My Role as an Advocate

The one thing that got me started wanting to advocate for young children were when a young cousin of mine died from SIDS. After finding out about it and then reading about it in the newspaper it was heartbreaking. The mother was vilified by the community because she let her child die. After learning about SIDS and the causes of it earlier in a previous class, it makes me realize that there needs to be more education about this issue than there has been. My uncle still feels bad about that daughter that died so suddenly. I want to help other parents be able to prevent this from happening to them.

It is important to foster advocacy at both the macro and micro levels because both the small group and individuals as well as the larger group can all benefit from the information that is presented on important early childhood issues. It takes someone who is willing to share information with others when this can help advocacy on either the macro- or micro- level. A community leader can be someone who has a passion to help and is willing to share the resources that are available with other people.

The resources needed to be a state leader in early childhood issues is someone that has been successful at being a community leader with regards to advocating for issues that are important. These resources have to be well established in order for a state leader to be most effective. Someone that has a lot of passion and the ability to lay out the information that can and will help the most people is just as important as being a good leader. When it comes to mobilizing other people, someone who is organized with their information and has all of the facts and evidence laid out is going to have an easier time of getting people to work together on issues that effect the early childhood field than someone who is less likely to be as organized. Another strategy is the ability to build relationships with other early childhood advocates and EC organizations that have the ability to also help with advocacy issues. This and working with people that are good at being able to answer financial questions that come up is another important tactic. Being able to work with people that have the financial backing is also going to help when trying to mobilize people to advocate for other people.

The advice that I would give someone is to persevere. The process is going to be long and take a lot of energy and time. Also gather people around you that you can feed off of and encourage and they can encourage you when things get too difficult. In order to be an effective advocate, having the passion continue even when things get really difficult is going to be the biggest test of whether something is going to get done or not. It is one thing to have the passion, but when you collaborate with other people that have the same passion and perseverance that you do, together the group can continue even after all of the “no’s” that come. Among all of the no’s there will be someone that will listen to what you have to say who will have the power to say yes and can help push the issue along further.

Personal Advocacy Reflection

This was a challenging blog for me to do because I really do not know who to write about particularly. As I have thought about it though, a couple of names have finally come to my mind. The person that has been something of an inspiration for me was a teacher that I have observed teaching in Oregon. Her name is Melissa and she has taught Kindergarten and is currently teaching 1st and 2nd grade at Central Valley Christian School in Tangent, OR. She strives daily in her classroom to make sure that the students in her classroom are able to succeed. She has even tried to help students that have learning disabilities in her classroom so that they are successful. She researches information quite frequently so that she can try to use different methods of teaching in her classroom.

The way this has inspired me to be an advocate is that just from observing and talking to her, I have learned that sometimes it is better to have many different strategies in place when you are teaching children, because they all learn very differently. This was her way of advocating for her students because in the end she wanted them all to be able to learn the information that she presented and do it so that the students that are quicker to catch on to what is taught are still learning while the ones that need more help are able to get the help that they need. She also tries to make sure that she is able to communicate with students whose first language is not English. To me, the way she handles her classroom is advocacy. After observing her, I have realized that even in my own classroom, I can be an advocate.

Seattle’s Preschool Program Is Starting To Take Shape With A Little Help From Boston

This is an article that I read today that came into my email. It is from http://nieer.org

Seattle’s Preschool Program Is Starting To Take Shape With A Little Help From Boston
By JENNIFER WING • MAR 4, 2015

The universal preschool program Seattle voters said yes to last November is starting to take shape. As it works out the details, the City is getting a lot of advice from Boston. That city, which is home to world renowned universities, is also considered a national leader in early childhood education since it launched its preschool program in 2005.

Jason Sachs, the Director of Early Childhood Education with Boston Public Schools, gave a presentation to Seattle City Council’s education committee.

“Quality, quality, quality, I really think who the teacher is and what the teacher teaches is going to be critical. And how it’s evaluated is also going to be critical,” said Sachs.

Researchers say what’s happening in Boston is working. By the 3rd grade, the children who got that extra year in the classroom performed 30% better than their peers who didn’t get that experience.

Boston’s program serves kids not only from different ethnic backgrounds, but also students whose households are low income, wealthy and everything in between. Sachs told Council members that economic diversity is crucial to success.

“If you have some kids with greater background knowledge and vocabulary and have seen things, been exposed to things and can bring different ideas, and that includes culture, ‘Oh, you’re Haitian and you tell stories this way,’ kids learn a lot from each other, especially in early childhood.”

