Time Well Spent!

 

"Every child deserves a champion, an adult who will never give up on them, who understands the power of connection, and insists that they become the best that they can possibly be."

- Rita Pierson.

We did it! I want to thank everyone who has helped me along this journey to earning my masters degree. We even did this through a pandemic. We are wiser, more compassionate, and ready to make a change. I wish everyone much success on your future endeavors. I hope we cross paths one day in person but I am proud of all of us for getting this far. Sky is the Limit!

The work we do is not easy work but it has to be done. Our passion is what pushes us to keep going. My passion is to continue to serve young children and their families whether in the classroom, at church, or wherever I am needed. My goal is to help children find their voice and strive for greatness. To overcome obstacle and believe in themselves. I believe that mental wellness is a priority for all. Teachers need fair wages and children need to be seen and heard. 

My takeaway from these journey is to keep going despite what people may say, despite if you fail, and despite how tough it is, if you believe it you can achieve it, fight the good fight be the change you want to see. I will strive to be a leader in the early education field. I have learned the qualities of a leader, the importance of collaboration, and research for social change. 

Again Thank you and Congratulations because We Did It! I wanted to share a few videos that help me to turn my dreams into goals.

 

 

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

 

Save the Children in an organizations that has global efforts to make a difference in the well-being of young children by providing researched based education efforts, food security and gender equality efforts. 

“The results of Save the Children’s preschool study led to a national investment in early childhood.” – Adriano Afonso Maleiane, Minister of Economy and Finance, Mozambique

https://www.savethechildren.org/

In South Africa, the company BRIDGE has built on the gains it has made from the Western Cape Early Childhood Development (ECD) Community of Practice (CoP) that links to its national focus area in ECD. The Western Cape ECD CoP offers a space for collaboration as well as sharing and developing area-specific working practice, some of their focus has been professionalization and career pathways for practitioners.

https://www.bridge.org.za/

This organizations mission is to promote an on-going global exchange of ideas on the delivery of quality services for young children in diverse settings. This organization has alliances with several organizations such as Early Years Alliance in England, National Association of Early Childhood Care & Education Malaysia, and Canadian Child Care Federation.

https://worldforumfoundation.org/introductory-video/

These different organization are working to make sure that young children are receiving quality care. They are forming partnerships and gathering data to ensure the field of early childhood continues to get better. 

 

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level

 

 https://developingchild.harvard.edu/

The current mission for the Center on the Developing Child Harvard University is to drive science-based innovation that achieves breakthrough outcomes for children facing adversity. The Center on the Developing Child Harvard University shares the development of learning communities that provide the means for early childhood innovators to set goals, share results, and cultivate not only leaders, but also new ideas. One of the learning communities they offer are community of practice on play. I have also been able to learn more about brain development through this organization. Lately I have been learning a lot from exploring this organizations website. I have even watched a few of their videos on YouTube that share a lot of great information.

Current job opportunities offered are

·         Chief Knowledge Officer- will lead and align cross-Center efforts to gather, synthesize, and communicate multi-disciplinary knowledge relating to early childhood development. 

·         Director of Communications- will be responsible for overseeing the production of creative communication materials in multiple forms and dissemination strategies in support of the Center’s mission.

 

 

https://www.dec-sped.org/

The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) promotes policies and advances evidence-based practices that support families and enhance the optimal development of young children (0-8) who have or are at risk for developmental delays and disabilities. The Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children offers a CoP on early intervention. I am interested in early intervention as I am currently enrolled in the Georgetown Early Intervention Certificate program. I wanted to learn more about early intervention to understand ways to help children who need services but to also understand the process and be able to help families understand. This organizations shares great resources on how I can learn more about early intervention.  

 Current job opportunities listed on their website are

·         Educational Consultant at UNC Chapel Hill- The Educational Consultant will join the Implementation Advisor team for the Go NAPSACC project (https://gonapsacc.org/). 

·         EC Educational Specialist Brooklyn, New York-  the Education Specialist supports all educational aspects of the daily operations Grace Church School.

·         Preschool Director, Chicago, Illinois- The Park West Co-Op Nursery School seeks an energetic and inspiring educational leader to serve as Director, starting in the 2021-2022 school year. This candidate should be passionate about the importance of early childhood education, familiar with licensing and administrative work needed to run a thoughtful preschool in an urban environment.

 

 

https://www.nhsa.org/

The National Head Start Association shares information about communities of practice called the Block. NHAS is a nonprofit organization committed to the belief that every child, regardless of circumstances at birth, has the ability to succeed in life. "The Block"! An online community platform designed for our Communities of Practice to engage online. This NHSA member-only benefit is intended for Head Start program members staff & parents. I currently work for a Head Start program, so I am always interested in learning more about head start practices and policies.

 Current job opportunities listed on their website are

·         Classroom Support Staff, Washington, D.C.- works under the guidance and direction of the Lead Teacher, and as such under direction, is responsible for assisting in providing program-based services to enrolled children and their families.

·         Head Preschool Teacher, Minneapolis, Minnesota- Teacher is responsible for planning, implementing, and evaluating child and development experiences for the enrolled children. 

·         Head Start Director, Burlington, Vermont- will lead a team of exceptional administrative and educational staff.  You will provide strategic direction and oversee the administration and operation of all programs and services of Head Start.

