National/Federal Job/Roles in the ECE Community

I chose to write about Zero to Three, Prevent Child Abuse America, and the Erikson Institute.  I chose Zero to Three because I teach infants at my school and will teach toddlers and twos in the next two years.  Previously to working with this age level I loved working with three, four, and five year old children but since I began working with infants this year, my thoughts about where I would like to focus my teaching has changed to birth to two.  Zero to Three's mission is to make sure each child has the best environment to foster success.  As I work with very young children I see attachments develop, skills increase, and learning happening all the time.  It's an exciting time for children and I thoroughly enjoy being part of it.  Zero to Three's website had a senior writer/training specialist opening that sounded very interesting.  The position will work to coordinate Early Head Start information to migrant centers that have American Indian/Alaska Native children.  Necessary skills include having a firm knowledge of the Early Head Start program, early childhood development, and the American Indian/Alaska Native culture.  The candidate will need to have strong organizational skills, written and verbal skills, the ability to work will alone and with a team, and experience writing, organizing, and facilitating trainings.

I chose Prevent Child Abuse America because I know there are many children in our country who are not fortunate to live in a safe environment and the experiences from those environments will affect their life and learning when they attend a center or school and beyond.  Their mission is summed up in a short statement-to prevent any and all kinds of abuse to our nation's children.  They know that  sustained abuse affects brain development and behavior.  It can lead to mental illness, illegal activity, and poor academic achievement.  The organization has a newly created position for a operations director for Healthy Families America.  The position requires supervision of fiscal policies and procedures, improve effectiveness and efficiency of support services, and act as project manager for new efforts that improve operations.  Management skills, verbal and written communication skills, and the ability to work alone as well as with a team, and experience with budgets are listed as necessary qualifications.

The Erikson Institute is an independent school of higher education that focuses on training early childhood educators and those working in social service areas for leadership roles.  They bring the latest in scientific discovery into the classrooms and encourage their students to take it into the community creating a communication chain between the Institute and those practicing in the field.  The organization has an opening for a director of distance learning and continuing education in Chicago, Illinois.  This position will be in charge of every facet of the online programs.  The job requires deep knowledge of several computer programs, ability to write grants, a master's degree in early childhood development, and experience working as part of a team. 


References
Erikson Institute. (2014).  Retrieved from https://www.erikson.edu/
Prevent Child Abuse American. (2013).  Retrieved from http://www.preventchildabuse.org/index.php
Zero to Three. (2012).  Retrieved from http://www.zerotothree.org/

Exploring Local and State Roles in the ECE Community

The state and local organizations I explored are ones that I have had previous experience with or have some knowledge of.  The first one is at the local and state level in Iowa and is called Early Access.  It is a partnership between the Department of Education, Public Health, Human Services, and Child Specialty Clinics to identify and evaluate developmental and learning needs in children birth to three and work together to provide services to the children and families.  It is a free service to families and helps address concerns as early as possible so the child can grow and develop in the best possible way.  I chose this organization because I was involved with them when I worked as a home visitor in a previous job.  I was able to coordinate the ways I implemented in helping the family with the services of the Early Access worker.  I saw how the family was supported in helping their child by participating in both my program and Early Access and the child benefited by having the developmental needs targeted with an Individualized Family Service Plan where goals were established for the family and child and was revisited regularly.  I enjoyed working with another organization to meet the individual needs of my children so I could be more confident they were getting what they needed to succeed.

The second organization is at a state and local level.  Iowa is divided into Area Education Agencies (AEA) and I live and work in the Heartland AEA 11.  The organization provides professional development, special education services, library and digital resources, management and support services, and instructional services to schools and teachers around the state.  I chose this organization because I have taken many professional development classes from them to further my early childhood knowledge and have used their expertise with problem-solving, collaborating, and evaluating some of my first graders when learning needs become apparent.  the AEAs in Iowa provide a wonderful support system to the educators in our state.

