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!

 





My Own Capacity

This issues that fuel my passion are ensuring that ALL children have access to high quality early childhood programs.  In order to accomplish the goal of ALL children having access to high quality care it is critical that we first ensure that we have an educated workforce that will implement curriculum to meet the needs of the children attending.  Many states have developed Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) and the primary goal of a QRIS is to improve overall quality for children and families.

The special skills that I have to contribute to the advocacy work regarding improvement of high quality early childhood is my knowledge and work experience.  I have worked directly with children living on both ends of the spectrum from poverty to extreme wealth.  I have been a child care licensing worker.  Over the last 14 years I have been working with our states Professional Development system.  I oversee the workforce data collection, environment rating evaluations, and professional development opportunities.  My past experiences coupled with my current access to data places me in a prime position to be an effective early childhood advocate.

The resources I have to benefit my advocacy work first and foremost is the access to workforce, program evaluation data and training data.  Our state registry includes over 10,000 early childhood professionals and we have another 5,500 people with training data.  This data is the key to making effective policy decisions about improving the education levels of the workforce because it will inform the state with the education information of the people working daily with children and families.  If that data paints a picture that the majority of children in Oklahoma are being taught by people with high school diploma as the highest level education attained then that would inform policy that we do not have an adequate amount of credentialed or associate degree level teachers.  This could potentially lead the state to increase funds into scholarships to help address the issue of an undereducated workforce.  Using the data to improve the overall quality will benefit the children receiving subsidy, but it ultimately benefits ALL children because the policy decisions would be to increase the education levels of the teachers of young children.

This course has helped me to grow by gathering more information and how to better research issues.  Improving my researching skills and learning how to utilize the information learned to evoke change is what I am hoping for from this degree program.  I have been an active early childhood advocate for many years, but I want to become a great early childhood advocate.  I want to become more like my mentor Adele Robinson.  She has a plethora of knowledge that she can readily recall off the top of her head and that comes from continuous researching of topics and learning the best way to share the message.  I think learning how to craft effective messages is also a place that I personally need to grow. 

My Role as an Advocate

My time serving on the Early Childhood Association of Oklahoma (ECAO) board, Oklahoma's National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) was when I first began to learn the value of advocacy and I attended the NAEYC Public Policy Institute that is when I became motivated to advocate for very young children.

It is critical when conducting advocacy efforts to get people involved at both the grassroots level and the greater area because you serve different purposes in the effort.  The people at the grassroots level serve to get people excited and they are equipped to tell their story with passion.  At the macro level you have people that are keeping the grassroots level people informed with action alerts and details of the movement.

Anyone can be a community leader on early childhood issues if you take the time to become educated about the issues.  In our reading this week a lawyer became an early childhood advocate.  My advocacy mentor Adele Robinson is a lawyer, but now serves full time as a public policy expert for NAEYC.

The key to be a state leader on early childhood issues is knowledge and information.  The information is available, but sometimes not readily available so you have to be willing to do research, understand the landscape of your state, understand the political will and if you do these things you will become a state leader in early childhood issues.

Action alerts and information about the legislative process are strategies that every effective early childhood advocate implement to stay abreast of the hot issues.  Tracking and timing are critical because you have to act when the time is right to help secure the votes or inform the public of the need to contact before the vote.

The best way to become a state advocacy leader is to join up with an active association so that you have support and can use the organization to grow as an advocate into a leadership role.  For example, in Oklahoma joining ECAO, Oklahoma Institute for Child Advocacy (OICA), Smart Start Oklahoma, or Oklahoma Child Care Resource and Referral Association are all organizations that are active in advocacy efforts at the state and federal level.  There are many ways of developing leadership within these organizations to become know as a state early childhood advocate.

Personal Advocacy Reflection

I believe that for me personally the event that impacted me to want to learn to become an effective early childhood advocate was when I attended my first National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Policy Institute.  The first time going to the Hill to talk with Senator's and Representatives filled me with pride that maybe something I said might make a difference for the children and families back in Oklahoma.  Listening to the speakers provide us the messages for the Hill and learning from Adele Robinson made me want to become the public policy junky I am today.  I follow many different list serves and get Call to Action emails from several advocacy groups. 

Adele Robinson has written the book Advocates in Action and has written many tools for early childhood advocates.  She is my mentor in advocacy and I aspire to be more like her.  She amazes me with her knowledge.  She truly knows every Senator and Representative by name and their typical voting patterns.  When she would do a quick debrief with us prior to attending the Hill she would be able to give every state a short bit of information that would benefit them in delivering their message.

