amycamp3301

Using Communication Skills to Enact Change

amycamp3301 — Thu, 26 Jan 2017 04:13:22 +0000

I have always been a shy person so communication in any type of situation such as in front of a group or to someone that I don’t know is sometimes challenging for me. I have been able to overcome some of this shyness as I have become more confident in sharing my education and experience. I have stepped well outside of my comfort zone twice when presenting at two separate conferences. While I was very nervous, the more I talked, the more comfortable I felt. I was able to answer questions about situations that people were having in their classrooms as well as give very helpful information and food for thought so to speak. I know that I still need to work on my communication skills. I make too many assumptions that whomever I am talking to knows exactly what I am talking about or referencing. I do this in my writing as well.

I need to work on being more clear as well as concise. I tend to communicate with colleagues, assuming that since we are in the same field, they are familiar with the latest trends or even something as simple as child care licensing rules and regulations. I have found that not to be the case in many situations and I continually work on explaining myself more clearly and concisely so those listening to me are able to understand the point that I am trying to make. I find that when I get too passionate about something, I get less clear about my intentions.

Looking at how I can communicate my policy issue more effectively will enable me to gain the interest of policy makers and organizations that will help my issue become reality. Being vague will leave others wondering exactly what my issue is and how I intend to exact change. That is not effective communication.

Social Media’s Influence on Policy Issues

amycamp3301 — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 03:41:33 +0000

From my personal experience with social media, it can be a double edged sword. There are truths that get published but many others that are questionable in nature. I have learned, for myself, to take a look at the source of the information being broadcast through social media before I decipher how much weight I would really give it. With it being such a digital age, social media is an undeniable form to start a platform especially when trying to launch or maintain a policy or vision.

I would use Facebook as a means to begin a public discussion about my issue of early childhood mental health. Through Facebook, I have been able to keep up with current policies through the organization Zero to Three so this would be an ideal forum to begin the public discussion about early childhood mental health. People from all walks of life use Facebook to keep up on the latest news as well as keep up friendships and communication with one another.

I would also use Twitter to reach a more targeted audience. This would allow me to write specific tweets to policy makers and stakeholders in the early childhood profession. Instead of being lost on a page on Facebook, Twitter allows targeted posts as well as general and concise statements.

With both types of social media, I am opening up myself and my policy to much criticism and people that blatantly do not care about early childhood mental health but feel the need to let out their frustrations or opinions regardless of their impact. Each of these types of media do have a target audience. While Facebook reaches people of all ages, Twitter seems to reach those of the younger generations. This policy could fall on deaf ears using either medium, but it would be worth putting out the information to gain the much needed awareness that this issue deserves.

Course Goal

amycamp3301 — Thu, 03 Nov 2016 02:05:01 +0000

After looking at the course descriptions, I see that this course will enable me to become a more cohesive agent of change. I see the need in the early childhood field for change, especially since these changes means giving children the best possible outcome. Too many policy makers are not educators in the classroom so they are out of touch with exactly what to do so these are my goals for this course so I am able to become an agent of social change in the early childhood field.

Begin to understand the steps necessary to introduce new policies at the state and eventually federal level
Learn to navigate through the process in order to be heard
How to identify policies that are inaccurate and how to go about creating change

Many policy makers are not educators and have not even spent a moment in the classroom. I believe this does not lend them the insights necessary to enact effective change. If more early childhood educators become advocates for the field along side policy makers, great change is possible. It is only when we look at the realistic goals of the policies that we are able to see the possible errors and how to fix them.

Final Thoughts of My Course

amycamp3301 — Wed, 12 Oct 2016 14:55:13 +0000

Looking back to the beginning of this course, I can see how my perspectives have changed. I had read the book Anti-Bias Education for Young Children and Ourselves for a previous class so I was familiar with both the main author and the context. As I discovered from my first read through, there is still a lot to learn to become a true anti-bias educator as well as person. There are so many things that we think or feel that seem normal since it is our normal, but when looking at them through the eyes of someone else, they appear much differently. I also found the book The Spirit Catches You to be very informative as well as heart wrenching since knowing what I know of Western medicine, this child could have had a much different outcome, but her culture was much different. I try to view every child for who they are without my bias coming into play but I am only human so I realize sometimes bias may unintentionally happen. I learned through reading this book how different cultures view medicine. I have always taken it for granted that I go to the doctor when I am ill and they will hopefully have some kind of advice or medicine to help me with my problem. Some cultures, as was demonstrated in this book, do not believe that and it puts them at what I perceive to be a great disadvantage.

