BLOG ASSIGNMENT: TIME WELL SPENT

I have really enjoyed my final class and look forward to all of the things that life brings, the challenges as well as the rewards.  I have learned what type of leader I desire to me.   I want to have the love, respect, enthusiasm and enough information about biases and stereotypes to be an instrument that enhances of the lives of every child I have the pleasure of meeting.  I want to continue to increase my knowledge and understanding of education and what it takes to make a difference not only in my community but also in my city.  During my research on this subject, I have found that there are many things that have an effect on a child’s learning.  Some of these include things such as the environment, their lack of support, and lack of finances or necessities to meet the daily needs, and peer pressure. I have also learned that diversity covers a large range of people.  It is not just the differences in our socioeconomic status and ethnicity.  It includes things such as language barriers, culture, gender and even being raised by someone that is not a parent.  We have to realize that there is diversity and some of these things make a difference in the way students respond to certain things.  My long-term goal is to have a collection of books that encourage are students to be better and to receive my doctorate degree in education so that I can open my own childcare academy.

I appreciate all that I have learned from my instructor as well as my colleagues and thank all of you for your being a part of my life for the past seven weeks.  Thanks for enlightening me and helping me to see past myself into your lives, education and experiences. It has been a pleasure getting to know you and wish you all the best in your lives.  God bless. Please feel free to contact me via email at selethatucker@yahoo.com or selethamarie@gmail.com in the future.

Blog Assignment: Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

UNICEF:  United Nations Children Fund has been around since 1946 and has worked in many countries helping to make things better for children all over the world.  They not only work on poverty and hunger but also work to promote education in countries where poverty and disease are rampant.  They have several partners and companies that work along with them for the betterment of our children.  One other thing that I appreciate is the war on violence against the children.  They have been working for years to help end violence against children especially in Central Africa Republic. Their mission is to promote the equal rights of children and foster participation from agencies around the world. They have several job openings all over the world; in countries such as Mozambique, Senegal, Uganda and even in the United States, mainly New York. One job that really interested me was one for an education specialist in New York.  The responsibilities included planning, development, monitoring and evaluation of human resources and development in education.  This involved emergencies and post crisis transition in UNICEF.  The education requirement was a bachelors but with a master’s degree, I only need five or so years of experience in education, great communication skills and worked in the national or international level.  I also need training in HR recruitment and training.

ISSA (International Step by Step Association) Their mission is to provide quality care and services for children focusing on the poor and disadvantaged children. They also work on bridging the gap in diversity.  They believe in starting at the earlier years and helping children from birth through age 10. They also provide training for educators and adults in early childhood.  Although there is information on becoming a member of this organization or being a partner, also modules on learning for educators, there is no information on finding a job or career.  I believe this would be an ideal opportunity.

Academy of Educational Development – Their vision is that everyone reaches their highest potential.  Their mission is to improve lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions for human development.  In 2011, the name was changed to Family Health International 360. They believe in working with every country and every continent helping every to be the best they can be.  It is a nonprofit organization working on nutrition, education, environment, health, gender equality along with multiple other things.  They serve more than 60 countries along with the United States.

The job the interested me was the Internal Communication Specialist II position.  The responsibilities included developing and implementing strategic internal communication initiates to make sure FHI 360 staff  have the necessary information they need to work their jobs effectively.  They also are engaged in the organization’s vision, mission and goals.  The qualifications for this job are to have a Bachelor’s degree and five years of editing, writing and/or a combination of experience and education.  The person needs strong interpersonal and organizational skills. I must be able to relocate to Washington, D.C.  The person must also be used to sensitive or private information and one who loves working alone or with others.

 

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

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

Website: Academy for Educational Development. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.aed.org/en/index.htm

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

https://ims.nea.org

National Education Association

Our Vision
Our vision is a great public school for every student.

Our Mission
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.

In combing the website of the National Education Association or NEA, I noticed all types of information based on their mission on preparing every student to succeed.  There is information on lesson plans and classroom management and anything else educators may need to be help them be  better educators.  This is the type of organization I would be glad to work for and with.  The aim is to make things better for students, parents and educators.

Sr. Confidential Specialist (Training and Development)

Job Description

The incumbent designs, plans, develops, delivers, coordinates, and evaluates employee training programs.  Essential functions include analyzing and assessing organizational and individual staff training needs, conceptualizing training approaches, designing staff development programs, developing curricula and training materials, delivering training, developing related reports and analyses, using a variety of training methods, and working with and overseeing training consultants.  In addition, the incumbent is responsible for advising, coaching, and counseling managers and staff.

