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