Hello Everyone!

The two communication skills that are important to embody when leading policy change are to be clear and concise.  I chose these two communication skills because I believe that they go hand in hand when delivering my message of policy change.  When communicating, I believe that being clear and concise allows me the ability to capture my audience in with a succinct message that will provide my audience the ability to join me in the movement to invoke change.  I want to attract not only education professionals, but also facilities and organizations that can sponsor professional development and resources to those that will be working with the children we are targeting support for.  I also have a goal to keep my audience engaged.   I believe being clear and concise is the key to this goal.

The results of the Communication Anxiety Assessment revealed that I am comfortable communicating in most situations and feel confident speaking to large and small groups.  I found these results to be accurate in describing my strengths in communication.  My strengths in communication are my inquisitiveness, my ability to relate to the speaker, and my confidence to speak clear and concise in large and small groups.

My areas of weakness in communication are not being an active listener, a tendency to over talk the speaker in small groups, and cutting people off in conversation.  I have come to understand that I over talk speakers because my mind is always going.  When the speaker is speaking, I am thinking of questions and ways that I can add to the conversations.  I realize that this can intimidate and frustrate the speaker.

I gleaned critical points from the Effective Communication article as well as the Communication Anxiety assessment. Both of these resources also allowed me examine my communication skills more closely.

 

Assignment 1- Social Media Platforms

Hello Everyone!

My policy issue has changed to supporting teachers that have students with mental health issues in their classroom.  I plan to support teachers by having them participate in Professional Learning Communities that will establish a collaborating culture, build capacity and awareness, and increase student learning. 

The two social media platforms that I would use to communicate my policy issue would be a personalized Facebook page and have a website that advocates for teachers professional learning around students with mental health issues.  I choose these two platforms because they both have the capability to interact with billions of people around the world and the accessibility of being on the internet also allows me to attract the right traffic to my policy to gain further support.

The audience I am seeking to reach on my Facebook page are administrators, teachers, psychologists, and counselors.  I would seek to reach this audience because these are just some of the vital people needed to make a difference in the lives of the children we serve.  I believe in starting with the adults first. Starting with the adults first allow them to become empowered with the skill set needed to serve our children. Teachers would initially be a part of my professional learning communities, but I also want to branch out to other school leaders such as administrators, counselors, social workers, and psychologists on the importance of self-efficacy and confidence in supporting children with mental health issues. 

The audience that I am seeking to reach through my website are education professionals and also potential business leaders that would like to donate resources needed for effective and premium professional learning communities.  I would like to not only reach my local community, but the education and business world. I want to reach this audience to extend advocacy for teachers first!  As I stated previously, equipped teacher=effective teacher.

One benefit of having a Facebook page for my policy issue is there is low marketing expense.  Setting up a Facebook page is $0.00.  One challenge would be missing the audience that is not comfortable with Facebook and other social media outlets. 

One benefit of having a personalized website is the open accessibility.  There is a wider audience that can be reached via mobile devices, tablets, or desktops.  Millions of people who are not within my immediate reach.  I will be able to chat and connect with more teachers and school districts locally, nationally, and internationally.  The challenge with a personalized website is bad publicity.  Having a website risks attracting bad publicity.  When the targeted or untargeted audience is not happy, they can tend to vent and possibly leave negative comments.  This can be damaging to potential users or costumers.

Overall, I am looking forward to learning more benefits of social media as it relates to my policy issue.

 

Kim J.

Course Goals

The question was posed regarding my initial reaction to my present course on policies and systems.  When I first found out that I was taking this policy course my initial reaction was apprehensive because I have to admit that I have limited knowledge on policies as a whole.  The three goals that I want to focus on in this course are as follows:

•  Understand the clear difference between a policy and a system. 

•  Research policies that are presently are in place to support my work as an Intervention Specialist.

• Expand my knowledge of how policies and systems can be reformed when they are flawed and found ineffective in supporting children and families.

This is important to my work as an early childhood professional because I can not effectively make decisions that will allow me to plan my work to advocate accurately. I am looking forward to getting the answers to my questions and gleaning information to move me closer to reaching my goal to become a permanent advocate for positive social change in the field of early childhood education.

Final Thoughts.........

