Professional Goals, Hopes and Dreams

This past year, professional development opportunities have been harder to find than in years passed, at least in Michigan where I live due to our current pandemic. Our state has kept things pretty tight and closed up for the majority of the last 18 months requiring many conferences and trainings to be cancelled or postponed. Some have been rescheduled to be held virtually, but overall we have really had to get creative in training and professional development opportunities that would be meaningful and appropriate for early childhood professional/teachers specifically. 

The last few years, there's been a big focus on providing new ideas and learning to staff and teachers on the importance of ensuring all children are offered an appropriate and accepting educational experience. It's a pretty broad topic, but within in it falls so many of the hot topics/issues/trends currently surrounding educators and professionals everywhere. Every child, regardless of race, disability, culture, family structure, or sexual preference, is offered the same educational experience to set them up for success. It is a wonderful thought, however we are learning (or at least I am) more and more that this is not always what children/students of any age are experiencing.

 I love this image and it really helped me to have a better understanding of the differences.

Professional goals:

• Educate my teachers and staff on topics relating to social justice and their role in being a part of the positive change
• Create curriculum for the students that reinforces these ideas
• Make sure that my conversations and leadership are reflective of these topics in all that I do

Professional challenges:

• I had some staff that do not believe that these topics are important and don't think that we should be "following this agenda" and trying to make these changes from what they've always done--- I have to find ways to help them see the importance and them motivate and inspire them to help be a part of the positive change
• After the last year and a half of Covid- related stress and changes, I have to find ways to energize my teachers and help them to feel positive about the new school year
• Finding the balance of wanting to improve my programs that I oversee, while respecting the work that the teachers are doing each day. Change has to happen for the program to grow in quality, but I have to find a way to be aware, honest, and timely in how I drive this growth/change to my team and our program

Professional Hopes/Dreams: Honestly, I feel like I'm in my dream role... it's certainly not perfect, but overall I know it's exactly where I need and want to be right now and the hours and schedule allow me to also be able to spend time with my young children--- which is super important to me (balancing family and a career). I think my hopes would just be that every day, I grow in my leadership and never become stagnant in what I'm doing. I want to use my experience and strengths to best of my ability and try and positively impact as many kids, families, and staff as possible, and the only way to do that is through honest reflection and continual learning and growth!

NAEYC

 The National Association for the Educating of Young Children (NAEYC) provides early childhood professionals with many resources and current information relating to the field through many different platforms. From articles, to quarterly publications, to events/trainings, and partnering with others in the field, NAEYC sets the tone for what early childhood should be and what educators should be doing. I have used this website (and resources) in my professional career many times over the past 17 years, but have been given the opportunity to really dig into their website through this class and learn more about all that they have to offer their members and readers. 

One area of the website that I haven't spent much time in or exploring until this week is their getting involved-advocacy tab. This part of the website offers many wonderful ways (both big and small) for educators, leaders, etc., to get involved in advocating for early childhood programs and young children! It offers both local and nationwide efforts as well as great ideas and outside organizations you can partner with to really make a difference now and moving forward. 

On the website, they have a "Turn Your Passion Into Action" sections that shares specific efforts/ ways to get involved including:

• Mobilize for Early Ed
• Proactive Early Learning Advocacy
• Engaging with Local Officials
• Staying Informed on issues, legislation, and NAEYC specific priorities

I had never heard of "America for Early Ed" and was interested in reading and learning more about them from this website. Here I found so much wonderful information regarding the importance of counting young children in the census numbers, to state specific information, as well as Federal policies. They also have a newsletter you can subscribe to for monthly updates and communications!  I'd encourage you to check out this website and look around, it shares some wonderful and useful information relating to early childhood education. Website: http://www.americaforearlyed.org 

Kindergarten Readiness

 This weeks reading got me thinking about about the disconnect between developmentally appropriate preschool and Kindergarten Readiness expectations. I found myself searching the web, to find new ideas, new insight, and a it more guidance on how to work together collaboratively for the best interest of our little ones to do this right. 

During my scrolling online, I found a new podcast called, "The Early Childhood Journeys Podcast" found at: https://earlychildhoodjourney.com/the-podcast 

A few weeks back they had a kindergarten teacher on their website talking about this very topic and she brings to the podcast 17 years of teaching Kindergarten students, which in my mind, gives her a pretty good understanding of this content as well as an expert on what will and won't work well in this regard. Episode 47: Kindergarten Readiness Tips with Julie Decuir this episode is the first of a series of Kindergarten Readiness Tips and Insight chats! In the podcast the host and Julie chat about the true skills future kindergartners need verses what some parents may think their child needs to master for school. This podcast would be a great tool to share with parents as it offers helpful information from a teachers perspective which makes it seem pretty sincere. Something that really stood out to me, is that when parents ask her "how can I best prepare my child for kindergarten" her answer is.. talk to them about school and kindergarten. Share with them what they'll do, while you're making dinner, just talk to them, so they can begin to prepare for this next chapter. It's SO simple, and easy, and as a parent myself something that I don't think we necessary do enough of. As adults we like to know the plan and be prepared, by talking with your child each day for many days prior, you're helping them socially/emotionally/ and mentally prepare for this next huge chapter and the advice is so spot on!

Early Childhood Systems

New insights/ ideas from the website: http://developingchild.harvard.edu/about/what-we-do/global-work 

Toxic Stress: Though I have learned about it this course and in past experiences, I loved this illustration and understand the bigger picture now.  

 Resilience: I got a better understanding of what resilience is and how it relates in these situations. Again this illustration helped, quite a bit. 

"The single most common factor for children who develop resilience is at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver, or other adult. These relationships provide the personalized responsiveness, scaffolding, and protection that buffer children from developmental disruption" (https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/resilience)

NAEYC

 The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) has been a long time favorite website and resource for me as an educator in the field because it offers its readers and members so many valuable resources (www.naeyc.org). 

While you do need a membership that renews yearly, I have found that the information and resources they provide their members is more than worth the cost each year. I love that they offer a variety of resources so that you are able to find what you need, and it is generally relevant to what you're trying to learn or implement into your classroom because they have so many years of resources available through their website. 

Specifically they offer two different publications that they put out to their members multiple times per year. The first is "Young Children" which is journal that shares up-to-date, research based articles covering topics that are relevant to teachers for children birth-age 8 years. They also offer "Teaching Young Children" which focuses it's content more on practical tips and innovative resources for teachers to use in their classrooms. 

I do wish that they had a journal that they put out that was specifically made for leaders in the field, as that is an area that I do think there isn't enough resources available, specifically for leaders in early childhood. However, they also put out books, and they do cover topics that are applicable to leaders and help provide us with some additional professional development ideas and topics... I just wish that this was more readily available. 

As I searched through past journals, I found quite a few articles that cover topics related to the content we've been discussing in our class these past few weeks (how economists, neuroscientists, or politicians support positive social change through the early childhood field etc.) and was able to find some additional information and thoughts on these topics that I am going to take a deeper dive to learn more about. 

This article shares some great insight on this and the overall picture that really helped me piece together the bigger picture on some of my ideas from this past week.  https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/nov2017/making-connections