Thursday, September 27, 2012



Blog Assignment: Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level
  • At least three national/federal organizations or communities of practice that appealed to you and why you chose them
  • Job opportunities (currently available or not) that interest you
  • Skills and experience you would need to competently fulfill each of these roles
 
http://www.acei.org/ 

Association for Childhood education International
Their mission is to promote and support in the global community the optimal education, development, and well-being of children from birth through early adolescence with a focus on influencing the professional growth of educators.  Their vision includes the belief that every child in every nation will have access to a quality education. In this vision, education will prepare children to become responsible and engaged citizens worldwide.
I found qualifications for candidates for executive board which include: an individual who demonstrate a clear commitment to furthering the education and well-being of children worldwide and are dedicated to promoting excellence in nonprofit governance and applicants must demonstrate a commitment to ACEI’s mission and vision, demonstrate a sincere commitment to the education of children, possess broad knowledge of the field of childhood education with an understanding of global movements that impact the lives of children, represent diverse global geographic locations, represent populations that reflect ACEI’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, possess strong leadership skills, demonstrate a strong desire to promote excellence in nonprofit governance, represent a spectrum of professionals invested in children’s education and well-being, and who represent the business, financial, or legal professions, or associated professions. 
In self-evaluation of where I am personally and professionally, I would love to be involved in this organization, but I do not possess qualities of being a world traveler or much experience in public policy or economics/business side.


The Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
The CEC is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving the educational success of individuals with disabilities. CEC advocates for appropriate governmental policies, sets professional standards, provides professional development, advocates for individuals with exceptionalities, and helps professionals obtain conditions and resources necessary for effective professional practice.
I would love to be involved in this organization, but I do not have an exceptional needs education background or much experience working with exceptional needs children/families/educators.  It would be amazing to be involved with working on journals and newsletters with information on new research findings, classroom practices that work, federal legislation, and policies.  I especially love that the targeted audience is for teachers, students, parents, paraprofessionals, related support service providers.
The job position that is currently open is for an Executive Assistant, Governance Classification: Category 6E (Exempt).  This professional will be involved in evaluation of written application materials, relevant education, experience, and references.  This would be a challenging position to hold, one that I would need much guidance, mentoring and support.  I am not experienced enough in the field for this job (yet).


UNICEF- Early Childhood-Advocacy and Partnership for Early Childhood Development
UNICEF is a strong believer in partnership and collaborative action and works with a wide range of stakeholders from governments, national and international non-governmental organizations, United Nations agencies, community and local organizations and individual families.  Their partnerships in early childhood development promote wider investment in young children, the scaling up of critical programs and the broader fulfillment of children’s rights. I am especially interested in their disaster early childhood development kit that was created to strengthen the responses for young children caught in conflict or emergencies.  They employment opportunities include senior staff vacancies, short term opportunities, junior professional officers, internships and volunteering.  I think I would be best suited for volunteering at this point in my profession; however, international travel would be difficult on a long-term basis because of my family.  I have a passion for volunteering locally, but I do need to branch out to help the world community and contribute globally. 



7 comments:

  1. Amy,
    You located excellent resources. I also do not see myself as a world traveler, and at this point in my life would not be interested in the positions available. However, the sites you found do offer a wealth of information which can be useful to us as we work in local positions.
    Mary L.

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  2. Dear Amy;

    After viewing your organizations, the one that resonated with me most was the Council for Exceptional Children because they provided a link to provide support for teachers who work with children with varying abilities. They also provided tips for time management, managing stress, and ways to improve their verbal communication skills. As nurturers in the field of early childhood education, teachers empty themselves on a daily basis as they give themselves to children and their work. So I was glad to see that this agency was mindful about the needs of teachers. Thank you. Hang in there. Imagine, only four more weeks left.


    Cheryl Byrd

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  3. Dear Amy:

    You have shared three wonderful resources. We have been presented opportunities to research documents from UNICEF and I find their work inspirational. I also find the Council for Exceptional Children an important resource in my hopes of increasing professional development opportunities for childcare providers. I am drawn to the fact that their mission includes professional development and professional standards.

    Thank you for sharing,
    LouAnn Rhodes

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  4. Dear Amy:

    Thank you for the excellent resources. The Council for Exceptional Children sounds like one I would like to research further.
    Patricia

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  5. Dear Amy,

    UNICEF, is an organization, which I use quite often when it comes to research, and amazing videos that grab an individual to grasp the happenings each day around the world. Thank you, for sharing such great opportunities for an early childhood subject matter expert.

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  6. Hello Amy,
    Thank you for sharing your three organizations with us and I have herd about these organization but never read about them into now. I really like UNICEF because I could use this organization in future research in early childhood education.

    Great post

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  7. Amy,

    I also looked into the CEC organization, and I was very interested in their mission. One of the things that has intrigued me about professionals that I have dealt with who are not familiar with special needs children is that they don't see the need to have an indepth training about dealing with exceptional students/children if they don't have any. My son is special needs. None of his teachers were aware of his diagnosis and therefore did not know how to address his needs. I strongly feel that EVERY child care provider should have at least a minimum level of knowledge about the education of exceptional children, because they never know when they will need to address such a challenge. I also have the same belief that all child care providers should have at least a minimum level of knowledge about early childhood education in order to do a sufficient job with children.

    I think your choices are superb :)

    CCWhite

    Reference
    Council for Exceptional Children. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.cec.sped.org/am/template.cfm?section=Home

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