Congratulations!

My hope for everyone is to remember your true passion for the early childhood field. The first essential learning from the program at Walden is that no matter what we are doing it is all about building relationships and collaborating with others. Whether we are teaching children, or working with families, or leading a team it requires trust, commitment, empathy, strong communication, and passion. My second learning lesson is how important an anti-bias approach to teaching young children is for all children and how important it is for us to identify our personal biases and be aware of any hidden messages we may be sending to others. The third lesson that I learned is how critical the first three years of life are in a person’s life, especially in terms of epigenetics and early brain development.

Sometimes I feel that my dreams are so ingrained and subconscious that I do not know what they are until I reach them. I don’t know exactly where I will be in 15 years, but I know what is important to me and what I am working for. I have a passion for children and I want every caregiver to understand the importance of the early years on a child’s life. Through this course I have learned the importance of being a child advocate and getting involved in the community. My current goal is to stay involved with community groups that are passionate about helping children and families and see where it takes me!

Thank you all so much for inspiring and motivating me over the course of this program. If it weren’t for all the blogs and discussion posts I may have missed a few assignments honestly. But knowing that others were counting on me and working just as hard as me kept me motivated. You should all feel incredible right now because you are all inspiring to me. 

Dr. E,

Thank you for all your support and encouragement throughout this course. You made a difficult task seem manageable and worth it! You have been inspiring and motivating. You pushed me to find my way by asking the right questions.

Sincerely, Mary

International Organizations

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)

UNICEF's mission is to help every child in the world have a healthy life with their needs being met. They work to ensure "all children have a right to survive, thrive and fulfill their potential - to the benefit of a better world" (UNICEF, n.d.). UNICEF works to provide children in need with food, shelter, healthcare, and protect children from war and other harm (UNICEF, n.d.). Currently, UNICEF is looking for "new and emerging talent." They need workers who can speak English and at least one other language, are willing to work in other locations around the world (even in a location of hardship), have at least a graduate level degree, and 2-5 years of experience working in a profession (UNICEF, n.d.). I think working for UNICEF to help children in need around the world would be highly challenging but rewarding as well.

Save the Children 

"Save the Children is the world's leading independent organization for children" (Save the Children, 2015). They are established in 120 countries, working towards protecting children's rights, promoting healthy development, and saving children's lives (Save the Children, 2015). Save the Children works to help children that have experienced natural disasters and other crisis situations around the world. In 2015, they helped more than 4 million children (Save the Children, 2015). The organization "makes sure that children affected by floods, famines, earthquakes, diseases outbreaks and armed conflict get life-saving medical aid, shelter, food and water – fast. [They] safeguard children and help reunite separated families. And [they] help children recover from crises by providing emotional support and safe places to learn and play" (Save the Children, 2015). Currently, jobs are available in many countries in the Middle East, Africa, and the United Kingdom. Program/Project managers and directors are needed in many areas around the world.

United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

UNESCO believes that "peace must be established on the basis of humanity’s moral and intellectual solidarity" (UNESCO, n.d.). The main goal benefitting children is that UNESCO works to ensure that every child has access to a free and high quality education. "UNESCO strives to build networks among nations that enable this kind of solidarity, by: Mobilizing for education: so that every child, boy or girl, has access to quality education as a fundamental human right and as a prerequisite for human development" (UNESCO, n.d.).

Some personal qualities that would be necessary to work for one of these organizations are following:

-A strong passion for children,
-Strong leadership and organization skills,
-Strong communication skills,
-Cultural competency and bilingual skills,
-Strong writing skills, and more.


References:

Save the Children. (2015). Retrieved October 7, 2015, from https://www.savethechildren.net/

United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://en.unesco.org/

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://www.unicef.org/about/

National Organizations

NAEYC- National Association for the Education of Young Children

http://www.naeyc.org/

This organization appealed to me because it is probably the most widely known in the early childhood field. It is a great resource for early childhood professionals, teachers and families with children. "The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) is a professional membership organization that works to promote high-quality early learning for all young children, birth through age 8, by connecting early childhood practice, policy, and research" (NAEYC, n.d.). On the NAEYC website there is a link for job openings in the association. Currently, there are a few director positions that would manage programs within the organization, a couple of positions in the accounting department, and an editor position. None of those interest me at this time.

