Time Well Spent

 

 

 I learned a lot from doing my master’s degree. I learned how to and the importance to advocate.  By advocating we are doing what’s best for someone else, someone who doesn’t have the access we have, someone who doesn’t have the voice we have (Laureate Inc, 2011). I also found my voice and learned about who I am and how to uncover my own biases, discomforts, and misinformation to be able to look at people as fully human beings and not to judge them on their appearances or stereotypes.  I became a lifelong learner and that I don’t have to wait until I know enough to start addressing the issues that affect our children. We never learn enough, learning is a lifetime process; we have to keep learning and learning.

I learned that asking for assistance is not a weakness, but it is a must if we need to make a difference.  I have learned throughout all the courses that the tremendous responsibility of being a professional is to stay current and by keeping up-to–date with advancements in latest research regarding children’s issues.  

I feel that my journey has just started; I still have many goals that I want to fulfill. I want to continue my education in the field of early childhood and I also want to keep working on myself to become a better leader and professional.

This is one of my favorite inspirational quotes:

Darkness is not a force -
it is merely the absence of light.
Observe that when a light
is brought to a dark place,
the darkness disappears.
Sadness is similar -
when joy is brought to suffering,
the sadness disappears.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The biggest insight that I have got from doing my Master’s degree is that we- the professionals in the early childhood field are the light that is going to erase darkness from the lives of so many children. Always remember to believe in yourself and in your abilities to make a change.

I want to thank every one of you for your passion, your ambitions, and your willingness to do a social change and make a difference not only in children’s lives but in yours too.

I also want to thank every one of you for your support and guidance throughout all these courses. I learned from every one of you, I hope that you will succeed in all your future goals and plans in the early childhood field. 

Please watch this motivational video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7r7YY_EO0A

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

UNICEF is wonderful organization. They work toward building a world where the rights of every child is realized. UNICEF works with others in order to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. UNICEF advocates for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future (Unicef.org). For more information, you can visit their website at http://www.unicef.org/whatwedo/index.html.

 

One of the short term jobs that I found interesting is: A consultant for peace building and child protection. The first requirement of this job is to be passionate to make a lasting difference for children.

This person will be hired for the documentation of good practices of Child Protection programming related to peace building, Education and Advocacy in Conflict-Affected Contexts.

I am not qualified for this job because I don’t have ten years of experience in the design, development, evaluation and implementation of child protection programs.

The other second organization is save the children organization. The mission of this organization is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives. They focus on the areas of child protection, child survival, education, health, and nutrition, HIV and Aids, hunger and livelihoods, and emergency response.

The job that I found is an emergency child protection advisor. The Child Protection adviser is responsible for ensuring that quality programs are initiated and capacities developed to provide these kinds of protection to children in a range of Save the Children’s emergency responses world-wide. I have most of the requirement s of this job but the only one that I am missing is the experience in evaluating child protection programs in emergency, transition and development contexts.

The International Step by Step Association (ISSA) is an organization that connects professionals and organizations working in the field of EC development and education. ISSA promotes equal access to quality education and care for all children, especially in the early years of their lives (ISSA website). It is a great resource it helps professionals get so many information about strategies that help them improve their teaching practice,

I didn’t see any available jobs at this organization.

Resources,

Save the children. Retrieved from: https://ch.tbe.taleo.net/CH07/ats/careers/requisition.jsp?org=SAVETHECHILDREN&cws=8&rid=130

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

International Step by Step Association (ISSA): Retrieved from, http://www.issa.nl/join.html

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

1. The first organization that I chose is the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) which is a Washington, DC-based national membership organization of close to 80,000 members, focused on improving the quality and accessibility of early childhood education programs and services and on enhancing the development of children and families (NAEYC website).

NAEYC believes high-performing organizations are inclusive and continually seeks to be enriched and strengthened by the wisdom of diversity.

One of the jobs that appealed to me is an Accreditation Coordinator to support the work of the Accreditation System by assisting program staff, NAEYC assessors and other stakeholders in understanding and interpreting the standards, the criteria and the system as a whole.

Responsibilities include working with program administrators, assessors and decision makers throughout all aspects of the accreditation process.

The skills and experience necessary to competently fulfill this role include a BA in Early Childhood Education/Child Development, 3-5 years experience in the field of early childhood education and an understanding of its practices is required. Experience with high quality programming and NAEYC accreditation is a plus.

2. The second organization that I chose is the Alliance for Children and Families. The Alliance is a membership association that provides a variety of services to private nonprofit human service organizations throughout the United States and Canada. Alliance members are organizations dedicated to serving and advocating for children, families, older adults, and communities. Their mission is to reduce the number of people living in poverty, Increase the number of people having opportunities to live safe, healthy lives, Increase the number of people having opportunities for educational and employment success (Alliance for Children &Families website).

They have many marketing job opportunities.

