Time Well Spent!!!

As I sit here writing this final blog post for my Master of Science in Early Childhood Studies the emotions are all over the place.  I am excited, saddened, and encouraged.  As I started this program I was scared that on-line learning was not going to meet my needs, but I learned very quickly that you can have the same deep discussions that would happen in a live classroom.

I was challenged to be a better student by my instructors as well as my fellow colleagues.  I have learned just as much from my fellow colleagues and while I knew that was a characteristic of quality adult learning, it still was surprising.  I am extremely proud of the work that I have been able to accomplish and I felt supported through the entire process.

My one long-term goal is to make ensure that ALL children have access to high quality child care.  I hope that my work will ensure that the quality of child care in Oklahoma is better than it is today.

Saying goodbye to my colleagues and my instructor is bittersweet.  I am glad it is over, but  I will miss the encouragement and continued quest for learning more and more.  I challenge all of us to be life long learners.  Please stay in touch!  Dr. Teri thanks for the feedback and the encouragement!  This class was the best because of you!

My new favorite quote thanks to Towanda!!   Brigham Young once said, “Educate a man; you educate a man. Educate a woman; you educate a generation”.   Go forth colleagues and educate a generation!!!  

We did it!!!  

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

The three organizations I selected to discuss were Save the Children, International Step by Step Association, and Organization for the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).  I chose these Save the Children and OECD because their mission most closely matched my personal goal of improving the lives of children and families.

Save the Children has a campaign titled Preschool for ALL.  This slogan is very similar to the some of the words I selected on my Wordle at the beginning of this class.  Assess to quality child care for ALL children.  I expanded that to include all children birth to 8, and this is focusing on the preschool aged child, but it still matched up to my personal goals best.

Organization for the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) seeks to improve the economic and social well being of people around the world.  Their education policy is to expand access to service without attention to quality will not deliver the good outcomes for children or long-term productivity benefits for society (OECD, n.d.). 

International Step by Step Association focuses more on what is actually going on in the classroom for young children.  I selected this group because in my job we provide training for teachers so that they can improve practices for young children.  That seems to be a similar goal for International Step by Step Association.

International Jobs:

There were three jobs that were very interesting to me in my search unfortunately,  when looking at international jobs it seems that fluency in other languages besides English is a requirement for many of them.  The first job I reviewed was for OECD titled Researcher/Analyst--PISA.  PISA is Programme for International Student Assessment.  This job sounds very interesting because you will be writing and implementing education policies across the world.  The  requirements for this job include:  Advanced degree in statistics, education, social sciences, economics or related field.  3 years of experience policy oriented research, and extensive contacts within the international education policy community.

There were two jobs with Save the Children.  The first job with Save the Children is titled Learning Research Specialist, Department of Education and Child Development, this job focuses on providing technical assistance to the global partners.  Very interesting job.  The qualifications for this job are as follows:  Master's degree in International Education, International Development, Economics or related field; Proficiency in STATA, Proficiency in French, Spanish, or Arabic highly preferred and must be able to travel internationally 30 to 40% of the time.

The second job with Save the Children is titled Specialist, Early Childhood Development and this jobs focuses on the design and monitoring of the Save the Children ECD Interventions.  The qualifications for this job are as follows:  Masters in early childhood education or related field, 3 to 5 years experience in early childhood program development, excellent communication in English and Fluency in Spanish, and must be able to travel 30 to 40% of the time.  This job seemed like a great fit for me until I read the part about Fluency in Spanish. 

It was very exciting doing this international search because I would have never considered looking at an international early childhood group and after this assignment it might be something I will look into for the future.

