Jobs/Roles in ECE Community: National/Federal Level

I have chosen the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) http://www.naecte.org/

NAEYC strives to promote high-quality learning for young children by connecting practice, policy and research. NAEYC continually works to advance a diverse and dynamic early childhood profession and support all who care for, educate and work on behalf of young children. I chose this organization because I will continue to be a member and receive the benefits of membership. I hope to become more involved and active with the NAEYC organization as I look toward the next phase of my career in early childhood. I have attended many conferences and will continue to attend as many as I can. I look forward to continued professional development and networking through membership.

A job that I may be interested in for the future would be Conference Presenter. The website offers this information about becoming a presenter. Presenters at conferences are always needed. As my goal is to teach adults early childhood this may be a path that I choose. As a presenter, you will have the opportunity to take your thinking to a higher level...share your research and wealth of knowledge and experience a NAEYC Annual Conference & Expo! Your work in the vast field of early childhood education and child development is critical. This is your opportunity to inform and inspire your community! NAEYC is continuously seeking to attract the next generation of leaders within the early childhood field along with seasoned professionals, to create an enriching conference experience which pushes the field forward.

 In order to acquire this job, I would need to:

Submit my proposal for the conference. The proposal should reflect practical experience that is innovative, well-grounded and consistent with the principles of effective adult learning in a conference setting. I will need to submit my proposal on-line. I will need to include the following

·         Presenter contact information

·         Session purpose

·         Session title

·         Summary of the proposal

·         For research submissions only: Instead of the summary, these submissions require the stated purpose, methods, results, and implications of the research. These proposals may be accepted as regular sessions or as poster sessions.

·         Presenter qualifications

·         Room setup

·         Audiovisual equipment: NAEYC will provide a standard audiovisual equipment setup which includes a screen, an LCD projector, and stand. One table microphone or one podium mic will also be provided per session. For sessions with four or more presenters, an additional table mic will be provided.

·         Any additional AV equipment is at the presenter's expense. Laptops will not be provided-you will need to bring your own. Laptops and other equipment can be rented through our AV vendor.

Presenter registration

If your proposal is selected, you can register for the conference at the reduced presenter rate. Details about the discounted presenter fee will be e-mailed with acceptance letters.

Another national organization that I have chosen is The National Association of Early Childhood NAECTE Educators (NAECTE). http://www.naecte.org/

I have chosen this organization because it is one more avenue for early childhood educators to network, continue to grow and research what is currently happening in the field of early childhood on a national level. Their goals align with mine. I want to be a part of continually discussing educational issues, promoting professional growth, advocate for improvements in early childhood teacher education, and be a part of a forum for consideration of issues and concerns of interest to educators of early childhood teacher educators. I found one job position that was in line with my future goal of teaching adults early childhood.

A Job I found was Early Childhood Education Instructor. The skills and experience that I would need to competently fulfill this role are:

·         Plans, develops, evaluates and revises curriculum in early childhood education.

·         Prepares for teaching by developing current syllabi, examination and learning activities

·         Plans and develops instruction to be delivered in both classroom presentations and through alternate delivery formats as appropriate to student needs and subject matter requirements.

·         Creates supportive learning environment in the classroom and outside of this venue by being responsive to students'' academic needs

·         Provides for on-going assessment of curriculum implementation, applicability of field learning experiences, and progress of individual students through the program courses

Job Requirements

· Master’s degree in Early Childhood Education or Child Development from an accredited institution

· Three years of experience teaching young children (birth - age 8) in a licensed early childhood setting.

 · Experience with use of computer-based instruction

The third organization that I chose is The National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) http://nieer.org/

NIEER conducts and communicates research to support high-quality, effective early childhood education for all young children. Such education enhances their physical, cognitive, and social development, and subsequent success in school and later life. NIEER provides research-based advice and assistance to policymakers, researchers and educators. I chose this organization because everything that we do and advocate for needs to be research based. As we move forward in the field of early childhood and professional development, all of our work must be evidence based through ongoing and continued research. As we have learned throughout our course work at Walden, we need to stay informed about what is being studied in our field. In order to advocate on behalf of children, families and early childhood educators, we must pay close attention to the research to support everything we do and say.

A job that I saw posted is for a data collector. The National Institute for Early Education Research is looking for Data Collectors to train to administer standard preschool evaluation measures (child assessment as well as classroom observation instruments). Positions will be available nationwide.  

