Time Well Spent

Throughout the course of my graduate journey I have learned many things.  For one, I learned where my true passions and goals lie, in the heart of early childhood.  I found my true passion for infants and toddlers and better understand the high quality care they need to have a successful educational experience.  Infants and toddlers is where it all began for me and this course in particular helped me understand that.  Another thing I learned is the hard work that I am willing to put in in order to provide high quality care for children and families.  Researching and understanding the issues and trends of early childhood give me a better understanding of where emphasis needed to be placed in order to help improve the field of early childhood education.  The third thing I learned was that it takes a village, literally. By working with communities and building support for children and families, making connections is important to what we do and an amazing component to providing quality experiences. 

A long term goal is to open my own high quality child development center here in North Carolina.  I understand that it will take a lot of hard work and dedication to make it successful and I plan on making it a positive experience that children and families will never forget!

I want to leave everyone with a couple of my favorite quotes. “Be the change you want to see in the world” by Ghandi and “We need 4 hugs a day for survival. We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance.  We need 12 hugs a day for growth.”  Being a preschool teacher supplied me with this so I understand how much those hugs really impact the children and adults. 

 

International jobs in the ECE community

I explored international early childhood websites and a few caught my interests. The International Step by Step Association (ISSA), the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) are the organizations I chose to explore further.

The ISSA is an organization partnered with 29 countries to bring quality care and experiences to children in these communities. They have a host of services they offer other agencies as well as parents around the world whose children may not be enrolled in an early education setting. They offer a child centered setting with teachers acting as facilitators in the classroom to provide a nurturing learning environment. This is very similar to the kind of center I want to build and the challenge I chose. I want families to be involved on some level even if their child is not enrolled in the center. They have offices all over the world with their main offices in Amsterdam and Budapest.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development gives information on how to improve the economy by promoting policies that will are best for the social well being of people around the world. They provide research and evidence to governments around the world to help decide how to proceed with the policies that will benefit everyone. They accept people from many educational backgrounds to help broaden their perspective on issues affecting all. They want people who are highly educated and have shown successful performance and results at other organizations. This would be a great organization to be a part of because the economy is very important to all of us. It would give better information on how policies are created and what they base their information on to create these policies. They have a host of jobs that you can apply for and currently have 33 job openings in Paris.

The UNESCO is an organization that seeks to bring global peace to both men and women through helping to wipe out poverty, sustaining development and intercultural dialogue through education, science and cultural competency. They focus on issues in Africa and gender equality around the world. That is why this organization interested me. Issues in Africa have always been of interest to me and being an African American female has given me a very interesting perspective on gender equality. They offer a host of resources and research on gender equality issues and Africa's access to education. They want to employ people who have understand global issues, can work with other nations to have continued dialogue about their concerns and make a commitment to work with a strong team. They need people who are knowledgeable in global and cultural issues. They have a host of positions such as translators, temporary staff in a particular field, interns and associate experts who are required to be at least 32 and a national of a country that contributes to the Associate Experts' Scheme.

References:

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) www.oecd.org

International Step by Step Association (ISSA) www.issa.nl

United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) www.unesco.org

National and Federal Jobs in the ECE Community

Many of the agencies I explored had their explanation of what the mission of their agency is. I looked for the ones that fit my passion, sparked my interest on another level or shared my goals for early education.

 The Center of the Developing has many avenues in early childhood development. What really interested me was their research on how the brain is wired and shaped from the beginning by our experiences. They examine what happens to the brain as infants and how those experiences shape behaviors and development. They also explore many other issues surrounding the field of early education. They have many positions at the Center but I did not see job opportunities for employment at this time. The positions require at minimum a Bachelor's degree in the area of expertise.

 Zero to Three is another organization the shares my passion for infants and toddlers. There is a lot of research on brain development and issues surrounding infants and toddlers. Their mission statement is to promote the health and development of infants and toddlers. They help policymakers, professionals and parents understand issues surrounding infants and toddlers, so they can provide and support healthy growth and development. The current job available is for a senior web strategist, which I do not have experience for and the experience required is at least 8 years experience with web design and a bachelor’s degree.

 Zfive Mecklenburg County is a local organization in North Carolina that collaborates with other local agencies to provide information and training on infant mental health and provide support for families. They offer open meetings for people interested in learning about infant development and growth. This agency provides support by providing information of other agencies that can help parents and professionals of children ages birth to five. There are no positions listed for the agency and it was difficult to determine what positions are involved with the agencies.

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

The Prevent Child Abuse North Carolina is a wonderful agency dedicated to helping parents utilize better strategies when interacting with their children to help prevent child abuse.  I chose this agency because of their commitment to providing children with the experience of growing up in a nurturing environment and developing secure positive relationships with their parents and caregivers. They offer information and training to other agencies on implementing curricula for families who are at risk for losing their children to foster care.  They also provide support to agencies when implementing these programs to parents to ensure model fidelity.  There are a few positions that I would be interested in such as the coach or coordinator for the different curricula offered through prevent child abuse agency.  The requirements for the positions are not posted but knowledge of the curricula and experience working with children and families is a must.

