Week:2 Issues & Trends Early Childhood

Sharing Web Resources

The organization that I chose to learn more about is the National Association for the Education of Young Children also known as NAEYC. 

NAEYC promotes high-quality early learning for all children, birth through age 8, by connecting practice, policy, and research. NAEYC advance a diverse, dynamic early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate, and work on behalf of young children. 

Learn more at www.naeyc.org.

One current trend that caught my attention was an article titled 

Celebrating Hispanic Heritage and Eating Right with José-Luis Orozco

This article was about a bilingual teacher name Jose who noticed a need for rich oral language activities in children's heritage language.  Jose began writing songs and recapturing games grounded in rich oral traditions.  

  

 For over forty years he's written and composed bilingual songs, games, rhymes and poems for young children.  In celebration of Hispanic Heritage month, José-Luis talks about his newest album !Come Bien! Eat Right! and the messages he wants to share with families and teachers.

This article states that, the United States is now more diverse than ever. There is a great need to learn a second language to get ahead in the job market. It is important to involve families in the teaching process in order for children to succeed in school and in life. Teachers can create opportunities in their classrooms for parents to get more involved. For example, by asking parents to share a family tradition, a recipe, etc. Teachers should also provide opportunities for parents or family members to share stories, songs, and information in their primary home language. Another great idea to involve parents is to invite parents for an afternoon and have the students learn the dance and song together.

NAEYC is Going Global!

To better serve the world’s young children and their teachers, NAEYC has expanded its role in early childhood education across the globe. NAEYC’s Global Engagement department works with governments and other large-scale systems to create guidelines to support early learning, as well as to support early childhood professionals throughout the world. The Global Engagement Department will adapt NAEYC’s resources, content, and expertise to offer culturally appropriate packages that support high-quality early learning. To see examples of our recent work or to see if NAEYC’s Global Engagement department can help you, visit our technical assistance page.

NAEYC knows that by pro-actively engaging with early childhood professionals worldwide, we will learn more about innovative approaches in early education, deepen our knowledge, and broaden our perspective.

NAEYC’s 2016 Annual Conference November 2nd-5th in Los Angeles, CA, the world's largest early education conference and expo. Build your early childhood education network and knowledge base over four days and hundreds of sessions, and check out our special language-tracks: Grandes Comienzos, our Spanish-language track, and 良好開端 (Good Start), our Mandarin-language track.

Learn more at www.naeyc.org.