Time Well Spent

There are many things that I have learned throughout this course and throughout my career as a student of Early Childhood Studies and that is perseverance. There are many challenges that I have faced as a student and while facing these challenges I had to continue to motivate myself to just keep going even when it became difficult. I will say that this is something that I believe will translate in my experience as an educator. I am often challenged in the work that I do but I know I must keep going, not for myself but for the good and well-being of others. A second lesson I have learned is how to refine my passion and reflect on what it means to develop that passion. There were so many things that I took from our discussions about diversity and what it means and how to encourage young children and families to see the beauty in it and I am really excited about challenging myself to find ways to incorporate that. Lastly, I have learned about challenges and what it means to critically think about my own practices when it comes to meeting those challenges and understanding the "why" and "how" of what I am doing to meet those challenges.

One goal that I have for my career is to inspire prospective educators to engage in inclusive practices to support all children. This is something that I have always had a strong passion for and I hope that this is something that is achievable for me.

It has been such an amazing and eye-opening experience working towards this degree and towards growing as an early childhood professional. I know that I am so grateful to have had colleagues and professors who challenged my thinking and reflected with me and understood my perspective but also expanded it by sharing their perspectives and I couldn't have done any of this without all of you. I hope that I have equally inspired all of you in some way. There are so many things that we could all be doing but I'm glad to have chosen to be a part of this experience and to have all of you to share it with. Congratulations to all of you and may many blessings come along with you!


It is not what I say that will inspire others to achieve greatness, it is in the act of my passion that will inspire others.

Adaiah Marie Negron

mariestar9@hotmail.com

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

Division for Early Childhood
www.dec-sped.org

Council for Exceptional Children
www.cec.sped.org
Included below are the core values from the Council for Exceptional Children and these are a main reason why I am both interested in this organization and strive to be someone who works in support of what they stand for.

Core Values

• Dignity and worth of all individuals.

• Diversity and inclusiveness.

• Advocacy and social justice.

• Professional excellence, integrity, and accountability.

• Full participation in society.

• Effective individualized education.

• Family engagement.

• Collaboration and community.

• Responsibility to members.

International Society on Early Interventionhttp://depts.washington.edu/isei/index.html
The above organizations are of interest to me because of their propensity to support the progression of inclusive programs in early education/special education. The above organizations value the importance of supporting young children and families with special needs. It is my personal belief that this is something that we must continue to strive for...the education of all teachers in inclusive practices as well as the education of families as advocates, and the education of young children learning and supporting the diversity that they experience. I believe that these three organizations embody the kind of educator I strive to be and they also support me in building myself up as a person who has something to offer young children and families in inclusive environments and support others in providing this opportunity within their communities.
Job opportunities of interest:
Special Education Teacher - Full Inclusion Early Childhood, Smart Start Santa Monica, CA
Requirements:
Must possess a B.A  or M.A. in Child Development and/orSpecial Education.MINIMUM of 2 Years Experience as a LEAD  Preschool Teacher (for children ages 2.9-4 years old) with Full inclusion experienceMust have experience and a working knowledge of: development, strong parent communication, collaborative team member, knowledge of sensory integration, speech language development a plus!Must have excellent writing skillsCommitted to working as part of a team of professionals
Early Childhood Director, employer unknown
Requirements:

• minimum BA Degree in Early Childhood Education/Child Development with at least 9 credit hours in administration

Teacher - Children's Institute, Inc
Requirements:
BA in Early Childhood Education or other Early Childhood field and a Teacher Permit from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Minimum of 2 years working with children 0-5. Working knowledge of early childhood programs, standards, licensing requirements and operations, including prior teaching experience in an ECE classroom. 

References

Children’s Institute, Inc. (June 2, 2013). Teacher. Retrieved on June 13, 2013 from

http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?Job_DID=JHT7WN70GB8C8DHDWPT&siteid=cb_emailjob_US&showNewJDP=yes&IPATH=JEEAXP.

