Sharing Web Resources - National Black Child Development Institute(NBCDI)

This week I explored the links to:

Child Health Talk (CHT) (http://www.nbcdi.org/sites/default/files/resource-files/CHT%20Fall%202013d.pdf) Child Health Talk provides information, advice and resources to parents and providers about children’s health and well-being. CHT features articles, recipes, and activities that cover a range of topics, including literacy, safety, development, nutrition and physical activity (NBCDI, 2013). What I found interesting in the newsletter issue was the sections that provided a collection of developmental appropriate books for young learners that emphasized diversity and were relevant to the culture of children of color. These books were being provided to programs that have 70% or more children who come from low income families as a part of the First Book and NBCDI collaboration.

NBCDI also had a link(http://depts.washington.edu/pthru3/framework.html) to a framework for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating PreK-3rd Grade Approaches by Kristie Kauerz (University of Washington) and Julia Coffman (Center for Evaluation Innovation). The framework is intended to be used a tool to support the development of comprehensive PreK-3rd grade approaches. The Framework helps to address key questions facing those who are developing PreK-3rd grade approaches in their school, district, or community including:

• What does a comprehensive PreK-3rd grade approach include?
• The word “alignment” is used often, but what needs to be aligned?
• What kinds of changes need to take hold in adults’ behaviors before we can expect to see improvements in child outcomes?
• What kinds of responsibilities need to be shared among 0-5 programs, grades K-3, families, and communities?(Kauerz and Coffman, 2013)

I signed up to receive the newsletter from the NBCDI but I have yet to receive an issue. I attempted to sign up again.

I feel the NBCDI website does contain information that adds to my understanding of equity and excellence in early care and education. Although this organization and their website provides information on improving and advancing the quality of life for Black children and families I believe that the information that they are sharing can be applied to help improve the quality for all children especially those of low SES.

New insight that I have gained this week was the information that I obtained from the Child Health Talk newsletter. The information on the variety of books available that promote cultural diversity and black history that are available for children from early childhood through grade school. I plan to purchase some of these books for my home and preschool library.