3. The third organization that I chose is the Voices for America’s Children organization. Voices for America’s Children are the nation’s largest network of multi-issue child advocacy organizations. They lead advocacy efforts at the community, state and federal levels to improve the lives of all children, especially those most vulnerable, and their families (Voices for America’s Children Website).

The only job posting that I found is an Executive Director who will play a significant role in leading, supporting and guiding coalition work focused on improving public policies affecting children and increasing federal investment in children and youth from birth to young adulthood (Voices for America’s Children Website).

References,

NAEYC Academy for Early Childhood Education. Retrieved from: https://www.naeyc.org/about/jobs

Alliance for children and Families. http://www.alliance1.org/

http://voices.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/CLC-Executive-Director-Job-Description.pdf

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

 

The three local and state organizations that Appealed to me are as follows:

 

1.      Family Independence Agency: I chose this organization because I am interested in helping people improve their lives. It is a great organization whose mission is to support and empower families, to protect children from child abuse and maltreatment, and to improve the quality of life of poor families and children.

Family Independence Specialist is the job opportunity that interests me. The family independence specialist develop plans and determines resources to address applicants and recipients problems in housing, child care, training, counseling, and other areas that are barriers to employment (Family Independence Agency, 2012). He also interviews applicants and recipients to obtain information necessary to make eligibility determinations.

The skills and experience that I would need to competently fulfill these roles are as follows: Possession of a bachelor’s degree in any major with at least 30 semester (45 term) credits in areas of human services such as: social work, sociology, family studies, family and child development, special education. And in addition to these requirements, applicants should possess other skills like Knowledge of family and marital problems, including family violence, their characteristics, and solutions, Knowledge of community resources providing assistance to families and individuals, Knowledge of social problems, their causes, effects, and means of remediation, and Knowledge of the types of discrimination and mistreatment which applicants and recipients may encounter (Family Independence Agency, 2012).

 

 

2.      Early Head Start Teacher and family Service: The teacher will plan and implement activities that educate parents and give them information on how to raise their children better. The teacher will utilize community resources to provide a continuum of services to children and families in an effort to strengthen and preserve the family structure.
The skills and experience needed to competently fulfill these roles include possessing a minimum Associates but preferably BA/BS degree with a major in Early Childhood Education or Childhood Development (with a ZA or Early Childhood
endorsement) required. Previous demonstrated experience working with infants and toddlers in a childhood agency (Michigan Head Start Association).

 

3.   Great Start Michigan is a program in Michigan that prepares children for school especially for low income and minority families. With the right programs and intervention all the negative impacts of early childhood issues will be minimized to help students be ready to start school and success in their life. The job opportunity available is an early childhood home visitor. I am interested in this job because it is an excellent opportunity for me to help children in Michigan to have a great start in life. the Eary chldhood home Visiting Program is an exciting help build the portion of the Great Start system that provides programs for pregnant women, parents and caregivers, and children from birth to 8 years of age in order to improve health and development outcomes (Great Start, 2012). The skill needed to excel in this position is a bachelor’s degree and 3-5 years of related experience in early childhood development is helpful (Great Start Michigan, 2012).

 

Resources,

 

Family Independence Agency, Retrieved from: http://web1mdcs.state.mi.us/MCSCJobSpecifications/JobSpecMain.aspx

 

Michigan Head Start Association, Retrieved from: http://michheadstart.org/

 

Great Start Michigan Retrieved from: http://greatstartforkids.org/node/881

Reflecting on Learning

 

I learned a lot about myself and the best strategies that I can use in my classroom to become a better and more effective anti bias educator. I hope to be able to apply all what I have learned in my classroom and to partner with families so they can help me plan a curriculum that makes them and their children visible and valued in each activity or lesson. Simply, all what I hope for is to make children feel pride of who they are and feel at home in their early childhood program.

We are in a great need for anti bias education in this changing world. We need to give children the appropriate tools and to empower them to be successful in no matter what they do in their life.

I want to thank every one of my colleagues who have given me feedback on my discussion and comments on my personal blog. My wish for you is that you will take what we have learned from this course ad all the other courses regarding anti bias education and apply it in your professional life as well as your professional life working with families and children. I wish you all the best in your last course in this master degree program.