I teach an advocacy training in Oklahoma for directors and much of the material used in my presentation comes from things I learned from Adele.  I am proud to call her my friend and colleague and hope to continue to learn from her.

EDUC 6766 Week 1 Blog Post

I am excited to begin this class and learn more about how to be an effective early childhood advocate.  I have been waiting for the specialization classes of this program since I started and it is amazing that I am just two classes away from the end.  As I reflected on our last class I began to think about the possibility to beginning an doctoral program and it becoming more and more of a desire.  My passion has always been to be an effective early childhood advocate that creates policy that improves the quality of care for all children.  I look forward to learning with this great group of colleagues over the next eight weeks and then into our final capstone course.  I have learned so much for you all in the last course and I am looking forward to learning from you and with you in this course.

 The title of my blog is ECE Public Policy Fanatic so being able to put this new acquired knowledge into action is both exciting and a self-filling prophecy.  My desire is to truly be known as an effective ECE Public Policy expert.

When I Reflect About My Collegial, Professional Learning

When I made the decision to do an on-line Master's program I was a bit skeptical about the depth of learning that I would be able to grasp.  I have been amazed over and over again throughout this program.  My classmates have been extremely supportive and I have learned so much from them I will forever be indebted to each of you for forcing me to grow as a professional.  So the first consequence of my experience is being amazed at the depth of learning I have experienced.  The second consequence is that it has caused me to think consider the possibility of continuing down my educational journey and seeking doctoral degree.  I really never had considered it until now.  I have grown to love the interactions between classmates and look forward to hearing the various perspectives on similar topics.  The third consequence is the transformation within myself regarding my comfort level in advocating for comprehensive early childhood system.  I felt coming into this class that I had a foundational knowledge, but I feel fully equipped to go to Capital Hill and testify about the importance of comprehensive early childhood systems. 

 

 

My goal is connected to my last consequence because my goal is to go to Washington, DC and testify in some type of hearing on child care issues about the importance of comprehensive early childhood systems for ALL children.  This program is equipping me to meet my ultimate of goal of possibly getting a change to work in DC as an early childhood public policy specialist.

 

 

I want to thank all of my classmates for your part in my education journey and thank you so much for pushing to think about things differently.  The experience has been priceless!!

 

Thanks!

 

Jill

My Hypothetical Family Situtation

I have been married for four years and my husband is currently a full time student in college.  I work at the local Head Start agency.  We have two children.  Our youngest child has had severe ear infections that have caused deafness and speech problems.  Our socioeconomic status is well below the poverty line.  We receive food assistance from the Women, Infant and Child (WIC) food program; medicaid for health services, but we do not qualify for food stamps because my grandfather helped us to finance a new car so that we would have reliable transportation.  Our oldest daughter just started at the Head Start where I work since she has finally turned 3.  Our family situation has been impacted most due to the political contexts in Oklahoma around government funding.  English is our first language.  Our youngest deaf child has been in a variety of programs that are not equipped to meet her needs and they lack in overall quality as well.  Since we receive child care subsidy to assist with our child care bill our choices of quality care are limited especially since we are needing more specialized care for our daughter.

Due to the fact that we receive government support for our health needs the primary need we have currently is a comprehensive program that focuses on early learning and development for child with special needs. 

What are my gaps?

Does this situation seem realistic?

What help do you have for me?

The Political Will to Improve Early Childhood Systems

Child Care Aware of America is advocating for increased pre-service training for child care providers.  They are working closely with the Child Care Bureau on this issue.  It also helps move the agenda because the current Bureau Chief is the former Executive Director of National Association of Resource and Referral Agencies, which is now known as Child Care Aware of America.  Linda Smith has dedicated her life to improve the conditions of programs for young children.  Increased pre-service training will equip teachers better before they go into classrooms with young children.

National Association for the Education of Young Children along with several other agencies are all working toward getting the Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) reauthorized.  The reauthorization is a strategy to increase the quality of care for ALL children even though CCDF has a primary focus around the increased quality for children receiving child care subsidy.

Both of these strategies are seeking the same end goal of increased quality for ALL children.  Everything surrounding this work appeals to me because this is the type of work I do everyday.  I work at the Center for Early Childhood Professional Development and we operate our states professional development system so it is personal to my work, but also important to me because I feel passionately about the importance of this work.  The prevalence of low-quality care and the link between quality and child outcomes have spawned a movement to improve program quality in the United States and have prompted calls for consumer advocacy and education on this issue (Wesley & Buysse, 2010).  This is the very reason I feel that Walden University has a specialization in Public Policy and Advocacy in Early Childhood.  This is a very political and hot topic in early childhood and is only going to continue to grow.


