make it to school. I didn’t know Mongolia could reach temperatures as low as -30-40 degrees which saddened me to know that children are on the street in those temperatures. However, it was good to know that the government has developed plans to reduce poverty in Mongolia. I just hope that the plans are still being put into action. 

Sharing Web Resources

 

The website I have chosen to review is http://www.naeyc.org/ the website for the National Advancement for the Education of Young Children. The NAEYC was founded in 1926. The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the world's largest organization working on behalf of young children with nearly 80,000 members, a national network of more than 300 state and local Affiliates, and a growing global alliance of like-minded organizations. The NAEYC is the leading membership association for those working with and on behalf of children from birth through age 8. NAEYC convenes thought leaders, teachers and other practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders and sets standards of excellence for programs and teachers in early childhood education.

Since I am a member I can receive their publications, but I have not received the most recent one so I decided to check online. One recent trend which I found on the site was an article titled “Bringing Boys and Girls Together: Supporting Preschoolers' Positive Peer Relationships”. The article discussed different reasons why children segregate, such as why boys play with boys and why girls play with girls. The article also suggested tips for bringing boys and girls together inclusively in preschools.

While searching the site, I also discovered an advertisement for a book titled “The Hundred Languages of Children: The Reggio Emilia Experience in Transformation”. This sparked my interest because the contact that I am connecting with from Italy works in the Reggio Emilia area. I thought that was interesting that there is a book in response to the changing demographics of that area in Italy.

Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Establishing Professional Contacts 
For Part 1 of this assignment I chose to establish professional connections in the countries of Nigeria and also in Canada. I chose Nigeria first because it is my home country, my family is from Nigeria and I also want to establish an early child development center over there in the future. I chose Canada because I do not know much about anything in Canada and I am interested in learning more about education there.
To get started I began researching schools and organizations via Google. However, I was not getting any results or finding anything interesting so I decided to check the list under Resources. I first clicked on the link for the Global Alliance for the NAEYC. Under Nigeria, I noticed a school in an area of Nigeria where my parents have a home so I decided to try to contact the director. I sent her an email and still have not heard back from her, I called her early today but still no response. My husband suggest I try the number early Monday morning because of the 6 hour time zone and being that it is a weekend she may not be at the school. I will try that and if I still do not hear from her I will try the alternative path.
I wanted to contact the Canadian Child Care Federation. Their website was very informative. I first tried the email listed under the Global Alliance's webpage, but no one emailed me back. I went on the website and noticed that the lady I contacted is not even listed as a staff, I guess the list needs to be updated. I contacted the new director via email and called him when I did not receive. The person that I spoke with told me to call Monday as he is on vacation.
I really hope to speak with these two contacts and connect with them, it has been frustrating not reaching them right away, but I will practice patience until Monday and I pray it works out well.

Expanding Resources 
For Part 2 of this assignment, I chose to follow the NAEYC's website http://www.naeyc.org/. I chose to follow their website because I should and I do not. I am a member of the NAEYC and I love what they do as an organization. I chose them so that i will challenge myself to visit their website on a weekly basis and know all that they have to offer.