Sharing Web Resources

The Center for the Early Childcare Workforce has many resources available on their website. The specific information I find relevant to my current professional development is the section on Public Policy. After reading the resource material this week I have realized how vital it is to ensure I stay abreast of the local, state and federal initiatives dealing with early childhood education. Early childhood education is now more than ever at the forefront of policy initiatives at all levels of government (CCW.org).  We still have a long way to go, our work is not near complete!

One resource I took from the e-newsletter was an article titled, "Building the Brain’s “Air Traffic Control” System: How Early Experiences Shape the Development of Executive Function. This article discusses how children need a group of skills and how acquiring the early building blocks of these skills is one of the most challenging and important tasks in early childhood. The article addressed how these skills develop, what can disrupt their development, and how supporting them pays off in school and life.

The website had resources and information directly related to state initiatives and public policy.  There was a variety of topics and web links to get information about specific state information. Author James Heckman writes, "The logic is quite clear from an economic standpoint. We can invest early to close disparities and prevent achievement gaps, or we can pay to remediate disparities when they are harder and more expensive to close. Either way we are going to pay. And, we'll have to do both for a while. But, there is an important difference between the two approaches. Investing early allows us to shape the future; investing later chains us to fixing the missed opportunities of the past. Controlling our destiny is more in keeping with the American spirit."

 
This website offers many interesting articles as well as links to other organizations that have information about the early childhood field. They have different tips each week to assist teachers and administrators with early childhood development. The newsletter offers the latest scoop on early childhood news. Exploring the website gives me an opportunity to grow as an educator.

Reference:

 http://www.ccw.org