A Note of Thanks and Support

                As I depart from my first on-line course I would like to take this opportunity to thank my colleagues for their feedback, support, and even the extra information that some of you e-mailed to me that you thought would help me in my journey to becoming an effective educator.   I have truly enjoyed reading your discussions and your blogs over the past eight (8) weeks.   We started this course not knowing what to expect but what we gained is far more valuable to me than gold.  We helped one another in ways that we probably didn’t even imagine.  I wish all of you the best life has to offer and I hope that you will continue to do well in the MSECS program. 

         My sincere thanks go to our professor, Dr. Johnna Darragh, for her commitment to educating future educators.  For your encouraging words, your passion, devotion, and support I salute you.  Your work did not go unnoticed.  Thanks for all that you do to keep the Walden‘s MSECS program the best that it can be. 

Examining Codes of Ethics

Ideals from NAEYC and DEC

NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct Ideals that are meaningful to me:

Ideal  1-1.1  To be familiar with the knowledge base of  Early Childhood Care and education and to stay informed through continuing education and training.  This is meaningful to me because I feel I am a competent and knowledgeable.  An educator must have a good knowledge base and be willing to continue their education and their training.

Ideal  1-1.5  To create and maintain safe and healthy settings that foster children's social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development and that respect their dignity and their contributions.  This ideal will be especially meaningful to me when I become an educator.  I want to be able to mentor others.  I also want to be able to create and maintain a healthy setting for children in all developmental domains.  I know that it is important that children know that they are individuals and that their voices will be heard so that they can feel valued.

Ideal 1-1.9  To advocate for and ensure that all children including those with special needs,  have access to the support services needed to be successful.  As I have discussed in my Application for Week 7, advocating will be one of my strengths.  I am determined to be the educator that will speak up and speak out to make certain that my students and their families have exactly what they need in the school setting.  If I have to push the administrators, local government, state officials, and even nationally to make sure that the children needs are met, I am up for the challenge.

DEC Codes of Ethics

Page 2:  We shall build relationships with individual children and families while individualizing the curricula and learning environments to facilitate young children's development and learning.  This is very important to the profession of education.  Educators must build relationships with each child in some way and may have to alter the curricula to meet the needs of the children that do not learn at the same pace.  While at the same time the results should be to make sure that the children develop and learn what is required in the curriculum.

Page 3:  We shall demonstrate our respect and concern for children, families, colleagues, and others with whom, we work, honoring their beliefs, values and customs, languages and cultures.  I will not have a problem respecting others, their beliefs, their customs, or their languages.  I will do everything possible to make others feel comfortable and even help them to understand that it is okay to be different.  We can actually learn a lot from others.

Page 1:  We shall strive for the highest level of personal and professional competence by seeking and using new evidence based information to imporve our practices while also responding openly to the suggestions of others.  This will be significant to my profession because the more knowledge we receive the more knowledge we can filter into our classrooms.  It is always important to be open to suggestions of others so that we can keep an open line of commuication and collaboration in the Early Childhood community.

References

NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment. Retrieved April 18, 2013, from     http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf

The Division for Early Childhood. (2000, August). Code of ethics. Retrieved April 18, 2013, from     http://www.dec-sped.org/

Growing Your Collection of Resources

Course Media: "The Resources for Early Childhood"

NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from     birth          through  age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/dap

        

NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on child abuse prevention. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from   http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/ChildAbuseStand.pdf

NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on school readiness. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from

http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/Readiness.pdf

        

NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf

        

NAEYC. (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf

        

NAEYC. (2009, April). Early childhood inclusion: A summary. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_ECSummary_A.pdf

        

Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families. (2010). Infant-toddler policy agenda. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://main.zerotothree.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ter_pub_infanttodller

        

FPG Child Development Institute. (2006, September). Evidence-based practice empowers early childhood professionals and families. (FPG Snapshot, No. 33). Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.fpg.unc.edu/~snapshots/snap33.pdf

Article: UNICEF (n.d.). Fact sheet: A summary of the rights under the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.unicef.org/crc/files/Rights_overview.pdf

        

World Forum Foundation
http://worldforumfoundation.org/wf/wp/about-us

World Organization for Early Childhood Education
http://www.omep-usnc.org/

Association for Childhood Education International
http://acei.org/

.

National Association for the Education of Young Children
http://www.naeyc.org/

     

The Division for Early Childhood
http://www.dec-sped.org/

     

Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families
http://www.zerotothree.org/

     

WESTED 
http://www.wested.org/cs/we/print/docs/we/home.htm

     

Harvard Education Letter
http://www.hepg.org/hel/topic/85

FPG Child Development Institute
http://www.fpg.unc.edu/

     

Administration for Children and Families Headstart's National Research Conference
http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/hsrc/

     

HighScope
http://www.highscope.org/

Children's Defense Fund
http://www.childrensdefense.org/

Center for Child Care Workforce
http://www.ccw.org/

     

Council for Exceptional Children
http://www.cec.sped.org//AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home

Institute for Women's Policy Research
http://www.iwpr.org/

     

National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education
http://www.ncrece.org/wordpress/

     

National Child Care Association
http://www.nccanet.org/

National Institute for Early Education Research
http://nieer.org/

     

Pre[K]Now
http://www.pewstates.org/projects/pre-k-now-328067

Voices for America's Children
http://www.voices.org/

     

The Erikson Institute
http://www.erikson.edu/

Educational Quotes

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!"

-Andy McIntyre

"The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows."

-Sydney J. Harris

"What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child."

-George Bernard Shaw

"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops."

-Henry Adams

"Early education is most certainly the next wave of educational reform ...the U.S. is simply playing catch up with the rest of the industrialized world."

-Dr. Donna Shalala

"Effective preschool raises achievement levels for all children, and it offers real hope for closing the school readiness gap."

-Jack O'Connell

"Children who participate in (high-quality Early Childhood Education) programs are more likely to have the necessary skills-such as abstract reasoning, problem solving and communication-to meet the demands of tomorrows workforce."

-Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America