I would like to send out a huge thank you to my colleges, classmates, and professor for helping me to understand and grow in my knowledge of Advocacy. Without you all I could not have done it. Your opinions, comments, advice, and suggestions were encouraging and helpful. I will continue Advocating for children and hope that all you will as well. I am a better person because of you. Thank you again and good luck on your advocacy efforts.

Final Preparations

Questions I have for other advocates would be what type of plan anyone has for negative feedback. I have really been thinking about all possible situations when presenting my information and I believe it is important to think about those people who may not see any value in this work, or not agree with my ideas at all. Some may even have negative things to say, I mean I do not hope for this at all. I am working to prepare and hopefully provide enough information that the audience is all excited and moved to take action with me in this cause. I hope everyone feels so strongly about the need for teacher trainings that they recommend more or offer to help fund addition trainings beyond what I am actually asking for however; there is the possibility that they do not see the need. I guess my question is then what; does anyone have any ideas or recommendations about how they plan to handle this type of rejections? Does anyone have a good plan in place if something like this happens? The resources and information I am seeking is information on Early Childhood Assessments and how they affect early intervention. I am also seeking information about what to look for in assessments and what to look for when a child may be in danger of needing intervention. One resource that I found to be helpful is Guide to Assessment in Early Childhood. This website is a guide on assessment in early childhood and the information provided in this guide is designed to be used in programs that serve young children with and without special needs, including English language learners, youngsters with economic and developmental risk factors, and those developing typically from birth to eight years of age Another resource that I found to be helpful is called “Results Matter.”This website provides videos have been produced to help providers better understand ways to use observation, documentation, and assessment to inform practice. This website also provides learning videos for parents as well. A third resource I found was called “Early Childhood Special Education.” This website features The Early Childhood Special Education program that locates, identifies and provides specialized services to students three through five years of age with disabilities ranging from mild to severe and profound. A Guide to Assessment in Early Childhood Infancy to Age Eight. (2008).pdf file. http://www.k12.wa.us/EarlyLearning/pubdocs/assessment_print.pdf The Colorado Department of Education. Results Matter. (1999-2008). Improving Academic Achievement. http://www.cde.state.co.us/resultsmatter/RMVideoSeries.htm OSES. Office of Special Education and Support. (2010) Retrieved from Chicago Public Schools. http://www.cpsspecialeducation.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1541&Itemid=541

A quote that I found inspirational regarding the role that advocacy can have in the lives of young children and families was; “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.” ― William Faulkner •What inspires and excites you most about your advocacy plan and being an advocate? What excites me the most about my advocacy plan is all of the all of the families that I will be able to help in possibilities there are to help in the Assessment of children so that they can get the proper Intervention that they may need. As early as possible. What excites me the most about being an advocate is the thought of me making a difference? •What challenges and/or anxieties do you feel related to engaging in the advocacy efforts you have targeted? The challenges I feel related to engaging in my advocacy efforts I have targeted are to find enough time to train all the new employees and re-train the not-so-new ones. Another challenge would be to incorporate a way to know how much an employee knew about doing Assessments. •What do you believe will be most effective in helping you overcome any challenging emotions you may be feeling with regard to presenting and implementing your Advocacy Action Plan? I believe that the most effective way of overcoming any challenging emotions I may be feeling about implementing my Advocacy Action Plan would be to just do it. Make the time to train the employees. •How can you encourage others in their advocacy efforts, and how can others encourage you I would say, “Just know through all your hard work, perseverance, struggles, and successes that you are truly making a difference in children’s lives.”

Observing and Interacting With Families of the Children in Your Setting

Name: Shante Elliott Date: 5-25-2012 Name of Program/Setting: KinderCare Learning Center/ Preschool Who I spoke with: Several parents, an occupational therapist, and a physical therapist. What I learned about …During my two weeks I observed the teacher Ms. Nichole and the children of the 3’s preschool class, spoke to Kathy, an occupational therapist, Terri, a physical therapist, 2 of the parents in the center, Sharon and Jessica. Kathy and Terri is therapist that comes in the center to work with a couple of children enrolled. During these two weeks there were a lot going on. The teachers had parent teacher conferences, and they were getting things ready for the summer. So I got a chance to sit in on one. Ms. Nichole started the conference by asking the parents if they had any questions, and then went on to explaining to the parent about all the observations, assessments, and information they had collected. I think Ms. Nichole did an excellent job doing her conference. She had all her data together and organized in a portfolio with lots of pictures of the child. It looked easy to understand and self explanatory. After the conference, I asked Ms. Nichole how she goes about telling parents of children that seems to be in need of intervention. She told me that it is easy to her because of her well organized data she had of observations, assessments, and pictures of what she and other teachers has seen. “I just let the information speak for itself,” Ms. Nichole said. She also told me that she builds and maintains a positive and open relationship with each of the parents of the children in her care. Then I spoke to Terri, the physical therapist. I asked her how she gets to work with children in the center. She told me that the agency she works for gets a call from a parent, grandparent, or a teacher or principal of the child in need. Then we come to observe and assess the child and report the findings to the parent of the child. Then the parent has to decide if they actually want us to intervene. When I spoke to Kathy, the occupational therapist, she told me the same thing about the way she comes to work with the children in the center. I asked Kathy what happens when the parent refuses intervention for their child. She said that when that happens, they don’t pressure them, they just leave them be for about 6 months then come back to observe and assess again. And report the findings to the parents once again. Then, I spoke to a few of the parents. I asked them all what they thought about my advocacy subject, accurately Assessing Preschool Children for Effective Intervention. Sharon, a mother of a 2 year old and one on the way, said, “I am glad that someone is taking this on. Even though my child doesn’t need it now, who knows if he may need it later? I am also glad that you are bringing that here; this puts my mind at ease because I now know someone will be looking out for the children of this center. Jessica, a parent of a first grader, said,” I actually needed this a few years ago. My son needed speech therapy, but I did not have any idea he needed it until he started at a public preschool. But now he is talking better and does not need speech therapy anymore.”