NECPA- National Early Childhood Program Accreditation

http://www.necpa.net/necpastandards.php

This organization creates standards and offers an accreditation program for early childhood programs to demonstrate high quality. "The NECPA has a heritage of supporting the profession of early care and education by encouraging the availability of high quality, affordable child care and preschool programs for children, families and communities" (NECPA, 2015). The website also has a page with resources that would be helpful to ECE professionals. I didn't see any jobs listed on the website but there is a link to apply to become a certified verifier. A member of the certified verifier team gets to visit programs going through the accreditation process to observe, document, and gather information related to the quality standards. I think that job would be so much fun. I would love to see what other quality programs are doing around the state.

The Ounce of Prevention Fund

http://www.theounce.org/who-we-are/why-investments-in-early-childhood-work?gclid=CLXr78vrjcgCFURlfgodhXgH9Q

This organization helps fund programs that work to provide quality early experiences to infants and young children, especially those living in poverty. The organization works together with other advocacy programs, they use research to help design quality programs for families and children, and they advocate for additional funding to support children and families. "Since 1982, the Ounce of Prevention Fund has persistently pursued a single goal: that all American children—particularly those born into poverty—have quality early childhood experiences in the crucial first five years of life" (Ounce of Prevention Fund, 2015). The website has a link for careers which lists many job openings ranging from teachers to web designers to research associates. I would be interested in becoming a "parent, family, and community engagement coordinator." I am currently not qualified but the job sounded challenging and interesting.  It entails working with Early/Head Start in developing, supporting, and providing training in the area of parent, family and community partnerships. 

Personal characteristics, qualities, and skills that would be necessary to work for these organizations include:

-Professionalism

-A strong understanding of the NAEYC Code of Ethics

-Leadership skills

-Organization skills

-Confidence

-Public speaking skills

-A strong background in the early childhood field

-strong skills in writing

-self-motivated

-cultural competency

References:

National Association for the Education of Young Children. (n.d.). About NAEYC. Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/content/about-naeyc

National Early Childhood Program Accreditation. (2015). History. Retrieved fromhttp://www.necpa.net/history.php

The Ounce of Prevention Fund. (2015). Who we are. Retrieved from http://www.theounce.org/archived%20pages/about-us-archive

"Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels"

After researching local and state organizations, I found the following that I would like to share information about:

Rotary Club

"Rotary provides an opportunity to connect with others in your community—and worldwide—who share common values: united worldwide who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and working to help build goodwill and peace in the world" (Roseburg Rotary Club, 2013). The Roseburg Rotary Club does annual fundraisers to benefit local children, and is very organized. By becoming involved in a rotary club it opens up a large network of people and resources. I have some friends that choose to participate in a program that rotary organizes that connects them with other members around the world. Currently they are spending a month in Sweden in the homes of Swedish Rotary members. The opportunity to learn and share knowledge with people from all over the world appeals to me.

Douglas County Early Childhood Planning Coalition (DCECPC)

The DCECPC "provides many different opportunities and resources for our parents in our community" (Metzler Media, 2012). One of the main opportunities they provide for the community is free parenting education courses. They work to teach parents about child development and provide support on some of the challenges of parenting (Metzler Media, 2012). This organization interests me because I believe that all parents want the best for their children, but sometimes they need help knowing how to handle situations and knowing what children really need.

The Oregon Community Foundation

The Oregon Community Foundation has the vision "of making sure that all Oregon children arrive at school ready to learn"(Oregon Community Foundation, 2015). Within the foundation they have multiple programs and goals they work towards focusing on quality child care, helping pay for education of early childhood professionals, and research for the early childhood field (Oregon Community Foundation, 2015). The foundation and the programs involved interest me because the topic I chose for my capstone project is school readiness, and I strongly believe that if we can help children be more prepared for school we can help them be more successful and overcome poverty in their futures.

Currently, I feel that I have my dream job. I am passionate about what I do and feel that I am very lucky to be teaching high school students about child development. I teach ECE courses to high school students, and I am the director of the on-campus child development center. I am the teen parent coordinator at the high school also. What I do is important and my students appreciate me! It is wonderful. If I were to ever think about changing jobs, I may be interested in teaching at the college level, being a home visitor or family worker, or being a parent educator. In order to be successful at any of these careers it would require a broad knowledge base of child development and education along with certain characteristics that I am listing below:

-positive communication skills
-organization skills
-collaboration skills
-leadership skills
-dependability
-cooperative
-motivational and
-personable.



