Time Well Spent

 

The three deeply felt learnings from this program:

1. Gaining knowledge about not only how to teach and work with children but how to include families and the communities in the process. This program taught me what is important and that this is about the children.

2. Learning about issues and trends in the Early Childhood education field and how I can stay prepared.

3. Learning the history of the early childhood field, learning to be passionate about what I do for children on a daily basis and be an advocate for children.

These are just a few but this program have taught me so much and I can’t wait to get my dream job to share all the knowledge I have acquired at Walden University.

My long-term goal is to continue to do everything I can do for children and their families, to advocate for them, to assist families and community leaders. I will get certified by taking the Praxis exam for the state of Louisiana. I look forward to teaching Early Childhood Studies to adults in a community college setting as well as continue teaching at one of the local school Districts. I will also volunteer my time to children in need at local after school programs.

I want to thank Dr. Dartt for all the wonderful feedback she has given me and I also want to thank all of my colleagues. Your feedback on the weekly Blogs as well as discussions have been greatly appreciated. This has not been an easy journey but I can finally say I made it!! Thank you all and the best of luck to you.

 

Monica Owens-Davis

Owens_monicay@bellsouth.net

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

The three international organizations that appealed to me are the following:

O.M.E.P.: Organisation Mondiale Pour L'Éducation Préscolaire) is an international non-governmental and non-profit organization that is concerned with all aspects of early childhood education and care field. This organization associates persons without distinction of race, nationality or political beliefs, aim to improve education and care for children from birth to eight years of age. “OMEP was founded in Europe (Prague, 1948) and have National Committees in 24 countries throughout Europe”(www.worldomep.org). It is the oldest and largest international, non-governmental and non-profit organization.

 “Early Education Services (EES) was launched in India in 2007 by ICF Incorporated to tackle some of the major challenges facing early childhood education in India”(www.icf.com). Some challenges included lack of national early childhood education standards and professional development system. ICF provides early childhood education training and technical assistance, does much needed research and evaluation, and supports corporate child care in India. The population is high in India and there are many challenges facing early childhood education. I chose this organization because the ICF organization was founded by in 1969 by former Tuskegee Airman C.D. Lester began a venture capital firm in the Washington, D.C. area.

Association for Childhood Education International is concerned with making sure each child have a bright future in every nation. ACEI has been an international organization driven by the belief that education is essential to human development.

The reason I chose these organizations is because one day I am going to travel all over the world and my first two places I would love to visit is Europe and India. I want to visit the Taj Mahal in India. When I visit I would love to do some volunteer work in the Early Childhood Education field there.

 

References

 

Retrieved from https://www.acei.org

Retrieved from http://worldomep.org

Retrieved from https://Icf.com          

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

The three national/federal organizations I chose that appealed to me are National Head Start

Association (NHSA), National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and

National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI). These organizations appealed to me

because they all deal with helping young children and their families.

 

“National Head Start Association is a non-profit organization committed to the belief that every

child, regardless of circumstances at birth has the ability to succeed in life”(www.nhsa.org).

Head Start has helped over 32 million children and their families over the last 50 years. This

organization helps prepare them for school and for life. Not only do the organization help

prepare children for life but it also work with local programs, professional development, and

family engagement. A job opportunity I saw was for Digital Communication & Design Associate

which ensures projects in all digital content stays on track for social media websites. You have to

have a Bachelor’s degree and be able to brainstorm sessions to develop new ideas for content

development and social engagement. Duties also include coordinating reports and analytics to

evaluate effectiveness of content and marketing projects. Must have knowledge of HTML, CSS,

Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. The organization also had other jobs listed

for teacher and teacher assistants.

 National Association for the Education of Young Children help all young children thrive and

learn in a society dedicated to ensuring they reach their full potential. The NAEYC organization

has always promoted high quality early learning for all children up to the age of eight years old.

The job I saw that I would be interested in is Deputy Chief Executive. The job duties for this

position is to develop a vision and oversee implementation plan for membership recruitment,

retention and engagement. Other duties include providing strategic guidance to conferences and

event teams with the main goal to maximize participation and effective participation to ensure
valuable membership orientation experience. Other jobs opportunities listed were for payroll

administrator and Senior Director, Federal Relations.

