Time Well Spent

The three lessons I learned during the Capstone Project and this course, are:

Stay dear to issues in my heart concerning education, young children and families.  Despite opposition I know I must continue the   commitment. Completing the program at Walden is a perfect example of the need to remain committed and consistent in the fight for children and families. 

Prior to this course I knew nothing about the term community of practice; however I learned that building a community of practice is vital to any changes I desire to make, and see in the field of early education. Changes can never be made by one person alone. Truly, we need one another.

A great educator is a life- long learner.  There will always be new knowledge I need to obtain, and I will never stop seeking ways to make the lives of young children and families better.

 

One of my long term goals( hopefully in one year) is to open my own child development center, where I can, through the  knowledge I have gained from formal and informal education experiences, exercise wisdom and discernment in choosing high quality staff ,to assist me in providing quality care to children in poor communities .                                      

I cannot believe we have made it to the end! There were times during my journey at Walden, when trying to balance my personal life and produce quality coursework became almost impossible to do. I thank God for all of my instructors and their willingness to show mercy towards me, and their ability to push me and squeeze me until a spirit of excellence was manifested. I did not always like what I received from my instructors, but I am so grateful for your correction and discipline, because I have been prepared to go forth and make you proud! I would also like to say thank you to all of my colleagues. Your words of encouragement were at times the push I needed to keep going. The knowledge and expertise you shared, in the field of early education is greatly appreciated. My prayer is that each of you see your dreams and desires for young children manifest , and that we will one day meet at the white house where we will be invited to speak on behalf of young children and families all over the world !                                                                                                                         

Job/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

This week I learned that there are many international organizations committed to advocating for young children and their families. I was especially drawn to companies and agencies that promote issues on education equality. Below are three companies and a few employment opportunities I located.

Educational International

Educational International represents organizations of teachers and other education employees across the globe. They also promote the principle that quality education, funded publicly should be available to every student in every country. They believe in representing the interests of teachers and other education employees on the international level. They advocate for equity in our society.

Adding Educational International to my community of practice would give me an opportunity to draw from the experience of those (members of the organization) already fighting for the rights of young children.

I did not find any employment opportunities on their website at this time.

NAFSA: Association of International Educators

Consider themselves the leading professional association and they are committed to international education. Some of their commitments include: promote professional development of United States colleges and university officials responsible for assisting and advising the foreign students.

Current employment Opportunity: Academic Director-Chadron State College

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Managing the overall student academic experience

Manage and build high-performing instructional team

Provide professional development opportunities

Ensure the quality and integrity of the curriculum and program

Act as the contact person for outside parties

Qualifications

Master’s degree

Minimum of three years teaching adult English learners

Minimum of one year managing high performing instructional teams

Customer focused and sensitivity to other cultures

You Global

Employment Opportunity: Nursery Manager

Responsibilities for the position include:

Good curriculum and leadership practices

Abreast on relevant current pedagogical practices

Excellent communication skills

Build healthy bonds with children, families, and staff

Qualifications:

BA in early childhood

Five years of education leadership experience

Knowledgeable of modern theories of learning, development, curriculum, evaluations, planning and management   

My education and skills  in management would have to be addressed before I would quality for the positions mentioned above

National Employment Opportunities

Early Childhood Employment on a national level

This week I located jobs that I could one day see myself doing. Below is a description of each and the required qualifications.

Executive Director for the Children’s Defense Fund

The responsibilities and qualifications for this position include:

BA or higher in the field of early childhood education

Deep commitment to the issues impacting children and families

Leadership abilities

Organizational and interpersonal skills

Team player

Experience on and proven effectiveness with child advocacy

Experience working with a diverse group of people

Experiencing managing budgets

Assistant Teaching Professor/Director of the child development lab (CDL)

Responsibilities and qualifications:

Teaching one course per semester

Advising undergraduate students

Serving as a CDL director

Doctorate degree in early childhood education

NAEYC-Director of Early Childhood Education

Responsibilities and qualification

Establish and implement the vision of early childhood

Supervise 35 teachers and administrative personnel

MA in Early Childhood Education

Each of the employment opportunities I located would require that I obtain more experience in managing staff and policies in the early education field. I will also need to obtain a doctorate in early education to qualify for the position as a Assistant Professor.

