I have been fortunate to have been able to speak with an amazing early childhood contact over the last week. Farrah, is a Masters student in the United Kingdom. She has been working on her MA in Early Years for 2 years, and works as a "reception" teacher. Reception is basically preschool, and Farrah works with 4-5 year olds. I was so excited to receive a response from her, and while we are at the beginning of our communications, I look forward to chatting with her more.
Our communication this week ended with several questions from me.
1. Following the completion of your degree, what are your plans?
2. How many other students are in your same degree program?
3. What kind of curriculum does your reception class use?
4. Is your school affected by poverty or have you learned about how poverty affects children in the UK?
While I have not been able to hear back from any other contacts, I have spoken with a colleague here in Kansas who has a friend studying in Israel. She is getting me her contact information, and I look forward to opening up a dialogue with her very soon. As a director at a Jewish preschool, I am very interested in learning more about early education in Israel. I'm also going to attempt to set up a pen pal type relationship with this contact and one of our preschool rooms at school. I'm looking forward to the challenge!
How wonderful that you have been able to establish contact! It has been a challenge for many of us.
ReplyDeleteI think that making a connection in Israel would be incredible for you! I am sure that there are so many things that you could learn about practices there that you might be able to utilize to strengthen and deepen understanding in your program here. I think that involving the children in your quest will be a very interesting venture and great lesson no matter the overall outcome. Best of luck to you!
Hi Machaela, great to hear that you have been able to start some dialogue between you and one of your contacts. It will be interesting to get to know their perspective on certain issues that they encounter.
ReplyDeleteI hope the contact in Israel works out as this will give you the opportunity to learn so much from them. What a great way to involve the children in connecting with other children who live in a different country, especially where some of their family members may still live or where their family came from. I think it is important to introduce children at a young age with how they can make a difference in the world. Your pen pal idea is a wonderful idea and I can't wait to hear how it works out!
Thank you for sharing!
Take care,
Stephanie