Final Thoughts

It has been a long journey this past few years. I say that because this is my second attempt at a Master's Degree. I began my Master's Degree in Elementary Education back in 2003, immediately after finishing my Bachelor's. I found, as I continued, that I did not particularly care for the field. I felt like the teachers I spoke with were stuck by the standards and unable.e to be creative in the classroom. I co tinued my degree off and on for the next several years until it became time to student teach. I then realized I had to make a decision between flipping my life upside down for 12 weeks so I could student teach and get a degree I didn't want and would not use. Or, start a whole different field,which I was already working in and loved. I decided to abandon my Elementary Education degree and begin my degree over in the field of early childhood. One realization I had in this process was that I finally found a passion and a career that I am happy with. I don't feel like I am settling and that I am constantly trying to convince myself it is what I want to do. The second thing I really took away from this process was that I have more passion than I thought I did for issues and trends in the field. Before doing the capstone project, I had never thought I had an interest in policies and regulations until I started researching current issues and trends. Finally, I had a realization this past two years that I am diverse and work with a diverse group of people. My goals for the long term now that I have completed my coursework is to continue to develop training sessions and technical assistance projects in a variety of topics. In a few years, after my youngest child starts kindergarten, I hope to begin coursework for my PhD in early childhood so I can do additional research in the field and teach at the college level.

Job/Roles in the ECE Field - Internationally

Looking at different agencies and Communities of Practice that are international was an eye-opening experience. One of the organizations I was drawn to was Unicef (www.unicef.org) because of the focus on early childhood education. The website explained so many of the issues that I feel strongly about, such as equality for schooling and looking at gender roles in education for young children. They spend a great deal of time advocating for young children and getting appropriate schooling because of the role early childhood education plays in later development of young children. One of the jobs that I found interesting through the Unicef website was a Programme Specialist in Mauritania. It appears to be a management position for the Unicef office for the country of Mauritania. The qualifications are to have an advanced college degree and five years experience that is relavant. In addition, they are looking for someone who can speak both French and English. The second organization I was intriqued by was FHI 360 (www.fhi360.org) because of the complex way of thinking about human development. The mission and vision of the organization is about looking at humans as a whole, not the sum of the parts. They seem to acknowledge the complexity of life and development, and look to help advance the devlepment in any way necessary. The job posting I found on the website that I found interesting was a Project Director out of Washington, D.C. It was a position overseeing the people who provide technical assistance to state educational agencies who, in turn, provide technical assistance to local educational agencies. The requirements for the position are grant writing experience, supervisory experience, as Master's degree and also 10-15 years of relavant experience. The third international organization that caught my eye was the International Step by Step Association (www.issa.nl). I was intriqued by their programs, which include everything from early care and learning to parenting education programs. They advocate for parents' needs and for early childhood programs.