 

Team Building

As an educator, I go through the adjourning stage at the end of every school year. The other staff members, while I am hugging and crying over the children, look at me like I am crazy. I even cry and snot all over the ones who gave me the biggest headache! One year, I had a teacher ask me" Are you going to miss him"?! Oh my goodness, this student gave us a run for our money, but I was able to see how much he had grown throughout the school year; and I was proud of his accomplishments. In the adjourning stage, the team( our class), celebrate the success of the project; and in this case, the academic success of the students. The group also captures best practices for the future(Learning Center, 2011, p. 1).  Because our class becomes a school family bonds are built. We all experience a sense of sadness. I am especially upset, if they are not returning  the next school year. My desire, is to keep in touch with the students and staff at Walden. Each of us bring special qualities and talents to  the team; which makes our team productive and effective. Adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork, because it represents the ending of a project;, team members are able to reflect on the successes and the weaknesses in the project ,and make appropriate changes for future purposes. Members are able to go forth and build more productive and successful teams.

 

Conflict Resolution

According to our text, " Real Communication An Introduction", " Conflict that is managed effectively is called "Productive Conflict"( O’Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). REAL COMMUNICATION AN INTRODUCTION (2ND ed.).  I am currently in a conflict with my co-teacher. Some of the strategies he uses, to change the behaviors of the class clowns, or those students who refuse to obey the class rules, are not fairly distributed. When one or more students do something inappropriately( ex. yell out or throw paper), he makes the entire class pay the price( loose recess or write). I approached him about this, and he responded by saying " I let the entire class, get mad at the people who is getting them into trouble". I do not feel like his approach is effective. The students have not stopped the negative behaviors. Using the NVC model, I have attempted to use empathetic listening as a way to open up a positive line of communication. One of NVC's concepts, is to emphasize compassion as a motivation for action rather than fear, guilt, shame and blame. We are not seeing a real change, because the teacher is not using compassion to motivate. My co-teacher and I are still in what the text describe as productive communication. We are definitely not In agreement with one another, but we are compromising. On Friday, the children were given free time in the computer lab. Prior to going to the lab, the same disruptive children began to act out. He( co-teacher) threatened the entire class. After I spoke with him, about the students who caused the confusion, he allowed all of the students except those who caused the ruckus, to proceed to the lab for free time.  

Updated Communication Strategies

This past week, I have learned so much about the communication process, and how my communication style has developed over the years. I have never thought on the significance of past experiences, and how those experiences have a direct effect on the way we see or perceive others. In our text," Real Communication An Introduction", the authors correlated our past experiences( schemas), with how we perceive others. After reading some examples( in the text), of how our thoughts about ourselves shape our opinions of others, I came to the realization that all of my interactions with others, left deposits, and with each encounter, my communication style was altered.  After evaluating myself in all three areas, I have found that I am for the most part a pretty effective communicator. My husband use to tell me; especially if he was attempting to avoid a subject," I think you enjoy hearing  yourself". The people I chose to evaluate me, were people who knew me quite well: my sister, and my friend ( over twenty year friendship). I tried my best to choose people who would be completely honest with me about me. Both people's scores, fell almost in the exact range as mine. They both felt I am a person who tries very hard to positively communicate. I do not believe in attacking others in order to prove my point of view. I was a little surprised to see that on the verbal communication section, I have the tendency, if a person is acting foolishly, to be a little aggressive in my attempt to change their behavior. Professionally, I am able to suppress behaviors that may come off as intimidating; but people I am very close too, may get to see a different side of me. Because I understand, that when I interact with others, I am using my schemas to evaluate the people I'm communicating with, they( people ) too are evaluating me based on their schemas; it is important that we as educators fight hard, to eliminate schemas that may hinder fair evaluations of others  

 

Communication Strategies

This week, I learned my impression of myself, verses others impressions of me, are not that different; however some of the results of the communication assessments, were quite surprising and disturbing. Based on the answers of my self assessment, and the assessments others took on me, I have the ability to be verbally aggressive,  if I feel like I am not being heard or respected. I specifically remember answering no to questions insinuating my potential to be a verbally aggressive person. I learned that my past experiences has shaped my self-concept and my views of others.