Time Well Spent

"Knowledge is learning something new every day. Wisdom is letting go of something every day."—Zen Proverb

 This program has taught me so much in which I feel like I have grown personally and professionally.  The different ism’s, persona dolls, and the different environmental situations that children and families come from are some of things that left profound feelings that I will take with me. These various topics are things that I have never heard of before and now knowing them will assist me in my career path.  Learning the new lessons has opened me up to many possibilities which will benefit me as well as the people that I serve.

One long term goal of mine is to provide a culturally diverse environment in my program where children and parents feel safe and can come and express themselves and learn from one another.  Then I want to open my own childcare center that will help change people’s ways of thinking and become accepting of different cultures.

I want to wish everyone best wishes and good luck and all of your future endeavors.  It was great working and learning with you all for the last 18 Months.  I hope that we can still communicate and network with one another to help us in our future journey. 

"It is what we think we know already that often prevents us from learning." —Claude Bernard

This program has taught me to be open and be more excepting of others.

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community International

Three international organizations that appealed to me were:

1.      Association for Childhood Education International

      http://www.acei.org/

I choose this website because it is promotes that every child have access to quality education and it also influences professional growth for educators. 

There were no job opportunities on this website cause it consisted of different organizations put together to provide place for educators  to help children receive a quality education so they can build a better life in this changing world. 

2.      The Division for Early Childhood (DEC)

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

           

This website is an international organization that works on behalf of children with disabilities and special needs.  Their mission statement is to promote policies and advance evidence-based practices to support the optimal development of young children with special needs.

I choose this website since there are many children with disabilities and special needs I wanted to see how people with these challenge internationally.  DEC is committed to promoting parent-professional collaboration in all facets of planning, designing, and implementing early childhood intervention services.

This site only had one job opportunity that was located in Kansas it is for a Post-Doctoral   Researcher at the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project.  The REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:  1. PhD in a discipline related to children’s learning, education, and development such as language/communication disorders, early intervention or early childhood special Ed...

3.      NAEYC-The National Association for the Education of Young Children

http://www.naeyc.org/

Founded in 1926, The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is the world's largest organization working on behalf of young children with nearly 80,000 members, a national network of more than 300 state and local Affiliates, and a growing global alliance of like-minded organizations.  NAEYC is the leading membership association for those working with and on behalf of children from birth through age 8. NAEYC convenes thought leaders, teachers and other practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders and sets standards of excellence for programs and teachers in early childhood education.

There were not job opportunities on this particular website. 

 

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

The first organization I choose was the National Association of Child Care Professionals (NACCP).  I choose this group because as a director I am always looking for ways to build up the skills of my employees who are devoted to early child care and education.  This organization's goal is to improve, enhance and strengthen the credibility of the people who lead the child care industry by providing membership services and benefits.  They also provide on-line training that you can have staff sign up for and continue the process of professional development.  I firmly believe the better trained the staff is the better environment for the children and families you serve. 

The second organization I choose was the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC).  I like this because you can come here and get connected with other providers in the family child care field. 

The last organization is the United Way it envisions a world where all individuals and families achieve their human potential through education, income stability and healthy lives.  The United way set up the following goals in 2008. 

United Way initiated a 10-year program designed to achieve the following goals by 2018:

• Improve education, and cut the number of high school dropouts — 1.2 million students, every year — in half.
• Help people achieve financial stability, and get 1.9 million working families — half the number of lower-income families who are financially unstable — on the road to economic independence.
• Promote healthy lives, and increase by one-third the number of youth and adults who are healthy and avoid risky behaviors.

They had a variety of employment opportunities worldwide that they were looking to fill. 

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 they learn how to do it better through interacting with one another (Wenger 1998).  Below are the three communities of practice that appealed to me and will be beneficial in my career path. 

New Jersey School Age-Care Coalition: http://www.njsacc.org/.

I choose this particular website because it was suitable for my occupation that I am currently doing.  This website was able to aid me with various activities, staff trainings, and the latest updates for the After School Programs. There were currently no job opportunities at this time but After School Programs do post-employment opportunities on this site. 