Council for Exceptional Children. (2013). Council for exceptional children. Retrieved on June

15, 2013 from www.cec.sped.org.

Division for Early Childhood. (2013). Division for Early Childhood. Retrieved on June 15, 2013

from www.dec-sped.org.

International Society on Early Intervention. (2013). International Society on Early Intervention.

Retrieved on June 15, 2013 from http://depts.washington.edu/isei/index.html.

SmartStart Developmental Learning Center. (May, 20, 2013). Special education teacher-Full        inclusion early childhood. Retrieved on June 13, 2013 from  http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?Job_DID=J8B1866K0W4TY13G0X2&siteid=cb_emailjob_US&showNewJDP=yes&IPATH=JEEAXP

Unknown. (June 6, 2013). Early childhood director. Retrieved on June 15, 2013 from        http://careers.dec-sped.org/jobs/#/detail/5458674/1,false

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community

National/Federal Organizations:

Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute http://fpg.unc.edu/index
National Association for the Education of Young Children http://www.naeyc.org/
Division for Early Childhood http://www.dec-sped.org/

These three organizations especially appealed to me because of the research that I am conducting on Early Childhood Inclusion. They all in some way support the nature of inclusion and not just that but they also help to define it for us all. Even though inclusion is something that I feel very passionate about, in reading information provided by these organizations my eyes were opened to understanding that this is a concept that doesn't just support children who are differently-abled but it supports all children. I think that these organizations all have something valuable to offer whether it is resources/research or the provision of professional development opportunities, or finding ways to support early childhood in multi-faceted ways. They are inspirational to me because of that.

Job opportunities:

Early Childhood Special Education Teacher - Full Inclusion
Requirements: Early Childhood Special Education Credential or MA in Child Development an eligible for intern program and CBEST

Education Coordinator
Requirements: BA in Child Development, two years supervisory experience, four years teaching experience, CPR Certified

Early Intervention Specialist
BA in Child Development
Experience working with special needs children

Reflecting on Learning

This course and this program have given me the opportunity to explore and reflect in ways that help me to be more responsible for the learning not just of young children and families but also for myself. As I move forward in my career as an early childhood professional, my hope is that I am able to engage in reflective teaching and learning as I practice the responsibilities of integrating anti-bias curriculum into the classrooms that I am a part of. It is my sincerest hope that I can inspire and be a part of a classroom that acknowledges differences and remains open to them and learns to investigate them and discover new things about what makes us similar even though we have things that are different about us. I hope that this information will transfer to families and become a part of our learning community. I hope that I can also inspire other educators to be open to this kind of curriculum and implement it in the way that is supportive of the needs of young children and families.

I am so glad that I have had the opportunity to share my thoughts on these topics with all of you and your thoughts have really provided me with different perspectives that have made me expand and build upon my own. Thank you for your genuine support in our learning community and I wish nothing but the best for you all and much success as this journey is beginning to come to a close for us. Good luck and bless you all!

Impacts on Early Emotional Development

For this assignment, I chose to look at the Latin American and Caribbean regions of the world. I have a particular interest since half of my family is Puerto Rican and I have only visited there as an adult and I think I just was very touched by what I saw there and every time I go, I find that the people are incredible and I want to learn more about their struggles.

The challenges that this region faces are poverty, disease (particularly HIV/AIDS), violence, malnutrition, and natural disasters that create severe emergencies in areas that are significantly ill-prepared to deal with such disasters. Poverty affects these people because it contributes to a lot of the other significant problems that these countries have such as lack of good medical care, malnutrition, and even to the lack of preparedness for things such as the serious emergencies such as the disastrous earthquake in Haiti.

These experiences are powerful when it comes to how children develop. Children not having access to the things that they need or the support to find resources leads them to feel uncertain of their environment. With this uncertainty comes doubt that their needs will ever be met. When young children have unmet needs there is the potential that this can also impair their school success (The Trustees of Columbia University, 2010).

