Eight Week in Review- Final Blog Post

This course has opened my eyes to current issues and trends in the early childhood field at home and internationally. Although I was aware of the issues and trends we encountered, discussed and researched in this class I had not reflected on all of their consequences equally. Throughout previous courses we discussed the need for advocacy within the field of early childhood education. This course definitely reiterated this importance for me with the many talks provided by Dr. Vasquez in the media segments we observed. A very simple goal for me is that I will take more responsibility in my role as an advocate for the early childhood field. In my discussion this week I explained that I wanted to help with regards to professional development and training for the newly implemented full day kindergarten program. This week I read Kelly’s blog post and was very inspired by the actions she has taken to learn from other countries through research in terms of what makes their educational system so successful. This motivated me to also look into what other countries in the world are doing and ways in which they compare and contrast with the system we have in Canada. I am very fortunate due to my unique situation as an international student that I have already learned a great deal in comparing the American education system to that of Canada. One of my goals is to continue this endeavor and share what I have learned with my colleagues and other professionals within the field. I am fairly well versed with the Australian system as I took my educational diploma in Brisbane a few years ago. It is amazing to see things that I was exposed to a few years ago in Australia trickle into the Canadian system today. Slowly but surely we are learning from one another!

Although I did not make contact with professionals within the field directly, I found that many podcasts, websites and newsletters contributed to my growth and understanding of the issues that exist internationally. I have subscribed to the UNICEF newsletter and am currently working to set up fundraisers within my school for children who have been displaced because of the war in Syria. Finally as a third consequence of learning about the international early childhood field I have made a conscious effort to show my learners children around the world and discuss things that we are lucky to have that other children do not necessarily have. As a Catholic school, my students often pray for these children and have shown gratitude for simple things that they have and had not realized before that others live without.

I want to thank each and every one of my classmates for the passion and insight you have brought to the learning over the last eight weeks. Thank you so much and good luck to everyone in their future endeavors.