References:

Metzler Media. (2012). Douglas County early childhood planning coalition. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9Ou0hMeFOc

Oregon Community Foundation. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.oregoncf.org/grants-scholarships/grants/ready-to-learn

Roseburg Rotary Club. (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.roseburgrotaryclub.org/

Project Topics

This week I am starting the final course in the Walden program. I am working to decide a focus for my final project. Topics that are interesting to me and spark my passion for children include: changing demographics, access to quality childcare, school readiness, the importance of play, and the challenges of teaching diverse populations.

Reflection

Throughout this course I have worked toward understanding and applying the four goals for anti-bias education as outlined in the textbook.

Goal #1 "Each child will demonstrate self-awareness, confidence, family pride, and positive social identities" (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 4).

Goal #2 "Each child will express comfort and joy with human diversity; accurate language for human differences; and deep, caring human connections" (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 4).

Goal #3 "Each child will increasingly recognize unfairness, have language to describe unfairness, and understand that unfairness hurts" (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 5).

Goal #4 "Each child will demonstrate empowerment and the skills to act, with others or alone, and prejudice and/or discriminatory actions" (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 5).

I hope to help each child that I work with develop a positive self-identity, to develop empathy towards others, and to develop the confidence and knowledge necessary to stand up for themselves and others when something is unfair. In order to accomplish this each child's family culture needs to be visual in the classroom, and I will need to develop lessons to help the children learn about diversity and acceptance, depending on what their needs are. One of the things that I learned from this course is that modeling is important and taking advantage of teachable moments is also important, but it takes more for children to truly learn about differences. If we don't expand on the teachable moments children may never feel comfortable with their own social identities and with the differences of others.

For the families that I work with I hope to develop respectful and trusting relationships that benefit each child's learning and development. I learned from this course that some families will need more support than other families and that it requires "authentic listening" to accomplish this. Authentic listening is done by using what we hear to act and make adjustments (Laureate Education, Inc., 2011).

I would like to thank all of my classmates and my instructor, Dr. Janet Kien for all of their support throughout this course. The comments on discussions and blogs were encouraging and I enjoyed reading all of their posts as well. It helped me to see a variety of perspectives and apply the information to real world experiences that others had. Thank you for sharing.

References:
Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and

            ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer). (2011). Partnering with families [DVD]. Strategies for             working with diverse children. Baltimore, MD: Author.

Researching Another Region

This week I chose to learn about the East Asia & Pacific Region of the world by exploring the UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) website. I chose this region because I am friends with a family that immigrated from Vietnam and wanted to learn more about the region. I discovered that the region is home to 25% of all the children in the world, and 30 million more children are born in the region every year (UNICEF, 2011).

“Across East Asia and the Pacific, vast numbers of children continue to experience grave violations of their rights and safety. Child protection is a critical issue in the region and one that is an increasingly important part of UNICEF’s work. The most common violations include:

• trafficking
• sexual exploitation
• violence, abuse and neglect
• child labour
• child soldiers
• children in institutions
• unlawful detention” (UNICEF, 2011).

Although the issues affect a wide range of children, poverty plays a key role in what children are affected most. For example, many children living in poverty in the region are not provided with an education (UNICEF, 2011). Emergency situations, such as natural disasters are another major problem for the region. “Over 60 percent of the worlds’ disaster victims live in Asia and the Pacific. This region suffers from the highest losses caused by natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, typhoons and volcanoes” (UNICEF, 2011). In emergency situations families may be divided, moved into shelters, lacking basic physical needs (UNICEF, 2011).

All of these issues can interfere with a child’s healthy development. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs, humans need their basic physical needs met first before their emotional needs for love and esteem can be met. With many children suffering from lack of safe drinking water and shelter in the East Asia and Pacific Region, their emotional needs are not being met either.

By exploring the UNICEF website, I learned about some of the things that the organization is doing to try to help children around the world. For example, trying to partner with businesses and recognizing their role in a child’s life. “They make important contributions to the well-being of children by creating jobs and livelihoods for families, as well as in the form of philanthropic initiatives. At the same time, violations of children’s rights by companies can threaten children’s protection, survival and development” (UNICEF, 2011). I also learned about some of the complex issues that many children face around the world today. It is important to take the time to explore the issues affecting other parts of the world. I realize that a major part of the problem is poverty and children living in poverty are affected by an increase in many risk factors. As an early childhood professional it makes me want to get involved with a larger organization that is doing something to help children around the world.

