Wow! This has been a very interesting week as I have worked on this assignment. I have to say that I was very excited about the actual assignment of connecting with other professionals because I enjoyed doing the observations and interviews in the previous course. I thought it was a great idea and was eager to get started. Unfortunately it has proven to be a little harder than expected. I started by choosing just four email links from Global Alliance of NAEYC website (http://www.naeyc.org/resources/partnership/globalalliance) most of which were returned right away. I went back through and emailed all of the contacts listed, some returned and the others I haven't heard from. As a back-up I did go ahead and start on the alternative assignment.
As for expanding my resources I chose to sign up for several newsletters including one outside the US, Association for Childhood Education International http://acei.org/. Because I am familiar with the NAEYC website I chose to explore a different website, National Black Child Development Institute (http://nbcdi.org/) as this is not an organization that has a chapter in my area. Always hungry for knowledge I spent a great deal of time on the a few websites Center for Child Care Workforce (http://www.ccw.org/index.php), and NAECTE (http://www.naecte.org/). I plan to continue to explore each of the websites and I've enjoyed the news and resources shared on the pages thus far.
Thanks Michele for sharing the info about LinkedIn. I remember the webinar (I watched it and never acted on that advice; sad to stay that as much as I love technology I have been slow to embrace the social media networks like LinkedIn and Facebook). I did sign up and I will try to find professional contacts using that route.
To sum up my experience and progress this week: I am hopeful that I will make contact with more than two professionals and I will continue to try other resources and share anything helpful that I find.
LaTresa,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have been working hard to find a contact. I also found many of the resource websites very interesting, but didn't choose NAEYC for the same reason,I wanted to broaden my knowledge. Good luck with the rest of the assignment. Glad I could help.
Michele
LaTresa,
ReplyDeleteI think I may try Linkedin as well. It sounds like Michele may have been the only successful one! I am looking forward to how this assignment is going to go though. I guess we will see!
Hi Tresa,
ReplyDeleteI had the same troubles. I will take that advice if I do get any results. Thanks and keep on doing a good job.
Ok, so here's an update! I spoke with the teacher in my center and she is willing to reach out to her niece and her brother both of whom are in the education field. The niece will probably be the better choice because her brother is actually retired although I still think he would have some interesting information to share. What I've learned from my staff member herself has been interesting so I am looking forward to connecting with people actually in Pakistan. Keeping my fingers crossed!
ReplyDelete