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

The early childhood field goes beyond the local and national level. There are opportunities at the national and federal level as well. I researched a few, but there are three that really interested me.

The first is the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). The NAEYC provides opportunities for early childhood educators to develop professionally and improve the quality of early childhood programs. They also create public awareness on issues affecting the lives of young children and their families. One thing they value is collaboration, which is important when belonging to a Community of Practice. One position they have available is to be on the Council for NAEYC Accreditation. Council members serve for a three year term and monitor the work of the NAEYC Academy for Early Childhood Program Accreditation. They did not list any skills or prerequisites needed, however, I am certain that I would need to know and understand NAEYC’s criteria for accreditation.

I am also interested in ZERO TO THREE, National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. ZERO TO THREEE is a nonprofit organization that provides parents, professionals, and policy makers knowledge on child development. They also promote the understanding of issues affecting children and their families. ZERO TO THREE interests me because their work focuses on all aspects of development of children, which is physical, social, emotional, intellectual, and language. I researched job positions available and I am interested in the Senior Program Associate position. This position is for the Early Head Start National Resource Center department. The Senior Program Associate provides training and technical support to Early Head Start programs. The Senior Program Associate will also support marketing efforts, provide administration support to Conference and Meeting teams, and work with the Senior Training Specialist. One skill that I would need for this position is knowledge in HTML4 and CSS2. I would also need to brush up my Photoshop and Illustrator skills. 

Lastly, I am interested in the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI). The NBCDI collaborates with leaders, policy makers, professionals, and parents around issues that impact African American children and their families. This organization is committed to improving the quality and life of African American children. I chose this organization because I never knew it existed, and being of African descent I am also interested in the issues concerning African American children. Currently, they have one job opportunity available for the position of President and CEO. I am not interested in this position at the moment, but I will still list the skills I would need if I were interested. To qualify for the position, I would need to have and advanced degree and 15 years experience in a leadership role. I would also need experience in resource development, experience in public policy impacting low-income children, and knowledge of historic and current issues related to child health and development, family development, and educational outcomes.

Website Links

http://www.naeyc.org/

http://www.nbcdi.org/

http://www.zerotothree.org/

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

The early childhood field is more than just daycare centers and preschools. Early childhood education is anything related to the care and learning of young children. Early childhood organizations can be found at the state or local level. Being new to Texas, I have been exploring roles and organizations in the early childhood field on a regular basis. There are a few organizations that I have found interest in.

The first organization is the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS). DFPS works with communities in Texas to protect children, the elderly, and the disabled from abuse, neglect and exploitation. DFPS also helps protect the health and safety of children in daycare centers. They also do child care licensing and prevention and early intervention. This organization appealed to me because they do their best to protect the interests and needs of children. They do not only ensure child care centers are up to date with licensing standards, but they also ensure children in foster homes are protected. One job with DFPS that interests me is the Residential Child Care Licensing Inspector. One skill that I would need to completely fulfill this role is to have knowledge of the Texas Child Care Licensing Act, Family Code, and other laws and regulations I am not familiar with.

I am also interested in the Task Force for Children with Special Needs. The task force was established to improve the efficiency of services for children with special needs. They develop five-year plans to address the needs of children with chronic illnesses, mental illness, and developmental illnesses. They are administered by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. This organization interests me because they ensure to provide access to reliable information so they can receive the best support to meet their children’s needs.  They also provide referral and respite services for families.

The third organization I am interested in is the Texas Special Children’s Projects.  This is a charity organization serving special needs children and adults. Their mission is to enrich the lives of handicapped, disabled, and special needs individuals by providing various projects throughout the year. Some of the services they provide are activities for children in hospitals and facilities, and sponsoring field trips and special events. I was attracted to this organization because it reminded me of the autism organization I used to work for. They provide free services to all participants. They have not listed any employment opportunities, but they are always seeking volunteers.  