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Field

One position I found this week was for a program I am very familiar with, The Creative Curriculum. "Position overview: The Regional Training Associate at Teaching Strategies serves as the lead trainer on strategic professional development opportunities, and specifically on those opportunities involving our customers in the Northeast region. The Regional Training Associate will work primarily in the field assigned to conduct on-site and national conference sessions and provide comprehensive professional development services. This position entails heavy travel (approximately 100-150 days/year) of travel time for session days, conferences, mentoring PDN colleagues, and Professional Development related work such as technical assistance. The remaining time will be allocated to marketing proposal writing, conducting sales and marketing presentations and follow-up with professional development customers. Our busiest training time is July through September of each year, and Staff Trainers are expected to manage vacation and other absences accordingly during this time. Please note that consideration will be given to individuals who either currently live or are willing to locate to the Northeast region of the country. Specific roles and responsibilities: •Conduct on-site and conference sessions •Provide suggestions and ideas for improvement of sessions based on practical experience in the field to the Knowledge Development Team •Conduct webinars and telephone technical assistance for customers as assigned •Develop proposals for conference submission, create presentations, and facilitate conference workshops •Represent Teaching Strategies at regional, state and national meetings to promote professional development products and services •Observe/coach and mentor colleagues the within the Professional Development Network. Qualifications: •A minimum of a B.A. in education, or related field, required; M.Ed. preferred •Demonstrated knowledge of and practical experience applying adult learning theories •Background and experience with training a variety of early childhood professionals including administrators and other ancillary staff •Ability to use multiple forms of technology •Excellent verbal and written communication skills •Desire to work in a highly collaborative, creative, and challenging environment •A high degree of motivation and flexibility •Must be able to travel at least 70% or more " (http://careerforum.naeyc.org/jobs/#/results/resultsPerPage=12/4,true) The second position I found interesting was with Child Care Aware of America, formerly NACCRRA. "Child Care Aware of America® is a nationwide membership organization of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies and provides access to quality child care and early learning services in the United States. Working with the Board of Directors and staff, the Executive Director will be the visionary and strategic leader of the organization, while being the day to day general manager. •Experience as the top person in a member driven organization with multiple chapters/locations. •Experience managing a minimum $10M P&L, and a minimum of 100 FTEs; comfortable with 175-plus. •Extensive background / passion for the field ofchild care and early education •Involvement in government relations/lobbying activities on a national level •Experience in fundraising, grant writing and generating revenue •Oversight of multiple revenue streams; deep knowledge of government policy and funding •Use of technology as a differentiator to create efficiencies, outreach, & visibility •Positive experience working with a “working” Board of Directors •Demonstrable success with brand and identity transitions •Advanced degree, preferably a Master’s degree in early childhood education, human services, education or a related field •Strong work ethic, self-initiative, high energy and ability to deal with ambiguity •Ability to manage collaborative partnerships and communicate effectively with a wide range of people and groups" (http://www.naccrra.org/career-center/executive-director) The third Community of Practice I wanted to add was NAEYC. They were a resource to one of the job postings, which shows the great role they play nationally. They are a resource to information on Child Care, Child Development and Public Policy related to both. They are also a resource for all types of jobs in the field of Early Childhood. They have a wide variety of people with different interests and points of view to offer and combine to work towards quality care for children.

Communities of Practice

As a staff member of a Child Care Resource and Referral Agency, we are currently going through a Quality Assurance process. I am the coordinator for the process at our agency, and am working with a group of my colleagues to work on the process. Each person has a different area of expertise and something valuable to add to the process, which we all acknowledge as being beneficial to the agency and to our individual programs within the agency. I chose this community of practice because it is one I am part of and one I have worked very hard on. The second community of practice I chose is Child Care Aware of America, formerly NACCRRA. I chose that agency because it plays an important part in the Quality Assurance process for me, but also because they play an important role in the lives of young children. They have members that conduct professional development for CCR&Rs and child care providers, and members that do research child care issues and members that work on public policy, educating the public and working directly with legislators. Finally, I chose my employer, Cornell Cooperative Extension. The Extension system is an extension of Cornell University. Each staff has their own area of expertise and work within their program doing research for Cornell and disseminating the research Cornell does. The Extension staff work closely with Cornell professors and staff on issues that include child development and child care. As the only Extension with a CCR&R as a program, we are in a unique position with a unique perspective to add to the research and development. There are current job opportunities that interest me in the field of psychology and research at universities in New York City. There is also a position at my current employer for ITA Coordinator, which leads a team of ITA Specialists to work with providers to improve their program. In order to obtain the position for psychology research, a PhD is necessary, as well as research experience. For the ITA Coordinator, a Master's Degree is necessary, along with experiene conducting ITAs and experience supervising others and working with providers of all modalities.

Reactivating the Blog

I have missed posting my blog in the last few classes where the requirement was not there. I am looking forward to re-activating the blog and reading my colleagues' postings. I also look forward to keeping my blog active after I complete the coursework and be able to post interesting articles and information I find.

Final Thoughts

Through this course, I have learned a lot about communication, both verbal and nonverbal. I especially enjoyed making the connections between communication and the diversity we have been focusing on. I look forward to taking those two topics and tying them in to adult learning theories.

Team Building and Collaboration

Thinking about the many stages of team building, the closure is certainly the most difficult part for many reasons. However, I do not believe adjorning with a successful group is more difficult than with a group that has not been successful. If a group accomplishes what they set to accomplish, it is easier to walkway feeling successful and being proud of that. When a group does not perform well and has difficulty meeting the goals, when I walk away I feel unsuccessful and feel like I have more to do, even if I don't. Of the groups that I have worked with, I can think of one that was difficult to adjourn, and that was a team that I worked on for a fund raising project. The group did not work that well, people were uninvolved and there was a lot of miscommunication that made it difficult. While the project did come to an end and the event happened fairly well and did raise some money, I felt unsuccessful because all I could think about was all the this gs we course,d have done differently and wondered if it would have changed the results. I had expected a closing meeting to discuss what could be done better for next time but there wasn't. The event occurred and the numbers were shared through email and we just said we would get together next year to plan the next one. The event would be better if we were able to discuss our thoughts while they were fresh in everyone's heads rather than a year later.

