End of EDUC 6990

Throughout our Masters' Program we have discussed the importance we as educators have on children and families. This course especially focused on how we as ECE are going to make a positive influence on this field. This picture and quote sums up our role as ECE. We will leave a mark on our students and we need to make it a positive one. 

 All of us created a Capstone Project that focused on how we could make a positive influence on the children in our lives and those we don't yet know. We have also continually thought throughout all of our courses, about the good we will do because of our passion for children. 
I think we are all going to become better educators because of the work we have done throughout this Masters' Program. 

This course specifically allowed us to look at our passions and how to move forward in our future roles as leaders in the ECE field. I especially enjoyed researching different organizations at a national  and international level. There is so much good being done for children and families, and I feel that good needs to be focused on and commended. 


My goal as well as my goal for everyone completing this Masters' Program is to remain passionate about what you believe and never compromise those beliefs. 

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

1.       Association for Childhood Education International  http://acei.org/

ACEI is a global community of educators and advocates who unite knowledge, experience, and perspectives in order to exchange information, explore innovation and advocate for children. Our mission is to promote innovative solutions to education challenges and inspire action that creates positive, sustainable futures for children and youth worldwide. Every child in every nation will have access to a quality education. This education will prepare children to become responsible and engaged citizens, ready for life in a changing world.

ACEI's Country Liaison program encourages the development of a network of ACEI volunteer liaisons from various nations around the world. The purpose of this network is to gather information about childhood education practices and policies in various nations, share this information with members and supporters, provide information to support the development of association programs, and promote international and intercultural understanding.

I think it would be very interesting to be a volunteer liaison to report and discuss the different happenings around the world in regards to global education! According to the website there is no formal volunteer application but anyone working to educate, protect and nurture young children in their communities are welcome to share their stories.

2.       Children  International https://www.children.org/

The goal of Children International is to end poverty. Like the world-changers who support our organization, we are focused on making a long-term impact by helping kids living in poverty. We have a bold vision: graduating healthy, educated, empowered and employed young adults from our program so they can achieve the goal of breaking the cycle of poverty.

This organization is one that is near and dear to my heart. My family sponsors a child through Children International. It was actually one of my Christmas presents a few years ago. We get updates on our child that talks about what he is doing as he is growing up. We also get to know what specific gift he got for his birthday or Christmas based on the money we are donating.  In a world where “we” have it all, I think it is good to give back. I really don’t need anything in life, I am fortunate and I know that, so why shouldn’t my gift be to help someone who is less fortunate.

3.       UNICEF- Be K.I.N.D.

This is another organization that is near and dear to my heart. This particular sector of UNICEF simply gives children desks in Malawi, Africa. Every day, millions of children throughout Africa struggle to learn while sitting on the floor or on the ground outdoors. Giving them a desk, where they can write and concentrate, is the first step towards creating an educational system that attracts, and keeps, eager young students.

Again, like Children International, this has been a Christmas present of mine and one that I give to friends/family. Talk about supporting education….if you don’t even have a desk to do work, how is that going to help your educational journey.

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

1.       T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood National Center http://teachecnationalcenter.org/

 Established in 1990 as evidence was mounting that teachers were leaving the field in droves, looking for better paying jobs. It was becoming increasingly difficult to attract teachers with college degrees. On average, child care teachers made little more than minimum wage. Few had any degrees beyond high school. The child care centers that employed these teachers did not provide compensatory time or dollars for continuing education.  The goal of this organization is to make education, compensation and retention of the early childhood workforce a priority for our nation.

Two programs that this organization is known for are:

-          T.E.A.C.H Early Childhood strategy creates access to higher education for the low-income work force. It provides scholarships for coursework and credentials.

-          Child Care Wages Project provides education based salary supplements to low-paid teachers, directors and child care providers. This is to help stem turnover and equalize the playing field by reaching the diversity of the field.

There was A LOT of information on this website and it was honestly a little overwhelming to try to sift through it all. I am a big supporter of making sure ECE are paid more appropriately and given the opportunity to further their education. This organization seems like they are leading the way when it comes to wanting ECE to be recognized and supported for their work. 

Since T.E.A.C.H is a program that needs to be "adopted" by a center/organization I do not know if I would be able to work for T.E.A.C.H. There is an advisory committee that could be something to look into, but again, you need to be implementing the T.E.A.C.H program.

