Community of Practices within the state of Arizona. Job Prospects are they in my future?

        I am new to the state of Arizona, so I was excited at the prospect of researching state and local early childhood organizations. There are three Community of Practices (CoPs) I learned about and would like to share with you. The first is the regional council through the organization First Things First. First Things First is one of the critical partners in creating a family-centered, comprehensive, collaborative and high quality early childhood system that supports the development, health and early education of all Arizona’s children birth through age five (First Things First, 2013). http://www.azftf.gov/

All together, there are 31 regional councils throughout the state of Arizona. The councils consist of volunteers who share in the unique responsibility to work with their communities to determine what children five years and younger need to arrive at school, healthy and ready to succeed. The volunteers are made of individuals who have are stakeholders in the promotion and care of the young children within the communities. Many of the professionals are coaches, mentors, program specialist, coordinators from varied organizations: Head Start, The Arizona Department of Education, Blake Foundation, Division of Developmental Disabilities, Quality First and Early Child Care Programs. The councils meet four times a year to discuss specific early childhood issues. During this upcoming school year through my work with the Arizona Department of Education, I will have the opportunity to work with a council within a specific region. The council’s role is important within the early childhood professional groups.  When issues and trends arise, the council volunteers work then on how to strategize and initiate ideas with the hope of change. The council member then report and sharing this information with the stakeholders. I am excited at the prospect of future affiliation with the council, as I believe the investment will positively affect the children and the programs I will be working with.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC; n.d.) has affiliates within each of the states. I would like to become involved with the Arizona affiliate Arizona Association for the Education of Young Children (AzAEYC; 2013). “AzAEYC is the leading voice for early childhood programs ensuring all young children have access to high quality early care and education,” (Arizona Association for the Education of Young Children [AzAEYC], 2013).

My classroom at the time held an accreditation through NAEYC (2013). During those years, I often thought about becoming a member, yet was unable too.

Now would be the perfect time, to become active within the organization. I access the NAEYC (2013) site continuously through my work as well as during our studies. I am impressed with their work and the wonderful commitment in addressing policy, programming and trends. I enjoy reading the Young Children Magazine.

I too know that the meetings would allow me to meet with other professionals who devote their energies to the needs of young children and families. I am still learning so much about the state of Arizona in terms of resources and programs and my thought is having an affiliation with  (AzAEYC, 2013) would contribute to my personal and professional growth.

Through the Arizona Department of Education Early Childhood Special Education Unit, the Tucson Unified School District, the Division of Developmental Disabilities and the Easter Seals Blake Foundation has developed a Community of Practice. This CoP meets regularly and delves into early childhood programmatic issues which they encounter as these programs collaborate on such issues as transition, communication, funding, and programmatic issues. The concerns are specific to Tucson. The Arizona Department of Education often chairs the meetings. Tucson is a community who has a long history as far as their support for young children and their families. I have a number of sites and programs within Tucson, so I think involvement with this CoP is important, as want to have a better understanding of each of these programs.

As far as working with any of these organizations the only one I would slightly be interested in is through the First Things First program. They unfortunately, do not have any positions that I am qualified for. One position is for the Director of Pinal county which is the Tucson area. I do not have the necessary experience or background for this job.

I think one job that I find interesting as well is working with the Head Start Organization. They do not have any current positions posted other then teacher positions. As much as I loved teaching, and I miss the children I have no immediate need to step back into that particular role. The position I find intriguing is the Head Start State Manager positions. There are a few of these posted but they are in other states. This positions would entail working on professional development, monitoring, and mentoring for the varied programs.

References

         First Things First (2013) Mission Statement. Retrieved from http://azftf.gov/whoweare/pages/default.aspx

        Arizona Association for the Education of Young Children (AzAEYC)(n.d.). About The Arizona Association for the Education of Young Children. Retrieved from http://www.azaeyc.net

Walden Masters

Like many of you, here I am once again sitting in front of my computer. Writing to you, my colleagues. And as I look back, I catch myself smiling. I think about what an incredible road this has been that we have traveled together over these past fourteen months. I ponder, too how lucky I have been to experience these travels with many of you. This is I must say is one of the strangest ways to form a relationship. But even though it has worked. Through our computers, relationships have been created. And through our varied discussion posts, and our blogs I have grown to get to know you and have come to admire each of you! I feel too that I have had this great fortune to have grown, both personally and professionally because of you. And for that I say THANK-YOU!!

