On the UNESCO website, the education tab holds my insights for this week. The Global Action Week slogan for 2013 is "Every Child Needs a Teacher." The article I read discusses the importance of teachers in the lives of children. It talked of UNESCO's support to teachers around the world in their efforts to reach every child. One of my goals is to educate future teachers to take on this same challenge. Current and future teachers will help mold the future of all countries. I hope to be part of many teacher candidate's preparation.
The second thing I learned about was UNESCO's Teacher Strategy. The priorities for this program are "bridging the teacher gap through activities that
strengthen national capacities, reinforcing teacher training
institutions and teacher educators, and supporting policy formulation,
monitoring and implementation, improving teacher quality by developing standards for teachers and recommendations for use in policy development, and informing the global debate, generating research and
knowledge about effective teaching through exchanges between UNESCO
practitioner networks, including the UNESCO Chairs , UNITWIN networks
and the UNESCO Associated Schools Networks (ASPnet)" (UNESCO, 2012).
The last thing new to me was the "Education for All" and "Millennium Development Goal" projects. UNESCO held a meeting of global education experts in Paris on October 3-4, 2012 which was to "serve as the basis for building a global indicator development agenda
and facilitate broader coordination related to cross-national indicators
on teachers and teaching. Also, it would provide the opportunity to
propose how practical results from new measurement initiatives could be
used by UNESCO to take forward its phased regional and global
measurement efforts" (UNESCO, 2012). I was unaware these efforts existed and would like to find out what was discussed and decided on and what impact the decisions would have on education in the United States.
Hi Laurie, I was happy to learn that you are teaching future teachers. I am curious about a few things as a result of this course and teacher preparation. Are there courses in the early childhood program that help prepare students for policy and advocacy. I like the idea of at least introducing them to the importance of politics while they are undergrads. Is there course work that deals with parent education in the program at your university? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Laurie. I read the same article, “Every Child Needs a Teacher,” also and was impressed with their slogan: “In the words of the campaign: “Without teachers a school is just a building.” It made me think of this quote I’ve often heard, “It takes a whole village to make a whole child.” I believe we, as educators, are the key to a child’s future; parents and the community are part of their support, but we open the doors to their education. This website is an excellent resource for educators and parents throughout the world because its primary focus is “CHILDREN.” There are dozens of articles, links and videos. Thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing you reading from the UNESCO site. It's amazing how everyone can learn something different from the same site. It's great to hear the UNESCO is implementing projects that allow for a gathering of global early childhood professionals to come together and share their insights on education and collaborate together to try and create a universal understanding of it's importance as well as the importance of staying on one accord as far as training, teaching, and guiding our children towards the future.
ReplyDeleteLaurie-
ReplyDeleteI am glad to hear that UNESCO is focused on reinforcing teacher training institutions. As educators, we are continually learning and revamping our style in order to become better. I think it is important for colleges and universities to do the same and really take a look at their education programs in order to fully prepare our future educators.
-Melanie
Laurie,
ReplyDeleteWhat great blog and I can tell that you learned a lot from the website. The information we gain from reviewing websites adds so much understanding on issues and trends around the world. UNESCO is a wonderful resource for educators I liked the part on the website that also talked about bridging the teacher gap through activities and by reinforcing teacher training institutions. It is a wonderful way to help teachers with their professional training. Great blog post, Melissa