Time Well Spent

I am so humbled and honored to be completing my Masters Program! I am forever grateful to my colleagues for your continued support and feedback. It has been a great journey to grow professionally and obtain priceless knowledge that you all offered me.

Professor Darragh, I greatly appreciate your feedback and support as well. You challenged me to think deeper and harder about how to present my challenge and I hope that I have presented it in such a way that has shown my growth. Thank you for your support and positive words.

A few deeply felt learnings from this program are:
-The importance of building a community of practice. It was a great experience to be able to discuss my challenge with my colleagues and have them respond respectfully to my passion and how I want to be an agent for positive social change. It was also great to be able to support my colleagues.
- I discovered a lot about myself through this course. I found out what my deepest passions are when it comes to the early childhood field. I can picture myself being an agent of positive social change and I have never been able to see myself in such a way before.
-Passion: I have seen how so many of you have such a passion for different issues in the field. I see how important it is to hold on to that passion and work towards changing inequalities and injustices even if it seems impossible. I have been inspired by all of you to continue to fuel my passion and I hope that each of you do the same.

My long term goal: Be employed in an administrative position in the early childhood field and make a difference at the job: such as create better communication, build positive work atmosphere, etc.

I cannot believe this day has come! I want to wish all of you the very best in your future endeavors. I hope that all of you achieve your goals and then some!
Maybe we will meet at graduation! :)  GOOD LUCK!

"Our accomplishments are a reflection of what our relationships have allowed us to achieve" ~Zero to Three 2011
I love this quote and I whole heartedly believe it. Continue to build positive relationships in the field and outside of it. You will be successful! :)

JObs/Roles in the ECE Community:Internationally

Three International Organizations that I found are:

1.      Care.org : This organization is an international organization that is located in 87 countries around the world. Their mission is to serve individuals and families in the poorest communities in the world. They focus on helping women in these poorer countries. They believe that when they provide women with the correct resources, they can have a positive impact on their families and whole communities. They provide education, healthcare and nutrition, they seek to end gender violence and much more. I chose this organization because  I agree with their mission and the work that they do. They seem to have a large organization and they are helping so many people. I found many job opportunities on for care.org. One in particular that stood out to me was : Education Project manager in Somalia. They need a talented individual to work with the ministry of education in Somalia to work on a Youth Education project. Any person employed in this position must be knowledgeable about education but also in international affairs. They must also be able to work under harsh conditions and willing to live internationally.

2.      Helpthechildren.org : This organization is both national and international. They are a Christian non-profit humanitarian relief organization. They seek to help children and families. Their mission is to increase self sufficiency. They provide food, clothing, personal items, etc. I chose this organization because I think that it is great to help others reach self sufficiency. Their mission is something that I would like to support and I appreciate the Christian values. They did not have career opportunities but many volunteer opportunities. I would like to help volunteer to put together food and personal item boxes and help them to be sent all over. An individual in this volunteer position must be able to work well with others and show compassion for others and must be a team player.

3.      Savethechildren.org: This organization focuses on many ways to help children. They do this through education, child protection, health and nutrition and much more. I chose this organization because I feel that they are advocating for children everywhere. A few courses ago, I chose this organization to subscribe to and I receive monthly newsletters from them. Career opportunity that caught my attention: Child Protection Coordinator: Save the children organization needs an individual to work to protect children with regard to the Ebola outbreak. This individual will need to work with others to ensure the safety of children. A person employed in this position must be able to work under harsh conditions and must posse great communication skills. They will need to coordinate every aspect of the job. Managerial experience is a must.

Job Roles in the ECE Community/National Level

National Organizations that I found and would be interested in becoming part of the Community of Practice include:
1.      National Association of Early Childhood teacher Educators:

I found this organization and I think that it would be a great organization to join. The Organization is comprised of people from all over the world, which I think is a great way to learn about early childhood education. They advocate for early childhood teachers and issues concerning them. I would like to be a part of this community because it is filled with professionals who share similar passions and goals for the field. It would be nice to have that support.

Job opportunity listed on the organization website: Ohio University’s Child Development Center (CDC) seeks a collaborative, creative, and flexible Director to lead the University’s Reggio-inspired lab school.

I think that this would be an ideal potion to apply for in the future. The course of study has prepared me for this type of position. All of the qualities that a director needs have been discussed in the program.

