EXPLORING ROLES IN THE EARLY CHILDHOOD FIELD AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL

     ZerotoThree is an organization I actually follow on a consistent basis to look for job opportunities. Their mission is to provide parents, professionals and policymakers the knowledge and know-how to nurture early development and to ensure that all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life (Zero to Three, n.d.)
      I live in Northern Virginia, so their headquarters are easily accessible to me, and I have a huge respect for this organization. I frequently refer parents to their website for advice or to back up information I have told them. The wealth of current information on their website is impressive, and I would love to work for this organization.
     The current job opportunities listed as of today provide opportunities in different offices they have around the country, with varying requirements and job descriptions. If I could take any job to get my foot in the door, I would do that. A minimum requirement for all of them is early childhood experience, and strong communication skills.
This is an organization I came across while researching for my capstone project. Their mission is to improve the lives of children, youth, and older people through intergenerational collaboration, public policies, and programs for the enduring benefit of all (Generations United, n.d.), which aligns perfectly with my vision. They have been in existence for 30 years, and were awarded the Best Intergenerational Communities Award for 2016. Their website lists many projects and policies they have improved or are working on toward the accessing of untapped assets within these segments of the population.

I was excited to find there is an intern opportunity for the summer of 2016. My current job works with the county school schedule, so I will be off for the summer and can actually apply for this. The job skills listed as necessary are proficiency in Microsoft Word and Excel, effective communication skills, research and analytical skills(with oversight) and a passion and commitment to issues affecting children, youth and older adults.

The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Intergenerational Center creates opportunities for all people to contribute through their stages of life in daily multi generational activities, which helps to build a society that values people of all ages and abilities (Easter Seals, n.d.). With all the searching and research I have been doing, I am so surprised this has never come up before.
     This organization, in addition to operating a care facility, provides training sessions for:

1. Adult and Senior Day Services
2. Inclusive Early Childhood Education and Child Development
3. Home and Community Services
4. Assistive Technology
5. Inter-generational Shared Site Programming
6. Family & Corporate Caregiver Issues

The organization has openings for lead teachers at this facility. I am highly qualified, as I have been a lead teacher for 7 years. I would be interested in working at this center to see how the daily operation of interactions among the attendees works and what doesn't work.

References:

Easter Seals. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.easterseals.com/DCMDVA/our-programs/intergenerational-programs/

Generations United. (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.gu.org/ABOUTUS/OurMission.aspx
http://www.zerotothree.org/

Zero to Three. (n.d.). Retrieved from: http://www.zerotothree.org/?referrer=https://www.google.com/

Exploring Roles in the Early Childhood Community at Local and State levels

An organization I have been following for years and have been recommending to parents is the Dr. Yum Project. The mission of this group is to transform the lives of families and communities by provide an understanding of the connection between foods and overall health, as well as empowering them with the tools to live a healthy life.

It all started with a pediatrician in our local office who was concerned with the obesity rates. She started a website with recipes that were created and tested by children, and has now grown into a physical kitchen where classes are taught to children, gardens are grown and cared for by children, and nutrition information is exchanged with families and each other. By involving the children in their own choices, there is a better rate of success trying and enjoying new healthy foods and an awareness of how to make proper choices to live a healthy life.

This organization's mission is to champion for public policies that will improve the lives of Virginia's children. They combine statistics and indicators of children's well being with current research to determine unmet needs and threats to children's health and safety, then recommend policy solutions to policy makers and educate community leaders and concerned citizens to support these solutions.
I find this organization to be well organized, factual, and strong advocates for young children and their families. Their accomplishments include reestablishing funding for home care visits, increased funding for early intervention of children with developmental delays, safety improvements to early child care system, and increasing attendance for pre-k in lower income families.
The Rappahannock Area Community Services Board is formed to improve the quality of life for people in the district that suffer from mental illness, intellectual disability, and substance abuse through responsive care to individual needs. I have been involved with this organization for the past 3 years, and would look to be an area of service for their attendees.

The first two organizations are strictly volunteer, but the last, the RACSB, offers job opportunities as care givers in the residences, and as house managers. I was interested in either of these positions as a second job, but my primary job did not allow the scheduling to work; I have been involved as a volunteer on and off for 3 years and find the interaction among different abilities to be helpful social skill builders.

