National/Federal Organizations and Communities of Practice

In researching national and federal organizations that could be good additions to our Community of Practice and that I could see myself working for, I found the following:


Children's Defense Fund - whose mission is to "ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities".  They have a position available as an Executive Director responsible for developing efforts to build teams for advocacy and manage operations that require a minimum of 7-10 years experience working in the early childhood field and a Bachelor's Degree. http://www.childrensdefense.org


Zero to Three Organization - whose mission is to "provides parents, professionals and policymakers the knowledge and know-how to nurture early development and ensure that all babies and toddlers have a strong start in life".  They have a position available as a Program Associate who is responsible for supporting the Head Start Program Directors all over the country to ensure that proper development is taking place in early childcare settings.  This position requires a B.A. and a lot of knowledge in computer applications, aside from experience in the early childhood field. http://www.zerotothree.org/


Association for Early Learning Leaders - whose mission is to provide excellence in the field of early childhood care and education by promoting leadership development and enhancing program quality.  This association has a training program for anyone interested in becoming a presenter, all you have to do is submit a letter of interest with your resume and workshop topics of interest and you could gain a position presenting workshops to early childhood educators.  http://www.earlylearningleaders.org


All of these are jobs within this field that is of interest to me.  Check out their websites for more information!


                                                                     Ms. Janet

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community

Some of the jobs that foster the well-being of children, families and the early childhood field as a whole can be found in the following agencies:


State of New Jersey Department of Children & Families
The DCF Office of Advocacy assists the Department in its mission to ensure the safety, permanency and well-being of children and to support families by providing information, referral and advocacy services. -  There are many employment opportunities here such as Teachers, Directors of Programs, and Managers.  B.A. & Preferred M.A in social work or related field is required plus experience is preferred.  The website can be accessed at: http://www.state.nj.us/dcf/about/employment/dcf/ 


State of New Jersey Division of Youth & Family Services. 
This is the office for child advocacy and protection.  They provide: Child protection, case management, foster care, adoption services, family support, services through community providers and information and referrals for families.  One particular employment opportunity that is always available is that of a Family Service Specialist.  This is something that I was very interested in doing before I got into teaching and still think about doing in the future.  It requires a B.A. or M.A., preferably in Social Work, but a related field is acceptable.  They also require that you attend a 12 month service training course while working your first year.  More information can be obtained by visiting: http://www.state.nj.us/dcf/about/employment/dcpp/


State of New Jersey Department of Human Services.
This office is responsible for planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluation social service programs serving families and children.  A job opportunity that is available now is that of a Program Specialist Trainee which works directly with families to help those of low economic status with employment and child care.  More information can be found by visiting: http://www.state.nj.us/humanservices/involved/employment/


All of these State agencies share the common goal of helping families and children and I would be happy to join any one of them.

Capstone Project Time

Hello everyone, and welcome to my blog!  This is finally my last class of my Master's Degree in the area of Early Childhood Education and Teaching Adults.  I am overwhelmed with joy over all that I have learned and what the future holds.  I look forward to the next couple of weeks with all of you on our final venture together.....


Good Luck to Everyone and CONGRATULATIONS on making it this far!


                                                                                      Ms. Janet