Channette's Early Childhood Studies Blog

 Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: Internationally Unicef – Consultant Unicef is an international organization that appeals to me because they help children living in the most dangerous situations around the world. According to United Nations Children’s Fund website, “Across more than 190 countries and territories, we do whatever it takes to help children survive, thrive and fulfill their potential, from early childhood through adolescence.” (n.d.) I like that Unicef is non-political and impartial. I would like to work for an organization that helps children in need. I like that the organization provides humanitarian needs to children that are in emergency situations, such as war. Defending the rights of children, I believe would be a fulfilling career. A current job opportunity that interests me is as a Consultant that works in Angola. Angola is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. The skills and experience that are needed to competently fulfill the role is a master’...

  Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level I have been a federal employee for about 6 years. I have been working for the Navy’s Child and Youth Program. I plan to in some way or another retire as a childcare professional within one of the branches of the United States Military. There are two federal childcare organizations within the United States Military. They are Child and Youth Program and Child and Youth Services. Both of this organizations appeal to me because the policies and procedures are very similar. In addition, it allows me the opportunity to give back to my country. I am very honored and humbled to know that the servicemembers that defend my country trust me to provide a high-quality childcare service to their children. The best place to look for job opportunities that are CYP or CYS is on the website USAjobs.gov. There are many opportunities that are available. However, only a select few are interesting to me because once I complete this current cour...

  Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels I currently living overseas on a military base in Italy. This causes me to have limitations on the local organizations or communities of practice that appeal to me or that are even available to me. For me there is only one early childhood organization that is available for me to pursue while living here and that is my current employer the United States Navy Child and Youth Program. In addition, I am limited on the communities of practices that are available for me on a military base. The three local organizations that appeal to me are Child and Youth Program (CYP), United Service Organization (USO) and Fleet and Family Support Services. 1.            CYP provides childcare services for children between the ages of 7 weeks to 18 years old for service members. As a CYP employee I participate in weekly group discussions with my colleagues in which we share information, discuss chi...

  Greetings Colleagues, Thank you to each and every one of you for your participation on our journey towards achieving our master’s degree. Together we have chosen to collaborate with each other on a shared vision. Thank you for taking the time to respond to my discussions and comment on my blogs. A lot of your names have become familiar to me during my time at Walden University. I hope to someday meet at least one of you to thank you in person. A little over a year ago I embarked on a dream that I thought was going to be almost impossible. However, knowing that I share this dream with other people helps me to realize that as long as they continue to try so must I. As we continue to complete our vision, I hope that you all continue to learn how to be positive and effective childcare professionals.    

  Adjourning In 2015 I moved to Norfolk, Virginia and started my career with the United States Navy as a civilian employee that works with children in the Child and Youth Program. Since 2016 I have been apart of 5 different teams at 5 different facilities. The last team that I was associated with was in Virginia Beach. I miss working with that team for many reasons. There were many aspects of the group that made it the hardest for me to say good-bye. I liked that each of our roles were clearly defined. Everyone on the team new exactly what their responsibilities were and how to execute them. I believe this has to do with the fact that we all had over 10 years of experience working with children. In addition, we all knew the policy and procedures of the program. I do believe that high-performing groups are the hardest to leave. They are the hardest to leave because they were successful. While working at the facility in Virginia Beach, Virginia knowing that my director, parents, an...

  Conflict Resolution Strategies In my profession I often come across new colleagues. I currently work on a military installation. Everyone who works with me has a limited amount of time in which they will be here on the military installation. Typically, we are requested to stay at least three years. With people coming and going every few years disagreements or conflicts do occur because people do not know each other very well. Recently, I acquired a new director at my facility, and we had a conflict. I changed my plans and did not attend a meeting. My director was expecting me at the meeting, and I had told my regional director that I was not going to attend the meeting. I was not under the impression that I had to attend the meeting. However, my lack of attendance caused a disagreement. I am very use to working independently and not having to explain to my director where I am at all times. I believe I could use the 4 components of nonviolent communication to help me manage any ...