Boston’s program is free for all students. Seattle’s preschools will be free for low income students and some middle income households. But families that make more money will be charged a modest tuition. For example, a family of three with an income of $75,000 will have to pay $1500. To subsidize this, Seattle voters approved higher property taxes last November. The $58-million dollar preschool levy will last for four years.

Seattle is starting out with 14 classrooms. Where they will be located will be announced in June. This is also when families will learn how they can apply. The three and four year old students will start attending in September.

Reference:

Retrieved from http://www.kplu.org/post/seattle-s-preschool-program-starting-take-shape-little-help-boston

When I Reflect About My Collegial, Professional Learning Community

As this class winds down, there are things that I can be very grateful for as I have gone through this class. When it comes to being a part of a caring, collaborative, supportive learning community all I can say is thank you.

1) The feedback on the assignments has been really helpful especially when I think in my own mind that I am not making any sense in what I write. Somehow some helpful little bit of information gets picked up on and expanded upon and it is that extension of my pitiful little thought that helps me to learn that even no matter how bad I write, someone will follow some part of my logic.

2) The depth that we have had to go into for some of these assignments has helped me to learn a lot. Particularly when we had to do the power point presentation for one of the assignments. Just the fact that the material that has been covered has made me think, sometimes harder than I really wanted to, has been good. It has made me realize that no matter how much I know about the subject that we have been studying, I don’t know everything and unless I become an absolute genius, I will never know everything.

3) Reading my classmates discussions and blogs has made me realize that there are times when I do not exactly agree with everything that they say, but I am willing to keep an open mind. Just not so open that all of my brains come out.

4) The encouragement that I have gotten from my classmates and teacher has been really good. It has helped me to strive to be an early childhood professional that cares and has a passion for wanting to help young children and their families.

The goal that I have for using this collegial experience to enhance my future advocacy, public policy work so that I can help young children and their families is to keep on learning because no matter what issue I may decide to focus on, there will always be new information that will help me to stay informed and up to date or that will challenge me in some way. Also by continuing to learn, I can also help myself as a professional be able to be more accepting and willing to adapt to changes that may come my way.

My Hypothetical Family Situation

In this scenario I have been married for five years and already have one child and am expecting my second child. I am 33 just about to celebrate my 34th birthday and I go to the doctor for my check-up. The doctor does an amniocentesis during the appointment to make sure that everything is just fine. When the doctor gets the results he contacts me and my husband who happens to be home with me for a month long break from driving long haul over on the east coast. The doctor tells us that our child will be born with Down’s syndrome. The doctor asks if there is any history of heart problems in the family and I explain that I have had Pulmonary Stenosis since I was a baby and the doctor explains that there is a good chance that our child will be born with a congenital heart defect.
My husband and I are middle class having worked hard to get to where we are from being in the lower class after first getting married. I have been teaching at a local school teaching K-2 in a local Adventist church school for about two years after being a teacher in a public school for six years both as a teacher’s aide and then as a classroom teacher. I have been working on my Master’s in Education and am on the road to graduating but I have to take time off from the program so that I could have my baby. I plan on getting back into the program after being out of school for three months. My husband has been driving as a long-haul driver for about two and a half years and works hard to help support me and our two boys.
As my husband is hardly ever home, the childcare rests with me and church members that offer me help from time to time to give me a break. I take my oldest child, who is two years old, to a nursery program that is in the same building at the school that I am teaching so that I know that he is getting the care that he needs. I call up the doctor and ask him several questions about what I can do after my baby is born so that I can get the help with being able to care for him and give him many opportunities that he needs. The doctor says that after the baby is born he will give me a list of early intervention places that are in the local area that can help me and answer any more questions that I have. This includes information on how I can help my son be able to support his baby brother when he is born as well as how to interact with having a baby in the family that has Down’s syndrome.

The questions that I have for my classmates is:
• Have I given a complete picture of my family, or are there details missing that I should include in order to complete the assignment successfully? If so, what are your suggestions?
• Is this situation realistic?
• Are there any specific websites I should be reviewing with regard to learning about quality services and programs for my child and family in this hypothetical family situation?
• Does anyone have any thoughts, based on my specific family situation, that will affect the early childhood system I am creating?

The Political Will to Improve Early Childhood Systems

When it comes to the political ability to help improve Early Childhood Systems, there are groups like NAEYC (http://www.naeyc.org/) or the National Institute for Early Education Research (http://www.nieer.org) that are doing great things with improving early childhood systems like Kindergarten. When it comes to what I have learned about this is that groups like NAEYC really focus on what policymakers will do to help with making sure that every child is able to get the education that they need to get. NAEYC will post information on the website that gives the latest research to policymakers, advocates, and professionals. NIEER also posts the latest research so that policymakers and early childhood advocates and professionals have this information both on their website as well as on their blog.

