Our Future in Early Childhood

As I look ahead, eight weeks from today...we will be accomplishing no minor feat. A Masters in Early Childhood, only those who work in the field and understand the importance of education pursue this degree. Most of the people I have met outside our field, think it odd I love working in the environment I do. The fast paced and sometimes stressful responsibility of caring and educating upwards of 65 young child (in our small center).

I am fortunate to work with a strong group of women, managing my sister schools and ensuring I understand the company policies. What I bring to the table is the knowledge and excitement gained throughout this program.

Three years ago, I began this program under a different specialty, I thought I would be a teacher. After 18 months of courses, I decided I wanted to be an educator and administrator. I am encouraged by our professors and others within the field, hoping to one day educate other adults to guide young children.

I look forward to hearing all of your thoughts and feelings about early childhood education over the next eight weeks. I hope you enjoy my thoughts, as well.

Family Child Care Home Center

A Family Child Care Home is not far from what I have always dreamed. I had high hopes of opening my own at one point. My focus is now on opening my own Child Care Center, out of home. While thinking back on my center and how I would change it, many ideas come to mind. 

We live in a fairly rural area I would include many aspects of our overall culture. Agricultural is common among families, home gardens and farms are not unfamiliar. A large portion of our outdoor education would revolve around this aspect of people's lives and educating young children how to properly care for crops. In addition I would make sure there were books, music, dolls, dramatic play props, puzzles, drawing materials, blocks, and wall hangings that express different cultures. 

Anti-Bias education would be a priority of mine, as this is a reflection of my teaching style and my home. Some of the strategies I would use would be:

Encouraging children to express their emotions and work out conflicts

Support discussion and activities about people's attributes

Help children try ALL activities

Incorporate children's family traditions

Partner with my families to ensure acceptance

These strategies and a loving environment would allow children to thrive and learn in a judgment free space. 

THANK YOU!

I want to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for your time and effort throughout this course. This last year has been a whirlwind for me and these course have helped me steady each week. Your experiences and comments have brought to light new ideas and insights to consider during my professional career. I wish the best for each one of your and I hope to hear from you soon.

Team Development

This week while discussing team development and working in groups I started to reminsce about my time as a group leader for an overnight summer camp. This was an interesting group of women (it was a girl scout camp) working together to provide fun experiences for girls 6 to 16 years old. This group of co-workers and myself began working in 2004. We lost some members the summer of 2005 but that group ended up being one of the best groups I have ever had the pleasure of being a participant.

We went through all the stages of team development and became and extremely productive group. After two summers and living together our training week turned into a week of fun and preparing, not learning new skills or teaching others. This group was particularly difficult to leave but we handled the stage of adjourning through communication during the year and reunions throughout the years. As graduate students the adjourning stage is graduation and commencement. This is how we come together and celebrate the success of our class.

Adjourning allows a team to reflect on the good and the bad.

Nonviolent Communication and the 3R's

In my professional career I am currently dealing with staffing problems. Conflicts between staff members and different programs. In my recent learning I have found several strategies to help me through these conflicts.
The first strategy that would help is connecting with other's needs and values. This will allow me to understand where my staff members are coming from and how to negotiate an understanding. Another strategy is about emphasizing compassion. This will motivate better than instilling fear, guilt or shame in a situation.
In my situation, the best thing is to look at the situation from their view and see how I can explain what needs to happen for the greater good.

Nonverbal Communication and Television

For this experience I chose to record and watch an episode of WWE Divas. My fiance normally watches the show and I am doing work so I never pay attention. After I recorded the show on Sunday evening, I watched it on Monday on mute. This was an interesting experience as I found myself trying to understand the basis of the "real life" reality show. It was difficult to understand the entire story. Especially because this is apparently reality television and I do not normally watch these shows. You can tell there is tension between some characters and that they are resistant of a new comer but not any real detail about their interactions.
One thing I learned from my horribly wrong assumptions is that it is not a good idea to pass judgement on a situation you no nothing about because it will come back full circle and teach you the lesson. I believe if I had been a regular viewer of the show it may have made more sense on why certain people were fighting but other than that I was a bit lost.
Just remember never assume you understand the situation without all sides of the story. You may be horribly mistaken. 

Communication Role Models

Working in the non-profit organization that I work within, I encounter many new faces and role models throughout my career. One of my more prevalent role models is my executive director, Pedro. I am fortunate that he understand the early childhood education field and supports us, but on top of that he is an excellent communicator. During the last month I have learn many new techniques, including how to receive information without asking a direct question. He is dedicated and articulate when speaking with others, showing me how to actively listen throughout a full conversation and take something away from the process.

I strive to hold that calm and collected method of communication with colleagues, employees and other agencies. Hoping to set a good example for my staff and colleagues on how communication can achieve goals you set for a program.