Thinking about going back to school!!

Well I have been out of school since the end of October when I completed my Master's and have decided I have to much time on my hands!! So-I am thinking about going back and getting something that will give me more background for curriculum and teaching online so I can help others. What does everyone thing? Good move or crazy?? I welcome all thoughts from my peers, friends and family.
Hope everyone is having a great Christmas season
Best to all

http://www.wordle.net/delete?index=7213408&d=KJGN


Just an after thought for my final farewell to my dedicated colleagues

Final Farewell !

Blog Assignment: Time Well Spent

At least three deeply felt learning’s from this program

 

This has been a long journey for me that started more years ago than I can count (took time off to raise my children, get my daughter through college and we both graduated the first time together, me with my Associate Degree and here with her Bachelor’s, watched my son go to war and come back and finally get back to college myself). Without the support of my family I’m sure I would never have finished-but they kept me grounded and made sure I never gave up! So here we are at the end of a chapter of my life and I can truly say I am ready to take on the goals I have set and will tackle whatever comes my way. The things I have learned from working with Walden University and all the great professors and colleagues throughout my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees have really added up, but the most deeply felt would have to be the knowledge passed to me from others in my field. I have learned that I must keep discovering new knowledge in my professional life because everyday something changes. I also learned that everyone needs a solid support team to help them succeed because just like children we also need praise/recognition in order to validate what we do! Having people around you that have similar goals for helping children and families is a great way to make things happen and over the course of my time at Walden I have learned that we are a large group that can make a difference.

 

At least one long-term goal

 

 

 

The long term goal that I have is to change how families obtain services in my area when it comes to finding care for children and having resources available for my families to use and have people available that can speak many languages to help every family. My area is very diverse and transient so I need to make sure everyone is welcome and that I can help them no matter what they need. I would like to branch out on a larger scale within the next five years to include the east coast area and I feel this is possible with the right people on my team.

 

A farewell message to your Instructor and colleagues

 

I would like to say thank you to all the wonderful professors and colleagues I have worked with during my time at Walden University. I can truly say we did this together-we made it to the end and are better teachers, professionals, parents, friends, and advocates for all we have put into our learning experience. For this last and class I would like to say a big thank you to my colleagues for reading my posts and sharing feedback that helped me to grow. To Dr. Teri, I would like to extend a BIG Thank you for helping me to grow in my research methods, APA skills and really learning how to take your feedback and put it into an exciting project that I hope to see to fruition in the near future. I will keep everyone posted here as to how it is going. Best of luck to everyone and I hope we can stay in touch. I would love to get together at some point and really get to know everyone. I will not be at graduation this time as I went for my Bachelor’s and there is no way I can go again-so here’s to seeing you in the future!!! Love to all!!

Do not hesitate to get in touch in your in the D.C. Area-would love to network together!

                

Week 6 EDUC-6990

Blog Week 6:

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

This week our job was to research International organizations that work with Early Childhood Issues and there are many excellent organizations that do hard work to help children around the world and it would be a pleasure to work for any of them-but the ones I chose to look at are listed here.<p>

1)      United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)<p>

2)      United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)<p>

3)      Save the Children<p>

The first organization I liked and would enjoy being a part of is the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) because they are a strong force in the field of Education and issues related to young children around the world. Their mission is to protect children everywhere and in all ways to include, education, health, safety and many other layers of basic needs for children. Children not treated equally in many countries and UNICEF works to change this obstacle. An individual can have a major impact on children’s lives by being a part of this organization. There were many jobs listed, but the only one I have most of the qualifications for is the child protection specialist, they have this job listed for various locations and the requirements would be “responsible for the development, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the Child Protection programme within the country programme (UNICEF, 2013). This would be a fulfilling job by helping children that need more resources and support for their survival. <p>

The second organization I looked into is Save the Children because they stand for making changes in children’s lives that will last. They are a leading force in their commitment to change for children and their families around the world. Save the Children does not care what your gender, religion or any factor is-they will help. This organization helps with food, medicine, and education. Save the Children will go help with natural disaster or manmade disaster to help children work through their daily struggles (Save the Children, 2013). The job that I found interesting here was a Specialist, Early Childhood Development, the requirements for this are to have a Master’s degree, on the job experience, working as part of a team, and knowing another language (this is the only part I would need to work on). I have worked in foreign countries before so I know firsthand how vital it is to understand the differences that come with interacting with another culture. So at this time I would not be able to carry out this job I will keep it in mind for future reference. <p>

The last organization I explored is World Vision (2013) they are a humanitarian organization that has built their mission on helping children and families around the world. They work to stop poverty, injustice, and to make lives better for those that are living in poor conditions everywhere. World Vision can be found anywhere there is a crisis and they are advocates for all those in need no matter their race, gender, religion, and ethnicity (World Vision, 2013). I would gladly work with this organization because I am trying to really advocate for those that need someone to speak for them and they have jobs listed that looked interesting to me, but the one I found most intriguing was for a Grant Officer-All Children Reading (World Vision, 2013), it calls for a person that is able to lead assigned grant funded projects, oversee the implementation process of grants and provide reporting on financial compliance and outcomes for children served (World Vision, 2013). I done some work with administration, but would need more education or job experience when it comes to the part of grants. I am willing to explore this job more to advance my knowledge and help more families worldwide. <p>

 

References

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2011, from http://www.unicef.org/

Save the Children. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.8D6E/Official_Site.htm

World Vision (2013) Retrieved from http://www.worldvision.org/

 

 

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

The Office for Child Care

 

The organizations that I would like to be part of in the future are: 1) The Office for Child Care, I chose them because they have goals that are similar to mine for children and families in my community and beyond. The office for child care supports low income working families by helping them with financial issues and promotes children’s learning by making centers raise their quality for all children. By helping families with the expense of child care parents are able to obtain better jobs and move forward in their lives which helps them leave the low income bracket behind.

