Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

Establishing professional contacts is a really good way to keep myself updated and informed with regard to the early childhood field. I am lucky that I am working in an international school, in which there are many professional resources from different countries and the early childhood professionals are experienced and knowledgeable. I have talked with some of the early childhood professionals in my school to see whether they could keep regular touch with me through emails or their blogs so that I could learn more new issues and relevant events from them. Fortunately, they are so glad to know that there is one more person who is concerned about and engaged in the early childhood field and very happy to offer professional helps and contacts. One professional is Karie Sun, a Canadian Chinese, which means that I can learn some differences of the early childhood issues and trends between Canada and China. Another professional is Cheryl Uy, who has around 20 years experience in Early childhood and still keeps herself informed by enrolling herself in different schools, courses, and training for professional development. There is one more professional I am trying to get in touch with since she is from New Zealand, which is also famous for its education, especially some approaches and strategies for early childhood field, such as the Te Whariki Approach. I am excited and very willing to contact with them and ready for the updates.

As for expanding resources, since the professional contacts that I am building up for Part 1 of this week blog assignment will help me learn issues and trends of early childhood field in Canada, China, and New Zealand, I would like to choose National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (http://www.naccrra.org/), an American educational website for young children. From the website, I read:

Since 1987, Child Care Aware® of America has been working to improve the system of early learning for children by:

1. Providing training, resources and best practices standards to local and state CCR&Rs that support high-quality, accountable services 
2. Promoting national policies and partnerships that facilitate universal access to high-quality child care 
3. Collecting, analyzing, and reporting current child care data and research, including child care supply and demand trends 
4. Offering child care and parenting information and resources to families and connecting families to local CCR&R services

I think this website is very helpful to me to learn relevant issues and trends of early childhood as well as some practices and standards for effective child care. Mainly I will visit this website, but still I will spend some time visiting other websites that this course offers for more information regarding early childhood field. Those websites are as follow: 

Early Childhood Related Websites—United States

Zero To Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
http://www.zerotothree.org/ (May have to use http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/ )
(Newsletters:
http://zttcfn.pub30.convio.net/child-development/from-baby-to-big-kid/ and
http://capwiz.com/zerotothree/mlm/signup/ )

National Black Child Development Institutehttp://nbcdi.org/
(Newsletter: http://nbcdi.org/support/sign-up-for-nbcdi-newsletters/ )

National Institute for Early Education Research
http://nieer.org/
(Newsletter: http://nieer.org/resources/newsletter/index.php )

The National Association for the Education of Young Children
http://www.naeyc.org/
(Review also the position statements: http://www.naeyc.org/positionstatements )

Pre[K]Now: A Campaign of the Pew Center on the States
http://www.pewstates.org/projects/pre-k-now28067
(Newsletter: http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_alerts.aspx )

Harlem Children's Zone
http://www.hcz.org/
(Newsletter: https://donate.hcz.org/signup )

National Head Start Association
http://www.nhsa.org/
(Newsletter: http://www.nhsa.org/news_and_advocacy/advocacy/legislative_eupdate )

National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators
http://www.naecte.org/
(Newsletter: http://www.naecte.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14&Itemid=29 )

The Division for Early Childhood
http://www.dec-sped.org/
(Review also the position statements: http://www.dec-sped.org/Just_Browsing/Position_Statements_and_Papers)

Children's Defense Fundhttp://www.childrensdefense.org/index-1.html
(Newsletter: http://www.childrensdefense.org/newsroom/enewsletters/ )

Center for the Child Care Workforcehttp://www.ccw.org/
(Newsletter: http://www.ccw.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=78&Itemid=72 )

Society for Research in Child Developmenthttp://www.srcd.org/
(Newsletter: http://www.srcd.org/membership/developments )

Early Childhood Related Websites—Outside the United States

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/
(Review also the online Resources listed on the right: Selected publications, Country Profiles, or Policy Series)

Early Childhood Australia: The Australian Early Childhood Advocacy Organizationhttp://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/
(Newsletter: http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/contact_us/mailing_list.html )

Association for Childhood Education International
http://acei.org/
(Review also these online resources at: http://acei.org/knowledge/ )

European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA)http://www.eecera.org/

The British Association for Early Childhood Educationhttp://www.early-education.org.uk/
(Review also these online resources: http://www.early-education.org.uk/search/node/leaflets )

The Canadian Association for Young Children
http://www.cayc.ca/
(Review also available issues of the organization's journal at: http://www.cayc.ca/indexjournal.html )

Early Childhood Council New Zealand (EEC)http://www.ecc.org.nz/MainMenu
(Review also media resources at: http://www.ecc.org.nz/Category?Action=View&Category_id=159)

International Child Resource Institute
http://www.icrichild.org/
(Review also the international projects at: http://www.icrichild.org/kenya ) Click on the International Projects tab at the top to see a list of the available projects.

International Step by Step Association
http://www.issa.nl/
(Review also the databases at: http://www.issa.nl/issadatabases.html )

The Global Fund for Children
http://www.globalfundforchildren.org
(Newsletter: http://www.globalfundforchildren.org/index.php?option=com_civicrm&Itemid=340 )

Save the Children
http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.8D6E/Official_Site.htm
(Newsletter: http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXGIpI4E/b.6213813/k.4C6/eNewsletter_Sign_Up/apps/ka/ct/contactus.asp?c=8rKLIXMGIpI4E&b=6213813&en=kvlQJ4ORKhlQJ3MOKcINI4NSJfLZiOSJmLYL4OSJrK9JsJ )