Requirements:

·         Applicants should be graduate students, have a BA or be upperclassman undergraduate students with a focus on child development, early childhood, psychology or related field.

·         Knowledgeable about child development and developmentally appropriate early childhood teaching practices, teacher preferred.

·         Experience in classroom settings and/or working with children highly preferred.

·         Must be available to work 2-3x per week during data collection period; days are flexible.

·         Must be available to attend intensive, full-day trainings that vary between 2 days and a full week.

·         The successful candidate is expected to demonstrate an excellent academic record (GPA should be 3.0 or better).

·         Must have reliable transportation.

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community

The first local organization that appealed to me is the Florida Association for the Education of Young Children (FLAEYC). I chose this organization because I hope to become an active member of this organization. The mission of this organization resonated with me. As it is my hope to make a real contribution to the field of early childhood. The goal is to benefit children and families by providing leadership and professional development for early childhood professionals. FLAEYC respects and accepts all people who contribute to quality early care and education. They are diverse, collaborative and advocate for children and educate communities on quality practices so that children will lead joyful, successful and enriched childhoods. They promote leadership among its members and advocate for quality work environment for all in the profession. After obtaining my degree, I hope to contribute and make a difference by teaching those choosing to enter early childhood and continue training for those in the field already. My role in but becoming a member of FLAEYC is that it would be beneficial for networking and collaborating with other early childhood professionals in my community. I would also have a resource for staying current with developments in early childhood in Orlando www.flaeyc.org/

The Early Learning Coalition is an organization here in Orlando to provide leadership, support and guidance to make sure that the children in our community are able to receive developmentally appropriate, research-based school readiness and VPK programs giving all children the necessary skills ready to enter kindergarten. As it is my goal to be a part of professional development for pre-service and in-service teachers, the mission of this organization resonates with my career goals in early childhood. I was not able to find job opportunities on the website but I did find a tab for volunteer opportunities. As I want to make a real difference in early childhood in my community, I would be very interested in helping in any area that I could.

http://elcoforangecounty.org/

Seminole State College is a community of practice. I look toward a future position at this school. Seminole State College has a strong Early Childhood Department. It is committed to delivering a curriculum tied to development and research-based ideas, which are proven to be best practices in the field. Faculty members are committed to serving as role models for students, emphasizing the core values of respect, integrity, excellence, knowledge and academic freedom to prepare students for professional success. https://www.seminolestate.edu/early-childhood/. A job opportunity currently available that I am interested in at SSC is Adjunct Professor in the Early Childhood Department. After obtaining my degree at Walden, I hope to be able to play a role in the SSC community of practice. The skills, knowledge and abilities required for this position are:

·         Master’s Degree in Education or closely related field

·         A personal and professional commitment to creating an atmosphere of quality instruction

·         Ability to use technology and innovative pedagogy to enhance teaching and learning

·         Understanding of and commitment to working with a diverse student population in a multicultural environment

·         Ability to communicate well, both orally and in writing

Thank You

Thank you Dr. Hampshire and all of my colleagues,this course has been very informative and interesting. I think we all are thinking about communication in a whole new way. To everyone that is not moving on to Teaching Adults, it has been a pleasure working with you. To those moving on to Teaching Adults, I hope to see you soon!

Best of luck to everyone

Adjourning

In high-performance groups, you will probably have the hardest time leaving because these are the groups in which strong relationships and bonds are formed. Trust has been built and established. In these groups, you feel like a valued part of the team and will take pride in the work and accomplishments of the team. You would probably feel sad to leave this group. You will miss the time spent with the members of the group.

Groups with the clearest established norms are probably very hard to leave because in this stage you are really a well oiled machine. It has begun to feel very comfortable and there is a true group identity. Leaving this group may be difficult as you will feel a loss of that group and miss it.

It was very hard to leave my Leadership Training Group developed at the preschool where I work now. We met as a group once a month for two years. Everyone in the group bonded and became friends. We worked together so well as a group, it was hard to believe that after the two years were up, the group would be disbanded and this group of employees would never function in this capacity ever again.

When my children were small, I worked in a group of volunteer moms that met and organized to form a team that would go into the kindergarten classrooms for an enrichment science class. We were not the first group to ever participate in this program but the group of women that participated with lasted for one year with the same women. This group was very hard to leave. We became very close and worked extremely well together. Each member of the group loved the experience. We all worked really hard to keep the program running smoothly while our children were in Kindergarten.

