Farewell

It is bittersweet to be coming to my time here at Walden, it feels as if I just began the program yesterday but as I reflect I realize how long of a road it was and how much I know have gained. As I end this program I realize I am not the same professional as I was when I started. When I started here I was nervous about what I thought I would gain, I felt I already knew a lot because I was in a director role. As the program continued I realized how little I actually knew. I feel my thought process has changed to incorporate many components as I make decisions for my center to incorporate thinking about financials, families, children, staff and community.   I feel it was important for me to learn more about budget and financials to understand better the effect of labor vs enrollment and the importance of being able to stay within my targeted budget. It was also very eye opening for me to be able to develop my own budget for a center to learn how difficult and intensive it is. I feel the biggest benefit in the program was the cohort. Over the last twenty-two months I have grown alongside many colleagues in the program and I am very thankful to have them with me through giving me feedback and encouragement. One long term goal I have for myself is to continue learning and think that I know everything I need to know.

I am going to miss everyone I have worked with throughout this program especially my professors who have pushed me to be the professional I am today. Thank you!

Jobs and Roles Internationally

The International Step by Step Association is a group of individual looking to empower each child to reach their unique potential and embrace social justice and equity (International Step by Step Association, n.d.). Their goals are to advocate for and support competent early childhood systems for all children while increasing awareness of early childhood development and of qualified workforce (International Step by Step Association, n.d.). I found this group interesting because of their advocacy work on an international level. Their work with inclusion could potentially serve as importance to my Capstone challenge.

Save the Children is another organization that I find interesting. I have talked about them before and have worked with them in New Hampshire. I feel they are a good organization to have in a Community of Practice due to their knowledge of Early Childhood and their multiple connections not just in the U.S. but internationally.

UNICEF strives to provide equal access to services and care that can make all the difference in their lives (UNICEF, n.d.). They work to achieve gender fairness and equality (UNICEF, n.d.). UNICEF has had a strong presence for decades and have had made strides for children and families and would be a great group to have within your Community of Practice.

Save the Children has a job opening in Iraq as a child protection manager. Some of the qualifications I would need for this position is experience in child protection, to be politically and culturally sensitive, and commitment and understanding of child rights.

https://www.savethechildren.net/jobs/job-details/3418

References

United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2011, from http://www.unicef.org/

International Step By Step Association. (n.d.). Retrieved November 28, 2011, from http://www.issa.nl/index.html

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community

Save the Children is an organization that invests in child hood every day, in times of crisis and for our future (Save the Children, n.d.). Not only does Save the Children work with children in the U.S. but around the world by giving children a healthy start and the opportunity to learn and receive protection from harm (Save the Children, n.d.).  I have worked with Saved the Children before in New Hampshire. I enjoyed my experience with them they provided me opportunities such as meeting all of the presidential candidates for the current election. This organization goes above and beyond to benefit children in the U.S. and international.

Save the Children, (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.savethechildren.net/

KaBoom is an organization that strives to bring balance and active play into the daily lives of all children focusing on children growing up in poverty in America (KaBoom, n.d.). KaBoom creates places to play by inspiring communities to promote and support play and brining awareness to the importance of play (Kaboom, n.d.). I think this organization has a great vision; the reason I choose KaBoom because I feel play is essential to children’s learning.

KaBoom, (n.d.). Retrieved from https://kaboom.org/about_kaboom

Love 146 is an organization that works to help save children from sex trafficking and provide them with support and love to start a new life (Love 146, n.d.). This is another organization that I have worked with in the past, they provide shelter and education for girls they rescue from sex trafficking in many countries. I feel the work they do is so important and effects so many young girls.

Love 146, (n.d.). Retrieved from https://love146.org/

A current job opening that I am interested is the area director for Pathways. Pathways strives to expand opportunities for people with disabilities that enrich their lives and doing so with partnership and respect. To be able to competently do this role is to increase my knowledge of NH’s state services. This role also requires experience managing and leading staff and experience working with a budget.

http://www.indeed.com/cmp/PathWays-of-the-River-Valley/jobs/Area-Director-cc3f9946842dc7ad?q=sunapee

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community

http://everychildmatters.org/state-campaigns/new-hampshire/

Every Child Matters is a great organization that is very appealing to me they send weekly updates to you about what is happening in the state in relation to children and families. I feel that I am interested in this community of practice because of my background in advocacy and public policy, I am passionate about developing initiatives to help children and families.

http://nhkidscount.org/NHCAN

NH Kids Count is another advocacy network in my area that helps to bring broad groups together to help partner to help children and families This appeals to me again because of passion for advocacy and public policy work.

http://www.wiseuv.org/who-we-are.html

WISE is a group that works together to help end gender-based violence by advocacy, prevention, and education to promote social change. As you can see there is a trend in my interest for advocacy and public policy and that is why I included WISE in my selection.

http://www.indeed.com/viewjob?cmp=Child-Advocacy-Center-of-Coos-County&t=Executive+Director&jk=1188d1fd3f6eeb23&q=nonprofit+%2450%2C000

Executive Director of the Child Advocacy Center is a very appealing job to me for a few reasons. One being my passion for doing advocacy work. Also I am very passionate about helping children and families especially through crisis. Some of the skills and experiences I would need include fundraising, grant management, and an understanding of not-for-profit financial issues. Also three-five years of management and supervisory experience.