Reference

Wesley, P. W. & Buysse, V.  (2010).  The quest for quality promising innovations for early childhood programs.  Paul H Brookes Publishing.  Baltimore, MD.

Parent, Family and Community Engagement

Listening to the Head Start parent stories reminded me of my own Head Start parent story.  I first started working in Head Start then I was able to take my child to the local Head Start when she was three years old.  I was able to attend the Parent Policy Conference and it was a great experience to see the impact Head Start has on parents across the nation.  These stories provided that same opportunity.  When Head Start first began part of the mission was to hire and train great parent volunteers.  When they began the increased education levels for teachers some of that focus shifted, but the mission still remains to build strong families. 

I was a bit of skeptic when I first started working for Head Start and the value of home visit, until I went on a home visit where the family really was in need of many essential items to operate a home.  They did not have plates or silverware at the home so they were eating off of paper towel and if we had never gone on the home visit this is a need we were able to assist with, but might have never know about without the home visit. 

It is critical for policymakers and government officials to hear the parents stories because they can share with such passion that it makes a difference.  One of the first things any good advocate learns is to develop your own story that provides perspective, meaning and passion.  Yes, statistics and data are important, but to share a real life story with passion means so much more and can provide greater impact.

I think parent involvement is important for all strand of Head Start because the families of low income children are worried about standards and if their child will be ready for school.  They especially worry about funding because that will impact their ability to send their child to this great comprehensive program.  Parents can benefit by the professional development provided to the Head Start teachers because in some cases they can attend the training with the teachers as a volunteer or they will benefit through the strategies the teachers learn and will share with parents at meetings.  One of the ladies talked about the family advocate encouraging her to join the policy council so that is how parent involvement is impacted through the technical assistance.  Parent involvement is critical for the programs to successfully meet their goals on the monitoring visits by the federal government.  They interview parents so without high quality parent involvement the Head Start program will not be able to continue with funding.  There have been many parent involvement research studies and the impact is has on the child's learning as well as the home life of the family unit.  Lastly, without high quality parent and family involvement Head Start is not set apart from a typical child care program.

These stories were inspiring, eye-opening and provided critical insight to the value of Head Start for these families and the families like them that did not share their own story.

Quality Programs for ALL Children

The current opinion in the United States about quality services for young children and families is that they think it is a great idea to have high quality early childhood programs, but they cannot afford the cost of high quality care.  Everyone wants the highest quality of care, but the reality is that they cannot always choose the best quality because of the weekly cost.  Additionally, finding high quality child care is not an easy task because of limited space especially for infant care.  One of the concerns with the sociocultural context is that high quality care and education services can be accessible and affordable to all families, regardless of their economic status (Laureate, Inc., 2011).  I also think the political will in the current time is that government should stay out of the way and due to the high cost of quality care society needs to realize that this is an investment in the future of our country not just another government program.

I hope that the public opinion about the need for high quality early childhood continues to improve because I do think that early childhood is getting the spotlight currently.  The more exposure that early childhood get the more we need to have good advocacy efforts in place because we want to be the experts that the policy makers contact as the write the new polices.  I think currently with the proposed reauthorization of the Child Care Development Block Grant (CCDBG) they are including early childhood systems work and how that is connected to high quality child care programs.  I also think that the next 5 years could be powerful for early childhood because we are a priority for the Obama Administration, which will get us through the next four years.  Additionally, in the last few weeks former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton launched a her vision for early childhood and there is much speculation that she may be making a run for the White House and she would continue the path to increased funds for early childhood.

In the future I imagine an early childhood system that provides high quality child care programs accessible for all children regards of socio-economic status, with a highly trained workforce, receiving compensation commiserate with their education and experience.  This is the dream of every early childhood advocate and it is our responsibility to provide the data to the policymakers so that they create the policies that will assist our dream for American to become the reality for America.  If this dream were a reality every child would attend high quality programs, be ready to learn when they get to public school, families would be supported through these high quality programs and the field would be able to retain the employees.

 

Reference

Laureate, 2011, Historical Overview of Early Childhood Systems, http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6765/02/mm/historical_overview/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What Resonates with you about Early Childhood Public Policy and Advocacy?