There were rituals attached to the first group. We all went out for a closing lunch together and were all presented with a certificate of completion. At this lunch we were able to discuss the program. We talked about what went well, not so well and we were given the opportunity to have input on the direction of the group for the next group to partake in the program.

There was only one ritual in the second group. As a group, we met with the incoming moms to pass the torch. We had the opportunity to share our experiences with the new moms. We told them what went well and what future improvement could be made. As my family just moved to Orlando, it was a great opportunity to meet moms in my child’s grade. It gave me the opportunity to participate in an area that was a real strength of mine. I loved going into the classrooms to work with children and do science. The best part of the experience was making new friends for my kindergartener and me.

I have met wonderful women in my experience at Walden. We have had the opportunity to share insights, share experiences and build on each other’s knowledge. I have enjoyed having the opportunity to work with a community of people with the same passion for early childhood education. I hope to keep in touch with colleagues through email and blog posts. With each passing course, I look forward to the student lounge introductions to see familiar names. I know that some of us will be separated as we enter the focus part of our degree. One thing that I have done is to keep the blog links of previous classmates. I continue to read their blogs and will continue to comment on them.

Adjourning gives closure to a group experience. It allows for the opportunity to see what went well and what can be improved upon for the next time. Through termination rituals it allows members of a group to get together one last time. It is the culmination of good teamwork.

Disagreements and Conflicts

As the school year is just about to begin and camp is about to end, there are a lot of decisions to be made about the upcoming school year. Seemingly simple decisions and ideas about our classroom and how it will look for our new group of children. My teaching partner and I have had a few disagreements about room arrangement and classroom decorating. These appear to be very minor disagreements but they are just disagreements right now that we do not want to fester, become conflict and hurt our communication and eventually our working relationship.

There are many new strategies in which I am employing to help defuse the situation and help my partner and I communicate more efficiently in order to come up with solutions that will meet both of our needs and allow us to both feel good about the situation and each other.

Compromising is a great strategy for us as we find “middle ground” between our two opposing positions. We can both agree to give up a little bit of what we want to order to come to an understanding (O'Hair, Wiemann, Mullin, & Teven, 2015). 

We could also use a collaborative style. If I pick something out that I want for our room and my assistant says that she does not like it. I see her choice and do not like it, we can collaborate and keep looking until we find something that we both can live with and something that we mutually agree on together (O'Hair, Wiemann, Mullin, & Teven, 2015). 

The 3r’s will help us to resolve our conflict. The three principles are respect, response and relationship. My assistant and I must show mutual respect for each other as we work with each other every day. We will have a stronger relationship, if we are able to communicate. Room arrangement and decorating are small issues in the larger picture but if we cannot communicate to resolve these issues it will reveal much larger issues and breakdowns in communication. We need to work as a team for our children, colleagues and families. We need to be responsive to each other. We must each be aware of our verbal and nonverbal cues. When communicating we must be mindful and in the moment. Lastly, it always comes down to a good relationship. If we have a strong relationship we will be much more successful. If we are able to model a healthy relationship, it will benefit our entire class.  

I did not have an opportunity to speak this week with any colleagues about effective communication strategies but I did share this assignment with my husband who is a Manager of Engineering. He had many insights on conflict resolution and communication that he uses with his employees and colleagues. Here are some of his strategies:

·         Learn to listen

·         Not talk over and interrupt

·         Understand fully where they are coming from and their thought process

·         Allow them to express their ideas

·         Let them develop their ideas and ask questions

·         Treat with respect

·         Understand their perspective

·         Understand my perspective

·         Their way of thinking may not have been thoroughly thought out, give my insights on the missing pieces

We have had many interesting conversations about effective communication over the past five weeks. These new skills that we are all learning and practicing will benefit us both professionally and personally.

Reference

O'Hair, D., Wiemann, M., Mullin, D. I., & Teven, J.  (2015). Real communication (3rd. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.   