 

The last organization I found appealing was National Black Child Development Institute BCDI). For

over 40 years, the National Black Child Development Institute (NBCDI) has been at the forefront for engaging leaders, policymakers, professionals, and parents around critical and timely issues that directly impact Black children and their families. I had never heard of this organization but I am glad I found it because as an African American woman it is important to me to see organizations like this one. “NBDCI is a trusted partner in delivering culturally relevant resources that respond to the unique strengths and needs of Black children around issues including early childhood education, health, child welfare, literacy, and family engagement”(www.nbcdi.org). The mission “to improve and advance the quality of life for Black children and their families through education and advocacy.” There were no current employment opportunities for this organization.

 

References

Retrieved from: www.naeyc.org

Retrieved from: www.nbdci.org

Retrieved from: www.nhsa.org

 

 

 

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Level

The three organizations or communities of practice I selected are the following The salvation Army/Boys & Girls club, CCAA Head Start Programs, and Childcare Association of Louisiana. All three of the organizations plays a vital role in the community for children. The first organization I chose is the Salvation Army Boys & Girls club because they not only offer various programs for afterschool for children but they also offer other services for homeless people, veterans and displaced families. I was interested in the organization because we recently got one where I live that provide free summer program classes for children. “Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination” (www.salvationarmyalm.org). The Salvation Army has been around a very long time. “Boys & Girls Clubs of America Mission to enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens” (www.salvationarmyalm.org). The organizations are two programs working as one to assist children to grow up to become smart well rounded adults. I’ve always said I would volunteer my services to the program one day when my schedule is not so busy. I would love to teach in their afterschool programs helping with homework and other lessons.

Another organization I chose is Caddo Community Action Agency, Inc. and its mission is to stimulate a better focusing of all available local, state, private, and federal resources upon the goal of enabling the poor, the low-income families, and low-income individuals, in rural and urban areas of Caddo Parish, to attain skills, knowledge, and motivations to secure the opportunities needed to achieve self-sufficiency. The agency offers programs for Head Start children, parental involvement and fatherhood initiative. “The mission of CCAA Head Start Parent Involvement is to create and sustain a partnership and collaboration with all parents, encouraging them to participate in all aspect of our program” (www.ccaa.org). The agency has helped so many children and families over the last 50 years. The program is getting children prepared for Kindergarten by helping them academically and assisting families in the community with programs that will help them be able to provide for their family long term. The Head Start program has highly qualified teachers, teacher assistants, and other staff. This is the agency I work for but I would love to work in another area of the program with children with disabilities and mental health.  

The last organization I chose was Childcare Association of Louisiana which educate, advocate and collaborate for the well-being of children. The vision is to provide high quality Early Childhood Education so that all children grow up to be thriving adults. All three organizations are focused on the well-being of children. I teach because I love children and I strive to be better daily to make an impact on their lives. I encourage children to be the best they can be, we do not know their situation at home but while they are at school I give my all to them. They are the future and it’s a wonderful feeling to know I am teaching future doctors, lawyers, nurses and teachers as well as other occupations.

 

 

 

References

Retrieved from: http://www.ccaa.org

Retrieved from: http://www.childcarelouisiana.org

Retrieved from: http://www.salvationarmyalm.org   

 

 

Final Blog

I would like to personally thank everyone in my group and the rest of the class and Dr. Williams for sharing so much knowledge with me as well as others over the last 8 weeks. This hasn't been an easy journey but I can say I made it through another course and I'm thankful. I have read blogs, discussions and comments in which I've learned a great deal from all of them including the well thought out feedback. I want to wish everyone Good Luck on your journey to your Masters.

