My favorite quote is:
"It takes a village to raise a child" This is so true, no matter how you look at it, you really need the support of family and friends to help nurture and bring up your child in the way that they should go.

I have truly enjoyed this journey and would love to hear from anyone,. Please reach out at any time : My e-mail address is www.kerebaenglish@yahoo.com.

Time Well Spent

 

 

This has been an amazing journey with a bitter sweet ending! There have been many days that I wanted to give up but I knew that my mission was too important to quit. I am dedicated to making a difference even if it is a small difference I want to make some difference in the lives of children and their families.

            I had many deeply felt learning experiences from this journey but if I had to narrow it down and only select three deeply felt learning experiences I would say:

1.)    I have learned that you must lean on your community of practice and do not think that you can make all the difference alone. You need the support, expertise, knowledge of others to help you along the way. Many times things can get overwhelming but you must take a step back and allow your support system to step up and give you the support and guidance that you need. It takes a village to raise a child and you cannot make it alone.

2.)    I have discovered how important it is to build a comfortable trusting relationship with the parents and families of the children. The families need our help and support as much as the children in many cases. We can never help make a difference in the lives of the children if we cannot reach out to and give the proper guidance to the child’s caretaker. I have tried so many times to ignore this fact but it never works. You must build a satisfying relationship with the families and it really does make a true difference.

3.)    Building a high quality learning environment is so important. I feel that if you do not build your learning environment on quality you need not build an early learning environment at all. I have made a true conscious effort to educate every parent that I encounter how to recognize a high quality learning environment. It is so important for them to understand what high quality means and why this should be important to them. After this is brought up and explained to the parents they love the knowledge and they can understand what their child needs and how they can give it to them.

Narrowing down my goals and selecting one long-term goal I would have to say that would be to really start my own literacy program for adults and children. I think literacy is one of the most important areas of life and yet we have many people that are coming out of school and still not conquering this skill. I would want to start my own literacy program within the city of Philadelphia that can help the children to have a great time while learning to read. I want to give the children something to be proud.

I would like to end this journey by saying Thank You to everyone that has come this far also. I have learned so much from every friend at Walden. I could not have done it without the great insight and information from every person I have come across. My instructors have made my journey enriching, informative, insightful and better than I could have ever imagined. I really feel that I can go out into the world of early learning and find my way with ease. Thanks again to everyone and I wish you all the best!

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

A job opportunity for OMEP is Director of the Consultative Group on Early Childhood Care and Development, the person that would take on this job role would need to work on a global developmental agenda. They would need to assist with implementing fair rights in the early childhood field. They would also need to work on reports and resolutions and new monitoring tools to help support state legislation on EC reporting.

Jobs/Role in the ECE Community:Internationally

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

There are many organizations that we can give insight on as early childhood professionals, but when you want to look at it from a international perspective you options get a little slimmer and your information get broader.

Worldomep- this is the first international organization that I chose to reflect on and give more information in detail. This is a non-governmental and non-profit organization with Consultative Status at the United Nations and UNESCO. OMEP was founded in 1948 and they promote the rights of children’s education in the world of early learning. (OMEP, 2013) The main objective of OMEP was to bring people together from all over the world with the idea in mind to share information and initiate action to benefit children from all over the world. (OMEP, 2013) Employment Opportunity were hard to come across on this site,

ACEI- The next organization I chose to elaborate on is Association for Childhood Education International. This organization has a mission to promote and support the optimal education, development, and well-being of children worldwide. ACEI wants to share various approaches to learning and wants to ensure that they are delivered to enhance the skills and abilities of children worldwide. (ACEI, 2011) ACEI wants to assure that every child in the nation has the opportunity to receive quality education that will prepare children to responsible and engaged citizens. (ACEI, 2011) An employment opportunity that was available was work with administration to gather accurate information. The skills needed for this job would be to organize well and accurately. You would need to be able to pinpoint mistakes and gather useful findings, You would need to be able to work under pressure.

The International Reading Association Preschool Literacy Collection- This organization is a global advocacy organization that is passionate about spreading the lessons of literacy. They conduct research and translate their findings into useful resources for educators, students and those involved with spreading literacy across the world. They understand that literacy changes people’s lives and it helps people to reach their full potential. “Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, compute, and communicate using visual, audible, and digital materials across disciplines and in any context. (ILA, 2015) There is an employment opportunity to teach children how to closely read text, so reading and comprehensive building. You would need to have a great ability to focus and have patience to work with adults that may not be able to comprehend as well.