When I first began this course, I did not know what to expect.  I looked at the literature that came with the course and I wondered how all of the course information would be come together.  It seemed like a lot of information to learn and understand in 16 weeks.  Now that we are in the final stretch of the course, I have to say that I have gleaned so much from my major course assessment, module discussion, and intriguing feedback from my peers.   Coming into the course, I did not think about my personal biases as they related to being an early childhood professional.  I now have become so sensitive to anti-bias education.

This course allowed me to reflect on my biases and what topic I could research 20 different articles on to become more knowledgeable as an advocate for positive social change. I have realized that in order to be a valuable asset and a respected scholar practitioner, I must be willing to teach others about becoming more self-aware as it relates to biases that can affect how we support children and families.  Marsha made a statement in the video file that we should continue to practice not knowing (Laureate, 2013).  This keeps us at a humble state of always being vulnerable to learn.   Being self-reflective keeps us in a state of knowing that we do not have all the answers.

Laureate Education (Producer). (2013). Final reflections, part 1 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

The issues near and dear to my heart..... My Major Course Project

The topic that intrigues me for my challenge topic is children exposed to risk, stress, or trauma.   My subtopic will be focused on toxic stress.  I chose this topic because I have been teaching and coaching teachers in an economically disadvantaged area for almost nine years.  The majority of the students that I serve have a high level of emotional and social incompetence.  I have a passion for researching proven interventions that will promote social change in the community I serve.  I believe that this topic will allow me to continue to teach and empower educators and stakeholders in my school community to reach our children not just academically, but socially and emotionally.

My questions for those who will read my post are:

• Is there always a greater number of children that are exposed to risks, stress, and trauma in high impoverished areas?  If so, why do we think the research leans to this conclusion?
• What are some interventions that have been implemented if there are any bloggers that have worked with with children that have been exposed to risk, trauma, and stress?

Is Mental Health a Priority in our Schools?

I don't think that I really considered the importance of mental health as much now as I have in recent years.  With all of the school and community tragedies that are taking the lives of our young children, I have been overwhelmed with reflecting as an educator about what steps are we taking to understand the mental health of the children that walk in our classrooms every day.  According to recent research, one out of every 5 children around the world have a mental health issue.  From that number, one a third of the children that have a mental health issue are receiving the support or treatment needed.

A positive self-image and a healthy well being are proven to aid children in academic success and overall positive social development.  After conducting pieces of my literature review on mental health support for young children, I found that many schools have no support for children that have been identified as having mental health issues. In many schools, adequate training or certified personnel is not a priority to support children with mental health issues or identify the signs of children that may have mental health issues.  These issues can be prevalent in children as young as 3 years old.  The School Health Mental Services, A Legislator Brief notes that sound mental health leads to academic success in school and is essential to overall health, yet Minorities have less access to mental health services and are less likely to receive needed care. Hispanic children are least likely to receive specialty care from trained professionals, even though evidence indicates that they and African-American children have the greatest need for care ( RAND, 2007).

How can we address this issue in our schools of the lack of services for our children that are struggling with mental health issues?

How can we make sure that every state has embedded policies to ensure all children receive equal services so that their mental health issues do not impede their social, emotional, physical, and academic development?



RAND Health. “Research Highlights: Mental Health Care for Youth.” 2001. Accessed from http://www.rand.org/publications/RB/RB4541 May, 29 2007.

Introducing...........................................ME!! Kimberly Jones!!!

I have always known that I wanted to be a teacher.  Always.  There was never any doubt.  I still remember sitting in my first grade classroom.  My teacher was Mrs. Gray.  It was the first day of school and we were drawing pictures about our summer vacation.  Well on my paper, I had a drawing of myself with a yardstick in my hand in front of teddy bears.  Yes, you guessed it.  My summer was spent teaching my teddy bears in my garage that had been transformed into my classroom.  There was chart paper, a desk ( of course all teachers need a desk) and a line of teddy bears that each had names on my roll. I stayed in this garage for hours. This is one of my fondest memories. 

I am a passionate educator that has been in the classroom for the past 13 years.  Over the course of these years I have led many initiatives and conducted professional development for my school and the district.  When I was obtaining my Masters degree in reading curriculum and instruction, my fire was ignited for an old dream that I once pursued.  I have always dreamed of opening my very own learning academy that focuses on quality instruction for every child, teaching the whole child, and integrating the arts in the daily curriculum.  I feel stronger than ever now that that dream will become a reality!  I love a challenge and the idea of working with other teachers that love being apart of this movement of quality education for each child by reaching children from the inside out!