Monica Owens-Davis
monica.owens-davis@waldenu.edu

Adjourning

When I think of the 5 stages of team development I can most definitely relate to all o them. The adjourning phase is the last phase in which group members discuss things they have accomplished, things that didn't go right, some things they could have done differently while in the group. When I think of groups I've been apart of I can say that most of my experience with the adjourning phase was mostly we discussed things that resulted in a great outcome and when we come together again for the next project how we can make things go smoother as it relates to working together. In some groups I've been in such as groups at school or work related groups I have kept in contact with some of those people who I worked well with; we decided to exchange numbers for future references. Another positive outcome was once our project was done I have had a few groups to have a final celebration/luncheon. I felt appreciated and that my input in those groups were needed and it made me feel like I mattered and was apart of a group who made things happen. A closing ritual we used was prayer. I'm from the south and we do a lot of praying, not saying other people from other places don't. I feel that adjourning is an essential stage of teamwork because it's a great time to express things that happened while preparing for a project such as goals of the group, accomplishments of the group and failures. It also let the group know who all provided valuable input and how could things have been different and what can be done the next time they all work together.

Conflict/Disagreements

          I've had many disagreements and conflicts with co-workers, family members, and in personal relationships in my life. The most recent conflict I've had is with a co-worker who I've worked with for quite sometime now and she asked someone else something about something I was doing in the classroom. I was at a loss for words because we work together daily and I couldn't understand why she would ask them and not me because we work together. My first thought was to just go off and be real ugly about it since she showed me no consideration when she went to someone else. I ended up taking the high road, first I prayed that the Lord help me hold my tongue so I wouldn't say anything too harsh that could lead to a physical altercation. I did confront her about it all in which she denied and I wasn't surprised one bit, so I talked and let her know that we work together if she need to know anything to ask me and no one else. I also made it my business to let her know we need to respect one another and have to reciprocate that respect. It can't be one of us respect the other while the other doesn't respect the other person. We have to work together as a team and if not someone has to go elsewhere. Needless to say that issue has been resolved and things are going smoothly. The strategies I used was to first talk to the co-worker and the other strategy was to offer suggestions on what she need to know that's going on in the classroom ways we could work together better so that type of conflict wouldn't come up again between the two of us.

Evaluation

  When I thought of how I communicate all I could think of is I speak so that others can understand me and if not I do what's needed so that people get a clear understanding of  what I'm talking about. In every speaking engagement or conversation I've had so far in my life, I give eye contact, I do make some facial expressions which aren't bad like they use to be. I just breathe and go with the flow. I want to have the audience remember some of the things I've said to them. I also want to be a good listener as well in which I am; it took some practice for me to stop wanting to always jump in the conversation while the other person is speaking instead of being a great listening ear. When I'm speaking I often doubt myself because I may think I didn't engage the crowd enough but others will always tell me how great I was and how they love listening to me speak. Others think I'm a skilled professional at speeches or just talking period whereas I don't think I'm that great. I can say that others especially people who don't know us seem to be better at evaluating us.

Blog

When I think about how I communicate with different people based on their culture, race, religion, sexual orientation, and so on I can honestly say that I do communicate differently. The reason why I communicate differently is because some people whose children I teach sometimes don't understand some words I use so I have to talk on their level and make things as simple as possible. I also have co-workers who don't quite understand and they will say what does that mean, I live in the city and most of my co-workers live in a rural/country town. Since I know the things I say they don't understand I explain to them what they mean and now I use words that are direct yet simple. It doesn't matter to me about someone's religion, sexual orientation, background, culture or any of these things because I just communicate with people how I want them to communicate with me. I talk with respect and never raise my voice unless I'm provoked; but that doesn't happen. I make it a point to make sure people I'm communicating with understand whatever it is I'm talking about. I don't ever want someone to leave me standing alone because I'm talking over their head. This week we discussed the golden rule, the rule is simple do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Treat people how you want them to treat you is a must for me and has always been.