No vacancies found at this time.

To work within the Office for Child Care I would need to have excellent communication skills, the ability to work with a group of peers and be knowledgeable about the various diverse backgrounds of families in need. Having my Master’s degree is a plus, but I will need further experience with my communication skills.

National Education Association

The second organization I am interested in pursuing is the National Education Association. They are the nation's largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA's 3 million members work at every level of education—from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliate organizations in every state and in more than 14,000 communities across the United States. I am interested I them because they have so much influence in what happens with children and education. I did not find any jobs in my area that I could do at this time; I will need more experience with running a center or other organization.

Children’s Defense Fund

My last place of interest is the Children’s Defense Fund because they are after the same things I am when it comes to children living in circumstances that they cannot control. Their goal is to make things better by improving programs for children and making policies that truly help the families that are often overlooked. The Children’s Defense Fund works to help all children regardless of their race, income, or where they come from. I would like to work for them as an advocate and by working with children that are under privileged. The skills I would need for a job with this organization are to be able to run meetings, communicate with government officials and have a better understanding of computer skills. At this time I did not find any jobs that I am qualified for-but hope to change that as I continue working on my professional skills after finishing my degree.

 

The National Association For the Education of Young Children

The National Association for the Education of Young Children is an organization that I have belonged to for many years and have always wanted to be a part of by working with the accreditation team. By working with them I can help build more quality programs for children everywhere. I would like to work with them after graduating and at this time I have the skills to carry through on this goal. This organization is what it means to help families and children be successful in the early years because of the quality of centers that are required to be part of the organization.

I did not find a job listing, but I would like to be part of this group in more than volunteering for conferences and activities that I do right now. I have helped in previous years for my local chapter and plan on talking with the representatives they will have at the conference this year. I believe I have all the requirements to work for them at this time, but am willing to do whatever training I might need.

 

 

Week 2 Post

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

I am interested in this agency because they will be able to help me contact more people that can help me with my goal of helping families in the low-income bracket. They have a wide range of agencies that focus on different areas of need. The social services department works to make every family and individual gain independence from any problem that could happen. This agency does not cost anything for families which makes it appealing to everyone. There are no jobs available at this time in this local area.

Even though there are no current jobs I think I would be a good fit for this agency because of my training and diverse background from living in many places. I could see myself working in the areas of teaching parents about how to get involved with the schools and other groups in their community. Sharing resources with families would be a great way to expand my knowledge and help the families at the same time. Skills I will need to continue improving will be speaking in a group and writing proposals.

Virginia Department of Social Services, www.dss.virginia.gov

Another great agency is the National Association for the Education of young Children (NAEYC), I have belonged to this for many years and it helps me to gain new information from their site by listing new information that is important to the field of early childhood. It has helped me connect to professionals across the United States during conferences and online interactions. They now offer learning opportunities online that are focused on areas that change often. Job opportunities (both paid and unpaid) are available at most times.

National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) http://www.naeyc.org

This agency is great because they work with the problem that I am interested in pursuing during this class and beyond. This Office of Child Care (OCC) supports low-income working families by providing access to affordable, high-quality early care and afterschool programs. OCC administers the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) and works with state, territory and tribal governments to provide support for children and their families juggling work schedules and struggling to find child care programs that will fit their needs and that will prepare children to succeed in school. Even though they work toward helping families in the low-income bracket more help is needed and I hope to be part of their team. I have contacted them already and look forward to starting a new phase of my career, adding it to my full time job at the center I currently work at. I would be doing volunteer work to start and continue learning new ways to help in my community.

Office of Child Care, www.acf.hhs.gov

All of these agencies and many more are available to me and I plan on looking into more as time goes on so that I will have more CoP’s for resources.

Reflecting on Learning

 

Over all my years working with children and their families around the world, it is my deepest hope to be able to work on a level of advocating that will get me involved with international help for those I work to understand and protect. I have worked briefly with NAEYC at the local level to help with workshops for both families and professionals just like me. I would like to not only be a full time advocate working for NAEYC or another organization that works with families around the world. I would like to get back into traveling in order to help be part of the foundation of new organizations that work with children that are not given the opportunity to go to school because of situations beyond their control. For the time being I will work within my community to gain more knowledge of how to complete my goals and continue working with child services organizations to build my professional resources that I will need later.

I would like to thank all my classmates for their continued support and help during class and all the great ideas and insights given. I hope we can continue to keep in touch after we graduate and it would be awesome to be part of a group advocating for our families and children. We have one more class and we are done with this part and on to really putting our new knowledge to the test of what we learned-we will be a force to be reckoned with in society!!!! Best to everyone and hope to see you at graduation.