  Assignment 2: Blog Assignment/EDUC 6165 I believe it is important to continue to try to improve oneself through out life. By taking this week’s assessments I am able to explore some the communication characteristics I like about myself and some that I want to improve on. A similarity between how I evaluated myself as a communicator and how others evaluated me was level of anxiety I demonstrate when I am communicating. According to the Communication Anxiety Inventory assessment I demonstrate a low level of anxiety. I had my director, Audrey, take the assessment and her score agreed with my score rating. Lately, the only time I demonstrate anxiety is when I am attempting to speak the Italian language with locals. Audrey has never seen me in this situation. I am a fairly confident speaker in one on one or group situations. I learned this week that others view me as I hope they do. They view me as someone that is empathic to the feelings of others and as a good listener. I believ...

  Everyone does not communicate the same. When I communicate with different people, I try to keep in mind the differences we have and the things we share in common. I find myself communicating differently with people from different groups and cultures. I have come to realize that I communicate differently with colleagues, family, and Italian friends. I currently live in a small community in Italy. I take Italian language lessons once a week to better communicate with the Italians. In order to meet local Italian people and create friendship with them I must learn the Italian language. When I attempt to practice speaking the Italian language with my Italian friends I speak very slowly. I speak slowly because I am attempting to pronouncing the language correctly. In addition, I pay attention to my body language and my facial expressions. According to Interpersonal Communication Relating to Others, “ Misunderstanding and miscommunication occur between people from different cultures b...

    Thus far in this course I have learned that communication is more than words. Communication can occur with body language as well. The television episode that I chose to watch was from a very old television show called The Jeffersons. The episode of The Jeffersons that I watched was from season 3 and it was episode 16 titled, George’s Guilt. At the beginning of the episode a relationship that was determined early on was between George and Weezy. The scene began with George opening the door for Weezy and then helping her remove her coat. George was attentive and helpful to Weezy which leads me to understand that they have a close relationship.   The next relationship that I observed with no sound was between Florence and George. Florence was George’s maid for his apartment. George and Florence’s body language towards each other demonstrated annoyance with each other. During the episode when they speak to each other they often put their hands on their hips and seem...

  Assignment 2: Blog Assignment      Growing up I always admired how my mother was able to communicate with various people. My mother was able to demonstrate competent communication within any particular context. My mother retired from the United States Navy after serving 20 years. When I was younger, and I would go to work with my mother I would admire how she could command a room of sailors. She was able to lead them into action with her words. My mother knew how to speak clearly and with authority in her voice. When my mother had to present speeches to the sailors, she seemed confident in what she was saying even when I knew she was nervous. She was always able to connect with her audience by making eye contact and making everyone feel like she was talking to each of them individually. In addition, she was able to keep speaking at a good pace and had little to no pauses. All of these actions or behaviors helped her to exhibit an effect style of communication the...

  The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression During this course I have gained a new perspective on how to help families feel respect and accepted when choosing to enroll their children within my facility. One hope that I have when I think about working with children and families who come from diverse backgrounds is that my facility will become a resource they recommend to others. When families do recommend my facility, I hope that they will explain to others how myself and my staff accepted and respected their diverse background. I hope that the children and families within my facility will see their culture represented within my facility. One goal that I would like to set for in the early childhood field related to issues of diversity, equity, and social justice would be to bring more awareness of this issues to my staff. I currently work at a facility that is on a military base overseas. I have found that staff often are not aware of some issues related diversity, e...