One of the strategies that I noticed as I was looking at the NAEYC website, was that of position papers. These position papers give valuable information. Another thing that these position papers can do for early childhood professionals is give information that politicians are focused on. An example of this was a position paper written explaining how President Obama plans to help with making child tax credits available for low-income to middle-income families.

When it comes to strategies that have been used by NIEER was that people have written articles or policy briefs that help explain the need for different areas of early childhood. These policy briefs give very important information regarding different areas and how there could be changes made so that it can be improved. While the information that is presented on the NIEER website is focused more on preschool rather than Kindergarten, the focus is still just as important as the NAEYC website who focus on children that are up to 8 years of age. Both of these websites when they are combined are a real asset to the early childhood field.

the reason that I feel that this type of work appeals to me is the fact that everyone, regardless of how they work with or for children need to have information on hand. The information and resources that are provided to policymakers from early childhood advocacy groups can help with creating policies that will help all children and not just ones that it seems politically expedient to help, groups whose families have a certain skin color or whose families have the most money to pay in order to have laws passed that are supposed to help every child but there always end up being a group that still manage to fall through the cracks because of a lack of ability to get the resources that they need. This can happen for children and their families from all walks of life, any religious affiliation, ethnicity, or even children who come from families that may have a different sexual orientation than everyone else. Young children are important and it is up to early childhood professionals/advocates to be the voice for these children, whose voices cannot be heard.

References:
National Association for the Education of Young Children. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org/
National Institute for Early Education Research. (n.d.). Retrieved from (http://www.nieer.org)

Parent, Family, and Community Engagement

Sometimes you can hear a person share their experience about something that has happened in their life and you may not feel moved by what you have heard. Then there are stories that will absolutely make you feel wonderful and sometimes the story will just move you to tears. There were so many parental stories to choose from to listen to, I had a hard time figuring out which ones to listen too. I was able to select some stories that gave me different points of view and a better understanding about how Head Start has helped people.

From a professional standpoint, hearing Almeta Richards-Keys talk about how Head Start empowered her to be able to go to school and get both her Bachelors and Master’s degrees, or hearing about Angel Ortiz feel like he can be a good role model for his daughter, or even hearing Charlene Ishikuro talk about how she got involved in the Head Start program (Office of Head Start, Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC), n.d.) empowers me. When a professional who works in Head Start hears stories like this, it helps them want to encourage more parents to become actively involved in the Head Start program. Personally, these stories touched me emotionally. I’m not sure if it was the onions that I had cut earlier and had for lunch or it was the stories, but as I was listening to the stories I got tears in my eyes.

It is so important for children to see their parents helping out as a volunteer in a Head Start classroom because this can give them a visual way to see how to give back when they get older. It is especially important for children to see their father’s get involved, like Angel Ortiz was talking about, because all children need a father to be a positive role model for them (Office of Head Start, Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC), n.d.). It can also benefit other families because any parent that comes in to help out in the classroom, other parents when they are either dropping their child off or picking their children up, can see another child’s parent reading to a group of children. That may be the motivation they need to volunteer when they can in the classroom so that they can, perhaps, influence other parents that may not be as active, to become more active in the program.

Any early childhood educator, person in the public, policy makers and government officials like to hear stories about how Head Start has helped people like children or even parents, reach the realization that it is very helpful. Hopefully by hearing stories about how Head Start has made a positive influence in the lives of people, especially parents, policy makers and government officials can see just how important that Head Start really is. This is an important element particularly so that Head Start can continue to be funded. This can also help so that future generations of children can be able to be positively influenced as well.

I feel that parental support and involvement can go a long way in the early childhood field. By parents getting more involved in any aspect of the early childhood field, regardless of what strand it is, it shows that they want to have a partnership along with the teachers of the early childhood field. This can also help policy makers because it is the parents that can give policy makers and government officials more of an idea about what works and what changes can be made so that the children can be the most important part of the early childhood field. It is the parents and early childhood professionals that ultimately know what children need better than policy makers who do not work very closely with the children. It is the voices of parents and ECE professionals that are ultimately speaking for the children to make sure that they are all getting the support and help that they need in order to succeed in school.

