Establishing Professional Contacts and Expanding Resources

        Establishing Professional Contacts

At times I get so busy with what surrounds me, both personally and professionally, that having this opportunity to connect with other early childhood professionals outside Canada and the United States is an amazing chance to gain more knowledge and learn from other professionals from around the world.

I have had the pleasure of teaching many students who bring an abundance of diversity to my classroom. I also have the opportunity to teach many International students who come to Canada to study Early Childhood Education. We have students from Egypt, China, Japan,New Zealand, India and Africa. Some of our students in our program are also very fortunate to have the opportunity to do their last practice teaching placement abroad. I just supervised two students who completed their final placements in England and Italy....what an experience that would have been for them! 

Being so fortunate to have connected with so much diversity has been amazing. These connections helped me with the process of contacting other early childhood professionals living outside Canada. Last year I had a student who did her final placement in New Zealand and she had an incredible experience. I contacted the manager from “KiNZ Early Learning Center” in New Zealand and introduced myself and explained the reason for contacting her. I was so surprised that she replied the following day explaining that she would love to share their experiences with me. She added that if there was anything I needed in particular that she would help as much as she could. She expressed that they are involved in many changes and it would be great to connect. In her e-mail, she sent me the link to her program. https://kinz.org.nz/Kinz/Templates/KinzHome.aspx?siteId=4&menuItemId=122

One of my students who just graduated from our program in April is from Nigeria and I contacted her to see if she could help direct me to the path towards finding an early childhood professional in Nigeria. She explained that her sister who stills lives there is also studying early childhood education and that she will contact her and see if she can help. My student was so excited to have the opportunity to help me with this request….I hope it all works out!!

I thought that I should try and make another connection just to be sure! One of my students who just completed her final practice teaching placement is England had an amazing experience, so I thought it might be great to connect with them. I contacted the manager of “Daisies Day Nursery” in England and explained the reason behind my e-mail. I am just waiting upon her response.

Expanding Resources

Wow! What a great list of resources to choose from that not only enables us to expand our resources, but also our knowledge. I must be honest as it took some time to choose! J  The early childhood related website that I decided to choose is, “ZERO to THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families.” I find that their website has so many relatable topics that are relevant and meaningful for parents and educators.  ZERO to THREE is a national nonprofit organization that provides parents, professionals and policymakers with the knowledge to nurture early development. Their mission is to promote health and development of infants and toddlers. Here is the URL for their website. http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/

I was successful with signing up for their newsletter and I received my confirmation on Wednesday that they received my request. In my confirmation they explained that I will receive my first newsletter the first of next month! J

I am very excited to begin this journey of connecting with other early childhood professionals and building my resources. It will be interesting to read the different websites that other classmates chose and to learn from one another!