Part 1:

I chose the Early Childhood Public Policy and Advocacy specialization because I believe that early childhood is an extremely political field.  When I first selected early childhood as my career I was unaware of that it was such a political field.  All the way back to high school I had aspirations of working in Washington, DC as a Senator or Representative.  I have always gravitated towards politics so it just made sense when I realize that early childhood was so political that I became very engaged in that side of early childhood.  I have served as the Early Childhood Association of Oklahoma, Oklahoma affiliate for National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) as the public policy chairperson for many years.  During the time I served in that role I began attending the NAEYC Policy Institute typically in March of every year.  It was during that time I began to mold my statement of how quality early childhood programs are needed for all children and families.  Additionally, when we have high quality programs children, families and society all benefit and it makes good economic sense to invest in the early years.

Part 2:

The reason it is essential that early childhood professional become advocates is simply because this is a polictial field if we do not inform policymakers someone else will and they might not share the message that we know is best for children and families.  We have the knowledge of the importance of high quality early childhood education and we need to use that knowledge to assist policymakers so that children come first.  The reason we need to be skilled and confident is because we have to be able to stay on track often when speaking with policymakers they work to move you toward their agenda and away from you own so you have be confident enough to keep bringing the topic back to the agenda best for children and families.

Part 3:

The three goals that I hope to gain is as follows:  First, I want to become more skilled at how to analyze data and write briefs that will impact policy.  Second, I want to become more skilled at synthesizing information that shows the impact of early childhood systems.  Lastly, I want to become more skilled at evaluating components of an early childhood system.

Saying Goodbye!!

This journey started over a year ago and it has been very inspiring, challenging, and has caused me to grow in ways I never knew possible.  I was very scared of beginning this journey in an online graduate program, but I am very glad that I started because of the colleagues that I have gained over the past year.  It seems kind of bittersweet to be saying goodbye as we move to our specializations.  I will miss you all and I wish you all the very best as you continue your journey of life long learning.  If you want to stay in contact you can email me at soto.jill@gmail.com.  I hope to stay in contact. 

Good luck and best wishes to you all!!!  Thank you for being there for me over the past year!

Jill

Adjourning

As I was thinking about the last stage of groups I realized that I have rarely gone through all the stages of team development.  There have not been many times that I have experienced adjourning.  The time that comes to mind for me was when I completed my term as President for the Early Childhood Association of Oklahoma and I was leaving the board.  The hardest part of saying good bye was not working with the people that I became close friends with during my time on the board.  Everyone always says they will stay in touch, but the reality is that people get busy and they loose touch.  I am currently the Past-President of the National Registry Alliance and my term will end at the end of September.  I am really struggling with this adjourning because I have been on the board since the organization was founded and have put a lot of energy into this organization so it will be difficult not to be an active part of this board.  I have deep connections with the mission, vision and goals of the organization so saying good bye is going to be difficult for me.  Additionally, I have made life long friends across the United States being a part of this group.  Last year at the annual conference I was able to make my closing remarks as President and they gave me a parting gift so I was able to have some closure. 

The next part of the question about how to say good bye to my colleagues I have formed while working on my master's degree.  It is going to be different because there are some people that I have had in all my classes up to this point in time.  I know that we are saying good bye in the class because we will be separating out into our different specialities so that is going to be different.  There are some classmates that I know will always comment on my posts and we have been there for each other through all of the classes.

I think adjourning is a critical part of the teamwork and I am sad that I have not had many situations to be on teams that successfully moved through all the stages of development.

Effective Communication

The conflict I had was at work with a co-worker that I have been friends with for a long time.  I am her supervisor and she was having issues with the fact that she felt that I was taking over some of her responsibility while out of the office attending her internship for her Master's degree.  There were lots of misunderstandings in this scenario, but the strategies that I chose to use were the 3R's and cooperative strategies because of our relationship we had the respect, but it was compromised due to the above mentioned conflict.

The two strategies that I integrated into my toolkit of effective communication is first keeping the 3R's respect, reciprocal, and responsive at the for front of all communications with others.  By utilizing the 3R's it will assist me in ensuring that I look at each person as an individual and avoiding stereotypes.  The other strategy is cooperative strategies.  Strategies that benefit the relationship, serve mutual rather than individual goals, and strive to produce solutions that benefit both parties are called cooperative strategies (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012).  These two strategies couple together again ensure that you are focusing on having a supportive climate for communication.  I was sitting in an ethic training session today and we talked about the importance of effective communication and focusing on the individuals needs and seeking common goals. 

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