My Own Capacity

• Which issues impacting young children and their families and/or the field of early childhood fuel your passion?

 

The biggest issue that fuels me to be an early childhood professional is that not many people think preschool is a big deal. They think that their child is ready for kindergarten because they know their ABC's. I want to get the word our their that it is very important for a child to go to preschool. Another issue is there are not many people into early childhood. Its my passion and I want to be there for the children. I am so excited where I am at I get to train high schools students and now I am going to start having college students in my classroom. I cannot wait to share my knowledge to students who may possible have the same passion as me. 

• What special skills do you have that will contribute to your advocacy efforts? How will you incorporate these skills into your work?

I feel that I have the skill of patience. I will incorporate this in my work because you have to have patience in order to get anywhere. Things are not going to happen right away. 

• What resources do you have at your disposal that can benefit your advocacy work?

I cannot think of any resources that I have right off hand besides other professionals in my community.

• What knowledge, skills, dispositions, and/or talents do you possess that will contribute to your advocacy work?

I also am very outgoing, People are more likely to listen to someone who is outgoing rather then someone is monotone. 

• In what ways do you hope to grow in order to be a more effective advocate?

I hope to grow in many ways, There is not one subject that I need to increase my knowledge on. I am always looking for conferences to attend because I know that those will all help me to become a better early childhood professional. 

My Role as an advocate

A big push of what motivated me to advocate for very young children is working in the field. There are to many times where children get pushed aside. People do not think that they matter at that age. It irritated me when people say Head Start is not a good program. I then thought nothing would change if I did not stand up for what I believe in. 

Many of you on my last blog as what kind of fundraisers would I do or have I done. I have not done a fundraiser for early childhood yet. One of the biggest fundraisers I helped put on was a dinner. We raised $4000 for a man who lost his house in a fire and then 10 days later lost his leg in a freak accident.  The big thing about this fundraiser was we had a lot of community support. His local church got involved, we had many donations of food, we also had many business donate items for a silent auction. We offered free delivery of the dinners which we were able to delivery to hospital staff. The paper and radio stations advertise the event. None of this would have happen unless you went out and asked. 

Another thing I have done was did a food drive for one of my families. I had teachers bring me food and donate money. I then went to a local dollar store and I was talking to the cashier about what I am doing. I was just making small talk with her as a check out. The next thing I knew is she cancelled my ordered went in her purse and gave me money. She said you are not done shopping yet go back and get more food. The main lesson for this is don't be afraid to ask or even just talk to people about it. They will normally do something for you. 

You need to acknowledge those efforts at both levels. The governor not even the mayor had no idea about the family that could not put food on the table. Same with the man that was in a accident they didn't know about it. Though with all the efforts we did the officials of his city ended up showing up and buying dinner. 

All that it takes to be a community leader on early childhood issues is the passion. You have to have a heart and know how to touch others people so they can help out too. Both of these events above had a story. Don't be afraid to tell people the stories. It will touch their heart and they will help you. 

The resources that it takes to be a state leader is also the passion. You also need your community support. Once you have community support they can help you be a state leader. 

The tactics that I use is getting into their heart. People are not as cold heart-ed as many people think they are. If you touch them they will help you. They will also spread the word. For the dinner we had we had many people who were not even from the community come to dinner. They saw it on Facebook they heard from friends, they heard on the radio and felt it was the right thing to do. 

The advice I would give is never give up. 

Personal Advocacy Reflection

When I was in high school I had a friend that had cancer. He was two years older then me but was very close. He was like family. He has been battling cancer since he was 7 years old. There were so many advocates for him. There were always people fighting to cure cancer. He always had people putting on fundraisers for him and his family. He was only suppose to live 2 years after he was diagnosed. He ended up living until he was 18 years old. During high school his one goal was to walk on graduation day. He achieved that goal. The school had it so he was the last one to receive his diploma. The whole entire audience gave him a standing ovation. Many of them crying because they knew it was his goal. In the fall of his senior year we did not think he was going to make it. He had tumors in 5 different spots of his body. He is a fighter and kicked those tumors out of him. After he graduated high school his next goal was to attend college. He achieved that goal. He attended college for one month until his cancer took a turn for the worse. He ended up not being able to fight the cancer anymore. He passed away on November. With him, his family, the doctors and many friends advocating for him has helped he live a very long life. More then any doctor told him he would live.

 

I have hosted fundraisers for other people. I would love to have a fundraiser for those in early childhood. I feel that is going to be my next step. To raise money for those programs who need the extra help.

Hey everyone! We are almost done with this journey. It is very exciting to see that in 17 weeks we will have our graduate degree. For this blog we were not given something to write about so I thought I would introduce myself. My name is Cheryl. I am from Michigan. I have been teaching preschool for 4 years now. I knew for a very long time that I wanted to be a teacher because I love children so much. I love to hang out with family. I have 3 brothers, two sisters and then a bunch of in-laws. I am expecting my first child in November. Everyone says I have good planning because we graduate at the end of October and I am due November 7th. I am excited to meet my little girl. So when I am not working and doing homework and I working on stuff for her arrival. 

Have a great Fourth of July weekend! Can't wait to get to know you all more. 

Create a family

For this assignment we were asked to create a hypothetical family. I have to pretend that this is my family. My family is a young couple who is expecting their first child. My husband and I have decided to do a special test to see if their child has any diseases so they can prep before the baby is born. Our worse fear became true at the appointment that shared the results. Our sweet bundle of joy has Down syndrome. We are a middle class family with both of us having decent jobs. Though we both have decent jobs we do not make enough money to be able to afford all the upcoming medical bills that we will have with our child. The doctor suggest that we are able to terminate but we both right away said no. Our family was going to be watching the child while we are at work. Now that we know our child has Down syndrome they are unsure if they will be able to take care of our child. We start looking into child care but we are not able to afford to send our child to any of the centers that will take a child with Down syndrome. After many center visits we found a program called Early Head Start. We never thought we would qualify but we were accepted because of our child having Down syndrome. Early Head Start will help us find ways to afford all the medical bills that we will have. 

One thing that people are doing to advocating for early childhood is the fact the preschool really does matter. People are advocating that preschool does matter to get more funding. This really interested me because we do need more funding in early childhood education. The only thing is that it hard to get funding when there is not funds out there. I personally believe that instead of making cuts to programs that are well needed, not just education. I think the government officials should make cuts to their pay checks. That would give us funds for other programs that need the money. 

Parent, Family and Community Engagment

As I was watching the video clips I felt relieved. All I hear now a days about Head Start is that it is just a free day care. After watching all these videos it made my professional thoughts feel so much better. It is always good to hear people talk good about Head Start. It makes me feel so much better to know I am really making a difference in these families lives. 

When we get parents involve they feel like the belong. It is important for them to be involved because what we teach the children the parents can continue at home and in the summer. That way their child is receiving services all year long. 

I feel if more people watched these videos they were better understand Head Start. I think the government officials should watch these. That way they can see true testimony and maybe put more money towards it.