A Note of Thanks and Support

Becoming an advocate is a huge deal and is a lot of work.  It takes a dedicated group of people to help one another through a time when they need help.  We are those people that will help those that are quiet or may not know how to speak up.  I want to say THANK YOU to all of my peers for helping me achieve my goals and creating an action plan that required your feedback.  My action plan pertaining to social emotional assessments is a success and still needs a little tweaking but it all comes with time!  

I am very proud of all my peers in this class.  This is not been easy for any of us and it has caused us much stress but we are strong, fearless, and can do whatever it takes to get what we want!  Congratulations to everyone on completeing this course and becoming an advocate!  Advocacy has taught me to say what I mean and mean what I say because if you believe in something then you better go for it!

Good luck to everyone!

Enlisting and Proving Support

• Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.
  Plato

So as I have been creating this Advocacy Action Plan I was thinking about what types of things matter to other people that are in the field of Early Childhood Education.  Obviously social-emotional assessments are something that are very important for me but what I am wondering is if social-emotional assessments are important to you as well?  In a Head Start program it is required that we assess the students in this area of development but what about those that do not work in a Head Start program?  My previous work has also been in private Early Childhood programs and never crossed my mind but as I entered this part of my career I see how important it is and why might it have changed and how this affects other within this field?

I am not seeking resources because that is something that I am privileged to have at the site I am working with but I could use some insight as to if this topic is important enough to stress people out about.  Assessments in general can be stressful but then taking a look at one specific part of development takes time because it is in depth and more complicated.  So what I am asking is for insight into your thoughts about implementing an in depth social-emotional assessments in classrooms.  

The site that I am working with is called Pillars.  They are this totally awesome organization that provides  all sorts of programs.  It would take me all day to tell you about all the good they do.  They are based in the suburbs of Chicago and are just amazing.  You should check out their website at www.pillarscommunity.org.  The Head Start program that they have is great but they also have mental health consultants on hand because of the counseling programs they provide.  So the two programs collaborate to help children and thier families within the community that are dealing with domestic violence, substance abuse, and so on.  

Well this class is coming to an end and I am so proud of my peers and myself.  This has been a difficult journey but we have done it!

Strategizing my advocacy efforts in Social Emotional Assessments

"Our lives begin to end the day that we become silent about things that matter." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

Throughout this journey to becoming an advocate I get excited about learning new information about what matters to me.  It makes me happy to see that there are others out there that believe in the same thing that I believe in.  I have become inspired by seeing families that have used the DECA in their clinical therapy sessions.  This has really helped everyone involved with the family to see what is going on with the young child and what they can do to help them.  

I do feel that people may look at this process and think that it is going to take a long time to get this whole thing done with.  I feel that people may become discouraged and slack on following through with this assessment in the appropriate way.  I also feel that people might just nod their head at me and agree because they do not believe that this assessment truly helps to identify problematic areas in a young child's learning.   

I am not really having any challenging emotions that are coming over me but I am feeling anxious about how people are going to respond to the information that I am presenting.  I keeping thinking if they are going to understand my reasons why and if they are going to agree that the goals I have created are attainable for their site.  Implementing the action plan is going to be difficult if people do not understand the strength behind this assessment.  I can probably convince the teachers to implement this assessment tool but I know how much work they already have and how this can be a burden on them.  

I think it is important that people remember that when they are advocating for something that they do it with a positive attitude.  Advocacy is a way to get others to know and understand how you feel a particular topic.  You need to persuade them to believe you.  Do not ever get discouraged about letting people know the truth about your advocacy plans and how important it is to you and others around you (especially the children and their families)

KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!  ALMOST THERE!!

Hello Everyone!

Well I hope this works.  I used this blog address in Internship I so it should still be working.  Good luck to all!!!