The last organization is at Iowa's state level and is known as Early Childhood Iowa (ECI).  "There are 45 Early Childhood Iowa Areas statewide representing all 99 counties. Each area has a citizen-led board to support activities to promote collaboration and develop systems in the community for young children and their families" (Early Childhood Iowa, n.d.).  "These resources allow local ECI boards to: expand home visitation and parent education; create quality improvement activities for child care and preschool providers, including professional development and training; increase the availability of infant, shift care and inclusive child care; and increase access to child care and preschools for children living in low income families" (Early Childhood Iowa, n.d.). I chose this organization because it is one I want to get involved with.  I have learned through my classes at Walden that I need to become more of an advocate for children and I feel this organization will allow me to do this.  I have already contacted the director for information on ways I can get involved.

The current job opportunities at these organizations are minimal and it was difficult to find a list of careers at each organization.  I was unable to find a career opportunity link on the Early Access website.  It is connected to the Iowa Department of Education so when I searched for "job opportunities" the list was for  public school positions. 

On the Heartland AEA website, the current opening include speech and hearing pathologists, special education consultants, and hearing teachers.  I do know that I would enjoy working as an Early Childhood Specialist with Heartland and facilitating trainings with teachers in the area.  Iowa has an initiative called Every Child Reads 3-5 and Every Child Reads Birth-3.  I have taken both of these and feel I could lead sessions such as these because of my Master's in Early Childhood and my reading endorsement.  I was unable, though, to find a list of required skills and experience for this job.   

The website for Early Childhood Iowa did not have a link to careers, either.  I was able to find as a result of a search on the site the Early Childhood Iowa State Advisory Council Implementation Plan which had a goal of finding an ECI Systems Coordinator.  The responsibilities of this position "would be to expand and support system-building efforts outlined in the Early Childhood Iowa Strategic Plan with a specific focus on goals, objectives, and activities outlined here" but it had no date (Early Childhood Iowa, n.d.).  I would like to be able to have an effect on how Iowa's early childhood programs are rising to the challenge to provide quality care for children.

References
Early Childhood Iowa. (n.d.).  Retrieved from  http://www.earlychildhoodiowa.org/ECI_initiative/index.html
Heartland Area Education Agency. (2014).  Retrieved from  http://www.heartlandaea.org/
Iowa Department of Education. (2012).  Retrieved from https://www.educateiowa.gov/pk-12/early-childhood/early-access

Concluding Post

I want to thank everyone for their discussions and blogs these past eight weeks.  There were some good ideas shared and information to think about.  Communicating together about various topics has made the learning experience more interesting.  Good luck in the remaining courses.  We're almost done!

When a team comes to an end

       Other than work situations, I haven't been a part of too many groups so many of my team building has been with colleagues.  The hardest group for me to leave was at the last public school I taught in.  It was in the small town where I lived.  We had 3 classrooms of each grade level.  The 2 other teachers I worked with became my good friends as well as colleagues.  We discussed personal, as well as school related, topics.  Through the 4 years I taught with these ladies I learned so much about them as professionals as well as individuals.
      Because we were a small school, we always had going away parties for those who resigned or retired.  At my going away, I was presented with a beautiful bracelet one of my grade level colleagues had made for me that had the names of my three children on it.  It was a very special gift and one I will always treasure. 
      Sadly, I feel that adjourning this group of classmates will be a "goodbye" in a discussion or blog post.  Because this is a virtual community, I feel more disconnected than if we were in a physical classroom together.
       Adjourning is important to a team because during this time they can reflect on their experiences together.  This stage "provides the team the opportunity to say good-bye to each other and wish each other luck as they pursue their next endeavor" (Abudi, 2010, p. 4).  It allows for a time of celebration for the work accomplished and relationships built. 

