I emailed my contact in haiti and recieved no response but Cintia from Brazil was more than willing to share her thoughts with me.
She stated that in her center they are doing a new program that requires all of the teachers to be certified and possess a certificate or a degree of some kind in the early childhood field. she said that this requires the school to help pay for some of the education that the teachers are lacking. Cintia saidf that this excited her because now she has an opportunity to go back to school and further her education. another requirment that is being instated is that the teachers are now allowed to focus more on their lessons that the children want. She said that it is much like a curriculum that allows the students to chose what they want to learn about. She said that this way feels more natural to her and is looking forward to this change.
As stated before the school now has to help provide so the teachers can further their education as to where before the center required only some college and first aid and cpr training.
I told Cintia that my 15 year plan is to open my own center and have it prosper. I want to offer a center where all children are welcome no matter their financial state. I want children to be offered a chance to shine and have the skills they need and more when they enter primary school. My short term plan is to apply for a newly opened position at work and become an administrator.
When I asked Cintia what she wanted to do she replied by saying that she too would like to offer all of those things to children but does not want to be in the administration or own her own center, she said that she simply wants to be the best teacher she can be and have the knowledge to be able to provide for her students in the ways that they need. She wants to have a work place where everyone is respected and valued for their skills as a teacher and not have to deal with the he said she said gossip that goes around.
Its great to know the types of initiatives Brazilians are taking to ensure their's quality in care in early childhood education. Its also great to know that you are steadily in contact with an international EC professional...
ReplyDeleteJanille
I think that is wonderful Tiffany, I too would like to own my own center. I would love to run it part day and offer the lessons that children need, to excel, mixed with play, fun, music etc. I want to be able to offer it to children who are forgotten. The poor children are left out, but the forgotten children are those caught in the middle who don't qualify for anything and are too poor to be rich, economically are caught in the middle and struggling. Childcare has become a money maker and the children who should be the focus, become the X factor (forgotten ones). People are not in it, for the right reasons and so quality is low. If you get into education for the money alone then you will not survive nor be effective, but if one enters the field because of love, and is motivated to excel, then he or she may stand strong. I look at every opportunity as a learning experience, and what it helps me to do, is fine tune my outlook and projected goals, and include and exclude things that affect its success. Good luck with your goals.
ReplyDeleteTroyleena
That is great! One of my goals is to require that my staff attend more trainings and establish education goals. It is hard to get our children where they are supposed to be without education
DeleteTiffany,
DeleteCintia is so lucky to have be in a place where this opportunity has become available to her. I don't see anything like this becoming available to the teacher's here in the states. This is very unfortunate. If there is a mandate that all early childhood educators hold a degree I feel like they will be left with the financial responsibility to pay for that degree. I know in my choosing to go back to school for my early childhood endorsement there was no money in the PD funds for this to happen. However two other teachers teaching with me where able to get there's paid for because they where able to attend a two week summer program where I was not. Your have a good goal in mind and I am sure you are well on your way to achieving that goal. I hope this new position works out for you. I too hope to become a director. At the moment our director shares her time with being the person in charge of data and accountability for the county. Needless to say pre-k is not always on the top of her list.
Thank you for sharing about Cintia and the changes in Brazil.
Ginny