This is one of the jobs that interest me and I am hoping that with experience and training, I can one day be able to occupy a job where I am one of those training educators.

http://www.ascd.org/

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development or ASCD is a global community dedicated to excellence in learning, teaching, and leading. ASCD’s innovative solutions promote the success of each child. This organization focuses on excellence in learning and even gives segments about things such as building school morale.  It works with educators and more than 50 other organizations to help educators in their daily walk as a teacher.  This is a nonprofit organization working to make things better for education as a whole which includes families, communities, and educators.

This company did not have any job opportunities that I was interested in but I do feel this would definitely be an organization I would want to join and do whatever I could to help in the fight to educate.

http://www2.ed.gov/about/contacts/gen/othersites/associations.html

Learning Forward is the largest not-for-profit education association focused solely on the issues of school improvement and professional development. The Council has more than 12,000 members, primarily from the U.S., from all areas of education: teacher leaders, principals, staff developers, central office administrators, superintendents, regional and state-level technical assistance providers, and professors.

Learning Forward's purpose: Engage every educator in effective professional learning every day so every student achieves.

There were not any jobs per se but there were opportunities to write or edit information given and also opportunities to volunteer.  These articles help to inspire educators to work towards higher goals and focuses on learning for professionals or educators. Members who would like to affect professional learning on a larger scale have numerous opportunities to lead or support conferences, scholarships, and publications.

Blog Assignment: Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

One of the agencies that I found very interesting was LaPetite Academy. This learning academy is part of the Learning Care Group.  Their statement is “we have a passion for excellence and a love of learning and innovation. Our commitment to providing quality education means we provide children with safe and caring environments that inspire a lifelong love of learning.   In spending time roaming their website, even though this is a for profit organization, they seemed to take pride not only in providing excellent education for students but they also seem to care about the educators.  They provide everything needed to make education enjoyable and fun for educators as well as students.  They have several positions open at this time, one of which is an assistant director position, along with teaching positions all over the state.  I must have my license along with a few years experience in teaching in order to be considered for this position.

Empowering children and families to achieve a healthy, optimal and independent lifestyle is the mission for Porter-Leath.  This used to be called the Porter-Leath Children’s Home but has since began having child care centers and has recently joined with Achieve School District to work with six other schools.  This center also works with foster care programs and a runaway homeless youth shelter.  It has been named one of the top places to work in the city of Memphis for 2013.  This is one of the top places that I would love to work because of their desire to help children of all ages. Their focus is to help in any way possible to meet the needs of the children. They even have a foster grandparent program.  The only position open at this time is for Health Disabilities and nutrition/Family Service worker.  There are no other positions available but I would be interested in starting a position such as this just to get into the company.

Methodist-Lebonheur Hospital is one of the largest hospitals in Memphis and has worked for years as one of the leading medical centers in the community.  Their vision: Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare is a faith-based healthcare system that, in partnership with its physicians, will be nationally recognized for delivering outstanding care to each patient, achieved through collaboration with patients and their families. It’s a tall order, but a worthy one. Faith based. Each patient. Outstanding care. I have worked at this hospital as a medical transcriptionist and I know they are concerned about employees as well as patients.  They have a position opened for an assistant director in their childcare center they have for their employees and it is necessary to have a bachelor’s degree to work here.  This would be an excellent opportunity for me and would love the opportunity to work with the company again.

for excellence and a love of learning and i

REFLECTING ON LEARNING

This class has truly enlightened me on the wealth of information we have received about biases and stereotypes. This has given me information on how things are perceived and how we can help to make things easier for the children. I have learned that things I can do to help with the different questions students may have about a different race of people or culture and also how to teach children about others with disabilities. This information will help me learn what things I need to put in place to allow all students of every culture a chance to express themselves and ways I can bring the families together to help them better understand the differences we all have and how we can be an asset to each other. 

I want to work more to find out as much information as I can and will begin to work on examples of how I can relay to children the need to not criticize something they do not understand. It is so easy to offend without knowing and I want to be able to break the bonds that have been in place that allow students to feel comfortable criticizing others. I want to be an example of love and compassion to all students and want to help families distill the notion that one race or gender is greater than another.

I wish all of my colleagues well in all that they endeavor to do in their lives and appreciate all of the information each of them have shared to help me get to this part of my journey.  May God bless each of you and wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  Now let's go out and change the world. 

BLOG ASSIGNMENT: IMPACT ON EARLY EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT

For this assignment, I chose the Middle East and North African Regions.  I chose these regions because I wanted to get more information on how the people of my four fathers are living and being educated and the effects different things have on their education and learning. UNICEF works with all over the world to help children and their families deal with challenges they face daily.

