10 Sep v· In your response, try to make the important connection you will soon need to make with your coworkers

· In your response, try to make the important connection you will soon need to make with your coworkers and the families in your facility. Comment on their ideal facility and share what you like about their choices and what you would add to their choices.

· Your response should be an original thought.

· Responses to peers may not be in the form of “I agree… good post”.  One or two sentence replies are not adequate.  Responses must go further in depth and must be supported with specific, personal experience, relevant textual connections, and/or alternate perspectives and questions.   100 word-replies would be an appropriate recommended guideline.  

PEERS POST:

Hello class my name is Markeisha Jones, I prefer to be called Keisha. I have a 7-year-old daughter Armiyah and a 6-year-old son Andre Jr. (Aj). I am from Baltimore; Maryland and I still live here. I am 27 years old. My favorite colors are purple and yellow, my favorite food is salmon and bake macaroni & cheese. I love working with children, it all started when I was 12 years old. I come from a big family I have 4 brothers and 5 sisters. My brothers would ask me to watch their children while they would go to work or hang with friends, and they would pay me. I loved it because it gave me time to bond with my nieces and I was also making money. My oldest sister Kierra was in high school, and she was taking child development classes I saw how much she loved it, and I looked up to her in so many ways. When my sister graduated high school in 2009, she told me to finish school and go to college and we will open a childcare center of our own. On April 18th, 2012, I lost my sister, I was hurt, lost, and confused I didn’t know what to do or where to start. I stopped going to school, but I told myself that’s only hurting my sister we had goals. I went back to school and graduated a year late; I graduated high school in 2014 and moved to Columbus Ohio I got my first childcare job while I was in Columbus, I found out I was pregnant with my daughter. I moved back home after I had my daughter, fast forward in 2016 I had my son. August of 2017, I got a job on Fort Meade the military base at the CDC (Child Development Center). and been employed ever since. 

I love working with infants and toddlers. The three things I would love for my facility to have is cameras and bulletproof windows for security and safety purpose. I would also love playgrounds for all children and make sure it’s age appropriate for each age. I love would for my facility to be fully staffed childcare centers have been understaffed. Two qualities I hope my future director or principal would possess is Active Listening/ Communicate Clearly, I say this because I think it’s important for management to hear their staff and understand their needs and concerns. Communication is the key it’s important that everyone communicate and stay on the same page. Another quality is to motive change. When a child or a group of children leave my facility, I want children to be able to have met their developmental milestones physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially because the early stage in a child life is most important. I was always told no child left behind and I want the children to be where they need to be for grade school, that wat they can advance in life. 

I look forward to meeting everyone and working with you all over the next 5 weeks. 

MY POST:

Hello, my name is Ronda, and I am from Michigan, I am here to receive my associate degree for Early Childhood Education (AA). I have a son who is 19 and I have devoted my time as a single mom to my son, I owned and operated my own home daycare for 16 years. I did not want my son to be raised by babysitters or must rely on my own parents to raise my son, so when he was just a year old, I quit my job at Meijer and started my daycare.  After a noticeably short while I realized I had made the best decision of my life! My dream as a child was to become a teacher when I grew up, and I found myself in this position where I could teach young minds, which made me want it so much more. I took a couple trainings and a class here and there; due to time it was difficult for me to complete a lot all at once. My son became more involved in sports as he got older and that to took up a lot of extra time, but I was his biggest fan! He play’s football, basketball, and baseball, and I have enjoyed every minute of watching him, he is my whole world. After 16 years of doing my daycare, times took a turn and children were hard to come by due to people having relatives or siblings watching their youngers, it was hard on me to even think about having to let it go. I kept my doors open and only had children for before and after school, I took a job a Head Start part time during the day. I worked at Head Start for almost 2 years’ part time before I was offered a full-time position, now I had to think…I could keep doing what I was doing working the two jobs barely making it or close my daycare down and take the job. I talked it over with my son for a few days and come to sad answer of closing my daycare. It was an extremely hard decision, but it was for the best. I am now an Early Head Start Teacher, and I am loving it, still as a single mom I must pay the bills, so I had to take on a second job as a janitor at a dentist office, I am still incredibly involved with my son’s life. 

Early child development sets the foundation of a person’s growth; therefore, it is crucial to ensure that well-trained personnel is available for the center. My ideal childhood center consists of classrooms, an outdoor space, a multipurpose space, and an administrative office. I want to work with kids aged three to five; at this age, most of the kids have learned how to talk, and it becomes easy to manage. It then becomes easier to enhance the verbal ability of the kids and ensure they do not encounter reading problems in the future. The classroom space should be around 850 square feet and above, with various activity areas that will be separated from physical objects like cabinets.

Give a description of three things your early childhood facility would have (inside and outside)

            Play zone such as pretend home appliances, kitchen area, and furniture. Young children enjoy such games, especially girls.

Arts and crafts zone where children can experiment with paint or water and a quiet spot for the children who may require personal space. The reserved area should have comfortable chairs and stuffed toys for the kids.

 A health center with the medical equipment necessary to treat children of any illness that befalls them. Medications will also be locked in cabinets unreachable to the kids to avoid any incidences of misuse of drugs.

What are two “extras” you would have in your center if money wasn’t an issue?

A research center-Education is continually growing; with the right research and technology, it will be possible to innovate new ways to improve and increase education.

Training center for kids-kids grow with various interests like sports, a sports center for kids to train in any sports like skating would be ideal.

What are two qualities you hope your future director or principal would possess?

            Being an educator first, then an administrator– a good principal will have to prioritize the needs of the students and second with the school’s administrative duties.

Have management risk skills– a good principle will weigh the costs and benefits of operations and learn when and where to allocate the funds needed.

What is one thing you hope your children walk away from your facility knowing about you?

I want the kids to walk away from school knowing how much I love and adore children and my interest in their growth. I want them to walk away with the right knowledge to help them grow as individuals.

It will be hard to deal with educators who lack the self-drive to execute their duties.