Time Well Spent

There are so many things that I am walking away with from my Master's work here at Walden University. However there are a few insights I learned that really stood out. First, I realized how important play is in early childhood. My Capstone focused on this. Research has proven that children do learn when they play alongside each other. They learn to cooperate with one another, and they begin to build friendships. Second, I have learned how important it is to embrace diversity in our field. We have a lot of children that come to us with biased opinions and stereotypes from their families. As a teacher, I have learned that it is also my job to help my students accept our differences, and it is my job to help them embrace their differences! Third, I have spent a lot of time learning how important it is to be a team player in our field. We all have varied experiences, yet if we all join together, we can really leave an imprint in our field.

My long term goal that I have set for myself today is to never stop learning. I do not want to be that teacher that is still teaching the same material and in the same way 10 years from now. I have committed myself to be a lifelong learner. As a future leader in our field, I understand that everyone will be coming to me for insights, and I need to be ready to provide current information.

Well this his is officially good-bye! I cannot believe that it has been a year and a half, and we are done! It has been such a pleasure working with all of you. I have learned so much from my colleagues, and honestly I am sad to leave. However, it is bittersweet because we are closing one door, and a new door is about to open for us all! Thank you Dr. Morgan for all your support during two of my courses! I also want to thank all of my professors for helping me learn a lot about myself as a professional. Our journey seems like it is coming to an end, but in fact it is just beginning!

I hope to keep in touch with many of you! You can reach me at my email: stacee444@yahoo.com or find me on facebook under my name. Good luck to you all!

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

This week we were asked to examine some international organizations and share any employment opportunities. I chose to examine Compassion International, World Vision, and UNICEF.

Compassion International is a worldwide organization that supports children. It began in 1952 when Compassion stepped in to help the Korean War orphans with the basics like food, shelter and clothing. Since then, they are helping more than a million children around the world. They are able to do this with the help of monthly sponsors like you and I. I sponsored a child for a long time in Haiti. I would send about $40 a month to help this little girl, and her mom and I were pen pals. The little girl would draw me a lot of pictures! There are currently no job opportunities available that I am interested in. There are many corporate positions available, but they are behind a desk. I would love to volunteer one day overseas and take part in offering support to children in the actual field itself. I can see myself with boots on the ground teaching children an English song, etc. For more information, you can visit their website at http://www.compassion.com/default.htm.

World Vision is another worldwide organization similar to Compassion International which relies heavily on sponsorship to help children. This organization serves over 100 million children in nearly 100 countries! Similar to Compassion, this organization helps meets the basic needs of children along with helping provide them an education. This organization does not have any job opportunities that I am interested in because these are also all corporate positions. I am more of a hands on worker thus why I chose to be a teacher. However, I would definitely consider having my students adopt a child to adopt for a year by bringing in their spare change each month! For more information, you can visit their website at http://www.worldvision.org/m/tt1?lpos=top_img_wvLogo.

UNICEF is a massive organization. They help with the malnutrition crisis, educate women and children, and help the AIDS infected children, protect children from exploitation, violence, and so much more. There are a lot of short term job opportunities that I would be interested in the future. One position is for an Education Consultant in Uzbekistan, but I do not qualify because you have to be fluent in English and Russian. There is another consultant position open to teach children with disabilities. Experience with inclusion is required. For more information, you can visit their website at http://www.unicef.org/whatwedo/index.html.

Overall, it was great to think about how wide our field of early childhood is! There are many organizations out there to help children, and I do plan on working overseas again in the near future.