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

 

Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better through interacting with one another (Helm, 2007). Three local/ state organizations or community or practice that appealed to me are Educare, NBCDI, and NAEYC.

Educare is a network of schools serving thousands of children across the country. Educare currently has a D.C location which serves an early head start and head start program, and they are currently in the process of opening a second location in D.C. They have several job openings including, lead teacher, family engagement specialist, and inclusion specialist. Educare offers a prenatal program, advocacy, teacher training, a health and wellness program and serves children birth-5 years old.

The National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) supports and works primarily with Black children birth through age eight and their families, through coalition building with community-based organizations, foundations, corporations, school systems, elected officials, government, childcare, Head Start and many other public and private partnerships. 

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) forums and communities provide NAEYC members a way to expand their knowledge and share their specific passion within early childhood education with other NAEYC members. Forums focus on a range of topics—from health and safety to professional development systems to men in education. 

References

Helm, J. (2007). Energize your professional development by connecting with a purpose: Building communities of practice. YC: Young Children, 62(4), 12-16.

https://www.educaredc.org/

https://www.naeyc.org/get-involved/communities

https://www.nbcdi.org/who-we-are

Thank You

                                        

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Throughout this course I have really learned and understood the process of communication. Communicating with my colleagues has been a wonderful learning experiences. As many of my colleagues I have been in other courses with it is always nice to work with new colleagues as well. My biggest take away is that communication is a transactional process where you influence others while they influence you (O’Hair, 2018).

I am grateful to be able to work with such amazing scholars. I have been able to put theory to practice from the feedback and stories of my colleagues. We are forming a great community of educators and I am happy to be apart of that. The posing questions of my colleagues and the different perspective that everyone brings allows me to engage deeper in my thought process. The drive of my Walden community helps me to continue to push forward with their kind words, motivation, and sincerity. I hope I have done the same in providing feedback to blogs and discussions.

 I hope to continue to see everyone grow as we reach our goal of graduating with our master’s degree. I wish you all the most success in future endeavors and hopefully we may even cross paths one day.

 

O'Hair, D., Wiemann, M., Mullin, D. I., & Teven, J. (2018). Real communication: An introduction (4th. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Adjourning

 

In the "adjourning" stage the project is coming to an end and the team members are moving off into different directions. This stage looks at the team from the perspective of the well-being of the team rather than from the perspective of managing a team through the original four stages of team growth. (Learning Center, 2011)

The adjourning stage is a bittersweet stage of team building. It is a celebration of the task at hand, but it is also a time to say goodbye. I was apart of a discipleship program at church where myself and several other women came together to work on building our relationship with God and building each other up. Through this journey we had to learn to mutually trust and respect one another. We learned how to allow each person to feel valued and be a contributor and we agreed upon goal and vision (Laureate, Education, 2011), just as Dr. Wolfe said makes for great team building.

This was an 18-month journey and it was hard to say goodbye but because of the bond we had created many of us kept in touch with each other. It was hard to leave the group once it had ended because we had spent a lot of time together and we had shared a lot of personal information with one another. I believe this group allowed for growth within all of us because we learned that we are in this together. I was also able to learn a lot about myself and these women encouraged me and supported me when times were rough.

For my colleagues working towards earning their master’s degree, I know we are all routing for each other. This will be a great celebration as we “master it”! I hope that we will all have the opportunity to cross paths and maybe even physically work together.

 

References

Learning Center. (2011). How to build a team using vision, commitment, and trust. Retrieved from http://www.learningcenter.net/library/building.shtml

Laureate Education (Producer). (2011). Team building strategies [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

Conflict Resolution

Conflicts in communication come from not taking the time to understand one another. This also makes me think of perspective. It is often hard to have tough conversations but sometimes these conversations need to be had in order for us to grow. The key is listening even when we do not agree because when we listen, we may hear the truth that will allow us to self-reflect. "Respectful communication among parents and educators provide an environment that encourages learning and growth," (The Compass School, 2017).

I think about a time when a parent did not agree with their child not being able to attend a field trip. The parent was so upset that they did not hear what was actually said. What was said was the child can attend the trip as long as a parent attends with him.  The parent had yelled at me, but I never changed my tone and I waited for the parent to finish speaking. I offered for a meeting later that evening to discuss the situation. When the parent came back that evening he apologized and shared his frustration. By still showing respect to the parent despite them being outraged we were able to come to communicate the details of the trip. Once we learned the child had been showing certain behaviors due to him not taking his medicine because the parents chose not to give it in the summer, we were able to receive an inclusion staff member to help with the child and give one on one attention when needed.

Communication is so important, and we have to be honest even when it may be difficult. We have to an open mind when having conversation. People joyfully and compassionately contribute to each other and resolve conflicts peacefully (Center for Nonviolent Communication, 2020).

References

Center for Nonviolent Communication. (2020). About the Center for Nonviolent Communication. Retrieved from Center for Nonviolent Communication: https://www.cnvc.org/about

The Compass School. (2017, June 21). Magda Gerber's RIE Philosophy.  https://www.thecompassschool.com/blog/magda-gerbers-rie-philosophy/#:~:text=Pickler's%20core%20values%20of%20respect,explorers%2C%20and%20self%2Dlearners.