Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

The National Education Association http://www.nea.org

The National Education Association is an amazing resource for educators, their mission states,"Our mission is to advocate for education professionals and to unite our members and the nation to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world." This website is a wonderful resource for educators and includes information about everything an educator could need including information about school safety, affordable healthcare and teacher quality. I especially like the fact that this site offers educators the chance to ask for advice:

For support and advice: http://www.nea.org/tools/AdviceAndSupport.html

Another related organization is the Missouri National Education Association http://www.mnea.org/Missouri/mneapublic.aspx

The MNEA is a community of practice which includes, “35,000 members of the Missouri National Education Association are public school teachers, librarians, counselors, coaches, school psychologists and psychiatrists, administrators and faculty in colleges and universities. We are proud to include among our membership all categories of education support professionals: bus drivers and custodians, teacher aides and paraprofessionals, nurses, school secretaries and food service workers.”

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EARLY CHILDHOOD TEACHER EDUCATORS
http://www.naecte.org/
“NAECTE members are people from all across the United States and from countries around the globe. We are joined together by our common interest in Early Childhood Teacher Education.” I chose this organization because it offers a communication network for early childhood teacher educators.

The CHILD RIGHTS INTERNATION NETWORK

http://www.crin.org/index.aspThe mission of the CRIN states, “Guided by our passion for social and legal change, CRIN is building a global network for children's rights. We press for rights, not charity, and advocate for a genuine systemic shift in how governments and societies view children. Our inspiration is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which we use to bring children's rights to the top of the international agenda. We launch advocacy campaigns, lead international children's rights coalitions, and strive to make existing human rights enforcement mechanisms accessible for all. “
This website is an amazing resource for international information about specific countries and all the distinct programs which are working to support human rights.
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One of my dream jobs have an opening for  the Director of Programs, Partnerships, and Research

The Organization http://www.cfchildren.org/

"Committee for Children (CFC) is a dynamic nonprofit recognized both domestically and internationally as a leader in developing research-based violence prevention and social-emotional educational curricula." The qualifications for this job state, "

• At least five years of substantial management and leadership experience
• A graduate degree in education, prevention science, psychology, social work, or a related field
• Candidates with an Ed.D. or Ph.D. in a relevant field are strongly preferred
• Solid knowledge of social-emotional learning or prevention science research
• A background of developing, implementing, and evaluating research-based social-emotional learning and prevention programs both in print and online for educators, parents, and other youth-serving audiences is required; experience with the application of emerging technologies in this field is preferred 
• Excellent communication skills and a demonstrated ability to cultivate and maintain partnerships

For this job, I have many of the skills, however I would need more job experience in a management position. My ideal position would be in a role where I could help children grow and succeed, and I feel that this job would be the perfect fit for me.

According to the article, Facts & Statistics About Poverty in Brazil, "Poverty levels in Brazil are unacceptably high. They relate to a lack of appropriate medical care as well as the availability of water and sanitation facilities. Access to education, health care and employment are a big problem for many of the poor. The biggest social challenge for the Brazilian government and society is the lack of education, housing, health care and nutrition for the homeless children. Thousands live on the streets, abandoned by parents unable to afford to raise them. These children often abuse drugs, commit crimes and resort to prostitution to survive. The government has developed programs through the Ministry of Social Assistance to combat the poverty and starvation of these homeless children. In 2003 the Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launched an ambitious program to eliminate poverty in Brazil. The program was called Zero Hunger. “150 000 children under five die every year because of hunger” Frei Betto, adviser to Lula said. He felt the child mortality rates “a scandal”. The program has had allegations of corruption aimed at it but does help many poor families as a report showed in 2007. Betto does however admit the aim for success was initially unrealistic time wise, but that the program is making a difference. Through the program money is given directly to mothers of children instead of the man of the house in the belief this is a more reliable was to ensure children do benefit, and are fed. According to UNICEF about 42 percent of Brazilian children live in poverty. Also approximately one eighth of all Brazilian children live on the streets. The Brazilian government has kept a tight reign on social spending to meet its debt payments despite a firm commitment to end poverty and hunger. Only a fraction of the national budget is allocated to programs benefitting children." I created a blog a few years ago dedicated to the children living in Arcozelo which is a rural area of Brazil. If you are interested in getting involved by sending much needed school supplies to these children, please check out my blog: http://www.childrenofarcozelo.blogspot.com Also, there are some other great non-profits in Brazil including: http://WorldVision.org/Brazil http://http://www.charity-charities.org/Education/Brazil.html http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/brazil.html