2.       National Childcare Association  https://ncc.site-ym.com/

-          NCCA supports policies that are beneficial to children

-          School Choice

-          Equal Participation with regard to funding for all providers of Early Care and Education Birth through 5

-          Regulations should be equitable, across the board, for all providers, public or private

Looking over their website I see that NCCA is trying to make a difference when it comes to state and federal regulations that make sense. As I had stated in my previous post, I am a big supporter of legislation and regulations that work. Too many times the people making decisions for ECE don’t actually have to implement the legislation and regulations they have created and we as ECE don’t understand why they have implemented these new regulations. NCCA appears to be at the forefront of supporting ECE in their quest for making sure what we are being told we need to be doing makes sense. 

The website had a link to their Lobbying Team, however it did not send me to a direct link for them, I think it was a national lobbying link. There were no other job opportunities listed that I could find. 

3.       National Association for Early Learning Leaders  http://www.earlylearningleaders.org/

The Association for Early Learning Leaders is a nonprofit organization that has been serving directors, owners and administrators of early care and education programs since 1984. Their mission is committed to excellence in the field of Early Care and Education by promoting leadership development and enhancing program quality. Their goal is to strengthen the knowledge, skills and abilities of directors, owners, emerging leaders and other early learning professionals to ensure quality programs for young children.

Today, the Association of Early Learning Leaders is considered one of the top associations serving administrators in the early care and education field. Since 1984, it has provided professional development opportunities for thousands of early learning administrators including the How Successful Directors Lead National Conference, the Fall Leadership Symposium and the Owners Only Executive Institute. Program excellence is promoted through the National Accreditation Commission for Early Care and Education Programs with over 1,400 programs participating including over 1000 accredited programs in 35 states and the District of Columbia.

We are in this Masters’ Program to better ourselves in the field of ECE. I personally want to become a leader in this field. As I move forward and potentially become a leader, looking into this organization is something I need to remember.

Exploring Roles in the ECE community

    1.  In the current role that I am in, the state of Pennsylvania the Department of Education (PDE) and the Office of Child Development an Early Learning (OCDEL) oversees our preschool program and lays out the guidelines/requirements our program needs to follow. There are many days I shake my head at the changing guidelines/requirements that come out of PDE or OCDEL because I do not believe they are always child centered and many times we do not receive an explanation as to why these changes are occurring. I could see myself working at the state level in PDE or OCDEL because I have visions for the future of Early Childhood Education and would like to have some influence. My thought would be if I am working at the state level, I could hopefully in some way try to influence what is being decided.

       There are two jobs that are listed on the PDE website that I could see myself in; Early Childhood Education Advisor and Equal Education advisor. Unfortunately, those jobs are not currently open so there was no job description available. I can imagine some requirements would be:

- Master's degree from an accredited institution of higher learning and extensive graduate level course work in school administration

-Positive and proven record of successful experience in a responsible administrative position

-Teaching experience in a Pre-Kindergarten setting and/or elementary school

-Knowledge of principles and practices of early child development

-Knowledge of basic child development and psychology

-Ability to ready, interpret, apply and explain rules, regulations, policies and procedures

Mission statement of OCDEL:

http://www.ocdelresearch.org/default.aspx

                PDE site:

http://www.education.pa.gov/Early%20Learning/Pages/default.aspx#tab-

2.   The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is another organization that I would be interested in working for.  I am currently a member of NAEYC and this past weekend attended a regional conference. As I said previously I have visions for the future of Early Childhood Education and would like to try to positively influence it outside of the classroom. NAEYC is at the foreground of policy and influence in ECE.

Currently there were only two job opportunities listed and I could not find a general list of jobs so I do not know what skills would be needed for any roles within NAEYC.

3.     A local organization that I have recently become more familiar with is United Cerebral Palsy. I currently have a student that attends some of their programs and I am working in collaboration with my local UCP Early Intervention Program.  The UCP Early Intervention Program is much like my Early Intervention Preschool Program. It works mainly with children and families that have a child with a disability. UCP provides different therapies to the child and family.  One thing I was impressed with while learning more about UCP is that they offer Family Support Services and have a calendar of events on their website. I am a big supporter of family involvement/engagement.