During my research about my problem of early childhood mental illness, I was reminded once again of how fragile these children are in the first years of life and there is so much more that every parent can learn from that. I see it through an educator’s eyes as well as a mother’s eyes. It is disheartening to me to know how much of an impact we have on children from day one and so many parents do not value that, creating problems for innocent children. Some of them don’t even stand a chance with some of the obstacles that they face. I hope that I can continue to research this problem as I finish my degree next year and find any solutions to help even one child.

References

Derman-Sparks, L., & Edwards, J. O. (2010). Anti-bias education for young children and ourselves.Washington, DC: National Association for the Education of Young Children.

Fadiman, A. (2012). The spirit catches you and you fall down: A Hmong child, her American doctors, and the collision of two cultures. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.

The Interview Process

amycamp3301 — Sat, 10 Sep 2016 03:29:55 +0000

I have found while doing my research for my paper just how critical the first five years are for children. I have known this for many years as an educator and as a student but looking at all of the research on mental illness in early childhood I am seeing just how much trauma changes the path for so many children’s lives. There are programs to help these families and children but there are many that don’t have access for one reason or another. This is disheartening. The traumas that these children face that cause behavior problems and mental illness can be reversed when given interventions as soon as possible. It is a cycle that just keeps on going around and I can’t help but feel a bit discouraged when I look at all of the research. As an educator, I only have children in my classroom for a predetermined time and then I send them back home to the lives that have made them the children they are today. In that time, I can hope to make small changes for these children but I know that they need so much more. A child should not automatically flinch when I’m trying to give them a high five, instead they should be excited to give me a high five back because we are celebrating their accomplishment in a task no matter how big or how small. This child needs safety and security from his home environment as well as his school environment. When tackling problems for my paper, I feel the need to find the ways to fix the problems as well. I am finding with this topic is that there are solutions but they are either not being utilized by families or there are not enough available. I would like to find more information about attachment theory and early childhood mental illness since I think this is also a link to the problem with mental illness so this is a challenge I am facing as I piece together my Major Assessment.

One of my interviewees is another teacher in my classroom. She sees the same problems that I do and she finds it hard sometimes to know that we can only help these children only so much. She does offer a different perspective when it comes to mental illness since she does have a special education background. When she is able to step back from a child, she is able to see them more analytically in their development to understand where their real needs are. This is helping me grow as a professional as well as with writing my paper. I will be interviewing our Early Childhood Special Education teacher this week to get her perspective since she sees physically impaired children, emotionally impaired children and children that are on the autism spectrum disorder. I look forward to her perspective and how I might be able to apply that to my classroom as well as writing my paper.

Early Childhood and Mental Health

amycamp3301 — Sat, 30 Jul 2016 02:41:26 +0000

I chose to look at the impact mental health has on early childhood development. I have seen a few children with emotional impairments in the last few years and I thought it would be not only interesting but informative as well to look at this problem more closely. I also would like to look at the impact that home visiting and parental involvement in the classroom can make in both children in need of mental health services and those that are experiencing school for the first time. In the last two years, I have seen the relationships form between families when they get involved in the classroom through volunteer work during parties as well as during field trips. This has evolved into play dates among the families and closer relationships in the classroom. I also thought of this problem since I am greatly interested in attachment theory and the impact that this makes when present in a child’s development as well as when it is absent.

Some questions I have thought of when choosing this topic are:

How is emotional impairment identified in children?

What age is it the most crucial to identify these problems?

What kind of impact does attachment theory have on a child’s development?

Will home visits and parental involvement help those children? If so, how? If not, how?

I hope to find the connection between these different facets since they each deeply impact early childhood development. I want to become more informed myself as well to help those children that could potentially be in my classroom in the years to come.

Resources

amycamp3301 — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 22:47:29 +0000

I am always drawn to resources that really speak to me and my passion for early childhood. I found myself turning once again to the country of Finland as well as Denmark for a template of what we could do differently here in the United States. I liked the 10 Pillars as outlined by the author Dr. Pullkinen. I found this article to outline specifically what we need to do to ensure that children are getting a quality early childhood experience. While we are doing a lot of them in the United States, it varies from child care center to school and visa versa without the consistency that can be found in Finland especially.