 

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

I chose to explore the area of Afghanistan; I wanted to learn about children living in this region.Here is a detailed list of the challenges that children in Afghanistan face:
Child Protection:  Political conflicts in Afghanistan have eroded the physical and social fabric of Afghanistan and continue to impact the lives of children by hampering their access to school and basic services, exposing them to increased violence and abuses and jeopardizing their very survival (unicef.org)

 

Education in Afghanistan: The people of Afghanistan have been living in a protracted state of conflict and instability for three decades. In addition to uncertain security, the extreme mountain terrain and harsh climate make it difficult to access education especially for girls. Under the Taliban regime violence and intimidation were routinely used to prevent girls and women from attending school and gaining the education that is their right (Unicef.org)

 

Child Health in Afghanistan: Afghanistan has the second highest rate of under-five mortality in the world, with thousands of children dying every year. Many of these deaths are the result of vaccine preventable diseases, including polio and measles, the lack of clean water and sanitation which directly impacts nutrition and limited access to medical care. In addition to the high mortality rate, Afghanistan also has the highest rates of stunting in the world. Stunting is primarily caused by mothers’ poor nutrition during pregnancy and repeated episodes of infectious diseases in a child’s early years. Children who suffer from stunting lack the necessary nutrients for their bodies to develop properly, meaning they will not grow to their full size, often ending up smaller and facing greater risk of death during childhood or reduced productivity in adulthood. Reduced food security of families due to destruction of crops during natural disasters, combined with the burden of infectious diseases, is increasing the rate of acute malnutrition in the country - which is now double the rate of 2004 (Unicef.org)

Polio: Polio has devastating effects on infants and young children and can result in chronic health problems, paralysis, stunting and premature death.
As a result of intensive worldwide efforts to eradicate the disease, Afghanistan is now one of only four countries where the disease remains endemic, the others being Nigeria, India and Pakistan (Unicef.org)

Wash: Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene: Ongoing conflict in Afghanistan has impeded the development of infrastructure throughout the country, resulting in many communities not being able to develop quality water sources. The lack of clean water and poor sanitation result in exposure to water-borne illnesses, including diarrhea, claiming the lives of an estimated 85,000 children a year (Unicef .org)

I learned a lot about Afghanistan. The issues that we have in the US are totally different than the issues elsewhere in the world. Here, we worry about extracurricular activities, about teaching the right curriculum to our students, and about educating the whole child. In Afghanistan for example, I noticed that professionals have different types of issues to worry about. Most children didn’t even have the basic nutrition or clean water in order to survive. Children in Afghanistan face so many challenges that do not only affect their emotional but also their physical and mental development. Unfortunately, all what I can do is advocate for these children and raise awareness of the issues facing these children. As an anti bias educator, I believe it is our responsibility to teach my students about other children from other parts of the world to raise their awareness for these issues and at the same time to help them to respect and appreciate others.

 

 Resources:

 

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html.

 

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

The ideas shared in this reading are very alarming about the danger and the harmful effets of messages about sexualization. Children are growing up in a society where according to Levin and Kilbourne (2009) in the book excerpt, So sexy so soon, “the narrow definition of femininity and sexuality encourages girls to focus heavily on appearance and sex appeal. They learn at a very young age that their value is determined by how beautiful, thin, “hot,” and sexy they are. And boys, who get a very narrow definition of masculinity that promotes insensitivity and macho behavior, are taught to judge girls based on how close they come to an artificial, impossible, and shallow ideal”. This is very dangerous because there is no value of who the person is. The more beautiful, cool, and sexy the person looks the more he is acceptable between his friends. Almost everything around children spread wrong messages about sexualization and it seems that this has become a part of our life that we are not noticing that it is completely wrong. In these days, no one wants his daughter to look bad or different than her friends, so what they try to do is just go with what is going on in the society without even noticing that what they are doing is wrong and even without explaining to their kids the right or wrong of their behavior.

My daughter used to go to a Catholic school and she used to wear uniform. The skirt was up to her knee. One day my daughter came home and she told me that her friends when they leave school they try to shorten their skirts, she and all the girls in her class always complained about how unsexy and old fashioned their school uniform are. I don’t blame them because they are surrounded by all these messages from the media, television shows, and advertisement that there are certain standards girls have to do in order to be considered beautiful and in other words ‘hot” or “sexy”’. One day my daughter came home singing the song “I am sexy and I know it”, what type of song is that? And no matter what parents do, children still can hear it everywhere they go like the malls, grocery shopping stores, and on the radio. This song is a small example of what the media is spreading. All children are curious and they want to know and explore everything around them and once they hear the word “I am sexy” I am sure that they want to ask what it means to be sexy or act like it.

 These messages impact children and their healthy development. Children don’t have so many choices. They either have to follow the crowd and behave according to the image set by the media or they will be considered as stupid kids who don’t know anything and dress, behave, and act like babies.

This book helped me to see more clearly the harms of sexual messages that permeate the lives of our children both girls and boys. I feel now that it is very important to find ways find ways to protect our children. Levin and Kilbourne (2009) discussed that children need to be able to talk with trusted adults about the relationships and sexual images that they see in the media and in the popular culture”. I think this is one of the best ways to help children develop in a healthy way and to become better able to cope with the inevitable stresses and strains of life.

Resources,

Book Excerpt:: Levin, D. E., & Kilbourne, J. (2009). [Introduction]. So sexy so soon: The new sexualized childhood and what parents can do to protect their kids (pp. 1-8). New York: Ballantine Books. Retrieved from: http://dianeelevin.com/sosexysosoon/introduction.pdf