A Note of Thanks

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for your support and encouragement throughout this course.  I’ve enjoyed reading the weekly blogs; the display of passion for the early childhood field has deepened my aspiration for continuing my career in early childhood education.  I’ve gotten to know each of you and have enjoyed being able to share our hopes, dreams and passion for the early childhood profession.  I wish each and every one of you much success in your future endeavors.

Code of Ethics

The NAEYC and DEC has composed a code of ethics that summarizes how we as early childhood professionals should conduct ourselves professionally when it comes to providing quality care for our children, families and community we serve.

NAEYC

Statement of Commitment – As an individual who works with young children, I commit myself to furthering the values of early childhood education as they are reflected in the ideals and principles of the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct. 

This Statement of Commitment is very significance to me because I believe in the same values and morals described in commitment statement; also professionally I will be able to incorporate these statements in my mission statement to be distributed to my parents.

The Preamble – NAEYC recognizes that those who work with young children face many daily decisions that have moral and ethical implication.  The NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct offers guidelines for responsible behavior and sets forth a common basis for resolving the principal ethical dilemmas encountered in early childhood care and education.

This is significance to me because it offers early childhood professionals helpful guidelines to help guide them on making daily decisions on how to handle ethical dilemmas that may arise which may have an impact both moral and ethically.

DHEC

Professional Development and Preparation : Item 2 – We shall continually be aware of issues challenging the field of early childhood special education and advocate for changes in laws, regulations, and policies leading to improved outcomes and services for young children with disabilities and their families.

The significance to me professionally is that I believe children with disabilities should have the same opportunities to obtain a fair education.   All children should be afforded the opportunity to an education and likewise children with disability.

Course Resources Section

·         NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/dap

·         NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on child abuse prevention. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/ChildAbuseStand.pdf

·         NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on school readiness. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/Readiness.pdf

·         NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf

·         NAEYC. (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf

·         NAEYC. (2009, April). Early childhood inclusion: A summary. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_ECSummary_A.pdf

·         Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. (2010). Infant-toddler policy agenda. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_pub_infanttodller

·         FPG Child Development Institute. (2006, September). Evidence-based practice empowers early childhood professionals and families. (FPG Snapshot, No. 33). Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://community.fpg.unc.edu/sites/community.fpg.unc.edu/files/imce/documents/FPG_Snapshot_N33_EvidenceBasedPractice_09-2006.pdf

·         Turnbull, A., Zuna, N., Hong, J. Y., Hu, X., Kyzar, K., Obremski, S., et al. (2010). Knowledge-to-action guides. Teaching Exceptional Children, 42(3), 42-53.

 UNICEF (n.d.). Fact sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf

o    World Forum Foundation
http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/about-us
This link connects you to the mission statement of this organization. Make sure to watch the media segment on this webpage

o    World Organization for Early Childhood Education
http://www.omep-usnc.org/
Read about OMEP's mission.

o    Association for Childhood Education International
http://acei.org/
Click on "Mission/Vision" and "Guiding Principles and Beliefs" and read these statements.

·         National Association for the Education of Young Children
http://www.naeyc.org/

·         The Division for Early Childhood
http://www.dec-sped.org/

·         Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
http://www.zerotothree.org/

·         WESTED
http://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm

·         Harvard Education Letter
http://www.hepg.org/hel/topic/85

·         FPG Child Development Institute
http://www.fpg.unc.edu/

·         Administration for Children and Families Headstart's National Research Conference
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/

·         HighScope
http://www.highscope.org/

·         Children's Defense Fund
http://www.childrensdefense.org/

·         Center for Child Care Workforce
http://www.ccw.org/

·         Council for Exceptional Children
http://www.cec.sped.org/

·         Institute for Women's Policy Research
http://www.iwpr.org/

·         National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education
http://www.ncrece.org/wordpress/

·         National Child Care Association
http://www.nccanet.org/

·         National Institute for Early Education Research
http://nieer.org/

·         Pre[K]Now
http://www.pewstates.org/projects/pre-k-now-328067

·         Voices for America's Children
http://www.voices.org/

·         The Erikson Institute
http://www.erikson.edu/

·         Petersen, S. (2012).  Developmentally Appropriate: School Readiness for Infants and Toddlers? Really? Yes, Really!   Young Children, 10-13. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=f3ddca8e-3981-4f39-956f-ba1bef418b77%40sessionmgr110&vid=7&hid=121

·         Lally, S.R. (2010).  School Readiness Begins in Infancy.  Phi Delta Kappan, 92(3), 17-21.  Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.waldenlibrary.org

 

“Know that education is everything to our children’s future.”

                                                                   President Barack Obama

 

“The return on investment from early childhood development is extraordinary,
resulting in better working public schools, more educated workers and less crime.”
                                                                                        Art Rolnick

 

“Working with 3 and 4 year old I found to be the most enjoyable experience,
it makes me feel whole.”                                                                   
                                                                                        Louise Derman-Sparks

 

Her passion…”is to be able to shape a child’s life for the better.”
                                                                                        Sandy Escobido

 

His passion…wanting to make a difference, “by helping one child be successful in the classroom.”