There were jobs listed however none that specifically dealt with the Early Intervention Program. So again, I don’t know what skills would be needed for roles within UCP. 

http://www.ucpsouthcentral.org/index.html

End of Course EDUC 6165

I thought this picture was a good representation of some of the skills we all learned throughout this course. Thank you pinterest!

 

 

Best of luck to everyone as you continue on your own educational journey. Wishing everyone warm holiday wishes.

 

Communication Conflict

Over the holiday I spent a good amount of time with my parents, I love them, but 5 full days of them can be a bit much.  I experienced many communication conflicts over those 5 days. So for this assignment I am looking at the two of them and how they could handle conflict a bit differently.  The two skills I am looking at for them come for the Third Side (n.d.)

1.       The goal is not to end or eliminate conflict but transform the way it is expressed.

-          My mother is a perfect example of this. She is a yeller and a door slammer. She always says she “feels better” when she behaves in this way, but I do not feel it is an effective form of communication, which I have shared with her J which has elicited yelling and door slamming, lol.

 

2.       You do not have to take sides in a conflict, nor do you need to remain neutral.

-          This skill applies to me more than my parents. I frequently am pitted against each parent because I am an only child and they want me to support their cause. I often say “I am Switzerland, leave me alone.”  I can take sides when needed especially if it is something I am in agreement with. This past week it was how the Green Bay Packers laid an egg on Thanksgiving night while we were there in the miserable weather.  That is something I could take a side on.

 

The Third Side. (n.d.). The third side. Retrieved from http://www.thirdside.org/

Who am I as a Communicator?

The Listening Styles Profile (Rubin, Rubin, Graham, Perse & Seibold, 2009) is the one assessment that my results did not match how the other two people responded. In fact the results from my assistant and mother matched, but again, did not match mine.  My results showed that my listening style was in Group 3: content-oriented. I do believe that when I listen to others, I am looking for details to make sure I am making an accurate decision and in my professional life I need to make sure I am listening for details to understand what might be going on in the lives of my students and families.  Like the profile stated, I do feel that when there is a lot of information coming at me, I struggle with comprehending it all. There are many times that I “zone” out when listening to a lot of information because I can get overwhelmed by hearing all the information presented at once.  I try to take notes as much as possible because of that. The results of my assistant and mother had my listening style come out as Group 4: time-oriented. I can see why my assistant’s results showed that because in a work setting I do have to be aware of my schedule and have to carefully allocate when and how long I am going to be able to listen. My mother also knows what I am like as a professional and said the same thing, I have to be time-oriented during the work day. I did like that my mother pointed out, that if she were to do this survey for my professional and personal life, that the two results would be different. She believes if she were to answer the questions solely on my personal life or even had a non-work friend complete it,  my results may have been more in line with  Group 1: people-oriented.  I agreed with her when she brought this up, my listening style is very different in my personal life than my professional life, and a lot of it has to do with time.

The final communication assessment also surprised me a bit.  In regards to the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale (Rubin, Palmgreen & Sypher, 2009) I came out in the moderate range. I am going to be honest, I was expecting to be in the significant range. I say this because I can really call people out on things when warranted. When going over the questions though, I did find myself saying, “No, I’m not that bad.” I don’t attack people’s character or try to belittle them, so I can see why I am more moderate.  My mother and assistant’s results also showed that I was in the moderate level. My mother frequently made the comment while completing the assessment, “it depends on who it is.” This is a statement I agree with. A perfect example was today. I attended an initial intake meeting for one of my student’s at an outside agency for wrap-around services. I literally walked into the evaluation room with the parent and student and the agency worker started criticizing me regarding the incident reports I provided to the agency to help them understand the aggressive and unsafe behaviors this child is presenting. The agency worker didn’t even introduce himself to me or the parent before his critique began.  The agency worker told me that he did not agree with what I was doing in my classroom and that it is no wonder I am seeing these behaviors. Three different times throughout the 50 minute meeting this person criticized what I was doing in my classroom, in front of the parent. It took all I had to remain professional during this meeting and not become argumentative or defensive. I was so upset when I left! Had I not had on my “professional hat,” I would have become verbally aggressive toward this individual.

 

 

References:

Rubin, R. B., Palmgreen, P., & Sypher, H. E. (Eds.) (2009). Communication research measures: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.

Rubin, R. B., Rubin, A. M., Graham, E. E., Perse, E. M., & Seibold, D. R. (Eds.) (2009). Communication research measures II: A sourcebook. New York: Routledge.