Resources: http://kadmiels.hubpages.com/hub/Poverty-in-Brazil

I want to thank all my Walden University colleagues for their support and guidance throughout this course. I have appreciated all of our discussions and realizations. I hope to share more classes with you all in the future. I also want to thank our instructor, Dr. Barbara Walker for an amazing course and for helping me gain new insights on effective communication. Best Wishes and Good luck in the future!

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? Groups with the clearest established norms? Which of the groups that you participated in was hardest to leave? Why? What sorts of closing rituals have you experienced or wish you had experienced? 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? Why is adjourning an essential stage of teamwork? Some of the hardest goodbyes was when I was a camp counselor and had to say goodbye to my campers on the last night of camp. Sometimes we would all be crying and listening to the song "Leaving on a jet plane." My campers and I would sit outside under the stars and stay up all night sitting in a circle and talked about our favorite memories from the summer. I can honestly say those times were some of the most memorable and emotional times of my life. I imagine that it will be difficult to say goodbye to the colleagues I have met during this Master's program. I feel like we are all growing together on this journey and having a meaningful dialogue has been my favorite part of this class.

Many years I ago I was working in Aspen Colorado as Assistant Director of Education at the Aspen Chapel teaching Hebrew School and Sunday School 45 minutes away from Aspen. At one point in the school year, I could see one of my students was very upset and did not want to participate in class. I made the decision to stop class and ask the boy what was going on and if he wanted to talk. He began by spilling his emotions, talking about his parents upcoming divorce and became very emotional. Suddenly, all the kids began spilling their emotions to me and each other, and it almost became like a group therapy session. In many ways it brought us closer together as a group and made this boy feel like he wasn't alone. Unfortunately, one boy told his mother what had happened and she became livid. She was angry because we had "Wasted the time talking when we should of have been learning." She insisted on sitting in on the classroom and even sent different board directors to "pop" in unannounced to make sure I was actually teaching. To be honest, I am not totally sure how I could have handled the situation differently because I did not believe I did anything wrong. I would like to hear what advice you would have given me in this situation.

For your blog this week, think about the similarities and differences between how you evaluated yourself as a communicator and how others evaluated you. What is the one thing that surprised you the most? Why? What other insights about communication did you gain this week? Choose at least two to share with others through your blog and consider how each might inform your professional work and personal life. I realized through the different evaluations that often others may perceive me in a different light than I view myself. In order to be a role model for young children and to communicate effectively with parents, teachers, friends and colleagues, it is important to develop effective skills in communication. This means avoiding gossip and any negative self-talk, it means self-monitoring and carefully watching how we present ourselves to others. This doesn’t mean that we should pretend that everything is perfect or convey a “fake” image, rather it means being selective about disclosing private information. Learning how to behave in an appropriate manner also means taking cues from other people in the situation. Behaving in a domineering and controlling manner without listening are not skills that would work with a young child. Rather, learning how to listen and convey positive attention which is responsive to the young child is an effective way of communicating.

I realized from this assignment that I do communicate differently with different groups of people. For example, with my parents or teachers I may speak with a more formal tone, perhaps I am more reserved. Whereas, when I am speaking with young children I use a different tone of voice, more high pitched and cheery and maybe I speak a bit slower. Or if I run into a friend, I have a less formal mode of communication. It is funny how without realizing it, I communicate differently between different age groups. I realize that race, religion, sexual orientation does not change how I communicate, but rather it is the type of relationship I have with the person that determines my communication style. One of the best strategies for communication I have learned during this course is the importance of active listening. I realized that with my family, friends and children I do a lot of talking but not always the best listening. When learning to listen better, I feel a closer connection to others because I feel they can open up and tell me what is going on in their lives. Before this class, when I would of thought of the word "communicate" I would have thought "talking" but now if I hear the word, I would think of the word "listen." 3 Strategies for Improved Communication: 1. Instead of making a statement, learn to ask questions. 2. Don't make assumptions, make sure to get clarity on any misconception 3. Work on listening skills to improve communication.