Observing and Interacting With Professionals, Children, and Families in an Early Childhood Setting Name: Shante Elliott Date: 5-11-2012 Name of Program/Setting: KinderCare Learning Center Who I spoke with: Christine What I learned about … During my 2 weeks I observe red, interacted, and me liked to the director of the program, Christine. Christine was very attentive to the parents and the children. She addresses them all by name and had brief conversation with each and every one of them. I asked Christine how she felt about assessments and how important was assessing children in her program. She told me that she believed assessments were a very important part of their program and she tries hard to make sure the teachers know how to assess children accurately. I then asked her how she made sure her teachers know how to accurately assess children. She said that she holds in-service meetings twice a year to go over how to accurately assess children. She went on to tell me that she wishes that there was an easier way to teach the teachers, especially the new ones. She told me that because the in-services, held only twice a year, were informative but not all the teachers are there or some teachers just don’t grasp the whole picture of assessments. Christine also shared with me that her staff and she try to get the community involved with her program. She said she has parent involvement activities once a month. These activities include open house, parents’ night out, shopping nights, and holiday activities. I went on to talk to Christine about ways I could possibly be of assistance in helping with training her teachers on assessing. She was happy to hear I wanted to help and welcomed me to share my ideas with her. I told her that I want to come up with a way to get together a computer program and package that goes through the process of assessments to them. The quote I want to share this week is from my talking to Christine. She said, “Building a repoire with families is the most important part of my job.”

Observing and Interacting With Professionals, Children and Families in an Early Childhood Setting

Within these two weeks I observed and interacted with two of the 3’s teachers, Ms. Nichole and Ms. Caitlyn. These 2 teachers manage and teach 17 three year olds. During my observation I saw several small groups, large groups, and free-play. The first week the theme of the week was “On the ground”. This week the teachers had lots of activities, art, and group discussions about things that they would find on the ground. My favorite was when they took the children outside to see how many bugs they could find and identify from a book they previously read about bugs. The second week the theme was “Up in the sky”. This week the teachers had lots of activities, art, and group discussions about what they could find up in the sky. My favorite activity from this week was painting and filling a bird house with bird seed. One insight I want to share is that the teachers I observed were assessing the children throughout the whole day. During all the things that were going on in the classroom, in small group, large group, free play, centers, and even outside. Ms. Nichole told me that at the beginning of the year, the teachers assign themselves certain children to observe and assess. So as the teachers were involved in teaching, they were still paying close attention to all details. After each lesson, group, art, and activity, they jotted down what they learned about the children. Another insight I want to share is that the teachers I observed had a repoire with the parents. When the parents were dropping off their children the s spent about 2 to 3 minutes talking to them. Asking them how they were, how their night was, etc. Ms. Caitlyn said they do this to keep in touch and gain the trust of the parents so if ever they need to talk to the parent about early intervention or any problem, the parent won’t feel attacked or lied to. The parent would feel safe and comfortable talking about what needs to be done. While talking about assessments I asked Ms. Nichole about the challenges she faced. She told me that the only challenge she had was when both teachers wasn’t on the same page about a child. She told me that they overcame that challenge by assigning herself and Ms. Caitlyn equal number of children to observe and assess. When I asked Ms. Caitlyn about her challenges of assessments, she told me that the only challenge she faced was talking to the parents about their child needing intervention. A quote I want to share came from Ms. Nichole, she said, “To accurately, and successfully achieve the challenges of assessments you should be patient, honest, and objective.”

Interview 2

The other teacher I interviewed name is Mrs. Nichole. Mrs. Nichole has a class full of three year olds. I discussed with Mrs. Nichole that I was interested in how important she thinks accurately assessments are to her. Through my interview I learned that accurately assessing children, especially at a young age, is critical to their learning process. Also that one of the most inportant parts of assesments are observations. Mrs. Nichole shared with me that the issues she commonly encounter with her colleges are that they are on the same page when observing the same child so the assessments would be correct. The issue that most concerns me is if someone inaccurately record an observation, this could make the assesment be wrong which could seem that the child has problems. After this interview I was more influenced to do my research paper on this subject than my original choice.