Adjourning

The adjourning stage of team development is always harder for me when the team was high performing. This was so because we developed a bond over our accomplishments that we all contributed to achieving. With that said the one team I worked with that was hard to part from was not a winning team but we all put in our hardest effort and still felt good with ourselves in our placement because we trusted each other did their best and that is all that mattered. When this team parted it was very hard but we still stay in touch because of the bond we formed during this experience. In our parting we had a final dinner to say our good byes and celebrate our accomplishments. Ending this way really helped with saying good bye because we could have one last moment as a group together and relic in what we have done but look onto the future. When thinking of how it I would like to depart from my colleagues from the Master's program I feel graduation would be the best way to adjourn and say our good byes.

Conflict

In reflecting on any conflicts I have had lately, one comes to mind. I coworker and I had a disagreement about nap time routine. What had been happening is that one of the children at nap had been consistently disruptive so the teacher gave the child a toy car to wheel back and forth to keep him from disrupting the other children. A very innocent gesture that turned into chaos because then other children wanted to have a toy at their mat, so now all sixteen children had a toy on their mat. When you walk into the classroom you can hear loud noises and the environment is not peaceful or easy to relax. Now there are no children who need naps sleeping during naptime.

I approached the topic with the teacher by saying when I walked into the classroom at naptime yesterday I observed that the atmosphere seemed to be chaotic and louder than usual. I then asked her what her thoughts were about the environment at naptime. At first she was defensive and then as we talked about alternative to toys at the children’s mats and different techniques to work with the child that was being disruptive and coming up with a plan to help provide support. After talking about different supports the teacher felt better and more confident about nap time and I felt better that the children would be able to rest in a calmer environment.

Communication Assessment

This week’s assignment was very interesting to do. Performing the three self-assessments on my communication styles was important to learn where I can improve on my communication. It was not surprising to learn that I was mild when it came to anxiety with communication. Communication does not bother me but every now and then I would prefer not to talk if I do not have to. When first doing the aggressive communication assessment I was surprised but then took it again and then realized I did the assessment wrong. The most surprising part was what I learned from my coworker and mom taking the assessments about me results were. My co worker thought I was more confident in my communication than my mom thought but both agreed I was a strong listener and nonaggressive. I think this assignment proved that people communicate differently with different people.

Communicating with Others

I feel that my communication changes with my comfort level. If I am communicating with a group of people or people from a culture I am not familiar with I notice my way of communicating changes. From this weeks readings I have learned some techniques to help to have effective communication when communicating with all groups.  The first technique is to try and withhold judgment long enough to gain a deeper understanding than first impressions allow. The second technique is looking at what a family is doing through their eyes instead of your own. The last technique is accepting differences and realizing everyone has a different view even when you come from the same culture.  These techniques will be helpful to have more effective communications with people from other cultures and different groups

Watching without Sound

The show I chose for this assignment is my niece's favorite show Jessie I have never seen it but have seen all of the merchandise from it. Watching a Disney show without sound is an interesting experience. They use their arms and bodies along with facial expressions a lot. There seems to be a lot of comic relief in stressful situations. There is a lot of positive body language and facial expressions throughout the show. Once I rewatched the show with sound I noticed they communicate a lot through humor. It is not until something happened towards the end when the nanny Jessie has a more serious conversation and there is a lesson learned. Without they words it was harder to pick up when things became serious because of their body language and facial expressions were always positive and seemed as if they were goofing around all the time. I feel my assumptions would be more correct watching a show I know because I know the characters and the way they typically communicate. It was eye opening because it made me realize that when you are not familiar with someone and their communication styles that you can not assume how they feel based off of their body language and facial expression.

Communication Models

My Divisional Vice President is great at communicating. She is just very well spoken, she knows how to word things to really get her point across for effective communication. She always has a smile on her face and has a very relaxed demeanor. She is very easy to talk to and when you do you feel that she is engaged and listening to what you are saying. She is a leader and not a dictator I do not feel intimidated by her because she is my boss's boss. I would love to be as composed as she is when speaking or evening communicating electronically I would like to model my own communication behaviors after her. I look forward to learn and develop skills over the next eight weeks to help me become a more effective communicator.