Time Well Spent

I cannot believe this journey is already over! It has come so fast and felt like so long all at the same time. Throughout my time at Walden, I have learned so much. The first thing I learned was that when I work for something I can achieve it. For so long I struggled with feeling like I wasn't smart or capable of much, but being able to finish this program has given me so much confidence, and I am so grateful  The next thing I learned was that more than anything, I want to be an advocate for children. They are truly the future and each child deserves the best possible outcome in life. Children deserve to receive high quality education no matter where they live. I will continue to be a voice for children so that they can get what they deserve. The last thing I learned was that there are so many possibilities for me in my future because of this degree. It is difficult to do a lot with just a Bachelor's degree in Child Development. Having this education will allow me to accomplish more than I ever imagined.

One long-term goal that I have for myself, which I am very passionate about now, is to strive to ALWAYS be learning. I have grown to absolutely love learning and have a better understanding of what I can do to continue learning, even though I am no longer going to be in school. The amazing thing about learning is that we can never do too much of it.

I am so incredibly grateful for all of my professors and peers that have helped me along this journey. I would not be here if it weren't for all of you. I have felt so encouraged through my professors and have felt like I could always turn to them when needed. To all of my peers, CONGRATULATIONS! We did it. I have loved learning from each of you every week. You have truly inspired and taught me. I wish you the best in everything you do. I know that together we can change the world.

I would love to keep in touch with you all. You can find me on Facebook under Linzie Lee DeVaney. Good luck to all!

Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally

I have loved getting to explore different organizations on a state, national, and now international level. The first international organization that appealed to me was NACD, The National Association for Child Development.  They are an organization who help children with many different special needs get the services that can help them. They believe that a child's education should be overseen by the parent. Their job is to help parents achieve the goals that they have for their children with individual programs and daily communication (NACD, 2016). After looking into their organization, I was impressed with all of the tools that they have to try to help as many children as they can. It definitely seems like they have the best interest for children.

The second international organization that I found was OMEP. The goal of OMEP is to "ensure the well-being, rights, of children (birth-age 8) and their families" (OMEP, 2016, p. 1).  The reason I loved this organization was because they advocate for early childhood education through educating themselves, as well as others.  They truly stand up for what is right for children and look for ways to create a better life for children around the world. Their members represent many different groups of people in relation to child development, including: administrators, social service workers, lawyers, parents, and many more.

The last organization that stood out to me was HighScope. I did not realize that HighScope works on an international level, but their preschool education approach, which is research validated, is used all throughout the world.  Their goal is to promote high quality early childhood education worldwide.

A job that I found that I would definitely be interested in obtaining would be a curriculum specialist for HighScope. This position would require me to provide instructional support and coaching to Head Start teaching staff. I would likely need more training for this job, but because of my passion for early childhood education and the appreciation I have for this organization and Head Start, it would be something that I feel I would greatly enjoy.


References

http://www.nacd.org/who-we-are/

https://omep.us/about-us/

http://www.highscope.org/

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

The first national organization that strongly appeals to me is the National Association for the Education of Young Children.  There are few, if any, principles that NAEYC has that I do not agree with.  I feel that they are always trying to put children first and are excellent at teaching educators what is important and helpful for teaching young children.  They also have standards that should be used with your colleagues, parents, and your community.  They believe in creating environments where children can thrive.

www.naeyc.org

The second national organization that I found that strongly intrigued me was the Association for Early Learning Leaders. I found this organization through research and was very pleased with what I found out about them.  They are nationally accredited and their goal is to help teachers in early childhood settings strengthen their knowledge, skills, and abilities to ensure quality programs for young children (Early Learning Leaders, 2016).  They believe in providing children with excellent care and education. They have so many ways to help educators, such as: webinars, trainings, newsletters, conferences, magazines, resources, and more.  I would be very interested in signing up with their membership. 

http://www.earlylearningleaders.org/?page=membertoolkit

Another national organization that I have always admired is Zero to Three.  The mission of this organization is to ensure that all children ages zero to three have a strong start to life (Zero to Three, 2016). They want to create a nation where infants and toddlers are able to reach their full potential. This organization is funded by federal, state, and local government grants and contracts.  They believe that, "Early connections can last a lifetime" (Zero to Three, 2016).  After becoming a parent myself, I can see how true it is for a baby to have support and love from their parents. 

www.zerotothree.org

A job that I found that I would be interested in having on a national level would be the Publishing Manager of NAEYC.  Here is the job description:

 "This individual manages business processes such as print purchasing and distributor tracking for NAEYC's books program and for book-related resources (brochures, e-books, and digital products). Manages some key Content Strategy and Development team functions such as managing permissions, rights, and translations. Serves as a financial manager to the books team and also manages the budgets for 2 periodicals" (NAEYC, 2016). 

www.naeyc.org

If I had not decided to study child development, I would have chosen to study finance and so I feel that this job would be a great fit for me and my passions.  I would definitely need to gain skills in publishing because this is something I am not very familiar with. I would also have to be aware of all of the book-related resources NAEYC has to publish. I would love to work on a national level similar to this.

