A Final Farewell

I learned how to do more in depth research on topics to prove a theory or point.
I learned how quality of care is influenced by others besides the workers in the classrooms.
I also learned ways to collaborate, team build and formulate groups to make the best of the goals I set.

My one long term goal is to make an serious impact into the way that quality early childhood services are coordinated and how the early care and education field looks at hiring individuals.

My Farewell Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sOPcwFlGhs

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

               They Early Childhood Australia site did not have any job listing available but do provide the opportunity to become a member so I would classify this organization to be a community of practice that work on issues in Australia. In comparison to some of the United States initiatives there are pretty similar.  The organization offers newsletters, special alerts and other special perks for members who decide to join. The organization offers parent resources and learning hubs for professional development. I find that great for teachers to go on and even parents to see what the teachers need to know to better teach their child.
              The United Nations Children's Fund is a well-known organization throughout the world. I was unable to access the job listing for UNICEF but I did see the area in which they do hiring for, and the first to catch my attention was education. Then the next was adolescent development, because I have had a peek interest lately in discovering the missing pieces adolescents did not get on early childhood. In order to conclude why certain behaviors are happening. The final area is health which is important for children to learn and reach their full potential later I life.
              The Association for Childhood Education International's site is a compilation of different organizations all in one place. They offer funding grants which is highly important for ECE programs. They much like the Early Childhood Australia offer memberships to the public to be involved in their work. The slogan of AECI is bright futures for every child, every nation. This is true we should not just want to impact the cities, towns or states we live we should want to seek ways to improve childhood for all children nationwide.  Because children do not only matter in the US.

Association for Childhood Education International. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.acei.org/

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/

Early Childhood Australia (2015). Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/

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

The first organization that I would love to be apart would be the Children’s Defense Fund, they work in all capacities to advocate for children.  I would love to get the chance to work with Ms. Marian Edelman Wright who is known through the profession as an advocate for education. They have a teacher institute program that they for professional development during the summer time. They host conferences to help educators with their professional development so that they can better assist students that may have different barriers to their learning.  This would be a great organization to be a part of communities of practices to give insight to how you as an educator overcome these barriers to get your students the information they need. Also Dr. Edelman-Wright has done advocating for children having access to pre-k programs. There are not any opportunities for careers but they do encourage financial support to keep initiatives going.

The next organization which I am sure will be a common one amongst our group is the National Association for the Education of Young Children.  The NAEYC have several things that I am interested in that they are involved in but my main focus right now is standards for child care program workers. They have a program that is for the development of the workforce. It is called the Early Childhood Workforce Systems Initiative’s (ECWSI). They are working to assist states in creating and developing and implementing their own policies for all early childhood education professionals working with or even on behalf of young children. Their intention for this policy creation is to make teacher actions intentionally. This will help ensure the teachers will become competent and stable fixtures in these classrooms and able to remain professional of early childhood. The job that I would be interested in the early learners coordinator in which the coordinator will plan activities that would be vital to children and parents throughout a local museum.

                                     

I have interest in the Zero to Three organizations. They have several ties to the early childhood community. They focus on the development of children from birth to age three. The se of course are the most formidable years of a young child’s life. They too have suggestion on how to build a strong workforce for infant and toddlers. All children in early childhood need great teachers who are nurturing and professionals who can articulate curriculum and needs of the children.  This is especially important for really young children as their brains are growing and developing. You do not want to cause any childhood trauma so you would want qualified trained professional in your infant and toddler classrooms to make sure they are fostering appropriate development. They job on the Zero to Three site that would interest me is the Senior Training Specialist; it involves the person training and informing others of the prenatal to five developmental in children. It would require facilitation and creation of trainings and presentations to be given throughout the county.

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

The first communities of practice organization is a local one for the Tennessee’s Shelby county. The organization is called the (MAPP) Mobilizing Action through Planning and Partnership. This organization is about improving the health of residents in Shelby County.

1.       They discovered 5 issues that affect the health of the residents in the county, which are healthy lifestyles, violence, mental health, health disparities, and collaboration.

2.       It is a strategic approach to community health improvement this involves professional from all realms to create opportunities for improvement.

3.       They focus on all entities working together instead of separate to optimize their efforts. “Every resident, business, organization or association throughout Shelby County is important and will work together to achieve our vision of a healthy community.”

4.       Their vision is to provide and assure opportunities for every resident to develop and participate in activities and services that enhance their health, wellbeing, and quality of life.