Television Show With No Sound

          The show I chose to watch was called "Mama June From Not to Hot, " in the show they showed a before picture of her and then a after picture. Two girls came in a room where she was then a man came over. Once the man came over he started looking at a dvd player taking it apart with a puzzled look on his face and picked it up and down. The girls and Mama June started laughing and so did the man. He hugged her and she had the biggest smile on her face, she twirled around as if she was showing off her outfit to them. The younger girl rolled her eyes and snapped her fingers at then. Another lady came over and they left and went to a doctor office, Mama June with a frown on her face pulled her shirt up and started pulling on her stomach which was hanging then she felt some plastic breast implants. The doctor looked concerned and kept touching the extra skin. The doctor handed her two plastic breast shaped bags. She put them in her shirt and her breast seemed to be larger, she smiled, laughed and played with them. The lady who went with her was pointing, looking sad, angry and not too friendly while talking to Mama June. They picked the two girls up. When they got to a ice cream shop this man in line kept looking at her breast, his eyes got big and never looked away. He threw his finger up to motion for the cashier then while they sat eating ice cream the older girl wrote something on a piece of paper and gave it to him. The ladies and girls sat tolling their eyes, touching June's hair and face. The older lady who went to the doctor with her touched the plastic things in her bra. she smiled and laughed while patting her friends back. The man smiled with a big grin on his face. He waved at them as they left, the next day she met him somewhere and he kept looking at her chest which was flat because she had taken the implants plastic things off. Her eyes started rolling as she talked to the man, she stood up placed her hands on her hip; hit the table and started walking away and threw a finger sign to the man. She looked angry while walking away.
          I re-watched the show with the sound on and Mama June had gastric bypass surgery. She went to the doctor to talk about removing the extra skin she has and that's why she pulled on the skin. Her friend kept asking was she sure about that. When they all went to eat ice cream the man waved at the cashier so he could pay for everyone's ice cream, he stared at her breast constantly, his eyes got big while looking. Her daughter took her number to the man so they could go out on a date. The next day when they went out the man asked her why did she look different and it seems like she lost weight on top since yesterday. Mama June stood up and told him it's men like him that make women go out and get surgery because they don't feel good about their bodies and want to look better. She hit the table, cursed while she was walking away and threw a finger sign at him.
          We all make some type of facial expressions while we communicate. I know I make al sorts o faces, although I try really hard not to, it still happens. This family hugged, smiled and laughed a lot because they genuinely love each other. Their non-verbal communication told me most of what was going on with them. Most of my assumptions  were correct. My aha moment was when she became angry on the date and when I watched it with sound I saw why she was so angry. I mean she was angry enough to hit the table and point finger sign at the man. This was a very interesting assignment this week that I really enjoyed doing.

Competent Communicator

When I think of a competent communicator one person I know come to my mind and that's an old supervisor I once had. He had a very strong firm voice, that made people want to hear more of whatever it was he was saying.  This man could enter the room with his voice alone before his body entered the room. Certain behaviors I noticed whenever he spoke was his arms placed firmly in his pockets, or at rest on his side. He looked directly in the eyes of the person he was speaking to and he gave his undivided attention when someone spoke to him; these behaviors made him a effective communicator in my opinion. I don't need to model my behavior after this man because I have always looked directly in the persons eyes I'm speaking to. Most importantly I know that I could improve on some things because although I am a great communicator some things can improve like my voice tone. I consider myself to be a very great communicator but I don't have to firm voice. Communication is a very important part of life and in order to get a clear understanding we must communicate, ask questions as well as answer questions. Body language and facial expressions is a form of communication as well. Growing up I was always told by my dad to never look down when your speaking to someone to always hold your head up high and be confident. I can truly say I speak with confidence and I love to communicate with people. 

Professional Hopes and Goals

One hope that I have working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is to be remembered  as the teacher who treated them fair, with respect, took time to get to know them and did all she can to help them. One goal I would set for the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice is to stay educated about all of these issues. I have to be a role model for children in order to motivate them I must be educated on diversity and social justice. Things that I don’t know I have to be willing to ask questions to those who may know the information. My goal is to continue to help children and their families in every capacity that I can regardless of their diverse background. I will always be open, have a positive attitude and make sure I incorporate different cultures throughout the classroom; I will do this to make all families feel welcomed in the class. The goal that I have professionally is to complete graduate school and start teaching at a community college.  

I can’t believe this class is over already, this past 8 weeks has been informative and I would like to say thank you to all of my colleagues who have shared post on their blogs and discussion boards. I have enjoyed and learned so much from all of the classes I’ve been enrolled in at Walden University. I look forward to sharing more discussions and blogs in the coming weeks and months. I don’t know when any of my colleagues graduate but I believe I have 4 classes left. I wish each and every one of you the best of luck on this journey to complete graduate school.