2.      Association for Early Learner Leaders: This is an organization that supports leaders in the field such a directors and administration. They focus on collaboration, training, program quality, etc. They strive to help the leaders provide the best high quality education for their centers. What  a great organization. This is a field where we are always learning and it would be great to join this organization and stay updated on how to make my program the best that it can be.

Job opportunity:  Lawrence Montessori School (LMS) is hiring a visionary administrator who will take our four year old school to the next level of growth. A person in this position would need to have director experience. I would love a job where I could apply as an experienced director.

3.       Education Commission of the States: This is a community of practice that seeks to improve public education by sharing resources and ideas with each other. They also collaborate with policy makers. This group would be a good one to join because of the resources but also because of the collaboration with policy makers. It would be beneficial to speak directly with those who create policy about necessary changes.

Job opportunity: There were no job listings on the site but I would imagine that in order to work for such an organization, one would have to be knowledgeable about early childhood policy.

References

http://www.naecte.org/

http://www.earlylearningleaders.org/?

http://www.ecs.org/

Early Childhood Roles

Early Childhood Centers in my area:
1. Jenkins school: they cater to the whole child and are passionate about early  childhood education. They also support those studying the field. They  employ undergraduate students to give them opportunity for experience and to learn from others in the field.
2. Owl hill learning center: this center focuses on helping children as well. They also focus on parent interaction and partnerships. They partner with the school district and also work to provide many resources for parent involvement.
3. Kindercare learning center: this center is great because it also is heavily involved in supporting its community. It partners with many organizations to help children such as Big Brothers, Big Sisters, a juvenile program and they have many programs to assist early readers.

Employment Opportunities:
1. Prepnow.com is seeking qualified online tutors. This job would suit me right now as I am a stay at home mom. They need individuals who have experience with students and a degree.       
2. A local early childhood center is seeking a qualified lead teacher part time. This position would work because it is part time and I would be able to work in the field. A person in this position needs to be up to date on issues and trends in the field, have a passion  to work with all children birth to school age and be reliable.
3. Hildebrandt learning center is in need of a center director. This position would be great for me because it would allow me to utilize the skills and knowledge that  I have acquired throughout my course of study at Walden. This person would need to know how to be a director of a center, know about issues and trends in the field and have great communication skills.

Thank you

I would like to thank all of my colleagues for your comments and blogs during this course. This course has taught me so much and I have learned through all of you as well. Thank you for sharing stories and experiences and your feedback. I wish you all the best of luck in your future courses!

Adjourning

This week you read about the five stages of team development: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning. Consider the adjourning phase for several of the groups in which you have been involved. Think about which aspects of the groups made for the hardest good-bye.

Are high-performing groups hardest to leave?

I think that high performing groups are hard to leave. However, when a project is complete and it is successful, you want to move on to the next task and be just as successful.

Which of the groups that you participated in was hardest to leave? Why?  

One group that I participated in was very hard to leave. The atmosphere was almost like a family. We knew that we could depend on each other and we all supported each other in every aspect of any project that we  were working on. Because of this, we were successful and it was hard to leave this environment.

What sorts of closing rituals have you experienced or wish you had experienced?

I have experienced going away parties/celebrations that were nice because they celebrated all the great things about me as an employee as well as all of the group contributions. It is nice to be recognized for working hard.

How do you imagine that you will adjourn from the group of colleagues you have formed while working on your master's degree in this program?

I think that we will write a blog post to thank our colleagues for sharing their stories and their wisdom and we will wish them well in their future courses with Walden.

Why is adjourning an essential stage of teamwork?

I think that adjourning is essential because it allows for time to reflect on projects. The team can see where they made progress or if any mistakes were made. They can discuss ways to do things better or differently the next time.

 

 

Managing Conflict

Lately, I have been facing conflict at work. I have tried numerous times to explain how I feel about it and why to my supervisor, but my efforts have not really been successful. Through course readings, I have found that one strategy that I started to use and will use more often, it is a challenging strategy. I think this strategy would work best for me because most times, I just try to avoid conflict altogether. Because avoidance was my usual managing technique, I never felt as though my issues were resolved, they were just suppressed. Along with the challenging strategy, I would like to use probing as well. I need to ask more questions if there is a misunderstanding. I believe that these two together will help me to manage this conflict more effectively. I believe this because at times, the atmosphere is one where I am supposed to do a task without question. Many times, this can cause conflict within myself because many times, I feel like an explanation would be okay. 

Does anyone have any other suggestions about how to deal with conflict in the work place?