Issues and Trends Week 1 Assignment

            This week’s class assignment was to establish contact with two professionals outside of the United States. Future assignments will require communication with these professionals about current issues and challenges in the field of Early Childhood Education within their respective countries. I chose to contact the leaders of ECE groups within the countries of Germany and Ireland. I explained who I was, what I was looking for, and why. I also contacted a former employer whose daughter is currently working as a nanny in Italy; she is forwarding my email address to her daughter. My thought is that she will be able to give me specific contact information for someone who works in the field in Italy; I will use this information if one of my original contacts falls through. I also have a friend who is a head master at an international school in Thailand who I can contact if another of my initial contacts falls through.

            The second part of this week’s assignment was to choose a website of an early childhood organization to study. I originally thought that I would go with Pre K Now because I have spent most of my professional career teaching this age group; but, after looking at a couple of the other websites, I changed my mind. I decided to go with National Association of Early Childhood Teacher Educators. Although access to some of the information on the website is limited to those who are members of the association, I found many of the topics that I saw this in site quite interesting.