The Children and Family Services Center in Charlotte, NC is an agency comprised of 10 other agencies working with children and families.  I chose this agency because they have a variety of services to offer children and families.  The other agencies provided health care, counseling, early education services and advocacy services for children.  All of these areas are of importance to me and I would like to be a part of an agency serving in these areas or one of the other agencies that are a part of the family services center. 

The Exceptional Children's Assistance Center is another agency that interested me.  Their mission is to improve the lives of all children, but they have an emphasis on children with disabilities.  They provide education for families on IEPs, advocating for their children and a host of other services available for parents.  They have parent educators who provided information, education and support to parents of children with disabilities.  There are no listed qualifications for the parent educator positions but I feel that this would provide a different avenue for the parent educator skills that I currently possess.

Profile of a Volunteer

The person I chose to view is my Aunt Marie.  Every since I was little, she has been the one to volunteer to take all the children during the summer, she takes care of children and families in the neighborhood and she still has to work two jobs.  She has always been the person more like my grandmother and tries to take care of the world.  Every year during Christmas time, she puts a list together for needy families around the area and gets people to buy things the families need and toys for the children to have.  When she sees a need in the community, she tries to fill it.  She feels like no child should go without if she can help it.  She takes in kids around her neighborhood and they always want to stay with her.  She is also very involved with family as well.  She tries to make it to every niece, nephew, and cousins' special occasion.  She is the only one in the family who makes this effort and she is 1 of 10 siblings, so this is saying and doing alot! 

I know people appreciate the efforts that my aunt puts forth on all occasions.  She tries to make sure the community gets the things they need and still make time for her family.  I always remember her as my favorite aunt because she was one of the ones who took myself and most of my cousins on vacation during the summer.  And that meant a lot to me.  People always know they can come to her when they need something and I'm sure that is comforting to them.  I realized that it is hard for me to voluteer my extra time because I am often trying to keep time for my son, but he's getting older and I feel that my knowledge and efforts could be used for helping others.  I am trying to decide where I want these efforts to go and how to best apply my time.  I want to do more for my community and am looking for a way to fulfill that in the best way possible. 

Using Social Media to Get Connected

My experience with social media is limited to a few things.  I use facebook to keep track of family and some friends from high school.  I know there are professional social media networks, but I just don't have the patience to through many of the sites.  I don't even go on Facebook everyday and I know that there are people who live for facebook.  I also know that people use social media sites to bully children and teenagers.  I think the fact that I enjoy live company so to speak, I feel limited when I use social media websites.  I would much rather connect then speak on the phone or in person.  It seems that social media is so impersonal and is a way for people to hide what they truly are. 

Various social media are very helpful when advocating for children and families.  I think that there are many avenues to use when advocating.  Facebook, blogging and youtube are great ways to get your issues heard and exposed to the world.  They can shed light to a whole different group of people who never new these issues existed.  By sharing your advocacy efforts, you can help educate the public and your circle of friends to get the word out.  You never know who is connected to whom.  By putting the issues out there, you can bring attention to it.  Using these social media sites can be a positive experience for those who use it correctly. 

Advocacy Messages

"Parents who really know it all have the right seat at the right time for their child."
"Read to a child today and spark a lifetime of ambition."
"The odds of one man succeeding in the fashion world 1 in 23,000,000 the odds of having a child with autism 1 in 110."

The first message really stands out because many first time parents know that they need car seats for their babies.  Parents also want to feel that they know what is best for their child and do what is best for their child.  Using other parents in the video who seem to revel in knowing facts about children and then stumping them with the fact about the car seat seem to make their message stronger.  The fact that is was the last fact that you heard and then they made it visual with putting a child in car seat made the message stand out more.  Advertisements that use families often get more responses that are geared toward parents.  They are more likely too remember or go buy what is advertised. 

The message on reading to a child is effective because many children will respond to the different characters used in the advertisement.  If a child sees these characters, then they will more than likely become excited and their parents will watch the message to see what it's about.  The message itself, reading to a child and lifetime ambition a very strong because many parents want their children to have ambition as they get older.  If advertisers connect that with reading then the hopes is that parents will be more like to read to their child. 

In the their message, the numbers really stand out especially when used with a well known fashion icon.  Connecting him to autism makes the message more real to others who have been touched by autism because you think that if a man like Tommy Hilfiger can be effected by autism then maybe I'm not so alone.  It also illuminates the fact that the chances of a child having autism are very strong.  A parent would most likely visit the website to see what information is out there for a parent with an autistic child.