        I wish each of you all the best. My email address is Millicent1417@aol.com. I would love to keep in touch!

Take care, wishing you all the best.

Millie

       

Adjourning

        “Tuckman’s Stages” was based on research he conducted on team dynamics. He believed that these stages are inevitable in order for a team to grow to the point where they are functioning effectively together and delivering high quality results. The fifth stage “Adjourning,” is when the team is completing the current project. They will be joining other teams and moving on to other work in the future (Abundi, 2010).

When I consider, look back and equate which groups were hardest to leave, I immediately think of the group of professionals I worked with during my fifteen years as the early childhood special education teacher. Each year we had a ritual prior to the “IEP,” season. We would find a meeting place, either my classroom, a colleague’s house, or a meeting room at our office. We spent two to three days each year hashing out goals and objectives, and present levels for children we had been working with during the school year. Those children would be with us again the following year, so we reviewed their accomplishments and set goals for the next school year. What made these “group,” meetings so memorable as well as effective, is the fact that we were all on equal footing. No supervisor was present, we worked with one purpose in mind, and we worked hard and we had fun throughout the process. Leaving this group annually was often celebrated after the last IEP meeting was completed we went to a local restaurant and conversed about each of our own interpretations and reactions to the meetings.

This group of professionals was high performance kind of folks, and yes this group was hard to leave. Leaving the group wasn’t hard because we were so effective, leaving the group was hard because of the depth of the relationship we had with one another. We had built trust, and had great respect for each other, and in turn that’s what made it difficult to leave this group of professionals who became my good friends. 

Prior to my move across country, my good friend, called each of the members of this group, and we met at her house to enjoy one last evening together. We laughed, caught up and spent our time schmoozing. When the evening winded down, we said our good byes, and a few tears were shed.

I have been and worked with other groups of individuals, on varied levels, for different reasons, but I would have to say, this one was incredible.

When I look back at the experience of the Masters program, I must say I feel really good about the relationships that have been established with many of you. Though we had miles and a computer between us, I believe a wonderful connection has been established. And with that said, my hope is that when we go through commencement proceedings, my thought is that we can get together and meet in person. I am not sure which path each of you are embarking on, but know that I have gained great insight and knowledge from each of you. I so value that!

The process of adjourning provides a great sense of closure. It allows those professionals involved to reevaluate their shared efforts, celebrate their accomplishments and to try and communicate on a real personal level.

Millie

Abudi, G. (2010). The five stages of team development: A case study. Retrieved from http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-five-stages-of-team-development-a-case-study.html

Communication Strategies which Promote Conflict Resolution

 Just yesterday, I was mentoring a teacher; it was her fourth day working with preschool children. Her previous teaching experience is working with Junior High technology students. I had provided her with support a week previously and had asked her to hang a picture schedule for the children to follow. I had gone over examples, explained the reasoning behind it. When I arrived she had created two schedules, one that was hanging outside the classroom door for the parents to review and another hung in the classroom, above the child’s view. The schedule inside the classroom was non-child friendly. So, when I talked to her about the schedule, she immediately became angry and defensive.

I understand that she has little experience so initially I took the approach of avoiding the conflict, an escapist strategy (O’Hair & Weiman, 2012). I did this by suggesting that I we use Board Maker, to help up created a schedule, and that I can work on this later.  My thinking is that it had resolved this issue. Yet, I could tell for her she was still angry. She then asked what was next on the list. Her tone, led me to believe that she had not put that issue to bed.

I then took a different approach. I asked her if she wanted to talk about, debate the issue for why the children needed a schedule. She brought about a few key points. I asked her probing questions, like without a schedule, how will the children know what is next on the classroom routine? Asking probing question can help parties explore the pros and cons of an issue, encouraging either side to consider both the positive and negative aspects of it (O’Hair & Wiemann, 2012). This approach did help. The conflict though a simple one still carried with it more layers. It I believe it is a symptom of a larger problem between the two of us, which will probably require continued conflict resolution.

O'Hair, D., & Wiemann, M. (2012). Real communication: An introduction. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.