Time Well Spent

I would like to start off by thanking all of my colleagues and Johnna! Without the feedback and encouragement I received throughout this course I do not think I would have grown as much as I did. I appreciate the time you all spent learning about my challenge and why it is of importance to me. 

I wish everyone the best in their future endeavors! If any of you would like to stay connected my email is chrissy.silk@gmail.com - I would love to add each of you to my Community of Practice.

The three things I learned during this course and program:

1) This program has helped me to make small manageable goals for  myself, both academically and personally. Having the courses on a consistent and shortened schedule helped me think in the moment and short term. I was able to accomplish the goal of achieving my master's degree without feeling as overwhelmed. 

2) I can be an agent of social change. Prior to the start of this course I thought that to be an agent of social change I had to think on the national or global level. This course taught me that I can make small changes within my community to ensure positive outcomes for the children, families, and the early childhood field.
“Everyone has the power to make a difference, whether big or small or local or global” (General Board of Church & Society of The United Methodist Church, 2014).

3) The last and most important thing I learned through my time at Walden was how to be a leader. Leadership, to me, is about guiding and inspiring others to be the best version of themselves. Leaders help others to achieve a common goal. Through this course I realized my potential at becoming a leader within my workplace. 

The long-term goal I have decided on for myself is to build relationships within my new position at Head Start. I have been a teacher at Head Start for six years and have built relationships among the other teachers. All of those relationships are now having to change, which is something I will be needing to grow in. 

Reference

General Board of Church & Society of The United Methodist Church. (2014). 6 types of social-change agents. Retrieved from https://umc-gbcs.org/faith-in-action/6-types-of-social-change-agents

The ECE Community - Internationally

Three organizations that I found interesting are: 

1) International Coaching Council - this organizations offers Master Coaching Courses/Certificate. Although this organization is not specific to Early Childhood, it is relevant to my Community of Practice and coaching. There is a membership for this global organization and a directory for members to connect with each other. http://www.international-coaching-council.com

2) World Organization for Early Childhood Education - this organization defends and promotes the rights of the child to education and care worldwide and supports activities which improve accessibility to high quality education and care (World Organization for Early Childhood Education, 2013). There will also be a conference in June in Croatia for the members and non-members of OMEP. http://worldomep.org/en/

3) Global Partnership for Education - this organization is a multi-stakeholder partnership and funding platform that aims to strengthen education systems in developing countries in order to dramatically increase the number of children who are in school and learning (Global Partnership for Education, 2017). There are children worldwide who are unable to receive quality education, especially those in developing countries. This organization is bound to increase the number of children who have access to quality early childhood education. 

Job Opportunity

Senior Education Specialist - Learning Assessment Systems

 

Here are some requirements for the position:

 

• Advanced degree (PhD preferred) in a social science discipline (education, economics, public policy, psychology, or a related discipline). 

• At least 8 years of experience in country level education sector reform and planning, with specialized expertise in the area of learning and assessments.  10 or more years of experience is preferred.

• At least 5 years’ experience in a developing country, with successful experience in implementing learning assessments or supporting national teams to strengthen learning assessment systems. Experience can include working on large scale assessments, national examinations, and/or classroom-based assessments. 

• Good understanding of the challenges developing countries face in designing, implementing, and sustaining efforts to monitor learning and use learning data to improve learning. 

• Good knowledge of the institutional environment, including familiarity with global initiatives to monitor learning and key actors working in this space. 

References

Global Partnership for Education. (2017). About us. Retrieved from 

                  http://www.globalpartnership.org/about-us

World Organization for Early Childhood Education. (2013). About OMEP. Retrieved from 

                 http://worldomep.org/en/about-omep-2/

ECE Community: National/Federal Level

When researching organizations that appealed to me I wanted to focus on those that could help in my future management position.

1) Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC)

• This organization provides resources throughout the early childhood field and is where I receive my information around coaching. 
• Through this website you can find standards, employment opportunities and resources particular to Head Start.
• There is a director position posted for a Head Start in Texas. Some of the preferred requirements include a Doctoral in Early Childhood Education, Business Administration, Management, Human Relations or related field, head start experience, and bilingual in English and Spanish.

2) Association for Early Learning Leaders - www.earlylearningleaders.org

• This organization has a membership attached to it, if you would like to utilize all of the benefits.
• They offer webinars on various topics along with an annual conference.
• The goal of this association is to strengthen the knowledge, skills & abilities of early care directors, owners, emerging leaders, and other early learning professionals to ensure quality child care programs for young children (Association for Early Learning Leaders, n.d.).

