National and Federal Communities of Practice

The three national or federal organizations I chose to examine are:

·         Zero To Three - http://www.zerotothree.org/

ZERO TO THREE is a national, nonprofit organization that informs, trains, and supports professionals, policymakers, and parents in their efforts to improve the lives of infants and toddlers. Our mission is to promote the health and development of infants and toddlers.

I chose this organization because of my passion for teaching infants and toddlers and supporting new families.  I appreciate that Zero to Three offers training for educators, resources for families, and provides anyone with the latest research on brain development and other issues related to young children.  Currently there are no job opportunities that I would qualify for, but in the future, I would be very interested in becoming a trainer for this organization.  I feel that my background in and passion for this age group along with my graduate work in teaching adults would qualify me for this type of position. 

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

The Children's Defense Fund (CDF) is a non-profit child advocacy organization that has worked relentlessly for nearly 40 years to ensure a level playing field for all children. We champion policies and programs that lift children out of poverty; protect them from abuse and neglect; and ensure their access to health care, quality education and a moral and spiritual foundation. Supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations, CDF advocates nationwide on behalf of children to ensure children are always a priority.

We are a national organization with the capacity to work for children at federal, state and community levels across the country. We have our headquarters in Washington, D.C., and offices in California, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New York, Louisiana, Ohio, South Carolina and Texas. Through these offices, we expand our work into North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas and New Jersey. CDF Haley Farm in Clinton, Tenn., is our home for spiritual renewal, character and leadership development, intergenerational mentoring, and interracial and interfaith dialog about children's issues.

CDF Mission Statement:

The Children’s Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

CDF provides a strong, effective and independent voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investments before they get sick, drop out of school, get into trouble or suffer family breakdown.  

CDF began in 1973 and is a private, nonprofit organization supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations.

I chose this organization because it addresses not only education, but health care for children and families.  Health care is an arena that is so critical to the success of young children and their families and I appreciate that there is a movement to bring attention to the growing crisis in basic health care for American children.  There are also no positions available for this organization either in my area or for which I would qualify, but in the future, I would be interested in doing some outreach work here in Minnesota.  The skills that would be necessary would include a clear understanding of the resources that are available to families and how to access them effectively.  Good communication and advocacy skills would also be beneficial.

·         The YMCA - http://www.ymca.net/

Today, the Y engages more than 10,000 neighborhoods across the U.S. As the nation’s leading nonprofit committed to helping people and communities to learn, grow and thrive, our contributions are both far-reaching and intimate—from influencing our nation’s culture during times of profound social change to the individual support we provide an adult learning to read.

By nurturing the potential of every child and teen, improving the nation’s health and well-being, and supporting and serving our neighbors, the Y ensures that everyone has the opportunity to become healthier, more confident, connected and secure.

I chose this organization because of the work they do within communities to engage citizens in healthy lifestyles.  They support children, families and communities in housing, education, and other services that are essential to the success of the entire area.  Currently there is a Community Program Director position available in Minneapolis.  This job would require the skills to manage and oversee several different kinds of programming for children, including after school and camp programming.  It also requires the ability to interact with community partners and advocate for the services that the YMCA of Minneapolis offers.

Resources:

http://www.zerotothree.org/

http://www.childrensdefense.org/

http://www.ymca.net/

Communities of Practice

The three local or state organizations I chose to review are:

·         Way To Grow – Minneapolis, MN - http://mplswtg.org/

We firmly believe that every child should be born healthy, stay healthy and have the equal opportunity to succeed in school and life. And that can only happen with parents’ active participation. Through our in-home and center-based programming, we help parents create a healthy home and become their children’s first and most important teachers.

·         Minnesota Child Care Resource and Referral - http://www.mnchildcare.org/

The Minnesota Child Care Resource & Referral Network helps families find child care and understand their care options, supports child care providers through grants and education, and informs the community on the importance of child care.

·         Wilder Foundation – Saint Paul, MN - http://www.wilder.org/

Our mission (from the original Wilder family wills)
To promote the social welfare of persons resident or located in the greater Saint Paul metropolitan area by all appropriate means, including:

• relief of the poor
• care of the sick and aged
• care and nurture of children
• aid of the disadvantaged and otherwise needy
• promotion of physical and mental health
• provision of needed housing and social services
• operation of residences and facilities for the aged, the infirm and those requiring special care

and in general the conservation of human resources by the provision of human services responsive to the welfare needs of the community, all without regard to, or discrimination on account of, nationality, sex, color, religious scruples or prejudices.

The Way To Grow organization recently had a job posting for the Director of Early Education.  The job entailed the ability to interact well with various entities such as donors, school districts, and families.  It required the ability to network, organize, and supervise a number of different people with very different roles.  In addition, they also had a posting for a family educator.  I like this organization because of the work they do in children’s homes to close the gap in learning and support families.

The Minnesota Child Care Resource and Referral organization has a variety of opportunities for educators to become trainers of other educators.  This is an organization that I am excited about networking with more intently after I finish my degree.  I would like the opportunity to submit the training idea that I developed in our last course and have it placed in the training resource guides that go out to early childhood educators and home-based child cares.  I would need to complete the certification in Minnesota to become a recognized trainer.  I feel that the coursework I have completed has provided me with the skills and insight to become an effective trainer.

The Wilder Foundation has been working with children, families, and individuals in the Saint Paul area for over 100 years.  My specific interest focused on the work they do with children with special needs.  They provide counseling and day treatment services for children.  The job opportunities that were listed were out of my professional focus, but I see them as part of the community of practice that I would include in my circle because of the work they do with children and families both in education and other areas.

