Time Well Spent

This program has definitely increased my awareness of the impact of positive social change, the importance of building an effective community of practice, and how necessary it is to build relationships with the families that I service at my center.  This program has broaden my insight on how to move from engaging in a local community to a global community.  My new perspective inspires me to build centers in communities where early education and support is needed the most.  My goal is to open a learning center that provides high quality education and services, educational workshops for parents, and accessible family resources and tools in poverty stricken communities so that they will be afforded the same opportunities as children in communities with a higher SES. 

With my goals in mind and even as I reflect on how far we have come in the ECE field, these two quotes inspire me the most:  

“Its not how you start but how you finish”  ~ Zig Ziglar

“What is now done, was once imagined” ~ William Blake

To my Professor and Colleagues,

Special thanks for your devotion, dedication, and commitment to completing the MS ECS program at Walden University.  In addition to the time invested, thanks for having a passion for social change.  I am able to conclude this program, knowing that I have learned from the best in the ECE field.  It was your experience, insight, suggestions, and feedback, that helped me revise my professional goals and find long term ways to be more effective in early learning and developmental practices.  Again, thank you and best wishes.  As we begin new chapters in our lives, I hope our missions are vertically and horizontally aligned so that we may collaborate again.  Below is a link to see the Wordle that I created to express the milestone I have reached, and I'm sure you will relate.  Feel free to reach out to me via this blog or email at shonda.jones@waldenu.edu.  Look forward to see how we all impact the early learning sector!  

Warmest regards,

Shonda Jones

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/8064131/MS_ECS_Overview

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

The three international organizations that appealed to me are: Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI), FHI 360, and Save the Children

ACEI is a charitable organization that shares approaches to educating children in order to enhance their skills and abilities to be successful in life.  This organization consist of a community of educators and advocates worldwide that have come together with their background, education, and experience to explore ways to educate and advocate for children.  Their mission is to promote and support the education, development and wellbeing of children. 

As I explored the website for ACEI, I didn’t come across a career link but I discover ways to become a member and get involved in global initiatives.  At the local level, the organization offers professional development, information on obtaining CDAs, and award, grants, and scholarships to future your education as it relates to ECE.  They also offer summits or conferences each year, to help your build your global COP and utilize the information shared at international events.  One of the opportunities that captured my attention was becoming a diplomat for education.  By becoming an education diplomat, I can help shape the world by advocating for the quality of education children are to receive.  For more information, please visit   http://www.acei.org/

The second organization of my choice is FHI 360.  FHI 360 is a nonprofit human development organization that’s simply dedicated to improve lives through areas of health, education, economics, nutrition, gender equality, etc.  This organization serves at least 70 countries, plus the U.S.  I am attracted to this organization and would like to become a part of their community of practice because of the basis of their vision and mission.  FHI 360 believes that everything is connected so in essence it will take all of us to help children meet their full potential.  We must collaborate and partner with other experts within civil society to help meet the issues that affect communities. 

FHI 360 offers internships, fellowships, consultation proposals, as well as career opportunities.  From the list of jobs I browsed, I didn’t see anything I was interested in because most of them are analyst, program management, or financial positions that are outside my expertise.  I did see a few jobs related to education, but it was at the secondary level and I’m most interested in the primary or early education years.  However, they do offer opportunities to partner with them through solicitation, consolation, and small business approach.  For more information, please visit http://www.fhi360.org/.

And, in my opinion, to save the best for last, my third choice is Save the Children.  This organization has created programs and built partnerships to make sure children have their own rights.  As I consider my own COP, this organization would be one that I would use as a mentor, coach, and guideline to what it means to influence social change.  Save the Children works around the world, saving the lives of children, through protection, medical aid and assistance, food and nutrition distribution, emergency disaster recovery, and education.  I seriously considering how to become a part of their efforts from a long term perspective. 

Save the Children does offer job opportunities and they have several within the U.S and in other countries.  One job that caught my interest is the Family Services Coordinator. This job links directly to the challenge I have set during this course.  One of the main responsibilities is to help parents set goals and encourage them to get involved in their child’s education.  I know this jobs takes me away from the ECE field, where I won’t work directly with children, but I will still impact their lives from a different approach.  A lot of parents struggle with which direction and plans they have for themselves which affects their children.  This position is will give me the opportunity to meet the parents where they are, educate them, get then on track, so in turn their children will have a better outcome.  Based on the qualifications, I lack an associate degree in social work but I do have degrees that relate to family and human services.  I also lack experience at the adult education level, but if they will consider the informal encounters I’ve had over the last three years, where I have trained and educated new teachers, then I might just qualify.  For more information, please visit http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6115947/k.8D6E/Official_Site.htm

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

The National Black Child Development Institute was founded 40 years ago to help black children and families get the early education, health care, and other resources they needed to be successful in society.  I’m interested in making this organization about of my community of practice because of their PEP, Parent Empowerment Project.  Since my challenge focuses on increasing parental involvement during the early years, this program will help me implement ways to meet my challenge.  NBCDI developed a comprehensive curriculum designed for parents to improve the influence they have on the lives of their children.  In the program, parents learn what is best for the child, how to become better parents, and ways to use the resources available to help their child develop.  There are a series of 2 hour classes offered to the parents by training facilitators to empower parents to become engaged in the early learning process.  For more information, please visit http://www.nbcdi.org/what-we-do/parent-empowerment-project.  As of right now, NBCDI has an opening for a President and CEO.  In order for me to be eligible to apply for either position, I must have 15 years of leadership experience in addition to my advance degree.  Even though, I haven’t obtained supervisory experiences of this capacity yet, I have noticed that there isn’t an affiliation in the Dallas area.  With that in mind, I will explore ways to begin a chapter in my region. 