My second choice is the National Association for the Education of Young Children: http://www.naeyc.org/

This website is the leading association for those working with and on behalf of children from birth through age 8.  It offers various staff trainings, and resources which will benefit families and educators. 

It is currently looking for a Conference Program Coordinator NAEYC to assist with the Institute Conference a citywide Annual Conference.  Responsibilities include coordinating the proposal review process; updating/maintaining the proposal/presenter/scheduling databases; preparing presenter, session, and scheduling reports and correspondence; updating the Conference websites; and managing the Conference meeting room inventory. BA/BS required.

Lastly, I choose this website http://www.njcdb.org/  because I found it interesting because in our last class we talked about children with disabilities.  This website helps with ways to provide a high quality education with natural environments for children who are deaf or blind.   There were currently no jobs opportunities on this site. 

Wenger, E, 1998. Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Reflecting on Learning

My most passionate hope for my future as an early childhood professional and for the children and families with whom I work is that I will be able to show that accepting people’s differences is all right.  Showing families that being open minded and accepting differences will allow their children to have a better outlook on people and become better individuals. 

I have been tested in this class I had to look at myself and notice my stereotypes and deal with them.  I want to thank everyone for their feedback and post it has helped me to become a better person and change how I look at things.  Good Luck to everyone we made it only one more class it seemed like it went so fast.  WE DID IT!!!!

Impacts On Early Emotional Development

The area of the world I choose to explore was West and Central Africa because many of the children in the district where I work are from Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria.   There was one parent who I found to be very interesting, she had scares all over her face and one day I asked her why and she explained to me those mark represented what tribe she came from and they were there since she was young. 

Some of the challenges that children in this region of the world are confronting are, Malnutrition due to inadequate dietary intake, infections, safe food, and maternal care (UNICEF, 2012).  HIV/AIDS may appear to be less than in East in Southern Africa but 1/3 of the 25 million people in the Sub Saharan Africa is living with AIDS (UNICEF, 2012).  Another issue which the children in this region are facing is Child protection, meaning sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, domestic violence, discrimination and rejection (UNICEF, 2012).  Education is another issue these children face, poverty and traditional belief keeps 40% of children out of the school.  Schools are also not child friendly places; they tend to face sexual and other forms of violence in school (UNICEF, 2012). 

These experiences might have an effect on children’s emotional wellbeing and development because these are the important years where the brain and body need basic clean water and good health to survive.  The lack of these resources has a huge impact on the survival rate of these children. 

The insights I gained from this information will have a huge influence on how I change my thought process when dealing with the parents and children who come from Africa or any other country.  Now I see why the families stress the importance of education and always want extra help for the children.  I guess coming to the United States is viewed by them as a great opportunity to receive a proper education that was lacking in their country.  I have gained a different respect for them as a people and know that if they made it this far they have made it a long way. 

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

The topic of Sexualization of early childhood is a very alarming matter.  Many of today’s shows, dolls, and conversations that children hear can send wrong messages.   The topics children see and hear in today’s society are completely different than how it used to be when I was growing up.  Children are exposed to so much so early in life and it seems no one takes the time out to completely explain the right and wrong of this behavior.

There is so much exposure to sexualized environments, one example I seen recently was on Facebook where a parent took a picture of herself in her bra and panties with her young daughter in the picture.  Another example a friend of mine was telling me how her friend’s three year old daughter was saying I’ll dance for a dollar while the adult’s stood around laughing.  This statement was so out of place and no one corrected her.  Lastly, the show on TLC Toddlers and Tiara’s having those little girls with fake hair and eyelashes and dressed in provocative clothing. The parents are so wrapped up into their own self-gratification they are not realizing how they are damaging their children. 

Sexualization and media can have a huge impact on the healthy development of a child.  Many mixed signals are given; girls and boys may start to believe they have to look and act a certain way to be viewed as beautiful or accepted.  I know that some of these things seen in the media where harmful but never took a deep look into it until now.  I believe as educators and parents we need to take more time out and sensor and prevent our children from watching and hearing things that are not appropriate.