Reference:

McLeod, S. (2014). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Simply psychology. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html

UNICEF (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/

"The Sexualization of Early Childhood"

Children begin to notice gender differences from a very early age and begin to form a gender identity. A gender identity is formed according to one's physical anatomy of being a girl or boy, but also through what "our environment (family, culture, peers, society) teaches us about male and female gender expectations" (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 90). In regard to the topic of sexualization this week, I was unsure at first exactly what it meant. I assumed that it meant the exposure to sex in the media and through society, but I learned that it is really more about when people are viewed as "sex objects" or "their value comes primarily from their sex appeal, which is equated with physical attractiveness" (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p. 4). With this in mind, when children are sexualized or view themselves as sex objects, it is a very scary thought to me. It made me realize that I need to do some more reading on the topic and learn more about how to help young children understand what they may be exposed to in the media.

"Children growing up today are bombarded from a very early age with graphic messages about sex and sexiness in the media and popular culture" (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p. 2). It is easy to see examples of how hidden messages about sex are everywhere when you are using the Internet. My husband likes to read about sports on ESPN.com and often our daughter will sit next to him and ask him about his favorite teams. Unfortunately, all along the sides of the website are half-naked woman. "Gender roles modeled for children have become increasingly polarized and rigid. A narrow definition of femininity and sexuality encourages girls to focus heavily on appearance and sex appeal" (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p. 2). I am very particular about what my daughter watches but it is impossible to avoid the sex in the media. I can only imagine what children are being exposed to when parents are not as concerned or aware of the issues. It may be very confusing for young children to understand everything they are seeing and difficult for parents to have the right answers to their questions. Young girls may be getting the message that in order to be a woman you must be sexy and have sex. Young boys may be getting the message that in order to be a man you must choose a girl that is sexy.

As a parent and early childhood professional it is important to be listening for the questions that children may have and try to answer them in a way that they can understand. "Children have always been curious about sex and sexuality from an early age, and it is good for parents and schools to give them honest and age-appropriate information" (Levin & Kilbourne, 2009, p. 3). With the contradicting information in the media, it makes it even more important for early childhood professionals to adopt an anti-bias curriculum to support a healthy gender identity development in young children. Young girls especially need to learn how important it is to be smart, independent, athletic, creative, unique and true to themselves. In order to help children develop a positive gender identity in spite of the sexual messages in the media parents and early childhood professionals can:

-be available and open to answering questions and helping them sort through confusing information,

-try to monitor what they are being exposed to,

-provide and model healthy relationships in the family,

-try to encourage behaviors that are not in line with the gender stereotypes
(Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010).



References:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.

Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf

Experiencing an "Ism"

One "ism" that may commonly affect early childhood professionals is classism. Classism refers to "an attitude, action, or practice of an individual or institution, backed by societal power, that gives preferential treatment to or treats as superior those with more economic resources or higher social status and treats as inferior or denies access to those with fewer economic resources or less social status" (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. xi). Majority of early childhood professionals are payed poorly and do not receive benefits which often leads to more frequent staffing changes. "The economic status of many early childhood teachers may also result in tensions with some of the families in the program who are more affluent then the teachers" (Derman-Sparks & Olsen Edwards, 2010, p. 110). Some parents may not respect the teacher's opinions or value the work they do because it is a lower paying job. I have heard many teachers complain that some people just view them as "babysitters" and do not understand the true value in what the teachers are doing on a daily basis.

If teachers are experiencing classism in there personal lives or in the workplace it could interfere with forming positive relationships with all the parents and families they work with. They may be less likely to invite some of the families into the classroom or less likely to speak freely and start conversations with some of the parents. On the other hand, in the classroom the teacher may be more conscious of ensuring that all the children are treated fairly and respectfully. The teacher may be able to help children learn how to stand up for themselves and appreciate differences in others better than if they never experienced an bias behaviors. When experiencing a personal "ism" teachers are more aware of the pre-biases that may be forming and might be more motivated to try to stop them from forming in the children they work with.

Reference:

Derman-Sparks, L., & Olsen Edwards, J. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and

            ourselves. Washington, DC: NAEYC.