Time Well Spent

I cannot believe I am posting my last blog!  It is a bit surreal to think I will have my Master’s Degree soon.  My time at Walden has been stressful at times, but overall, an amazing experience!  I have learned so much about myself and early childhood education.  I learned that my passion for educating young children is strong helped me keep moving forward through my studies.  I also learned that I am doing the right thing for the students in my classroom. My studies helped me realize that I know what is developmentally appropriate for young children and gave me more ideas to strengthen my teaching even further.  The most important thing I learned through my time at Walden is that I am capable of much more than I think I am.  I was balancing mommy, wife, teacher, and student duties, and somehow managed to get it all done.  

One long term goal I have for myself is to never stop learning and growing both in my personal life and my professional life.  To Dr. Teri and all of my colleagues, thank you from the bottom of my heart for your knowledge and support!  I could not have made it through without you.  Time to celebrate!!

Some of my favorite quotes from the resources this week:

“Every child is gifted. They just unwrap their packages at different times” –Anonymous (Laureate, 2011).   

“No one had yet fully realize the wealth of sympathy, kindness, and generosity hidden in the soul of a child.  The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure” - Emma Goldman (Laureate, 2011). 

“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge” – Albert Einstein (Laureate, 2011). 

                                                                        References

Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2011). Merging vision, passion, and practice

[Multimedia]. Retrieved from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/EDUC/6990/01/mm/ec_pres/index.html

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

I am grateful for the time and resources Walden has given me to explore organizations that benefit young children.  I especially enjoyed exploring the international resources this week.  These resources have inspired me to become an advocate for young children on an international level someday.  

The first organization I chose was Save the Children.  “Save the Children serves impoverished, marginalized and vulnerable children and families in more than 120 nations”(www.savethechildren.org).   It is a truly remarkable organization with young children in the forefront of everything they do.  I clicked on the link with the success stories and loved reading the positive things happening for children!  Save the Children has a job opening for a coordinator for the Early Steps to School Success program. “ Early Steps to School Success provides early childhood education services to pregnant women and children birth to five years of age, education services to their parents, and ongoing staff training to the community early childhood educators” (www.savethechildren.org).  This is a job I would love to have one day!!  Some of the job responsibilities would be to recruit pregnant families and children under five into the program, develop and schedule program activities, provide home visits to the families involved.  The job requirements include, an associate’s degree in early childhood, experience with home visits and leading parent groups, and experience working with families in rural areas (www.savethechildren.org).

The second organization I chose was The International Step by Step Association (ISSA).      “ISSA promotes equal access to quality education and care for all children, especially in the early years of their lives”(www.issa.nl).  They hold conferences all around the world that allow early childhood professionals to meet, have dialogue, and inspire each other towards equity and quality in early childhood education.  ISSA also published a variety of books and offer online classes pertaining to diversity, equity, and quality early childhood programs.  The International Step by Step Association has a job opening for an office coordinator, who coordinates many of the day to day happenings of the association.  Job requirements include a degree in a relevant field of study, office experience, and fluency in English and Dutch.  I am not remotely close to being fluent in Dutch, so I will need to work on that. ;)

The last organization I chose was UNICEF.  UNICEF is an amazing company working to ensure that children of the world do not have to live with poverty, disease, violence, or discrimination (www.unicef.org).  I loved reading about their child friendly school model (CFS). 

The CFS model compensates for any shortcomings in the home or community that might impede a child’s ability to enroll in school, attend regularly or succeed in studies. For example, when learning is hampered by a lack of food, a school feeding program can provide children the nutrition they need. In such circumstances it also serves as an incentive to stay in school, reinforcing its child-friendliness.  (www.unicef.org). 

My dream would be to travel around the world and see the child friendly schools in action and maybe even become a teacher in one of the schools.  I am sure I would need to learn some new languages and have become familiar with the child friendly school model before I could become a teacher in one of their schools. 

References

 Save the Children - www.savethechildren.org

International Step by Step Association - www.issa.nl

UNICEF - www.unicef.org