As I learn and continue to grow as a professional in this field, I am reminded that it is essential to keep abreast to the information that is happening in this field around the world. As we explore the possibilities and challenges in our own schools and communities, it is important to remind ourselves of the impact that we are making and how we can share that with communities around the world. I have been thinking about this a lot in my professional career. I work in what I would described as a privileged area that is very progressive in its way of educating young children and I often think about how I as an educator can transfer that information to communities that don't have that same opportunity. I hope that in my career that I do find ways of sharing that information with others so that they can be advocates for the future of their young children.

Resources:
http://www.unicef.org/lac/english_4842.htm

Trustees of Columbia University, The. (2010). National Center Center for Children Children in PovertyPoverty (NCCP). Retrieved from: http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_882.html

The Sexualization of Early Childhood

The sexualization of young children is an ongoing problem. With all of the technological advances we have become increasingly aware of the opportunities for our children to be exposed to sexual media whether it be through the internet, television, magazines, text messages, and other avenues. While there are so many ways that children can be exposed to this kind of paraphernalia, there are ways that we as educators and parents can keep ourselves informed about the possibilities of exposure and prepare ourselves and our children for what they are (unfortunately) inevitably going to come into contact with.

Some of the examples I have experienced as a professional are just hearing about stories through the news. I remember hearing about a story of a third grade girl attempting to perform oral sex on a boy in her class and just thinking where is this coming from? I also remember hearing about teachers engaging in sexual acts with students. When I hear about this it is most disturbing to me because we are the professionals that are trusted with the care and education of children. One other experience I thought of was one when I was in 9th grade in high school and there were a group of girls and boys who went into the auditorium of the school and were performing sexual acts and at the time I had little to no idea what these people were even thinking about in terms of doing this at such a young age.

I think the best thing that we can do as educators is to remind parents that even though our aim is always to protect our children and the innocence that they have that we must monitor what it is that our children are exposed to in our presence and be diligent about talking to other parents whose homes our children might want to visit because we will be trusting someone else to keep them safe. We want to reassure ourselves that those parents will also have the same goal in mind. We must realize that in this day and age that our children will be exposed and think about ways in which we can prepare ourselves and them for these moments. We must remind ourselves not to pass on our own discomforts to our children and be willing to have conversations with them that will be difficult about the things that they are seeing and experiencing in their world.

I think my personal awareness has been widened. There are a lot of things which I make a choice to be realistic about and this is one of them. I feel that this is something that is happening in our society and I feel that ignoring it is really dangerous to the children that I serve. I believe that we must become increasingly aware of the things that our children watch, hear, experience when they are out of our presence. We can only take responsibility in teaching them what is safe for them and why. I hope that we can continue to become more and more aware of this increasingly prevalent issue.

Evaluating Impacts on Professional Practice

We have had many opportunities throughout this course and the previous course to discuss how our bias can skew our own perceptions and can either hurt or help us in the work that we do with young children and families. I think that as I experience the effects of various "isms" that I carry those same experiences with me as well as the feelings that surround them in the classroom. Before I came to work in a preschool setting, I worked with children who had special needs and I think that I have strong feelings about separating this population or excluding them because they are different when we're all different. In my current program, I am working with a child who has some speech delays and some other needs and when he first came into our program, the other teachers had the desire to immediately try to remove him from our program and I expressed that I had some really strong feelings about this because this to me was an example of ableism and I was not okay with expressing a desire to exclude any child because of the challenges that he presents to all of us in reinforcing us to take the time to examine ourselves and get more creative with the way that we work.

I think that in this case, the (anti)ableism I was experiencing allowed me to act as an advocate for this child and to challenge the other teachers to look for opportunities to develop their skills in supporting him with what he needs. I think that in many ways this experience allows me and encourages me to step up in supporting children who are differently abled in our schools and to acknowledge the feelings of others that yes this is something that is different for you but it can also be an opportunity for us to challenge ourselves better educators not just for children who are "typically" developing children but for all children.