Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community Internationally

If  I ever had the interest in working internationally in the field of early childhood, one of the first organizations I would turn to would be UNICEF as I have financially supported this organization in the past. UNICEF is the driving force that helps children globally through influencing policies, providing care, meals and ensuring girls receive proper education. There are several positions that you can fulfill with withe organization from intern, volunteer, to regular vacancies, general service, and positions in headquarters.  The positions are located all over the world. My interest would be in regular vacancies child protections which three positions are currently in Dem Rep Congo, Ethiopia and USA. To apply for these jobs you must complete a profile online and then they match you to a qualified positions. Save the Children is another organization that I would be interested in, in a 120 countries including the US they seek to improve the lives of children by improving health,education,economic, and during times of crisis they deploy units to recover children and decrease the affects of war, and other natural disasters. The position that interest me is within the US as a Program Specialist in early childhood development, as the program specialist your would provide technical and management assistance to the partner sits in Tennessee and Alabama. As well as
 Visit each assigned site on an as needed basis, supporting partners as they implement the Early Steps to School Success (ESSS) program. This involves providing training and technical assistance to the Early Childhood Coordinators on a regular basis with a particular focus on early language and literacy and parenting education for ages birth to age three, making training/coaching site visits to ESSS sites, providing adequate professional development and support to all partner staff.

• Drawing on the support of the Senior Early Childhood Specialist and Deputy Director of Programs, provide training and technical assistance and build partner capacity by working directly with site-based staff to ensure high-quality program design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• Coordinate the annual partner planning and budget process with assigned partners, assisting them as needed and expediting the review and approval process of the plans and the resulting Partner Agreement.
• Upon receipt from USP Finance staff, review for appropriateness partner requests for funds, quarterly financial reports and budget revision requests, and provide confirmation or questions to Finance and Subgrants staff for processing.
• Observe and monitor partner progress and performance to ensure effective and timely implementation of program objectives.
• Participate with the Senior Early Childhood Specialist and the Deputy Director of Programs in building relationships that align our programs and strategies with local/regional community and state activities associated with early learning.

FHI 360 mission is to improve lives in lasting ways by advanding intergrated, locally diriven solutions for human development. The values of are innovation, mutual respect, passion, accountability, commitment to excellence, and teamwork. There are open jobs currently but none that appealed to me, but I am interested in the mission of the company. 

Resources:

http://www.fhi360.org/about-us/vision-and-mission

http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6226565/k.BFEA/Working_at_Save_the_Children.htm

http://www.unicef.org/about/employ/index_Meet_UNICEF_staff.html

Jobs/Roles in ECE Community: National/Federal Level

When I think about my future and what I would like to do with my career in early childhood education, I want experience this field in more of an advocacy level or teaching level. The division of child development, North Carolina is a state agency as apart of NC Health and Human Services that ensures the state is bringing quality care to children in the state . As I explore the available positions currently there are not any positions available in the division. The Office of Child Care provides assistance to families of low-income and promotes learning by improving the quality of care and education in after school programs.

Zero to Three is a non-profit organization that I would have an interest in working for. The organizations mission is to provide parents, policy makers and professionals with the knowledge of how to provide children from zero to three the quality educational start they need in life. Currently there is a senior training specialist position available. Which this position is something I have recently become interested in doing. I want to begin looking on a local level on doing educational training's for early childhood professionals.



http://ncchildcare.nc.gov/general/home.asp
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/occ
http://www.zerotothree.org/

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community:Local and State Levels

One of the first community agencies that I explored is on that I work with often as an assistant director of a child care center., The Martin/Pitt Partnership for Children. The mission of MPPC is to make meaningful and measurable investments in the quality of life for young children and families in education, health and support services. This organizations sticks out to me because there are professionals of different nature working together for a common cause. I have experienced working with multidisciplinary teams and would like to do that again in the future. Another organization that interest me on the state level is the NC Early Intervention Services.  Early intervention services are provided through Child Developmental Service Agencies who work with children zero to three.  This is a area that I am interested in and have worked with an agencies who where a part of providing early intervention services to children. Montgomery County Schools is one of the counties in the state of Maryland. I choose to look for early childhood agencies in this state because it is an area that I would want to live in. The division of early childhood programs and services in Montgomery's mission is to provide comprehensive, research-based services to young children, ensuring their school success through partnerships with families, schools, and the community. They have several programs to serve children zero to five that interest me. Such as Judy centers which are early childhood programs that promote school readiness.







http://www.mppfc.dreamhosters.com/

http://www.ncdhhs.gov/dma/services/earlyintervention.htm

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/earlychildhood/about.aspx

Wordle WK 1 Discussion

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/7980988/ec

In the end.....

Our last blog was on the adjournment phase of collaborative groups and now here we are saying farewell to our group members.  These eight weeks have been such a positive learning experience.  I have truly learned how important communication is to become and effective leader and in general when working with others.

I wish all my colleagues much success in their future endeavors here at Walden and in life.  I hope to meet again with you all in the future.  

Adjourning

I  find it difficult to leave groups that I truly enjoy or when I feel like I have bonded with the other individuals. Most recently my friend asked me to participate in this group that was to perform at an undergraduate event. I was apprehensive at first just because I tend to be shy around people I do not know. I joined the group and we spent everyday together for three weeks preparing our performance, over the time we all grew fond of each other. Before I performance we all had feelings of sadness because we would not be together everyday afterwards so we made plans to spend time together.  We also formed a chat group where we could talk in.  After the performance we have gotten together several times for game nights and dinner.  We chat in our group everyday, and we truly have become a family, everyone is so supportive of one another.

Adjourning is essential to teams and groups because it allows everyone to converse about the task or vision that was completed and recap the situations they may have faced.  And in some cases there are lasting relationships built.  Adjournment is a celebration of what was achieved.

Conflict and Communication

Most recently at work we are facing a conflict between staff and management, as I am a part of the management team.  The issue is that we are not achieving the success we can potentially have because of quality and aesthetic problems, and the staff has their own opinions on these issues. One strategy we used in solving this issue is using some of the guidelines of nonviolent communication.  We needed to understand each side of of the issue in a clear and respectful manner.  With this in mind we had a staff meeting to have an open conversation about goals, plans and where we needed to go, allowing everyone to input on the conversation without bias. Another strategy that is helpful is situations like this is the 3 R's, being respectful, reciprocal, and responsive.  Each party needed to be respectful to one another and their positions and contributions to the program. Then be understanding and responsive to each others opinions, suggestions, and ideas. In the end the biggest ideal in solving conflict is to be clear in your own intentions and be respectful to the other party.