Final Thoughts

Throughout this graduate program, there have been many times that I have learned something completely unrelated to the course topic from the colleagues that have shared their personal and professional experiences.  We all come from such diverse backgrounds and the work we do, while we are all in the field of early childhood, is also so unique.  I have enjoyed reading and learning about policies and processes within various arenas of the field, as well as different parts of the country.  I find it fascinating that we live in this same country, but each state and region have such differing opinions and practices when it comes to early childhood education.

There have been numerous times that I have felt more supported than supportive.  The strong women and men that I have encountered along the way have shown me the value of pursuing this higher education.  We have had difficult discussions and humorous ones too.  As we move on to our different specializations, I truly wish for each of my colleagues success, personal and professional growth, and that they remember the value in doing the work of this graduate program.  We are the future of early childhood in America.  It will continue to change, for the better or the worse, whether we like it or not.  We all have the capability to make an incredible lasting impact on this field and the children and families we serve.  Best of luck to all of you!  If you are moving on to the specialization of "Teaching Adults in the Early Childhood Field", I will see you on the discussion boards.
Take care!
Katherine

Group Dynamics

This week we have been studying the dynamics that groups have and the characteristics that make a cohesive, efficient group.  Establishing trust at the beginning of a group project is essential to the success of the team.  As a leader in a group, one must have the ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds and illicit the strengths that each member has.

In thinking about the groups that I have been a part of, I can begin to see the reasons why some were more successful than others.  It has been most difficult to leave the ones into which I had invested some much of my time and myself.  Those groups were ones that were lead by exceptional leaders that understood the importance of managing group dynamics and ones that I had lead with some level of success.  I can remember being asked to lead a group or taking the reigns of a school and faltering many times before I got it right!  It wasn't that it was a high-performing group, or one with well-defined norms.  I think it was those where each member felt like they were successful in contributing to the final product or result.  It was when we could create a atmosphere of growth for each member through the work that we did.

I think it is important to have some kind of closure to a group or project.  They do not need to be elaborate, but they need to mark the end of group's work, highlighting the successes and the obstacles that were overcome.  When this master's program is complete, I would hope that we could reflect as a group on our starting point and the growth we've experienced, both personally and professionally, since then.  Though we are all from very different places professionally and geographically, we have been on the same journey together and have seen success and challenges along the way.  We will continue to grow in these areas and, hopefully remain connected in order to support one another in our future endeavors. 

Conflict

When I think about conflict that I have experienced with colleagues or someone in my personal, I tend to analyze each attempt at communication and all of the verbal and non-verbal exchanges.  Recently, I experienced a miscommunication with a friend of mine.  We made tentative plans and then they fell through.  I communicated that I was fine with the change of plans, but truthfully I was disappointed.  We still ended up have a nice time together, but it evolved into several days of passive aggressive exchanges and overall awkwardness.  What I learned through that experience is that I need to be truthful about my feelings in the moment and I need to verbalize them.  I also need to let go of the analysis of each and every exchange.  I tend to over think the communication and all of the subtle nuances that go along with it.  The "R" that I definitely need to work on after reflecting on this particular incident is responsive.  When I get frustrated with someone and experience conflict of any kind, I find that I shut down and hope that the other person will facilitate the solution to the problem.
Here is my question for others:  In our professional environments, how do we handle the ongoing need to motivate and coach others on the importance of quality and responsive care?  Often I find that I feel like I have effectively trained or communicated about a concept only to observe that there may not have been as much comprehension as I had planned.

Who am I as a communicator?

This week we continued to explore communication and focused on evaluating our own communication styles.  We used three online assessment tools that evaluated listening, communication anxiety, and verbal aggressiveness.  We were asked to have two people in our lives complete the assessments on us as well.  After completing the assessments and looking at the results from two others, I noticed that there were some differences, surprises, and some results that aligned with the way I see myself as a communicator.

The insights that I have gained about communication this week are that I seem to change my persona based on the audience or context and that I seem to be more confident in my professional communication than my personal interactions.  This may be the result of the amount of time I have spent on refining my presentation, supervisory, and leadership skills in recent years.  I also know that I do have a lower self-esteem in social settings and become more reserved with people I do not know.

The second part of our assignment this week asked us to create some communication goals.  I think this will help in all areas of my work and personal life as I look to increase my ability to work with a diverse population of children, families, staff, and community agencies.

Communication and Culture

This week we have been studying the intricate nature of communication across cultures and the role we have as professionals of ensuring that we are communicating effectively with the various groups with whom we work.  We have looked within ourselves to identify the biases and ideas we have about other groups and how that affects the ways in which we interact with them.  We have studied the definitions of various culture groups again to remind us of the characteristics they hold.
I think that there are many strategies that we use to communicate effectively with others.  The first is to reflect on and have a genuine understanding of our own culture and the groups with whom we identify.  These ideals, traditions, and beliefs have an impact on the way we view the world and other individuals and groups and "it is critical that we reflect on the various aspects of our own cultural identity and examine their positive and negative impacts on our personal and professional development" (Vukovic, 2008, p. 49).  The second is to identify your own biases and understandings of the communication partner's or group's culture.  We need to understand our own ideas about the other person before we can truly listen to their ideas and share information.  There may be ideals and beliefs that we do not fundamentally agree with or that do not align with our own ideals, but in a professional (and often personal) settings, we need to set those aside in order to reach the common goal.  Finally, we need to understand our own communication style as it relates to others. Some of us are observers and take in other people's opinions before we offer our own.  Others are initiators and lead the conversation.  It is important that we understand how we choose to communicate and how others choose to communicate so that we can interpret the subtle behaviors correctly.

References:
 Vuckovic, A. (2008). Inter-cultural communication: A foundation of communicative action. Multicultural Education and Technology Journal, 2(1), 47–59.