Assignment: Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level

This week, we are continuing to explore various roles or jobs within the early childhood field. We were asked to search within national or federal organizations. I found this difficult, but after searching a variety of websites, I found some available jobs.

The Ericson Institute is looking for an early childhood developmental screener. Erikson Institute is one of the nation's leading graduate schools in child development and early childhood education. The purpose of this job is to assess parents and their children birth to age three with the goal of identifying and recommending appropriate services to maximize child and family functioning. The applicant must be a graduate level professional who is self-motivated and reflective. The candidate must have knowledge of child development, relationship based practices and experience with working with children and families. The responsibilities of the screener will range from doing assessments, making referrals to Early Intervention or other necessary systems and training and consulting with caseworkers and foster parents on early development and infant mental health issues. Many of these requirements match my knowledge skills and experience. I have knowledge of child development, have worked in the early childhood field for several years and have a bachelors degree in mental health and human services. This program through Walden has expanded my knowledge of child development, communication and best practices in the field. However, I am not bilingual so would not be qualified for this specific position, but I am posting it anyway because I found the job description interesting. I am also unfamiliar with the assessment tools they use such as Denver II, Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ) and Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Socio-Emotional (ASQ:SE). click here for the job description.

The National Institute for Early Education Research is looking for research assistants. “Founded in 2002, the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) is affiliated with the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University. NIEER supports early childhood policy development by providing independent research, analysis, and technical assistance” (NIEER, 2013). This job description interested me because I would be qualified and it is a completely different role but just as important to the field. The research assistants can either be graduate or under graduate. Applicants should be enrolled in education, child development, psychology, economics, statistics, public policy or a related Field. The candidate must have excellent written and oral communication skills, the ability to meet deadlines and enthusiasm for bringing change to early childhood policy. Click here to see the job description.

The final job I thought of for this assignment is an instructor. I could complete training through Maine Roads to Quality to provide professional development workshops, apply for an instructor position at a community college or work as an online instructor or professional coach for the Childcare Education Information Institute. I thought of this because I have completed two of their certificate programs and several professional development workshops. They have regular instructors and coaches that assist students as they work through their programs. I did not find a list of requirements for this position, but I imagine that one would need at least a masters degree in early childhood education or related field, direct experience in the field and excellent communication skills. I found their career opportunities page, but it only had an opening for recruiting coordinators. Career Opportunities.

Assignment: Exploring Roles in the ECE Community:

This week, we are exploring various roles or jobs that one can have in the early childhood field. We were asked to search for job opportunities in our neighborhood, community or state. As I already knew, opportunities in this area are quite limited. Two of the job postings I found are old and they have already filled the positions, but I will use them anyway because they are different roles and require different qualifications.

The first position I came across was the director of the Children’s Center at Bowdoin College. They serve children from six weeks to five years of age. They have four classrooms and I have done some substitute training there. There was a long list of qualifications which included a bachelor's degree in child development, early childhood education or a related Field. A master's degree is preferred. Applicants must possess excellent oral and written communication skills; demonstrated leadership abilities; excellent interpersonal skills; the ability to work cooperatively and communicate well with others; demonstrated administrative skills including budget management, scheduling, training, etc., in addition to strong computer skills (MS Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook); and the ability to maintain confidentiality. A minimum of five years' experience in the early childhood education field with at least three years in a direct supervisory role within this field is required. Extensive experience evaluating and developing age appropriate curriculum, and experience and understanding of state and federal regulations and licensing procedures is required. This job is out of my reach at this point since it requires at least three years of supervisory experience and many administrative responsibilities that I have limited experience with. The add can be seen by clicking here.

The second position available is the lead infant teacher at an agency called Opportunity Alliance. Opportunity Alliance provides early education and child care, nutrition programming, advocacy, information and referral, mental health and substance abuse treatment, as well as meeting basic needs for people living in poverty. This job sounded interesting to me because I already work with infants and toddlers and it would be the next step up. This agency provides a wide variety of programs and services which means there will be more employment opportunities in the future. This job requires a bachelors degree in early childhood education or related field, at least two years working with infants and toddlers and supervisory experience is preferred. One of the roles of the job is to supervise assistant teachers in the room. The job description is here.

The final position I found is an early head start home visitor. The agency responsible for this program is called Community Concepts. They offer a variety of housing, economic development and social services for the communities of Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties of Maine. The home visitor works with families with young children- birth to age three- and expectant parents, delivering developmentally appropriate activities by partnering with parents to utilize their teaching & parenting skills within the home environment. Qualifications for this position include an associate’s Degree in Social Work, Early Childhood Education or related field, obtaining or maintaining CPR and first aid certifications and at least two years with home visiting experience is recommended. The job description can be found here.

I'm Still Here

I know I haven’t written in my blog for months. I have been really busy with work and school. I realize my blog is missing the photos and I hope to have them back up soon. I have switched my file hosting to dropbox and need to redo all the links which may take me some time. I usually use this blog to post activities that I do with the children, but over the past year there have been many changes. I began 2012 as a preschool teacher. Then in March, I took a job as a toddler teacher at our second center which only lasted until late April when they decided they had too many teachers on staff. Meanwhile, I looked for other jobs and I stayed on as a long-term sub until they hired me in December to work as the floater in the infant and toddler classrooms. This is why I haven’t posted any activities. I haven’t had a classroom that was my own. As of now, I am still the floater, but I am covering for one of the full-time toddler teachers for the month of March. In April, I should go back to my floater schedule, but as I’ve learned there are always changes going on where I work. Also, my last three courses through Walden have not required that I post blog entries. Now, I am taking my final course and will have to start posting. I am glad to be taking my final course and look forward to networking with everyone through the blog again. I wish everyone good luck in this course.