Week 4 Jobs/Roles in the ECE Community: National/Federal Level

#1 The Division for Early Childhood: Promoting policies, advancing practices

http://www.dec-sped.org/About_DEC/Career_Center

DEC is one of seventeen divisions of the Council for Exceptional Children. They are the largest international organization to improve educational outcomes.

Position: Instructor, Early Education and Family Studies

Full time position.

Masters degree in the subject area and non-teaching work experience in the field (Working with children, families and early childhood care and education professionals with young children and their families.)

Subject area includes “Early Childhood Studies”

#2 Farm to Preschool

http://www.farmtopreschool.org/whatisfarmtopreschool.html

Thanks to Mimi, I have been so excited to investigate the Farm to School organization and found this branch. Farm to Preschool is a program that brings children to local farms, bring in local healthy foods or produce gardens.

Position: There are no job opportunities available, but this is an organization I would love to be a part of, or create my own under their direction.  I will keep searching for job opportunities in this area.

#3 Early Childhood Environmental Education Programs: Guidelines for Excellence.

http://eelinked.naaee.net/n/eelink-jobs/posts/Nature-Clubs-Project-Coordinator

This description is what interested me. I would prefer to work directly with families but this affects children and families in nature play opportunities.

Position: Nature Clubs Project Coordinator

Work with the Director of Conservation Education and an appointed task force to compile the resources needed to develop nature play opportunities at zoos and aquariums and to remove barriers for families to engage with nature in their communities.

Minimum Experience and Trainings:

Bachelor’s degree in education or related field. Minimum 2 years of experience in nonformal education. Experience with environmental or outdoor education preferred.

#4 NAEYC http://www.naeyc.org/about/jobs

Unfortunately I did not find any positions that interest me that were available. Although anyone in the field of Early Childhood uses NAEYC for guidance and resources. I would love to be a part of this organization.  

Exploring Roles in ECE at the State and Local Level

1. My search has led to Colorado Community College Online CCCOnline. This is an online community of all the Colorado community colleges, that offer online classes in every subject including ECE. When you live in a rural area you do not have much of a choice of face-to-face classes. I used this with the current changes to Director Qualification. They offer positions to Colorado residents unless there is no one qualified in a class needed. You submit an application, unofficial transcripts and a Curriculum Vita or resume and a brief statement of your Online Teaching Philosophy. If CCCOnline contacts you for a position, you must complete the Colorado Career and Technical Education (CTE) credential. It is something I would like to try, there are no guarantees of steady employment but I would like to gain the experience this way. The more classes you teach the more CCCOnline uses you.

http://www.ccconline.org/

2. Another search lead me to Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education (CAEE). They are a nonprofit organization whose mission is to teach and empower teachers in formal and non-formal education, public agencies, employees and community members.  I am very familiar with this organization and have my Environmental Education Certification through them. They have recently been very focused on school aged children and meeting the EE standards. The last meeting I had with them, they said they do not have much representation from early childhood professionals, and they would like to reach more young children. This was an informal statement but I feel if I perused this area I could create some link to reaching early childhood teachers in the State. I may need to take more EE classes but I always find classes to be invigorating.

https://www.caee.org/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=136

3. Another local search lead me to The City of Aspen’s Childcare Resource Center, called Kids First. I have worked with the Director for several years, conducting workshops, and writing articles for the Providers Newsletter on a bimonthly basis for over 4 years. They provide funding for programs to higher a coach in specific areas of need, typically areas relating to low scores in the quality rating scale. This would be exciting to work with programs I am familiar with. The one draw back I see is Kids First continually wants programs to do new trainings, such as DECA, Pyramid, Mind Up, and many more. I don’t feel these programs are negative in any way, but each year they push for the latest and greatest training, which the coaches teach. Because of the turnover rate in childcares I feel it is appropriate to continue with 1 training that fits the program.  But this does give a coach great exposure to a variety of methods of teaching adults.

http://www.aspenpitkin.com/Departments/Kids-First

"My Passion" Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/7425478/My_Passion

Good luck to everyone on the last leg of our journey, or is it the beginning?