Reference:

Office of Head Start, Early Childhood Learning and Knowledge Center (ECLKC). (n.d.). Parent and family stories [Web video clips]. Retrieved from http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/hs/about/stories/pfs

Quality Programs for All Children

I have helped out in preschools as either a substitute teacher’s aide or as a substitute teacher both in the Adventist school system as well as the public school system. When I did help out the Pre-K/Kindergarten teacher I managed to get into a conversation with her about how she became certified to teach and she told me that all she had was a certificate. She has also been teaching in that capacity for many years. She absolutely loves what she does and has been a very good resource for me as far as material that I could use in my own classroom when the time comes for that to happen.

As I have read the news and heard things on the political level from President Obama on what he wants to do with having access for preschool for all children, I have rather mixed feelings on the subject. While I feel that all families would like to have access to quality preschool programs and while this is very important, the negative thing that I have taken from it is how this has been approached. It seems like the only way that the education of young people is going to be successful is if you start at the early childhood level and work your way up rather than making sure that children in K-12 are able to compete with other countries with their education and then working on trying to get preschool available for everyone. I feel like it is more of an afterthought.

I think that there is also a lot of arguments as to whether preschoolers should be sitting down and doing more academic work instead of learning through play. I think it is more important that children do have more time to play and explore their environment rather than sitting down and having to learn how to read at the age of four years old. They are still trying to get a handle on their language skills first than learning how to read. I think that as an early childhood advocate this is where we can have the ability to encourage parents to read to their children at home that way it is not just the teacher’s job.

As far as these changes are concerned, it is up to policy makers and advocates in the early childhood field to help people understand what is going on all the while listening to what their needs are and how we, as professionals can meet their needs. I think by listening to the needs of the parents who have young children or who may be thinking of starting families so that we may be better able to advocate for the early childhood field. We need to keep these young children and their families in mind all the while also being able to help other early childhood professionals be able to offer the high quality programs for children and families.

What Resonates With You About Early Childhood Public Policy and Advocacy?

As I look back on the path that I have taken to where I am now in the Early Childhood program here at Walden, there has been the question of why did I choose this particular area of Public Policy and Advocacy. My reasoning for it has been really hard to explain really, but it basically boils down to this: I want to be able to make some sort of difference. Why did I choose this particular specialization? I just did. It sounds a little bit trite to say this but I am not going to leave it there. I think that it somewhat hit me when I did my student teaching back in September-December of 2010. One particular reason comes to mind is that I can make a difference in the lives of young children.

This realization hit me on a particular day when a first grade boy who was really struggling in class with his behavior due to the fact that his home life was messed up. The two of us were a little slow heading outside to recess, but while we were making our way out of the classroom, he said that he wanted to be a teacher just like me. There was also an incidence that occurred just before the Christmas break when the other first and second grade teacher started to collect food for the children who did not have nearly as much to eat as some of the other children in the school, and I knew this somewhat after being told that a brother and sister who were in the same classroom at the school that I was student teaching at were among the children that may not have had as much food as the rest of the students in the classroom. It is because of the children that I have just written about is the reason that I decided to go into Public Policy and Advocacy.

I think in order to be a successful advocate, there has to be a passion there to begin with. At the same time, I think that having something of a personal experience when you see it first hand, really can make just as big of a difference. While it is one thing to say that you want to be able to help children that are in need, it is another thing to actually have the skills or the knowledge about certain situations, to be able to actually do something about it, to make the difference in the life of a child and their family. Sometimes you can also learn from moments that come up unexpectedly so that you can be an advocate. Another quick example would be helpful in illustrating this last point that I made. As we know from the news, Washington State, which is where I reside, can legally sell Marijuana. For awhile there had been quite a discussion as to where to set up a shop that was not near the schools in the town that I live in. Well I got an opportunity to go to the town hall meeting that settled this issue once and for all. I got up front and addressed the council and stated what the negatives effects could be on young children. I may not have been as knowledgeable as some of the other people that spoke on the issue but that was my way of advocating for the children. As a result it was voted unanimously to not have any kind of shop built in town as we have too many schools that are pretty close together.

When it comes to goals that I have as far as what I hope to learn about public policy and advocacy are the following. First, I hope to learn about how to become a good advocate for children so that if other opportunities present themselves, that I will see them for what they are and be able to speak out and do something in order to advocate for young children. Second, I hope to learn about how public policy works. In other words the process that is involved so that it can be done so that it is a benefit to every young child and not just a small sampling of the population. Third and final, and I say this because I also have a BA in History, I would like to know what history teaches about public policy and how advocacy has changed and evolved over time. Not necessarily the political aspects of what makes up public policy and advocacy, although that would be just as interesting, but how history has defined it. I just hope that somehow these three goals are obtainable.