Reference

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2011, from http://www.oecd.org/home/0,2987,en_2649_201185_1_1_1_1_1,00.html

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

The first national organization I selected is The National Women’s Law Center, and I chose them because they provide a plethora of resources for early childhood advocates.  They write fact sheets, resource pages and advocacy tool kits that cover the spectrum of early childhood including child care, Head Start and public school pre-kindergarten.  The National Women’s Law Center has a job currently open titled Outreach Associate—Education and Employment.  The Outreach Associate will work to implement creative field and communications strategies that promote opportunities for women and girls in school and at work, among other issues.  The job requirements for this position include  a bachelor’s degree, two years professional experience and strong writing skills.  These job requirements highlight some of the skills and education necessary to apply for this job.  The Early Childhood Studies Master’s program coupled with experience would meet the minimum requirements for this job.  The link for more information about this job is located at this link:  http://www.nwlc.org/jobs/outreach-associate-education-and-employment

 

The second national organization selected for was CLASP policy solutions that work for low income people.  CLASP was selected for some of the same reasons The National Women’s Law Center were chosen because of the resources, position statements and research they conduct on early childhood issues from the perspective of supporting low income families.  High-quality child care and early education can build a strong foundation for young children's healthy development and ensure that children have all they need to thrive (CLASP, 2013).  This statement regarding high-quality child care is exactly in line with my personal feelings about my work.  Currently CLASP does not have any open positions; however, I selected Christine Johnson-Stab the Senior Policy Analyst, Child Care & Early Education.  She has a Master’s in public policy.  The Early Childhood Studies Master’s degree with a specialization in Public Policy and Advocacy should meet the job qualifications for the job of this nature.

 

The third national group selected is Children’s Defense Fund.  They are leader in early childhood policy.  Extensive research has shown that early childhood programs significantly increase a child’s chance of avoiding the prison pipeline (Children’s Defense Fund, 2012).  They provide early childhood advocates with tools, resources, research and publications that support early childhood across all sectors including child care, Head Start, and public school.  Additionally, they provide many public awareness campaigns that support early childhood.  At this time, Children’s Defense Fund does not have any early childhood related positions open.  Dr. Cathy Grace is the Director of Early Childhood Development Policy.  She has a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction.  I am not sure if this Master’s program would provide the education needed to work at Children’s Defense Fund, but it would provide a high foundational level of education for a person wanting to work there.

 

 

Reference

 

Children’s Defense Fund.  (2012). Early Childhood Education & Care.  Retrieved from http://www.childrensdefense.org/policy-priorities/early-childhood-education-care/

CLASP.  (2013).  Child Care & Early Learning.  Retrieved from http://www.clasp.org/issues?type=child_care_and_early_education

The National Women’s Law Center.  (2013). Child Care & Early Learning.  Retrieved from http://www.nwlc.org/our-issues/child-care-%2526-early-learning

 

Exploring Roles in ECE Community: Local and State Levels

The three organizations that appeal to me at the local or state level include Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA), Professional Collaboration Work group, and Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS) Revision Community of Practice.  I am interested in OICA because I believe in their mission and want to become more involved and hopefully utilize my graduate degree and evoke change in our state through effective advocacy.  I selected the Professional Collaboration Work group because this Community of Practice is going to be instrumental in providing a comprehensive data set for the great early childhood workforce.  Lastly, I selected the QRIS Revision Community of Practice because I feel that with the work that I currently conduct and the knowledge I have I will be a primary contributor to the improvement in our QRIS for the state of Oklahoma.

There are a couple of job opportunities that I found are very appealing to me personally. The first job is with Zero to Three for a Senior Head Start Technical Assistance Specialist.  With the completion of my Master's degree coupled with my other experiences this could possibly be a great fit for me as a potential new job.  The other position is with National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) it is a Project Manager position providing oversight to a new international grant providing training and technical assistance to the Middle East and North Africa.  The Zero to Three position is flexible for location of the job so I would be able to stay in Oklahoma while doing the work, but the NAEYC position would require relocation to Washington, DC.

The skills and experience descriptions for both of these jobs I fulfill the only component missing the Master's degree in Early Childhood and that will be completed by the end of this year.  The Zero to Three position is one that I will likely submit application for due to the fact that my degree will be finished by the end of this year.

The link for the job posting by Zero to Three http://www.zerotothree.org/about-us/careers/jobs/
The link for the job posting by NAEYC http://www.naeyc.org/about/jobs 

Profile of a Volunteer

The person that I am choosing to profile here is my daughter Jordan.  She was fortunate enough to learn at a young age the true meaning of volunteerism.  She was selected as a Junior Rotarian her senior year of high school and they were required to participate in a service project.  The service project she selected was "Rebuild Oklahoma".  This particular projects mission is to go into a poverty stricken neighborhood and remodel a persons house to make their daily life better.  When we received the address of the location for her rebuilding project my husband chose to drive her and drop her off for her safety.  This was a high poverty and high crime area close to downtown Oklahoma City.

