The blog this week focuses on three organizations or communities of practice that appeal to me and that I would like to belong to, and three jobs in the field that I would like to have .
- United Way of Utah (UWU) is an outstanding agency whose primary focus is breaking the cycle of poverty by focusing on early childhood. Two specific UWU initiatives that interest me are the expansion of the 211 number with Help Me Grow and Promise Neighborhoods. 211 is a number that people can call to find resources about anything, and UWU is partnering 211 with Help Me Grow-whose mission is to promote the importance of developmental screenings-to ensure that all parents of young children who call the number know about screenings and early intervention support. Promise Neighborhoods are working with extremely low income communities to ensure that their young children have what they need in order to be ready for kindergarten.
- Higher Education Consortium of Utah is a new group comprised of the heads of early childhood college programs around the state, as well as key stakeholders. The purpose of this group is to collaborate on the curriculum being taught in the programs and establish what elements are important for students to have in order to be prepared for work in the early childhood field.
- Early Childhood Council, or Early Childhood Utah (ECU), is the group established in statute for every state to coordinate policy and work around young children and their families. Two initiatives that interest me in this group are Strengthening Families and School Readiness.
- State CCDF Administrator-the skills needed for this job are an understanding of CCDF Funds and how to best spend them. There is a lot of paperwork and meetings with this job but I believe it could be fun.
- University Professor-my Master's degree is actually all that is standing in the way of my becoming an adjunct teacher, and I have several opportunities awaiting for the fall semester. I have been fortunate that the other two skills needed (an understanding of how to teach adults and early childhood development) are things that I have been working on for many years.
- Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Provider-I will also need a Master's Degree for this position and an understanding of the Head Start Performance Standards. The position I am interested in is working with American Indian/Alaska Native programs, so I will also need to study more about how to work with those groups in a culturally relevant way.
Hi Carolyn. I think you have chosen three great communities of practice to be involved in and three great career opportunities as well. I also would like to become an adjunct professor at my local college. I had the opportunity to teach adults basic computer skills for almost two years and loved it. I am looking forward to having the opportunity to teach adults in the early childhood field as well and am pursuing a Masters certificate from Walden in the area. I will start my course work in Sept.
ReplyDeleteI agree the blogs are fun to create each week and its great to have a final opportunity to contribute to the blogs in our final course.
Keep up the good work;
Janine
Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteI could see a strong passion for school readiness as I read your post, to be able to help parents prepare their child and have to skills to assist them is invaluable. It seems that your passion will take you to many places where you will be able to make a great difference in the field of early childhood. I wish you luck!
Pretty Crazy this is our last class. To bad we are not in the same section. You have some great information here. I appreciated reading about near by states.
ReplyDeleteKeep in touch,
Betsy