There is no way to even begin listing how very much I have learned from my Master's of Early Childhood Studies program.  There are monumental elements that I have been learning for the last two years.  Although the most recent aspects of my education are still fresh in my mind, the things that I have learned before now have also had a profound effect on shaping me into who I am, even if I cannot remember specific lessons from the beginning of this program.  Each lesson that I learned just settled into me and became a stone in the foundation that each subsequent lesson has built on.  I am amazed at how different I am from when I entered this program two years ago.  I always feel very sure of who I am and what I believe.  Yet with each passing week of this program, I learned something new, was forced to more closely examine my values and beliefs, and many times I found that I needed to change, in order to truly be the person and professional that I wanted most to be.

   I used to always feel like I didn't need to be prepared to include children with special needs, or families that speak other languages, or of other cultures into my center.  I always felt that it was important that everyone be included, I just felt that I since I live in such a rural area that this concept did not really apply to me.  I now realize that I was wrong.  It is now very important to me to ready my staff and center to be prepared to offer services to ANY family at ANY time.
     This program also taught me about what it means to be of "quality".  We can talk a lot about quality programs, but I can now say that I am aware of just what components are necessary in order for services and programs to be of true quality.
     From the last two years of taking these courses, I have learned how important families and systems are in the future success of children.  I learned how vital play is for proper child development.  I have learned far more than I had ever even thought possible when first starting this journey.

Considering that all of my classmates have had the same resources, assignments, and instruction, then it stands to reason that the ending of this program for all of us means a very large number of highly educated and highly motivated professionals setting out into the world of early childhood development.  This excites me and makes me so hopeful for our field.  If the ending of this program means that a large group of people that feel the way I do and that are enlightened as I am are setting out to help families, then that is most certainly very good news for families and children everywhere.

My short term goal is to start teaching online courses.  I want to impact future early childhood professionals, just like I have been impacted.  I want to ensure that early childhood professionals are being educated in areas that can most impact children and families.  My long term goal would to be a director of a Head Start agency, or to work in some supervisory capacity with an children's and family's organization.  I want to direct an agency that has the capacity to do work that helps to ensure that every child is given the opportunity to live up to their full potential.

 

Thanks to all of you for caring enough to want to make a difference and change lives.

Thanks to every single instructor that has demanded excellence from me and that has challenged me to be better.

Thanks so much to my family for having so much patience with me throughout this very long journey.

Go out there and change the world, guys!!

Children of the world!!

     One of the things that I love about having international students in my classes is listening to them talk about the early childhood system in their countries.  It is often eye-opening for me.  I think that we look at early childhood education from our frame of reference, which is how it is in our own country.

     I found three different organizations that focus on international childhood education.  One is the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI). 

http://www.acei.org/

  This organization states that they want bright futures for every child, every nation.  I love that concept!  I was also drawn to their mission, which is to promote innovative solutions to educational challenges and inspire action that creates sustainable futures for children world wide.  I LOVED the phrase "inspire action". 

     Another one is OMEP, which is the World Organization for Early Childhood Education.  http://worldomep.org/en/.  This organization defends and promotes the rights of child education and care worldwide and supports activities that improve access to high quality education and care.  I like that this organization focuses on RIGHTS.

     Another organization that appealed to me is the International Early Childhood Education organization, known as ICF.   https://www.icf.com/campaigns/education/international-early-childhood-education.  This organization does a lot of work in India, but provides early childhood training and technical assistance, coordinates research and evaluation efforts, and supports corporate childcare.  They work to achieve the highest possible quality, performance, and greatest impact possible.  I really like that one focus of this organization is to create NATIONAL licensing and accreditation standards.  I think that this is a fantastic idea!

     I did look at careers with each of these organizations.  However, I live in a very rural area with very few large organizations located anywhere near me.  These three were no exception.  All of the openings were either out of the country, or all in very large cities.  I would have to consider relocating a great distance if I ever wanted to work in any of these positions.  That is something that I am not interested in doing.  I have lived in the same small town all of my life and have no intentions of leaving!