The Association for Early Learning Leaders is a nonprofit organization that has been serving ECE leaders since the early 80’s.  Their purpose is to promote leadership development that enhances the quality of the early learning program.  I am interested in adding this organization to my community of practice because it promotes meaningful collaboration among other ECE professionals not just within my community but within the nation as well.  It will also give me professional development opportunities to fortify my leadership skills after I’ve obtained my advanced degree.  In order to access the job opportunities listed on their website, you must become an ELL member.  Otherwise there is a $49 fee.  However, it does allow you to post employment or volunteer opportunities that you have within your program without a fee.  I am interested in the conferences they offer for owners and directors of child care programs along with the accreditation process they offer assistance with.  For more information, please visit http://www.earlylearningleaders.org/?page=Professional. 

The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organizations that focuses on advancing public education.  I would like to include them in my COP because of the resources and programs they have in place for partnering with parents.  The NEA offers positons in management, professional, and administrative support.  In addition, there are paid and unpaid intern positons.  Even though they have plenty of opportunities, none of the positions listed am I qualified to apply for due to lack of experience in leadership role.  However, I am interested in the fall internship because it provides hands on training to substantive programmatic work experiences that improve the quality of public education.  It will give me more in depth research experience, data analysis, participation with policy forums, and visits on Capitol Hill.  For more information, please visit https://neacareers.silkroad.com/.

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community

The three local or state organizations that appealed to me this are:  Commit2Dallas, Children’s Advocacy Center for Denton County, and Head Start of Greater Dallas. 

Early this year I applied to Commit2Dallas and was accepted in a long term professional development training that will begin this upcoming school year.  Their mission is to start within early childhood helping children become school ready and develop literacy skills by the end of third grade. 

CAC mission is to provide justice and healing for children who have been abused.  During this process, they offer emotional support, family services, therapy, counseling, and prevention education. 

I chose Head Start of Greater Dallas because of their high priority to partner with parents to ensure children get a great head start during the first five years of their life. 

As I look for job opportunities within each of these, Commit2Dallas have various ways to get involved but at this time there aren't any job announcements.  I also was unable to see any employment opportunities with the Children’s Advocacy Center but there are volunteer options.  The Head Start of Greater Dallas have teaching positions posted on their site.  At this level of my career, I am more interested in directing an early learning programs.  So, even though I didn't see any administrative positions in these three choices, there are plenty of director positions throughout the metropolis of Dallas.  I have acquired the education and skills needed to qualify me as a potential director for an already existing early learning center.  However, I would like to challenge myself to establish a new program within my community. 

For more information on the organizations I selected, please visit the following links:

http://www.hsgd.org/families-teachers

http://commit2dallas.org/cradle-to-career/

http://www.cacdc.org/about/mission/

Issues I have within ECE

Welcome colleagues to our last course of graduate school!  Brace yourselves, I have a lot to share during our practical starting with the issues I have in the early learning field.


 

Special Thanks

Thanks to all my colleagues who have supported me during this Communication and Collaboration course.    During the past eight weeks, I have enjoyed engaging in in depth conversations about what we have learned and what we have experienced within our professions.  Thanks to you, I have improved my communication skills.  Thanks for participating, sharing, inspiring, and given me the feedback I needed through collaboration so that I can be an effective communicator.  A special thanks to our professor, Dr. Lisset-Bird Pickens for taking the time to share her expertise, for investing in current and future ECE professionals, and for being an effective teacher that used various activities, assignments, techniques, and technology to help us become better communicators.  Again thanks and I look forward to continuing my educational journey with you!

Adjourning in Team Development

This weak I learned about the five stages that teams or groups go through.  The adjourning stage is a process the groups encounter when they are disbanding (O'Hair & Wiemann, 2012).  This is the time the group reflects on accomplishments and/or failures they experienced along the way.   Some groups don't disband; while others may never work together or see each other again after completing a group project.  I've had several chances working with others during my military career and during my educational career.  As a HR, we constantly had group projects and often times I worked with the same group for various projects.  It wasn't until after I decided not to reenlist that I experienced adjournment and had to say farewell because there would be no future projects for me.  In education, I get to work with my kindergarten team weekly in meeting academic goals within six week increments for the young children assigned to me.  We won't experience adjournment until the end of the year, if the team has to disband.  I don't think high performing groups, as with me and the Armed Forces were hard to leave.  It’s expected and comes with the job.  We are well aware of the turnover rate in the military sector.  For me, it would be harder leaving a smaller high performing group.  As always there are good bye rituals in place especially for members who have invested a lot of time or made a major impact on reaching the common goal of the organization.  When I left the military, those I worked with the most, we had lunch together.  I still contact some of them until this day.  When I left the early learning center for a public school teaching position, my colleagues and I enjoyed my last day on campus by bringing our classes together and celebrating my new opportunity.  Gifts were given, pizza was delivered, party trays displayed, cards and well wishes were expressed, etc.  I still remain in contact with some of the ECE professionals from my first campus and it was hard to say goodbye.  As I get closer to completing my master’s program with WU, I'm not sure how I will adjourn from the group of colleagues that I have worked with for the last two years.  I know we will all be excited about reaching a professional goal and graduating from the program, but I'm not sure how we will bring it to a close when it's the final week of the very last class we have to take.  Adjourning is essential to teamwork because it provides closure to the group project and to relationships that are meant to be long term or to continue.  It definitely helps to understand and improve any areas of weakness that may have been discovered during the project.  

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