Reference 
Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html

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Conflict Resolution

I haven't encountered too many conflicts in my life, primarily because I choose not to engage in them.  I don't like confrontation and feel arguing solves nothing.  One incidence that couldn't be avoided, though, happened after my divorce.  I moved to another state to live with a friend who I had taught with previously.  She was a widow and opened her home to me.  I was very appreciative of her offer, but reluctant, because during the course of our 10+ years of friendship, I knew she had a lot of personal problems and had, at times, felt drained from trying to support her during her various difficulties.  A confrontation that led to my leaving would have been a good time to: 1) "Differentiate feeling from thinking, being able to identify and express internal feeling states in a way that does not imply judgment, criticism, or blame/punishment" (The Center for Nonviolent Communication, n.d.), and 2) "differentiate observation from evaluation, being able to carefully observe what is happening free of evaluation, and to specify behaviors and conditions that are affecting us" (The Center for Nonviolent Communication, n.d.).  My friend was obviously going through another crises but because of what she was saying to me, I felt hurt and attacked.  I left, knowing that our friendship couldn't be repaired and was over.  
My question to my colleagues is, have you ever had to remove a relationship from your life that you felt was toxic to your thinking and the way you wanted to live your life?  Was it stressful to you?  Would you have done things differently knowing what you know now about communication?
Reference
The Center for Nonviolent Communication. (n.d.). The center for nonviolent communication. Retrieved from http://www.cnvc.org/

My Communication Assessments

I had my daughter and a male friend evaluate me for this assignment.  We all placed me in group 1 for listening style and in the moderate category for verbal aggressiveness.  I was surprised, though, that they both scored me with slightly higher communication anxiety than I did.  I suppose that is because they have never seen me speak in public and are possibly using their schemas to evaluate how I would do.  I feel quite comfortable talking in front of people but they are both 20+ years younger than me and have done little to no public speaking. 
An insight I gained this week is how accurate these assessments can be if a person is willing to answer the questions honestly.  Self-improvement is not possible if a person is not willing to evaluate themselves in an authentic way and take off their rose-colored glasses.  I think this goes hand-in-hand with our self-concept and self-esteem. It's good to see and value our strengths but they must come from an honest place.  Pretending to be something you're not can get exhausting.  In my professional life, if I don't know the answer to a question a parent or child has, or how to deal with a situation with a colleague or child, it won't do to just make something up.  I need to be open to finding out the right answer and relate it to the parent or child or for my own knowledge.  I don't pretend to know all the answers but I am more than willing to try and find one.
Another insight I learned this week is that my daughter and friend view me very similarly as I do.  Our scores were very close.  I think it is good feedback for anyone to have.  Knowing how others feel about our communication skills will help us be clearer when interacting with others.  It gives good information about areas we may need improvement in.  Personally and professionally, I can see that I am in a pretty good place when I am using any/all of the communication styles.  

Communication

I am fortunate to work on a college campus where diversity is everywhere.  The families that send their children to our lab school represent many countries.  I don't find, though, that I communicate any differently with them than I do with people from my culture.  Most of them have been in the United States for a while and many of the children have been born here.  With the exception of their accents, talking with them is very comfortable and the same as speaking with my own family.  I have been able to form a friendship with a graduate assistant in our department who is from Malaysia.  We have had many open conversations about her Muslim religion, my Christian religion, and our individual viewpoints on other topics.  I have not yet had any difficulty communicating with people from other cultures.

If I were to share three strategies to use in communicating with diverse individuals, I would continue to take or make opportunities where I could have conversations with the people I interact with.  I don't believe you can promote understanding and acceptance if an effort isn't made to know the people who are different than ourselves.  The second thing I would do do as much reading and research on other cultures as possible so a foundation of knowledge can be built in my mind.  During conversations with people from these cultures, questions can be asked to clarify cultural beliefs and/or practices and if the person you are speaking with adheres to them.  The last thing I would do is continually evaluate my attitudes towards other cultures.  If prejudice and discrimination come from fear, ignorance, or misunderstanding, then the only way to overcome those things is to gain more knowledge about different cultures.  Being open to the potential to learn about other people will widen my views of the world and make the world a little smaller place.