I also found a lot of information from the Finnish National Board of Education. As I have learned about this culture’s background in education, I find myself somewhat embarrassed and ashamed that the United States is so far behind. I see my own state starting to realize the need for quality care, but the progress is painfully slow. I see too many children being missed in this push for early childhood education. It makes me want to be a part of the change not only for my daughter but every child.

I believe that if we have administrators as well as politicians recognizing the need for quality early childhood experiences and what that looks like, we will start to see change. This change cannot happen if we remain silent. As an early childhood professional, I need to be the voice for the children of today and tomorrow.

http://www.acei.org/ten-pillars-of-a-good-childhood

http://www.oph.fi/english the Finnish National Board of Education

Resources for Fostering Early Learning

amycamp3301 — Sun, 10 Jan 2016 05:04:34 +0000

I have always like the organization Zero to Three (www.zerotothree.org) as a great resource not only as an educator but a parent as well. This organization gives helpful tips for parents as well as keeps educators aware of the latest developments in early childhood research. They also have developed a pod cast entitled Little Kids Big Questions that address common developmental concerns from birth to three years old.

The part of this organization that interests me most is their involvement in public policies involving early childhood education. I was drawn to their reports on preschool expulsion rates. They are alarming.

A Thought Provoking Issue

amycamp3301 — Mon, 07 Dec 2015 03:31:11 +0000

I have spent hours reading scientific articles backed by research, blogs and articles written by specialists in children’s health, as well as articles, blogs and discussion groups of people that are opposed to vaccinating their children. I have been in many heated debates with individuals about the pros and cons this very hot topic has to offer. I have friends who’s beliefs lay on either side of the issue of vaccination and I appreciate a very spirited discussion on the matter.

One of my friends has a mother that has had polio since childhood. This is a vaccine preventable disease now and given her mother’s health, she is very much pro vaccination for the health and safety of every child. My mother has a dear friend that also has polio. Seeing both of these situations, I cannot help but be of the mind set that if diseases can be prevented then we must, as parents, give our children the best chance at a healthy life by vaccinating them.

I also have a friend that is not in favor of vaccinations from an experience of her own. Her daughter had a severe allergic reaction to a vaccination received. I would have the same reaction if I had seen my daughter go through that same kind of trauma.

When the time came to vaccinate my own child, I decided with my husband that we wanted her to receive them with only a delay on one particular vaccination; the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella). This is the vaccination that has received much controversy since there have been many claims made by many public people such as Jenny McCarthy that their children developed autism afterwards. In my mind, I knew that this vaccination was safe for her to receive on time as scheduled just like her others ones, but there was a small part of me that said hold off just in case. It’s amazing the power of persuasion and issue like this can have on an individual.

Where do you stand on vaccinations? As some claim, are we giving children too many too fast or are we jeopardizing their health by giving them at all?

Some thought provoking links:

http://www.safeminds.org/blog/2015/03/18/forced-vaccination-is-un-american-why-americans-oppose-vaccine-coercion/

http://www.historyofvaccines.org/content/articles/history-anti-vaccination-movements

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/

Introducing myself

amycamp3301 — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 04:27:15 +0000

My journey throughout these last few years as a student of early childhood education once again has enlightened me and has awoken my passion for the field again. I am still trying to figure out exactly where my place is in this profession and throughout these classes I am finding that becoming an advocate for change is getting stronger. The more I learn, the more I see the need for change and educating the early childhood profession. I have always had a desire to work with children and see them grow, but now I see that they need my voice to speak for them so they are not left behind in education.

Growing up I was not a person that solicited change in any way. I was painfully shy and did what I needed to do to get through school. My attachment to my mother was great and I think that caused a lot of my shyness. It was not until I was on my own in college that I started to come out of my shell so to speak. I see my early childhood experiences and my own childhood in general as a guide especially when teaching my daughter. I find myself helping her to become more independent of me when interacting with other children or even doing things for herself. As much as I do not like seeing her grow up so fast, I know that it was my shyness that is driving me to help her be independent and outgoing. I have been her advocate from the day she was born at a tiny 2 pounds 7 ounces and I have a drive to see her succeed in everything that she does.