In this region there are several things that would have an adverse affect on a child's learning and things that would be challenges for children.  These things include An End violence initiative. This advocacy motto or theme is to help all children live free without the threat of violence. They believe all children have a right to be free of violence which harms their physical and mental growth.  They believe for too many years people have turned a blind eye to the violence in this country and believe once everyone is aware and we work together to end the violence, the children will be protected. 

Another challenge is HIV and AIDS. This disease is widespread all over the country. Statistics show "as of 2011, roughly 17.3 million children under the age of 18 have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and millions more have been affected, with a vastly increased risk of poverty, homelessness, school dropout, discrimination and loss of life opportunities. These hardships include illness and death. Of the estimated 1.7 million [1.5 million–1.9 million] people who died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2011, 230,000 [200,000–270,000] of them were children under 15 years of age."  UNICEF is one organization that has worked hard to lessen this normal and has worked to help mothers get assistance with medications. 

Another challenge they have is nutrition.  It is said that with the proper nutrition, children are more productive, healthy and able to learn. "Stunting - or low height for age - traps people into a lifelong cycle of poor nutrition, illness, poverty and inequity. The damage to physical and cognitive development, especially during the first two years of a child’s life, is largely irreversible."  

All of these things have adverse effects on children's emotional well being and development.  It is very hard to learn when they have so many things fighting against them. If we can work to change these things along with UNICEF, we can help these children become bright, educated, healthy students. These are so many things that students in these countries have to deal with and it takes a village to help these children. Although things such as the many children with HIV/AIDS and the type of violence that some of these children incur may not be to that widespread in the United States, we do have these things here and must work hard not only for our children but also for the children in other countries. 

As an educator, I have come in contact with students who have problems in their homes with poverty, gang violence, and also having parents who are incarcerated and these things have an affect on their learning.  Some of them act out and others appear saddened as if the weight of the world is on their shoulders.  We have to go the extra mile to work on the personal things in the homes and communities that prevent children from being the best they can possibly be. No child should be in the classroom worrying about whether he or she will have food to eat, electricity in the home or whether they will have to run through gunshots in the community to get home.  It is up to us to make a difference.

I was enlightened to see how UNICEF has gone up and beyond to lighten the loads of millions of children and their families by helping become more aware of what is going on and raising the funds to make a difference. 

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html.
All children have the right to live free from violence. Violence which harms their physical and

Blog Assignment: The Sexualization of Early Childhood

"Many industries make an obscene amount of money using sex and violence to market their products to children. Whatever their race, ethnic group, economic status, or gender, and whether they can afford to buy a lot or very few of these products, children are deeply affected" (Levin & Kilbourne (2009).  This was a very interesting article.  It is true that society such as the media has increased the awareness of sex.  This has definitely had an affect on how our children view sex.  Children should not be in elementary school worrying about their size or worrying about whether they are compatible to someone of the opposite sex. I do not feel at that early age that they are aware of their own bodies or are able to handle things such as relationships. Some of the information is shocking to hear about how society has changed since I was a child. 

I have several nieces and nephews and was certain I wanted to spend my life as a teacher in middle school.  While attending a track meet at one of the schools.  I noticed one of my nieces and her friends hugged up together on the bleachers. These children spent the entire track meet running back and forth hugging and some kids were kissing. This was very challenging for me and I started to realize how things have changed.

While spending time at my church with some of the preteens, I notice one child wearing makeup and having her eyebrows arched. I was so surprised that this child was wearing makeup and one other adult asked the parent about this and she replied the child wanted it and she allowed it. I do believe this takes away from the child's youth and makes her want to be an adult much older than she should be.  

As a teacher, I have noticed that children start spending more time together and start communicating more with the opposite sex. Often the little boys and girls are choosing their boyfriends and girlfriends and seem to seriously believe that they are in a relationship. I find this alarming but I do not feel these children are prepared to have their hearts broken this early on in life.

I want to help children to realize that things such as sexuality at an early age. I do believe things are happening too fast and children are getting the wrong idea from what they are seeing in the media. I believe they are confused about what they see and they need to have these things explained to them. They should be able to talk about what they are feeling and need to ask questions about what is going on as far as sexual relationships go.  There are so many diseases out there and I do believe they have enough information about what oral sex and sexual intercourse to be engaging in it. Not knowing all the information about diseases and even pregnancy can seriously hurt our children. 

Mothers and grandmothers should not have to continue to spend their lives helping to raise children that are fathered or mothered by children. I do not believe they are mature enough mentally or psychologically to handle pregnancy or diseases that can possibly kill them. These are serious things that need to be addressed early on, especially now that sexuality is so popular in the media.

Schools should foster all types of information and materials to enlighten the students on what is out there and what can happen to them if they continue to engage in sexual activities without protection or knowledge of what can happen.

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