 

Welcoming Families Around the World

The country I chose is Haiti for my family’s country of origin. Some ways I will prepare to be culturally responsive towards the family is to get to know them by asking questions about their country and child. One important thing is also make sure I know the proper pronunciation of the child’s name. I would incorporate things they tell me to include in the classroom setting so their child can feel welcomed in the class. Material about and from their home and things from their country would be placed throughout the class so not only I can learn things about Haiti but children in the classroom can also learn as well. Include pictures about diversity on walls in class will be helpful because the child will feel the sense of belonging. Always put something on my lesson plan that the child will be familiar with and that others can learn from. I would ask the family to bring some items from home that I could put in class and I would put books about Haiti and other countries around the class in different centers. These preparations would benefit not only me as the teacher but the child from Haiti and other students because we all can learn more diversity by seeing and talking about items included in class, lessons, and material.

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression

I can recall a time I was online under a friends face book page. I was tagged in a post about all the killings happening where the police has killed black unarmed men. I was asked by this person to watch the video in which I told him, I couldn’t watch another video of a black man let alone any man being murdered by the police. So of course people started making comments not toward me just about how sad it was. I then told this person I’m praying for his family but watching those videos make me cry. Then this woman who I didn’t know at all said I was a  coward and need to be more black and stay woke. I never responded; she went on to say I’m a house “N-word”  because of my lighter complexion. I told her to have a blessed day, then she said people like me always look the other way in spite of things happening around me. Now this was another black woman making all these harsh comments, she was a darker complexion woman. For the life of me I always wondered why in the black community do some people compare skin complexions and think the lighter skinned people are better and darker complexion is less than. I read the last comment she wrote and I completely logged off. She said black sista you need to read slavery books right now because we’re headed that way because of black life people like you, people who look the other way when a injustice happen to yet another black man; it’s people like you that disgust me in every aspect of the black community, you will forever be on the side of the pig police who are killing our black men. I felt bad at first then I thought this lady is crazy for real, all this because I chose not to watch a video of someone being murdered. This same race prejudice brought up memories of when I was young and I had some cousins who were lighter skinned and some darker. I was in between which didn’t never make me a target of such harsh words. The cousins who were lighter always called the darker skinned cousins ugly and black when they got mad at one another.

I did inform that woman to have a blessed life and she need to pray to God she doesn’t continue to have that kind of attitude especially toward someone she doesn’t know at all, I told her I have the right to watch whatever I wanted to watch, it’s my choice if I want to watch a video of someone being killed. I told her there was no way I was going to watch someone lose their life and she could write that down in her black folks diary. I said you stay woke on more issues just not this particular issue.

Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions

  

 

One evening our entire staff went to a local restaurant for dinner. I had already spoken to the Manager of the restaurant in advance so that we could reserve a table for 15 people. This manager was so nice, once we got there she was nice in person. It was a large group and we all had food and ordered drinks as well. A few of us ordered a desert to take with us. This restaurant was not a cheap place to eat either. No one in our group paid less than $25 plus gratuity was added since the group was over 8 people. We ate and enjoyed each others company for close to 2 hours it was an added bonus that the waitress was nice and sweet. We all noticed how every time we laughed and talked other people and waitress/waiters stared at us. I did notice along with others how cold it was and we asked several times for the heat to be turned on, the manger came and tried to fix it; they never tried to make us comfortable. It was in December and it was cold outside. The point of this whole story is that once  we left I received a phone call because I had given the manager my name and place where we worked when I called to make reservations. I was out shopping and was surprised she was calling me since we had just left. She told me that some people in the group hadn't paid their bills. I immediately was outraged because I had witnessed everyone pay for their food plus gratuity plus extra tips. I assured her that no one skipped out on a meal and she said yes, the waitress is missing a few of the tickets because they hadn't been paid. I told the manager to double/triple check  I would call to check and how stupid that would be since she had my number and place of employment for all of us. She said she understands but the tickets need to be paid. At this point I was furious, I told her to double check with the waitress and call me back as soon as possible. Then after speaking with her I called a co-worker to let her know what had just happened, she was upset too. My co-worker said that doesn't make any sense because they know where we work and have your name and number. It was taking so long for the manager to call me back so I called her back and she said "I'm sorry, we found the tickets they were stuck to other tickets." I then said so were you going to call me back to tell me this because I'm vey offended. The manager finally apologized and said she would mail me some coupons for 15 people, she asked for my address; needless to say I never received those coupons. Some months passed I went back with a co-worker and I asked for the manager and told her who I was and what happened; she said she had mailed those coupons already. While I was there she ended up giving me some coupons for free appetizers and of course when I went back to use them months later the restaurant was closed for good. This was a bad situation and I felt horrible to know someone thought me and some of my co-workers would skip out on a bill. The way this manager spoke to me I knew what it was all about, we were the wrong color. It happens every single day and it's sad.