5.       The career opportunities would direct for the individual organizations involved in the practice.

6.       The thing I like most is the collaboration between all faculties in the city to make everyone a stakeholder including the residents.

http://www.communitycommons.org/groups/community-issues-management-cim/united-way-of-the-mid-south/mapp-strategic-health-priorities/

The second communities of practice organization are the Christian Engaged in Faith Formation. This is group of Christian educators who what to focus on their responsibility for Christian education or faith formation in any of its diverse forms, in and beyond the local church, they are in an association of United Methodists and persons from other denominations.

They encourage participation from all individuals regardless of their religious beliefs or affiliations. They work together in developing trainings like webinars and seminar trainings and conferences all to provide networking techniques. The one thing I like is that they want you to enhance your vocational commitment through active participation. In order to encourage this and other incentives they offer memberships to keep commitments from participants.

http://www.cefumc.org/blogpost/955635/184065/Tennessee-CEF-Launches-Communities-of-Practice

The Immersion Program is a program that helps promote literacy, through its work with librarians and their instruction. This program is under the Association of College and Research Libraries. This group can be beneficial in offer support to any organization that wants to implement literacy components into their programs. “Immersion allows you to embrace your educational role by embarking on a path of teacher development and pedagogical inquiry in a community of practice for academic librarians devoted to collaborative learning, individual renewal, and instructional effectiveness.” The quality of this program I like most is that they do their program in a curriculum styles to direct what is being learned then they promote the teaching of themselves to others.

http://www.ala.org/acrl/immersion

Profile of a Volunteer

·         Describe the volunteer efforts of the person you have elected to profile.

The person that I elected to profile is a friend she is not an early childhood practitioner, but the actions that she offers as a volunteer are some that benefit children and families. She is president of an organization that mentors to women who have experienced domestic violence as well as young girls and boys who are experiencing or have seen domestic violence. She councils these individuals on ways to have healthy relationships with others that is free from the experienced violence.  The organization is entitled “Beautifully Spirited Women”.

·         Identify how you feel this person's work has positively impacted others.

She has impacted individuals by providing them with proper education and support on their issue. Her organization also volunteers in the community with places like hospitals, and nursing homes. They hosted events for the public to become aware of what they do and to teach individuals skills about self-esteem and worth to help them realize they deserve better for their lives as well as their families.

·         Describe what you feel is a vital "take-away" message relative to this work in terms of your own volunteer efforts and advocacy work in fostering the well-being of children and families.

She truly gives me the energy to continue on my quest to “save the children of the world”! All the efforts that she contributed to the community is inspiring with her being a mother and raising her son to be a great young man. Her time is always limited but she always finds time in her busy schedule to serve her community. I wake up daily with the zeal to do so because of her mentally as well. I want to reach out beyond the scope of my element like early childhood practitioners but to the entire community so they will all stand up and take notice. I want there to be awareness from the  judge and his courtroom to the engineer in the fortune 500 company. 

Using Social Media to Get Connected

·         Provide a brief overview of your past and present experience with social media.

o    I have several social media accounts. The purpose of the accounts was to socialize with friends and families, but then I began to see a shift in the tides of how social media was starting to be used. It began to shift towards advertisement. 

·         Describe what social media tools you feel lend themselves to effective advocacy.

o    The factor of using social media for advertising makes it easy for others to share their agendas and find others who feel the same as they do. The one thing about social media it’s a place where you can express your personal feelings.

·         Identify how you might use these social media tools to educate and inspire others in your advocacy work.

o    You can create your own pages for whatever topic you want. I would use others that I already know we have a shared interest to share with then we can all advocate for the same issue. Then pairing with other grassroots organizations within our community can create a coalition for our advocacy issue. 

·         Ask your colleagues for their suggestions and/or their help with using social media as a tool to promote advocacy efforts.

o    What suggestions would you use to market your idea, or which social media outlet would you deem best?

o    Seeing as that there are several social media outlets and some geared towards professional and just personal which would be the best route you think would do justice for advocacy. 

Advocacy through Advertisement

The issue of Preventable accidents is something that not a lot of people pay attention too. The most common potential preventable accidents are children drowning in pools, not wearing car seats, or seat belts, and wearing protective gear when playing with riding toys. Sadly, more children die from preventable accidents in the US, more than anything else . That's why making efforts to show awareness of preventable accidents can help prevent these deaths.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBe4FrifjzI


Disney also made ads to advocate for the safetyof children while riding in the car.

http://www.ispot.tv/ad/7oNF/nhtsa-and-ad-council-cinderella-car-safety