3) National Head Start Association (NHSA) - www.nhsa.org

• This association is key to my program and provides resources and professional development opportunities related to Head Start.
• There is a section that focuses on getting involved in the association and advocating.
• There is a membership opportunity with NHSA, as well. 

Reference

Association for Early Learning Leaders. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.earlylearningleaders.org

Exploring ECE Roles

When I think about the early childhood world my passion has changed within the last year or so. Of course, the children are always number one but recently I have enjoyed exploring the coaching realm within early childhood. The job opportunities and communities of practice I chose for this post revolve around coaching for educators. 

The three communities of practice/organizations I feel relate to me are; the coaches within my current program, Colorado Shines, and Colorado Coaching Consortium. The coaches at my current workplace will help me to guide my way through the coaching process. The Colorado Shines and Colorado Coaching Consortium appeal to me because they are platforms to professional development and networking opportunities. I feel that the more focused and informative professional development one can become involved in will really help better themselves and those they are working with. Colorado Coaching Consortium offers Relationship Based Professional Development trainings around adult learners, coaching competencies, reflective practice, and coaching implementation tools, which will offer current/future coaches the tools for success. 

I have recently accepted a coaching position at Head Start, which is the job opportunity of interest to me and one that I have been working towards for almost two years!! This position will be a coach/supervisor to a select number of teachers within our Head Start program. I am not sure the exact experience needed but I know they wanted the candidate to have Head Start teaching experience with some knowledge of the policies/procedures. 

Adjourning

There have been many groups that I have been apart of that were hard for me to leave - my college roommates (who were my friends since elementary school), high school friends, and past co-workers. I feel that all of these relationships have helped me grow in various ways and we were apart of each others success and failures. There was a sense of trust among all of the individuals, which gave us the courage to try new things. 

Saying good-bye to my colleagues at Walden will be difficult - we have been able to open up to each other and grow through each of our mistakes/life experiences. I never thought I would be a "blogger" and was a little nervous to start this process but I have learned to love it. This is an informal method of sharing our success stories, and even some failures. I truly believe in the power of learning from others experiences and love to hear about everyone's life journeys.

This past week I was at a training out of state and we did not have time in the "forming" stage to get to know each other - we spent the first 5 minutes on Monday introducing ourselves and saying one thing about us that nobody would guess by looking at us. This was a good ice breaker and conversation starter for later in the week. We all became close and really connected with each other (going to lunch and out to dinner after the training), so saying good-bye on Friday was hard - we all want to stay connected but living in separate states makes that hard. Learning about team building and trust this week was helpful especially being apart of such an amazing group of individuals. 

Conflict Resolution

After thinking back to a conflict I have had recently I decided to focus on one from my personal life – between my brother and I. There was a comment made to my sister in law as we were all leaving a family birthday party - instead of confronting the situation right then she had my brother text message us an hour or so later. Text messaging is the worst way, in my opinion, to discuss a situation where feelings were hurt. 

The strategies I learned this week that could have helped me in this situation are:

1. The Third Side has been an important tool so far in this class and my life. In this particular conflict situation I could have listened from the Third Side. I did not learn or listen to all of the perspectives (sister in law and brother). I become annoyed and defensive because the wording my brother used became an attack on my husband. 

2. I am going to start focusing my communication skills around the NVC model. I feel that I am a compassionate communicator with individuals outside of my family structure but tend to be a little more blunt with my family members. This approach could have helped with my conflict because I could have addressed his text message and her concern with more compassion and from the heart. 

There have been multiple instances where my brother and sister in law have verbally attacked all members of my family, which makes it difficult to want to communicate with them in a compassionate manner. But as we all know, two wrongs don't make a right.

Communication Evaluation

The one thing that surprised me the most was how my friends evaluated my nerves while public speaking. They felt that I was more comfortable than I really am - inside I want to run and hide. When I am in small groups I tend to have less nerves than in a large group setting. 

What insights about communication did I gain this week?

1) I need to work on not being as sarcastic because not everybody understands it and they could become offended. I was discussing this assignment with one of the managers at work and told her that not using sarcasm is one of the communication goals I have for myself - she said she does not like sarcasm because it is angers ugly cousin. This statement stuck with me and is in the back of my mind every time I say something sarcastic. 

2) Communication is more than engaging in verbal conversations with each other, it is about listening to the other person as well. Listening to others will help build a better relationship.