Nonviolent Communication and Conflict

This is a great topic this week because my husband and I have had conflict this week about money. A typical conversation of conflict for married couples, I expect. For a change, the argument isn't about not having money, it's about having money and not agreeing what to do with it. I realize after we did the communication inventory last week that my husband finds me to be aggressive during conflict. So this week I vow to use some of the tools in the NVC and the 3 Rs to help come up with a solution to the conflict. One important tool from those skills is to use respect. This is important because I need to listen respectfully to his thoughts and reasons without interrupting or using rude comments towards him. I think the best way for us to solve the conflict is to write down what we each think and weigh the positives and negatives of each. It is important to use the NVC and 3Rs when doing this and hope that he does the same. I am interested to know what others think of this situation and how to solve the conflict.

Who Am I as a Communicator?

Through doing the inventories, I found two very surprising things. I found that while I scored myself as having some anxiety in communicating, both of the people that also took the inventory scored me in the low anxiety category. That leads me to believe that I am a decent communicator that does not show the anxiety I may be having in some situations. The second very surprising thing I found was in the aggressiveness scale. I scored myself in the moderate category, as did my co-worker. My husband, on the other hand, scored me a bit higher. It was a bit surprising to see, but when I think about it I realize that I am more aggressive with him that with others. Mostl likely it is because of the comfort I have with him and his unconditional love for me. I had to, however, make it a goal of mine this semester to be more respectful and thoughtful when it comes to arguments and disagreements.

Communication and Culures

I have realized that I don't communicate any differently with people from other cultures. Through the discussion postings and resources this week, I have realized that I should be. I have always taken pride in being open to cultures and to people, but have realized this week that I should be communicating differently by asking questions and sharing information about my own culture to help the other person feel comfortable. We discussed this week about the Platinum Rule in order to get people to share with us and be comfortable doing so, we have to be willing to share and be comfortable. The most important part of communicating with people of other cultures is to listen respectfully and not be afraid to ask questions respectfully if you don't understand. It is also important to share information about my own culture, but do it in a way that is respectful and not making the person feel as though my culture is better than theirs.

Commumication Skills:Language, Nonverbal, Listening

For this week's assignment, I decided to watch a show my husband watches on a regular basis, but I do not watch with him. I had a hard time convincing him to watch it with me with no sound, but he agreed when I told him it was for school. We watched Storage Wars on A&E. Initially, I could see that the majority of the characters were serious at the start of opening each storage unit. I observed all but two characters kept strait faces and as the camera went from character to another and back again, they were each showing narrowed eyes and deep eyebrows, which made me believe they were all unhappy with each other. Two of the characters were happy all of the time, which I observed through smiling faces and open eyes. I also observed the two kiss at one point, on the cheek in a light way. It led me to believe they were in a relationship of one kind or another. One was male and one female.
When we watched the episode again, with the sound on, I observed that I was correct that all but the two characters did were not happy with one another. They were bidding on storage lockers and when the camera went back and forth between the two characters, it was because they were bidding each other up. The two that I observed kissing lightly I realized were in a romantic relationship because the man called the woman,"babe". My husband informed me that from a different episode that they were actually married. Without knowing that, I still would have been able to see they were in a relationship. Since my husband is familiar with the show, he already knew what the relationships were, and he knew that the majority of them didn't like each other while they were bidding. If I had been watching a show I knew well, I would have known what the relationships were, and would not have been looking for nonverbal cues to determine the ralationships.

What is Communication?

I have the opportunity to communicate with many different people, both professional and not. The one person's communication that I find to be positive and competant is that of my coworker when she is conducting child care referrals over the phone. She takes the time to listen to the parent and picks up bits of information and expands on that information to help the parent feel at ease. She uses active listening skills by repeating back what she hears to ensure she undstood what the parent was saying. I have heard other referral specialists speaking to parents and only getting the minimal information and using that. This one coworker makes an effort to truly listen and makes that parent feel like they are unique, their situation is unique and demands special attention. I would like to model my communication techniques after her because while I do not generally do referrals, I do speak with providers and parents often for other things. I would like to be able to focus more on what the person is saying and be able to use that information to draw more information out of them instead of getting the bare minimum information.