                                                                                        Raymond Hernandez

 

Her values, beliefs, and passion is her life’s lineage of helping people.
                                                                                         Leticia Lara

“It’s not about you, you have to take your ego out of it and think about what’s best for the child.”                   

                                                                                         Renatta M. Cooper

Personal Childhood Web

The five people who nurtured and cared about me when I was a child was, Mattie Bailey, Henry Bailey, Daisy Brown, William Frazier and Mrs. Bishop. .

Mattie Bailey and Henry Bailey are my parents, who loved and cared for me, they’ve always encourage me to do my best in school.  My father was in the military for 22 years and we moved around a lot.  Sometimes, he would have to leave his family for several months at a time and I remember always feeling very lonely when he was away, Daisy Brown, who was the best aunt anyone could ever have, loved me like I was her own daughter, she took me shopping, would pick me up from school when I was sick and my mother wasn’t able too.  I remember spending summers with her in the country, the times we shared were so special, she taught me how to bake my first cake and also taught me how to sew.  She was a very religious woman, I always remember her telling my siblings and I when we younger that “whatever, you need, God’s Got It.  My aunt died a couple of years ago, but her memories will live on with me forever.  William Frazier, is an elder first cousin, who was actually more like a brother to me, he would take me fishing with him when I was a little girl, I remember being afraid of the water, because I did not know how to swim, so he taught me how to swim, which was awesome because after that we would go swimming every summer.  Mrs. Bishop stopped a couple of 5^th girls who were bullying me on the playground at school.  I’ll never forget how she made those girls stop teasing me and made them apologize to me.  I had just moved to South Carolina, and had only been going to the school for a couple of months; the other kids didn’t seem to want to play with me so I would stay to myself.  Mrs. Bishop encouraged me to make friends with the other children, she always looked out for me and whenever, I was having a bad day or was sad that my dad was gone again she always seem to know and encourage me that everything was going to be alright and that she love me.   Mrs. Bishop also encouraged me to join the Spelling B contest and with her help I won two consecutive years. 
My Aunt Daisy although she is no longer with us, beliefs and faith in God continues to have a great impact on my present life;  it’s because of her, that God is head of my life and I truly believe that Jesus truly does have everything we need.  My parents Mattie and Henry continue to encourage me each and every day.   Their continued support has had a great impact on me pursuing my dream of operating and owning my learning center.  I call my mother for advice often when it comes to problems that may arise at the center.  And my cousin William continues to impact my present life, he visits from South Carolina often to help me around the center.  He put together the swing set, help paint the playroom and install security lights in the entrance way.  All of these relationships played a major role in helping me develop socially, emotionally and spiritually and have helped mold me into the person that I am today.

This story about a child who touched my heart, Joshua, when he first came to my center two years ago he was very withdrawn, he didn’t interact with the other children, and he barely spoke.  I remember saying to myself that he had the saddest eyes I’d ever seen.  No manner what I did to try to get him to interact with the other children he would just sit or stand but never participated in any of the activities.  During free or outside play he would stay to himself even when the other children tried to get him to play with them.  I voiced my concerns with his mother and she told me that she had been in a very abusive marriage and was currently going through a very ugly divorce and that her husband was very negative towards Joshua, as well as her and that was one of the reasons she moved back in with her mother.  She explained to me that he was always well behaved and fairly quiet and often played by himself.  After speaking with Joshua’s mom I sought out different ways to try to get Joshua to interact with the other children and to get him to engage in the daily activities, on this one particular day last fall, I remember that day as if it were yesterday, it was time for Art and some of the children asked if they could paint that day; and I said yes.  As usual Joshua just sat at the table playing with the paint brush, so I walked over to the table kneeled down, gave him a great big hug and told Joshua that I needed to him to paint me a very special picture so that I could hang it on the board; to my surprise he began to paint and when he finished he got up and brought the painting to me and told me it was a painting of black birds that he had seen when he went to the beach.  I was overwhelmed with joy because for a year and a half this child barely spoke, he proceeded to tell me that he loved running in and out of the water when the waves came.  I was so happy and surprised, I gave him a great big hug and held his picture up to show to the rest of the children and we all clapped our hands as I hung his picture on the board.  Back 2 Basics is committed to providing quality and loving care. And our goal is to provide a variety of exciting, stimulating activities each day so that each child can develop socially, emotionally, physically and mentally to the very best of his/her ability.  I believe Joshua just needed feel safe and that there were other who truly did love and care about him.  Joshua is now attending public school and is doing very well.  His mother called to tell me that he made the honor roll.

Sleepy Bears by Mem Fox is one of my favorite books.  The children look forward to me reading Sleepy Bears to them at nap time. I love this book because it ignites the children’s imagination and they love to pretend that they are the baby bears in the book, by the time I am half way through the book most of the children have fallen fast asleep just like the sleepy bears in the story.

 

A quote about children, that is particularly of interest to me.

“It takes a whole village to raise a child”   Originated from an African Proverb

Children Are Our Future

Children learn to read by being read to; inspiring the imagination with tales of faraway places, fairytales, wizards, heroes and heroines.  Identifying favorite books, characters and places are among some of my earliest memories of reading.