 

Resources:

OMEP,(2013) Retrieved from : http://www.worldomep.org/en/page/2/

ACEI (Association for Childhood Education International), 2011, Retrieved from: http://acei.org/about-us/about-us.html

International Literacy Association, (2015) Retrieved from: http://www.literacyworldwide.org/why-literacy

 

 

 

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

The first organization that I chose is NAEYC (National Association of the Education of Young Children). I am currently a member of this organization and attended the National Conference 4 years ago in Orlando Florida. It was then that I realized that this organization was a big part of the field of early learning. Their mission or main focus is to promote the highest level of quality learning for young children from birth -8 years of age. Their focus is to “connect early childhood practice, policy, and research.”

The second organization I chose was CDA council and this organization was something that stuck out to me when I first got involved in the field and I contemplated should I go to get the credential to give me more insight. I have recently signed up to become  a CDA PD Specialist, this means that I will bring in my mentoring skills and all Child Development knowledge to assess the candidates skills and I will assist the candidate to complete their self-reflection assessment. The CDA council promotes improved performance to the professionals in the field of ECE.

The final organization I chose is NHSA (National Head Start Association). This organization is committed to giving every child the chance to succeed in school regardless of their circumstance, social class or family background. Many successful adults can think back and remember head start being the place that they developed the foundation and passion for learning.

The first organization NAEYC has a position for Reliability Manager and this position calls for someone to support those in the accreditation process which is voluntary to improve the quality of care that is provided.

 The second organization CDA council has already approved me to qualify to become a CDA PD Specialist contingent upon me passing the test that is required. I think this position held my attention because I love to help someone that wants to help themselves become more marketable in the field.

The final organization has a position for a Family Developer Specialist and I think this job would be ideal for me because it can help me to build up the family character of families in need. With assistance this position can help families to build a bond and reconnect in some way.

Skills needed for the mentioned positions above is patients and the ability to work with others. You should know how to effectively communicate and display leadership skills. Show passion and the desire to help those in need.

References:

National Association for the Education of Young Children: (2015) Retrieved from: http://www.naeyc.org/

Council for Professional Recognition: (2015) Retrieved from: http://www.cdacouncil.org/

 National Head Start Association (2015) Retrieved from: https://www.nhsa.org/

 

One organization that I have always been interested in working for is DVAEYC (Delaware Valley Association for the Education of Young Children) this is a local organization in the Delaware Valley that is connected to the national organization NAEYC. DVAEYC is devoted to ensure that children are getting high quality early learning experiences by providing training to the educators and helping local programs with best practice techniques.

The second Organization that I chose is Keystone STARS, this is also a local affiliate in the Delaware Valley particularly in the Philadelphia region. This organization is improving the quality of early care also through four areas of interest:

·         Standards

·         Training/Professional Development

·         Assistance

·         Resources

·         Support

This program was created through the Office of Child Development and Early Learning and the work to enhance and give recognition to programs that are providing higher quality care and they offer incentive to continue to improve the quality of services provided to children and families.

The last program I decided to reflect on is the CDA council for Professional recognition. This organization also provides services along the lines of Professional Development and assistance with helping providers obtain their CDA. The CDA promotes improved performance, this national credentialing helps to meet the need of  young children by supporting their educational needs through professional development and trainings on child development.

I was able to find one job of interest in each organization:

1.)    In DVAEYC I found a job opportunity as a Quality Improvement Specialist and this job stays within the lines of my passion and that is to assist in ways to help maintain and increase the quality of programs within city limits.

2.)    I found a job opportunity with Keystone STARS as a STAR Specialist and this position works closely with teachers and providers to help them improve their quality by engaging them in Continuous Quality Improvement project. You would work side by side with providers to help them implement appropriate plans to achieve the goals of the Keystone Stars so they can move up the STAR ladder to achieve and maintain the highest STAR level of a STAR 4.

3.)    The final job opportunity I found was with the CDA council as a CDA PD Specialist. This opportunity brings mentoring skills and knowledge of ECE to assist and assess the candidate competencies in the ECE area of knowledge. They are their to assist and complete the process of CDA designation and I think this is wonderful to help a provider achieve this goal.

 

I found this assignment very interesting and I enjoyed learning and narrowing down my interest in the field. I see now that I want to fulfill the mission of continued quality assurance and I want to help programs fulfill the mission of achieving and maintaining highest quality care.

 

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Week 2 Assignment