The next job posting that I feel I would enjoy doing is for Zero to Three and would be the Senior Policy and Technical Assistance Specialist.  This job would be to, "execute state policy priorities and support states in their system & policy work by providing technical assistance and developing written material" (Zero to Three, 2016). I definitely feel that a lot of skills would be needed for this position that I would have to learn.  They also require 10 years of experience and is a full-time telecommute job.  I would need to be heavily trained in something in this field before I applied for this position.

www.zerotothree.org

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

Organizations/Community of Practice

1. Nevada Association for the Education of Young Children - They give members the tools and information to promote effective public policy that is needed to improve early childhood education in Nevada. There are four imperatives that they focus on during the time frame allotted. Each imperative strives to improve children's lives in Nevada and resonate with my own views of what is needed for children. 

2. Healthy Southern Nevada - The goal of this organization is to help schools become "caring communities of learners" (Healthy Southern Nevada, 2016). They work to help build students' sense of community in school by focusing on the environment and the relationships. This is an excellent goal that I feel can be overlooked sometimes. I would be interested in helping promote this initiative. 

3. The Children's Cabinet - Their focus is on helping to keep children safe and families together.  They work to ensure that all of their basic needs are being met. I like this organization because they strive to provide resources and services to families in need. 

Job Interests

The main interest that I have in a career after graduating from Walden is becoming an adult educator in a college setting, preferably online.  I would definitely need some experience in teaching adults in order to obtain this job.  I also feel that  would have to continually educating myself in the child development field. Having knowledge with technology would also help me in this job. 

The next job that I would be interested in pursuing would be a parent educator. I would love to share my knowledge that I have gained with other parents who could benefit from it. After becoming a parent myself, I feel that this would be a job that I would enjoy. 

Websites

http://www.healthysouthernnevada.org/index.phpmodule=promisepractice&controller=index&action=view&pid=661

https://nevaeyc.org/policy/

http://childcarelv.org/en/community-partners

Reference

Healthy Southern Nevada. (2016). Child development project. [Data File]. Retrieved from http://www.healthysouthernnevada.org/index.phpmodule=promisepractice&controller=index&action=view&pid=661

Thank You!

It is so nice to be at a point in this journey where I am starting to form relationships with many of my colleagues.  It will be interesting to see who I will see in my particular specialization now that we are already at that stage!  I would not be able to have had the same learning experience without the discussions that we have been able to have throughout this course.  I have enjoyed getting to know each of you better, as well as getting to know some of you for the first time.  Each of you have given me better insight to the subjects we have been learning that I would not have been able to gain by myself.

I hope that each of you have positive experiences in your future classes and that you are able to achieve all that you want to when you graduate.  It is such an accomplishment to have gotten this far and I know that we can all reach the end! Thank you to everyone and I hope to learn with some of you again.  If you would like to stay in touch you can reach out to me via Walden email or find me on Facebook.

Adjourning Teams

Out of all the groups I have been in, the adjourning stage has always been the hardest if the group was high-performing.  I was always relieved when I was able to say good-bye to group members that were frustrating and made whatever task we were working on harder than it should have been.  There was one job I had in college that allowed me to have personal goals, as well as work on team goals each day.  We had team leaders who were constantly encouraging us to do better and there were incentives for when we did well.  We did a lot of activities to get to know everyone and the leaders were all organized and truly cared about what they were doing.  I really enjoyed working with everyone and when the time came for me to quit the job I was very sad.  I left because my school schedule conflicted with their hours, but found another job that was similar, but there was no sense of teamwork and the leaders at this job clearly did not care about how well we did as a team, nor how well each of us did personally.  It affected my own job performance because  I didn't feel connected with anyone and didn't feel like it mattered how well I did.  I was not upset when I was able to leave this job and I no longer talked to anyone from this office, unlike at my old office when I still talked to a lot of the people I worked with.

I am not sure how adjourning this program will be for me because I have not had the opportunity to meet anyone in person and each class has had different people.  I have enjoyed getting to know a few people better that I have had multiple classes with, but I do not feel I will be terribly upset when I am finished and no longer know what is happening with my classmates.  I have had a positive experience with everyone I have had classes with and hope that everyone is able to pursue the goals they have after graduating.

Conflict and Communication

I am currently working for my dad's real estate appraising company because of the flexibility it provides and the necessity to pay for school and so there are not a lot of ways for conflict to arise there because I don't typically work with anyone besides my dad.  One personal conflict that I have recently been having with my husband is in regard to his driving  I have always thought that he was a really good driver, but lately every time he drives I find something that he is doing wrong.  He has become very irritable with my comments and has begun taking everything much more critically than I intend.  I still prefer for him to drive us places, but he has started to resist driving.  I have recently been much more aware of the things that I say to him when he does drive.  It is easy for me to say whatever is on my mind without really thinking about the feelings of whoever I am speaking to. Being slower to speak is something that I have been working on with the people I am close to because it is not my intention to make anyone feel badly about themselves.  I have also realized that it helps if I express my appreciation to him when he does drive so that he can feel that I am grateful for his driving and concern because most of the time his driving irritates me is when he is being cautious or braking quickly for safety reasons.  Understanding that his intentions are always good helps me to speak kindly and avoid contention with him.  I definitely feel that striving to live the principles of nonviolent communication can help my husband and I avoid any contention and conflict that has arisen and will allow me to avoid having any annoyances towards my husband when it comes to his driving.