Evaluating Communication

The one thing that surprised me the most was the assessment done by my supervisor at work. She scored my communication anxiety inventory lower than my husband and me. My husband and I scored it fairly closely. I guess this means that my anxiety is hidden and I present myself better than I thought I did. My self-esteem and self concept do not exactly match how someone else sees me in my professional life. She does not know me on a personal level. She knows how I interact with children, parents, colleagues, her and the administration of the school. She also sees how I participate in staff meetings. In some of these cases, I do feel a bit of anxiety but I guess that she sees that I am well informed, articulate and confident. My self-concept is not quite as strong in my own head. In some cases, I feel as if my non verbal cues and body language give me away. I guess in her eyes, I present myself well in all interactions. I feel some self confidence boost.

This week I learned that the way we view ourselves may not always be how others view us. I learned that my behavior fits the situation that I am in at a given moment in time and in a particular context. In the aggressiveness scale, I rated myself the lowest of my husband and supervisor. My supervisor and husband rated me ten points higher. I rated myself low and they each rated me moderate. While moderate is still acceptable, I see that it is an area that I might want to look at for improvement and a goal. Our text was very interesting this week. I learned that how we communicate has a lot more to do with how we feel about ourselves than I ever realized. How we feel in any given situation will dictate how we communicate. Knowing ourselves will help us both professionally and personally.

I also learned that first impressions are very powerful. We cannot be too quick to judge a person just on an initial encounter. We come into every situation with a set of schemas. We have to engage in conversation, look for verbal and nonverbal cues, ask questions and be an effective listener. That will help us to know a person. This information will help everyone in their personal life and professional life as we are coming in contact everyday with children, families, colleagues, potential friends and others in the early childhood field. We are learning that we must truly learn and understand the people we communicate with. Competent communication will help us to be successful in all areas of our lives.

I learned through these assessments that our comfort level, our listening style and our verbal aggressiveness all contribute to being an effective communicator. Improving our skills in these areas will help us both in our professional and personal life. We will be able to make our points clearly, listen effectively and monitor our behavior while maintaining respect and consideration for other people and their points of view.

Cultural Diversity and Communication

I think you have to talk differently to different groups of people. There are ways to bridge the gap and there are strategies to improve interpersonal relationships. Cultural differences can interfere with the development of positive relationships (Beebe, Beebe &Redmond, 2011). I work with many different people every day. We are all women. We are different races, ethnicities, religions, languages and different ages. I also work with families that speak different languages and come from different home cultures.

 When I am communicating with the parents of the children in my classroom, I am professional and show empathy. When I am communicating with families that speak other languages/from other cultures, I speak slowly. I watch my verbal, my nonverbal cues and I watch theirs. When I speak with people that are individually different than me, I look for common ground. I keep the conversation to what we have in common. I pay attention to the relationship that I have with the person that I am talking to, the situation and the context of our communication.  I try to adapt my behaviors and speech to the person that I am talking to.

There are three strategies that I use in order to communicate more effectively. First, I will gain knowledge by seeking information about the person and/or culture. I must ask questions and listen effectively. If the person is from a completely different culture, I must try to understand the nuances of their culture. I like the idea of creating a third culture. A brand new culture created between me and my communication partner consisting of shared meanings and common ground (Beebe, Beebe &Redmond, 2011).

Second, I must have motivation to be other-oriented. I should not ignore our differences. I must not think that my culture and my perspective is the only right perspective. I do not let my own experiences cloud my perception of another’s reality. I would avoid cultural myopia. My reality is not everyone’s reality (Beebe, Beebe &Redmond, 2011). I try to remember the Platinum Rule. I treat others that I am speaking with respect and treat them as they want to be treated (O’hair, Wiemann, Mullin &Teven, 2015).  

Third, I must continue to develop skill in the conversation. I must learn in the moment of interaction. I should be able to adjust my behavior to meet the needs of the person that I am having a conversation with. This means being able to read verbal and nonverbal cues. I should be able to be creative and flexible. I must be empathetic and try to figure out how the person that I am speaking with is feeling (Beebe, Beebe &Redmond, 2011).

If I can employ these strategies, I would hope to be a more effective and competent communicator.

Reference

Beebe, S. A., Beebe, S. J., & Redmond, M. V. (2011). Interpersonal communication: Relating to others (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Chapter 4, "Interpersonal Communication and Diversity: Adapting to Others" (pp. 85–114)

O'Hair, D., Wiemann, M., Mullin, D. I., & Teven, J.  (2015). Real communication (3rd. ed). New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. Chapter 2, "Perceiving the Self and Others" (pp. 41-45)