One hour into the project she called her dad to come get her because there were so many roaches and rats in the crumbling home they were remodeling.  Her dad told her that he would return at 5:00 pm when the day was supposed to be finished because she started this and she needed to finish it.  When he picked her up at 5:00 pm she was a different person.  It changed her life because they were able do so much to improve the home when the 70 year old women returned home with her 2 young grandchildren that she was raising she fell to the ground and sobbed because her house was beautiful.  Jordan has never been the same person as she was before she made a difference in the life of the woman and her grandchildren. 

Jordan has continued to volunteer in different ways since that time, but that particular event was the one that made the most dramatic impact on others.  She has been a "Big Brother/Big Sister" volunteer, Legal Aid volunteer, Rise School volunteer and is currently volunteering at Cleveland County courthouse reading legal documents for people that cannot afford to have legal representation prior to entering the court room as a part of her Law School training.  Her goal in life is to help make a difference in the lives of women, children and families in poverty by creating family friendly policies that will make a difference in our country.  I am proud to be her mom and excited to see the woman and volunteer she will become when she graduates from Law School.  I know she will be something great and we will all benefit from her work in the future.

I would like to think that Jordan learned her love of volunteering and advocating for the less fortunate from me.  I have dedicated my life to working on behalf of children and families.  Currently in the capacity of ensuring that they have highly trained teachers working in high quality child care programs.  I think to be an effective advocate you have to be passionate and have some experience that shows you that this work is important and you will make a difference.  To me the vital "take-away" is you don't have to do something big to make a big difference.  All Jordan did that day with Rebuild Oklahoma was tear down old wall paper, wash walls and hang new wall paper; however, it was transformational for the family and her.  You get out two fold what you put into something.  Go out and spread the good work.

Using Social Media to Get Connected

I am a social media junkie.  I have a Facebook account, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  I think that Facebook and Twitter are the most effective for advocacy, but I can how LinkedIn could be used as an advocacy tool.

I am far more of an advocate on Twitter than I am on Facebook.  I live in a very conservative state and I am a liberal political person.  I have fewer friends on Twitter so I cause far less drama for myself than I do when I post advocacy efforts that I am passionate about sharing.  I post early childhood issues, women and children's issues and issues about poverty on Twitter almost daily.  I am an active tweeter.

I think both Facebook and Twitter are great ways to get information quickly and get it moving outward to the people.  I also subscribe to many newsletters that provide advocacy information to the field of early childhood.  I think social media allows us to be more connected and be more vocal about our passions than prior to social media.  It allows us to share content in real time as it is happening.  Everyone can be a contributor of information when social media is the vehicle of choice.

I use social media to share information that I am passionate about to others.  I hope that people re-tweet my information so that many more people are informed about issues that are meaningful to me.

The 4 C's of Social Media are content, collaboration, community and collective intelligence (Global Voices, 2009) and I think that these are critical themes when it comes to using social media as an advocacy tool.




Reference

Mishra, G. (Global Voices).  2009, May 11.  Digital activism & the 4cs social media framework.  Retrieved from:  http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2009/05/11/digital-activism-the-4cs-social-media-framework/

Advocacy Messages

Reviewing the Ad Council's website was interesting and the public service announcement that first caught my eye was Book People Unite!  I love the video for the Book People Unite campaign.  The following is a link to the YouTube video http://youtu.be/pdpKIjpaBU8
http://www.bookpeopleunite.org/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdpKIjpaBU8&feature=player_embedded#t=0


The other campaign that I thought was very good was "The Breath Easies".  The videos as well as the pictures were very eye catching for children and families with a valuable message. 

 

 

I also think that families learning to recycle is a great way to show that you care about our planet.  I love this poster from the Ad Council on recycling.  The poster is subtle and informative.  I love it!