Warm Thanks & Well Wishes

     To all of my peers and professor in our Fundamentals class at Walden University, I send you a collective thank you in appreciation for all that you have done to support and improve my understanding and knowledge in the field of Early Childhood. The communication and feed back both through our discussion boards and Blogs have been both enlightening and informative.
     As I mentioned in this weeks discussion board (I believe it bears repeating) I am so grateful to live in an age were on-line classes are so accessible. I live in a "frontier" county and the nearest University with a Masters program that serves ECE is eight hours away (one way) which would be a bit of a commute. Even if I lived next door to a University I fear that these last four months would not have happened for me due to personal tragic events.
     Children have always been a huge motivator for me. I would like to end this class with a heart felt thank you to all of you. For you have kept me motivated, interested and feeling involved as part of a whole through a very rough time in my life. Being able to get on-line and have contact with people that have such a connection with Early Childhood has allowed me to have a positive place to go and feel renewed. I wish each and everyone of you good will and look forward to continued communication with those I have contact with in future courses.

Best Wishes and Happy Safe Holidays,

Jennifer Pore`

Code of Ethical Conduct

     I have chosen the following Ideals from the NAEYC's Code of Ethical Conduct (NAEYC, 2005) to share with those who will read this Blog. The reasons I have chosen these particular Ideals is because they directly address my work environment. I am taking the opportunity to demonstrate that the Early Childhood profession has many areas of interest all just as important as the other because of course they interweave within each other. I currently work with children and families in behavioral and mental health.

I-2.1--To be familiar with the knowledge base related to working effectively with families and to staying informed through continuing education and training.

I-2.4--To listen to families, acknowledge and build upon their strengths and competencies, and learn from families as we support them in their task of nurturing children.

I-2.7--To share information about each child's education and development with families and to help them understand and appreciate the current knowledge base of the early childhood profession.

I-2.8--To help families members enhance their understanding of their children and support the continuing development of their skills as parents.

I-2.9--To participate in building support networks for families by providing them with opportunities to interact with program staff, other families, community resources, and professional staff.

     In order to be a benefit to each child we have to know their history as to not cause additional harm. We also have to work with families as in most cases the children are returned to parent, we have to take this opportunity to educate the parent on where the child is at in their emotional and cognitive development and give them the skills they need to be able to take much better care of the child. It is critical to keep in mind that we are only a stopping point in these children's lives (hopefully) and we do not help the children unless we educate the parents as to how better to care and protect their children. 

     I would like to add an additional couple of ideals taken from the Code of Ethics taken from the DEC (Division for Early Childhood, 2009). These two ideals relate to the responsibilities to protect the children and the importance of knowing the law and how it pertains to the child and we can protect, if not done properly we can create a disaster and even put the child in harms way. Most of the children I work with are involved with many agencies, each having their own protocols to adhere to for the child's best interest.

2. We shall honor and respect the rights, knowledge, and skills of the multidisciplinary colleagues with whom we work recognizing their unique contributions to children, families, and the field of early childhood special education.

4. We shall identify and disclose to the appropriate persons using proper communication channels errors or acts of incompetence that compromise children's and families' safety and well being when individual attempts to address concerns are unsuccessful.

Jennifer Pore`

DEC. (2009). Code of Ethics (page 2) Retrieved from http://www.dec-sped.org

NAEYC, (2005). Code of Ethical Conduct (pages 3 &4) Retrieved from http://www.naeyc.org