Parent, Family, and Community Engagement

The videos viewed this week gave the reminder that parents are a child's first teacher. When families and teachers can work together for the betterment of the children involved all will benefit. Through community involvement which provides services to families as well as additional means of support for teachers, tie all of those immediately involved with the children we teach together. On a professional level if families, communities, and teachers work together for the betterment of children, the learning opportunities a child experiences could be endless. On a personal level in my classroom I have always tried to keep lines of communication open and parents involved. As I am learning more about advocating for children, the reminders given through the testimonies this week, if I can get parents, families, and community members to be a part of my classroom, then I could get them 'on board' in support of an issue I am advocating for thus increasing the voices behind the issue. All parties benefit in multiple ways when we work together for the children in our lives.

Public Opinion

As I reflect on the multimedia presentation from this week and think of the 'current state of early childhood' my thought is people in the United States currently believe if they have no children or their children are grown, early childhood is not of importance to them. What I feel a lot of people do not realize is the importance of a person's life from birth to age 8. A child's future educational career, place in society, choice of job, etc. can all be impacted one way or another based on their early childhood. Therefore, as an advocate I need to work with other advocates, or on my own if I must, to raise awareness of how early childhood now will impact our society later.

If awareness can be raised and more people see the impact of the difference early childhood makes, more stakeholders will support early childhood, laws will change, and lives will be enriched.

What Resonates?

As I think about my why, I think about the children I teach. I love making a difference in the lives of children. I enjoy teaching children at the age of four because I consider it a 'border year' between preschool and Kindergarten. It could be a make or break year for some as I strive to insure each child is 'ready' for Kindergarten.

While I am not sure about an area or areas of advocacy just yet, I have looked at high quality preschool programs and their characteristics. For me personally, where I currently teach at a local daycare making an hourly wage with no health benefits, in my previous course, I focused on equal compensation between programs for educators. If we could provide funding for educators regardless of location to be compensated equally, the turnover would lessen, more educators could open more positions, thus more children would be reached and taught and the less children that would be lacking skills going into school.

 I hope as this is the last course I have before my capstone, that I can find an area or area(s) I truly want to focus on, increase my knowledge allowing me to be more effective in the classroom, and grow personally as well as professionally through the next eight weeks.