  Welcoming Families from Around the World   There are many countries in Africa that I have never heard of or know how to pronounce. If I was working at a childcare center and a new family emigrated from Gabon. I would not know anything about their culture or way of life. However, there are many ways that I will prepare myself to be culturally responsive towards this family.   First, I would identify what is the language of Gabon. One of the primary languages used in Gabon is French. Therefore, to be welcoming to the family I would learn and teach my co-workers a few common words in French. Some common words we could learn before they arrive are hello, goodbye, please and thank you. Second, I would prepare myself to be opened minded to any cultural differences that may arise. Third, I would attempt to contact the family to see if there is anything I can do support them in having an inclusive experience within the facility. I would attempt to find out if there is a...

The Personal Side of Bias, Prejudice, and Oppression A memory that I have of an incident when I experienced prejudice happened recently. Currently, I work in an environment in which I am the oldest person. The majority of my colleagues are in their twenties and early thirties. I often feel as though I am experiencing prejudice due to my age. The way people interact with me or leave me out of things I think has to do with my age. People are often shocked to learn that I am in my forties. All the time people tell me I look like I am in my early thirties. However, once my current colleagues find out my real age, they tend to treat me differently and isolate me more. Recently, I was at a gathering at a new colleague’s home. We were all sitting in the living room when the topic of everyone’s age started. Everyone went around the room and talked about how old they were. I never provided my age, but a colleague stated that I was the oldest in the room. Then another colleague stated that I was...

  Practicing Awareness of Microaggressions On Saturday evening I attended a barbeque with some friends. While there a gentleman began to tell me about an experience he had while living in Spain. The experience he described to me was a microaggression. The man explained to me that there was a club in Spain that if he, an African American male, went to alone he would not be let in. The owners of the establishment would point out something he is wearing and say it was against the dress code. However, if he went to the club with a local Spaniard he would be let into the club. The owners of the club were assuming that people who are non-Spaniard were perhaps criminals or would be disrespectful in some sort of way to the club. The man’s experience was an example of a racial microaggression. When the gentleman was describing his experience in Spain I was not surprised. I often here stories of how African American’s are treated in overseas countries. Generally, I have heard that if or ...

  Perspectives on Diversity and Culture I have many friends all over the world that I thought would be interested in helping me with this Blog assignment. Therefore, I posted a comment on my Facebook page reaching out to everyone to answer. The three responses I received where from Ms. Kristen, Tiffany and Monik. Everyone had a different perspective of culture and diversity. The first person that answered is a person that I believe to be in many ways culturally different from me. The first person that reached out to help me was my previous director Ms. Kristin. She is employed at another military base overseas and I still consider her a colleague. Ms. Kristin is older than me, a different race them me and economically in a different class than me. Nonetheless, I admire her achievements, respect her opinions, and adore her as the beautiful person she is. Ms. Kristen stated, “ culture is the way of life that someone is raised into as a part of their family/ancestral background. T...

  My Family Culture      I work for the United States Navy overseas in Italy. Earlier this month the base I am located at received over 5,000 refugees from Afghanistan. I saw thousands of people come here with only things they could carry. I am thankful that I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for these people to leave their country. Most people had a small suitcase or nothing in their hands but their children. If I could only grab three items that I hold dear to my culture I would grab my United States passport, my quilt that my grandmother made for me,   and my family recipe book.      In the event, that I would need to stay permanently in the host country I would still want to remain a United States citizen. By keeping my passport, I would be able to prove that I am U.S. citizen. I would explain to others that my citizenship is a part of my culture. The quilt my grandmother made for me would bring me comfort. My grandmother sho...

  When I Think of Research...   When choosing my research simulation, I wanted to pick something that I knew would benefit the children in my care. My research simulation was to conduct a research study that would determine the benefits of providing guidance related to deployments to children of military parents. It is vital that as childcare workers we provide guidance to children based on their needs. My simulation is important to the field of early childhood because it will demonstrate the importance of providing guidance to children. By providing children with guidance, they learn how to handle a variety of situations. In my research simulation children would learn how to cope with their parents’ deployments. The research simulation would help childcare workers determine which methods are most effective and which are not. The research simulation would help childcare worker in the early childhood field have better judgement of the behavior’s children display when dealin...