My Wordle :)

I am thankful for the opportunity to learn together with others that share my passion

     Studying for my Master's Degree has been a journey requiring a great deal of effort that I didn't know I could put out. Each week I surprise myself with what I think about, learn, and complete. Having colleagues to communicate with makes a huge difference in the relatability of the course content, and I appreciate all the differing insights I am privileged to be exposed to.
     I am more than half way finished, and am at the same time looking forward to and dreading the end of this experience. At this time I would like to thank Professor Hampshire for her patience, encouragement, and critiques to help my development.

Adjourning

     In thinking about the adjourning phase of group collaboration, whether it is difficult to disband or not varies with the importance of the goal. If the goal of the group's efforts were to get medication for a child which was not yet FDA approved, and they were successful, adjourning would be happy, sad, and satisfying at the same time. If the group's purpose was to write new policies and procedures for an organization, the members may become close during performing stage, but not as close as those participating in an emotional risk.
     A life saving drug was not available to a boy from Fredericksburg because it had not been properly tested by the FDA. A group of us got together to sensationalize the issue and promote the urgency of this little boy's plight to people outside our local area. Josh Hardy received approval for the medicine on March 14, 2014. He still has a long way to recovery, but without the efforts of our group and many others, he would not be here. It was bitter sweet to break up the group of people who worked passionately together. We all had opened up with our individual emotional burdens, and formed a strong network which can be called upon for future missions.
     I don't believe I will feel any emptiness when adjourning from my Walden classmates. I don't feel I made the connections I make with people I work with in person.
     Adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because it ensures completion. Review of the success or failure of the efforts made by the team are a valuable learning experience.
    

A conflict at work

     We are about to be assessed for accreditation by NAEYC for the first time, because we are a new center. Although we have been open one year, everyone in management is fairly new to their job. Our director had previously been a trainer, the assistant director was a middle school guidance counselor, and the trainers were all classroom teachers before this center afforded them the positions they're in. Everyone is familiar with accreditation, but experienced it in a different capacity in the past. With the application in and the assessors due anytime around the end of May or beginning of June, management is freaking out.
     Information given to the teachers is contradictory, opinionated, or outdated. This has led to anger and frustration for teachers who are working on classroom portfolios that are constantly being changed, room arrangements that always have something wrong, or decorations that are, then aren't, appropriate.
     In the break room and at meetings of the lead teachers, more venting than productive work was being done. Our director threw up her hands at the last meeting and said she doesn't understand why no one seems to care anymore.
     I made an attempt to use the 3S skills I read about (The third side, 2013). I saw the point of view of both management and my co-workers.
     I listened to my co-teachers without agreeing or adding on to their complaints. I pointed out the fact that everybody was just nervous. They were concerned about their reputations, as well as the evaluation of their effectiveness in their new positions. Accreditation is a big deal, and a lot of it rests on the personal judgement of strangers.
     I then went to the director in the privacy of her office and explained the reason she felt no one cared anymore was the nit-picking going on after the hard work we had been doing to meet and prove standards. I asked her if she thought we could really fail accreditation if our font sizes were not uniform? Wasn't the atmosphere of the classroom more important than how many inches lower the artwork should be, and whether or not it was matted? I suggested she have the creator of the best book at each age level help the others with any major issues,  and that she should take off her trainer hat and back off.
     She was very appreciative of my coming forward, and is trying to be mindful of what she chooses to criticize.
Reference:

The third side. 2013. The third side. Retrieved from: http://www.thirdside.org/

     My self evaluation and the evaluation of my parents and coworkers all produced very similar results. I do not have a problem speaking in groups, formal or informal, depending on what is being discussed and what I have to say. Apparently this comes across to others because no one thought I had any anxiety, that I was not verbally aggressive in any way, and that I was a competent listener.
     I found the questions surprising when addressed to others, as they could not "know" if my heart beat faster when addressing people, or any other impressions that can be masked. They tried their best to answer them accurately, but complained the whole time!
     I found the idea of perception as an influence over communication was very interesting. First impressions, while not set in stone, can change the way we approach communicating with someone.
Communication processing (O'Hair & Weimann, 2012), state that what you see, hear, or touch will be unique to you . . . because of the ways in which you select, organize and interpret information.

Reference:

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.