Website links

http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Jobs/default.asp

http://www.txspecialchildren.com/page/Services-provided-3.aspx

https://www.hhsc.state.tx.us/about_hhsc/AdvisoryCommittees/TaskForce.shtml

Passion to Action

I created a Wordle for the first time describing issues I am passionate about in the Early Childhood Field. It was my first time creating a Wordle and I had fun playing around with fonts and colors.

You can view it here or below

Hope you like it...Thanks!

Thank You

Hi Everyone,

I just would like to thank you all for taking your time to read my blogs during this course. Sharing with you all was always great and receiving feedback was always encouraging. I am glad to have shared with you all and I wish you all the best as we continue on this journey. I know you will all be great professionals in the early childhood field. Thanks again!

ADJOURNING

The closing final stage of groups can be great or not so great. Depending on who was in the group or why the group ended may determine how hard or easy it will be to say good-bye. I have been involved in various groups where I have had to say good-bye. I do think that high performing groups are hard to leave because these groups have accomplished great things together. Sometimes in high performing groups you may not want to experience any other groups for fear of low performance in another group.

One of the hardest groups for me to leave was my high school track team. I was a member of the winter and spring track teams since I was a freshman. I got very close to my teammates over four years. We trained together, cried together, lost together, won together, had lunch and dinners together and much more. To make parting easier we had a senior banquet where each senior received their final varsity letters, pins, certificates. We also shared our accomplishments over the past four years. It was a great way to end the year and say good-bye to everyone before we all went off to college.

I think I adjourning from the groups of colleagues I have formed while working on my master's degree in this program will be bitter sweet. I have learned so much from my colleagues and I will miss interacting with them in the classroom; however I know that I can still keep in touch with them after the program. I will make sure to share my email and any other contact information so that I can continue to share and learn with my colleagues. Adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because it is a time to reflect on accomplishments and failures (O'Hair & Weimann, 2012, pp. 257). Without adjourning there will be no closure and future groups will not know where they can improve if working on a future project.

References

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York:Bedford/St. Martin's.

Conflict Resolution

A disagreement I constantly experience at work is between my co-teacher and myself. I tend to be a neat freak and she is the complete opposite of me. I like to have the classroom set up a certain way and throughout the day I organize and clean. I put the toys and books on the appropriate shelves. However, my coworker could care less about organization. She will just put toys anywhere and it really frustrates me. I have expressed my concerns to her and she always tells me that she will try, but she does not. One day we (all colleagues) were talking about organization and I called her messy and she got really offended, I right away but she was upset with me for awhile. Learning conflict resolution strategies now might have helped me resolve the conflict in a more practical way.

One strategy that I have learned is response which is from the 3R's. I could have discussed her messiness at another time and not at a team meeting. No one asked me about anyone's organization skills but I let my frustration get the best of me. I usually keep my responses to myself but I couldn't take it. I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but I did.

Another strategy that I learned is cooperative strategy. Cooperative strategies would help us think of a solution that would benefit both us. Instead of calling her messy, I could have expressed my concerns about the classroom and sat down on how we can work on keeping the classroom neat and orderly.

Communication Similarities and Differences

                                                

The communication assessments this week taught me a lot about perceptions. I learned that those close to me have very similar perceptions about the way I communicate. In terms of communication anxiety, I perceive myself the same way they perceive me. 

What surprised me the most was my result for the verbal aggressiveness test. My score was described as someone who is argumentativeness which attacks a person’s position or statements and involves personal attacks and can be hurtful to the listener. My husband and sister both perceived me not so aggressive as this way but for some reason I perceived myself as more aggressive when answering the questions. When I read the description of the results from their test I felt that their results describes me better than significance. I feel that I do maintain good balance between respect and consideration for others viewpoints. I also try my best not to attack people unless I disagree with something they may have said. 

This week I learned that sometimes our responses to people's viewpoints can affect our communication skills. If you verbally attack someone they may never want to speak to you again. Although you may get a shocking result on an assessment it does not mean that you should accept the results. The score may show a small percentage of a skill in you that can be positive and negative and it is up to you to see if you want people to perceive you that or not.