 

Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

This week I talked to some people about culture and diversity. Although all their answers were similar. I must admit one of their answers was funny to me about what is culture, I was told it’s when your family cook greens together for the Holidays every single year.  I spoke to a friend, a family member and an old co-worker. One of the answers for the definition of culture by an old co-worker was culture is how we live, things we do and have done for years within our family and communities. He explained that for generations families pass down many cultures including, religion, work ethic, food we eat or grow, our race and things that matter within our family. His answer to diversity was to be different, people are different shades, look and speak different and that’s what being diverse says in the world. The aspects of culture and diversity I have studied since being in this course are pretty much the same as the answers I received from the people I spoke with. An example a friend gave me about culture was clothing people wear and how some black people wear the head wraps with all the colors on them that is tied in a huge knot in the front. She said women wore those wraps back in slavery and it seems to be a trend now. She also said if we traveled to certain places that would be all we saw like in African villages, or even way down south because it’s a cultural thing. All the information I talked about with the three people came together. It made me think more about it and although their answers were pretty much the same they each added something about their own family culture. None of their responses influenced my way of thinking because what I know and believe was just like the things they shared with me.

My Family Culture

           The three items I would choose to take with me would be my grandmother’s mother wedding ring, a family bible and a picture of my parents in front of the old church we all attended before they built a new church in the early 1980’s.

My grandmother’s wedding ring was passed down generations and my grandmother, mother and myself wore the ring as something old on our wedding day. The ring was a simple dainty ring that had small diamonds on the band of it that was over 80 years old.

The bible is a family bible that has a family tree inside that dates back to the late 1800’s and because it has the family tree inside I would keep it as a reminder of who I am, where I came from and where my ancestors came from as well.

The last item is a picture of the church I attend with my parents standing in front of it, the church is a historical landmark now and can’t be torn down. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in the church when he came to town for the civil rights movement. This picture also reminds me of my upbringing and how church played an important role in my life and my families life.

If I was told that I had to give up two items and keep one I would be devastated and heart- broken because of what all three items means to me and my family. The items have so much history behind them all it would be crushing to have to let any of them go. The ring was over 80 years old that my mother knew of but it could be much older than that. The family bible was in my family for generations and it has the family tree on the inside with all the names of my family members and their children, and children’s children names. The picture is filled with so many warm memories of my family and my childhood when I attended church every Sunday with my family. The picture shows me how it was apart of the civil rights movement. The church picture is a historical landmark that I will pass down to my children. If I was told I had to give up two things and could only take one that decision would be the hardest I would have to make in my life. I’m sure I would be jailed for being disobedient because I would pretend like I’m getting rid of two items but I would hide them in order to take them all. All three items is my culture and they are important because they represent my family culture. It includes the language we speak, the religion or spirituality we practice (or do not), and the clothing, housing, food, and rituals/holidays with which we feel most comfortable (Derman-Sparks, & Edwards, 2010).  Culture is how my family live and things we do like our ritual we went to church together on Sunday’s every week.  Most of the time, people do not even notice their culture, just as we do not notice that we live in a sea of air (Derman-Sparks, & Edwards, 2010).

  

Reference

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves. Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).