    

     Whenever I think of jobs that I would really like to have (if I didn't have my current job), my mind usually takes me to different organizations that I collaborate with and different members of my current community of practice.  I do a lot of work with our local health department.  Although I am not a health person (medical things are not my favorite), our local health program actually offers very comprehensive services to the families of the community that I work in.  They have people that work there that go into homes of local families and help them in many, many different ways.  I would love to have a job with the local health department, going into homes and offering intensive services that helps the family to keep their children in the home and to do so in the most effective manner for optimal development.  The problem is that most of these jobs usually require a RN or else a LCSW... I am neither.  I really love the social work aspect of some of the services that our local health department offers to families.
http://www.pikecountyhealth.org/jobopportunities.html


  The other two places that I really think that I could find my niche in are the Missouri Head Start Association and also the Missouri Head Start Collaboration Office.  Both of these organizations do so much to help Head Starts all over the state of Missouri.  They hold trainings, offer resources, and do a lot of collaboration work.  I love the idea of being a trainer with Missouri Head Start.  I have also been a part of several collaborative efforts spearheaded by the Missouri Head Start Collaboration Office and I learn so much from each one.  Both of these organizations send early childhood professionals out better prepared to help families than they were before the meetings, trainings, or collaborations.  I would love to be part of that. I have the education and experience to work in either place (if the appropriate job were to be open).  However, neither are located close to where I live.  All of these types of organizations are located about two hours from my house (I live in a very rural area).

http://www.moheadstart.org/Job%20Opportunities.aspx

http://www.moheadstart.org/Missouri%20Head%20Start%20State%20Collaboration%20Office.aspx
     Although these two both appeal to me, I really LOVE the idea of teaching college courses.  I would love to teach early childhood courses at a local college or to direct or teach at an early childhood center that is ran by a college to train those working to be early childhood teachers.  There are not any of these types of programs near me.  There are colleges, but they either don't have openings to teach the early childhood courses, or else they require a PhD.  I would LOVE to teach online classes.  I do a lot of internet searches and it looks like there are rare online teaching opportunities for me once I get my masters, but most of them prefer experience teaching online courses at a college level.  It looks like it will be a difficult profession to get your foot in the door.  I really hope to find an opportunity with this once I get my Master's, but it looks like it will be a lot of searching.  Fingers crossed!

     Thinking of some communities of practice that I would be interested in participating in was easy, especially since thinking about it made me feel really guilty.  I started my job two and a half years ago.  At that time, the local COP known as PCCP (Pike County Care Partnership) reached out to me.  They meet the first Tuesday of each month.  This group is composed of local organizations and businesses that are all considered to be community resources to help individuals and families in need.   There are mental health professionals, physicians offices, food banks, housing organizations, the local health department, the county social service offices, etc.  I was excited to join!  It sounded like such a good way to meet each month and to share information about how best to help the members of the community that I work in and the families at my center.  I have never been to a single meeting... not one.  There just doesn't ever seem to be enough hours in the day and I always feel like there is something that I should be doing at the center.  This is so silly.  I could really learn a lot from going to these meetings and by participating in this COP.  I also have so much that I could offer.
     One COP that I found while researching was the United Way of Central Missouri.  Most of us are familiar with the united way.  However, I did not know that our local United Way created an Early Childhood Advisory Committee.  The purpose of this committee is to support and promote early childhood programs and initiatives in central Missouri.  One of their goals is to identify gaps in services and needs in the early childhood community, which is one of my passions!  I also saw that they want to provide "Born Learning" materials to all low income families.  I was really interested in this, because I had never heard of this program.  The "Born Learning" program looks like something that I would be interested in for my own community.  It is a series of workshops to meet parents where they are and shows them how to use every day moments as learning moments.  I would love to be part of this Early Childhood Advisory Committee!
     I also discovered, while researching, that Missouri has a COP called the Missouri Coordinating Board for Early Childhood.  This board works to ensure that early childhood program's services are comprehensive.  The vision is that "all young children in Missouri are safe, healthy, and capable of reaching their full potential".  One of their missions is to ensure equal access to the necessary resources that result in implementing effective and sustainable early childhood programs.  This all sounds right up my alley!
     The conversation of job opportunities is a very frustrating one for me.  I love my job.  I am currently the director of a center.  I would maybe like to move up into administration one day, when my administrators retire, but for now I am happy doing what I do.  However, I badly want to start teaching online early childhood courses to college student.  I search constantly for job openings.  I find them (rarely) and I almost have the needed Master's degree and I already have a lot of early childhood experience.  However, I do not have experience with teaching college courses.  Even community colleges look for experience teaching college courses.  This brings about the age old dilemma... how does one get experience when they can't get a job without experience???!!!  This is a huge frustration for me.  I know that I could do it and I know that I have a lot to offer others entering into the early childhood profession.  You guys let me know if you have heard of a place in which I can get my foot in the door! 😕😕😕😕😕