Week 10 – Final Blog for Internship II:

 

I first would like to say THANK YOU to all of my colleagues and the professor during this last crazy semester of school.   This had to be the hardest class that I have taken during the whole time I have been in school but it was worth it to finish and to understand how I can make short and long-term goals work for me not only with my advocacy plan but also with my future.  When I started this class I thought that putting my advocacy plan into action would be easy but I was wrong and I think that without all support from my colleagues I would not have been as encouraged to continue and not give up enough though I wanted to so many times.  I think that this class has made me grow and I am looking forward to putting all of things that I have learned not only in this class but also throughout my school years into motion.

After reading, everything that my colleagues have written in the discussions and post throughout the semester shows me that they ready to take their careers to the next level.  Whether, you continue to work with children, families, or government agencies I want to wish everyone the best of luck.

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE ON THEIR FUTURES AND IN EVERYTHING THAT YOU DO.

Deborah Knicker

My Personal Internship Journal – Week 8

•Questions you have with which your colleagues may be able to provide help and support

When I first started working on my advocacy plan I thought that I knew what I needed to do but after looking over different plan on the internet and receiving feedback from my professor I think that I need to do some more resource.  My question to my colleagues would be if anyone else had a problem with their plan and if they have any advice on how to make it more a plan and not a paper.  That is where I am having the problem, I make everything into a paper and I feel that I have to rearrange how I am making my plan.  In addition, I would like to know if anyone has any personal experience with Early Intervention that they would like to share with me that I can share with the teachers that I would like to do in-service training with when I present my advocacy plan.

•Resources and information you are seeking

The best resources and information that I can seek is anything at this time that anyone feels like they are willing to share.  With there only being three weeks of class left and our presentations do next week I can use all of the help that I can get.  I think that my colleagues have been giving some great resource throughout the discussions and I have been trying to incorporate them into my presentation. I think that this is the best resource and information that I can seek so far.  I feel that I need to thank my colleagues for all the help even if they do not realize that I have taken it, thank you all.

•Resources and/or information you have found helpful and insightful

While I was doing my research, I was able to find a few resources that I think will help me.  The first resource was a sample of an advocacy plan that I found was on the website www.careusa.org.  This is actually a pdf file that is from a book on outlining am advocacy plan and the link that took me to this page was http://www.careusa.org/getinvolved/advocacy/tools/english_02.pdf.  I think that this page will help me make sure that I rework my advocacy plan into a workable and understandable plan.  Another, resource that I plan to use to re-work my advocacy plan is from a website that has a blank advocacy action plan that can be used as a template.  I actually thought that this was the best resource that I could find because I had such a hard time with my plan.  The website is http://www.webjunction.org/documents/webjunction/Advocacy_Action_Plan_Template.html.  If anyone else is having trouble with the plan this template is a great resource.

My Personal Advocacy Journal-Week 6

    My advocacy plan is on Early Intervention (EI) which I first learned about around 10 years ago when my nephews needed the service.  I had seen other children getting therapy but I did not know that some of them received the services through EI.  I plan to put an advocacy plan in action to introduce EI into the required in-service training hours that teachers need during the first year that the start working in childcare in Florida.

     I am inspired and excited to be doing this because as an educator I believe that it is important for all teachers to know about EI and how it can help young children and their families.  I have been teaching for over 20 years and for the first 10 years I did not know about EI and I wish that I did because looking back I can think of many children that could have used help because they had some sort of delay that could have been helped through speech, physical, or occupational therapy. 

     The biggest challenge that I feel I will have is having someone in the Department of Children and Families (DCF) willing to talk to me and listen to why I think EI should be added to the in-service training.  I also feel anxiety about having to get so many people to listen to my thoughts and me. 

     I think that I can be most effective my writing letters and emails to the supervisors at DCF in Tallahassee.  I plan on also going to different childcare centers and talking with owners and directors to get their thoughts on how important they think it would be to incorporate EI training for new teachers.  I am hoping that we can start a petition or enough owners and/or directors will write to their representatives to encourage enough people to start doing the training, even if only they start it in one county at a time.

     I think that the best way to encourage others and myself is to just show support and be willing to help others in their plan.  For example, I would be willing to not only help others with their plan but to also help them research or anything else that they may need.  I am also willing to any ideas from my colleagues and others on how to make EI more effective and available.  Not only to the teachers that do not know what it is but also parents that might want to take a training on how to detect who needs EI and how to help them get the services.

Intership II Introduction Blog

Hi Everyone,
I am very excited that we are all almost done with our degrees and ready to taken on our futrues.  My advocacy plan will still be with Early Intervention and inclusion into the elementary schools.  I wish everyone the best of luck this quarter and I cannot wait to hear more about your plans.

My Final Blog.

 

This is my final blog for my internship class.  Writing a blog was not an easy assignment for me because I am never sure if the information that I wanted to come across actually came out the way that I wanted it too.  Throughout this class, I have received some great information and responses from classmates.  I would also like to say that I appreciate all of the information that I received from my intern site and mentor about Early Intervention.  I would like to wish all of my colleagues’ good luck in their future studies and their careers. 

Observing and Interacting with Families and Children in Your Setting:

 

The child and family that I have been observing this past week were “Shawn” and his mom “Dawn.  Shawn is an 11-year-old that has Cerebral Palsy (CP).  Shawn has been at the center since he was 2 months old and started Early Intervention while at the center.  I thought that talking with a child and parent that were older and have used the Early Intervention (EI) program would be a great way to find out if it worked for them and how the center dealt with the EI program even 10 years ago. 

Shawn and his parents were told that he would never be able to walk and that therapy would not help him.  However, the staff at the center and Dawn did not believe this for a minute.  Dawn with the help of the owner, Michelle, got into contact with an area EI program and had the therapists come out and evaluate Shawn for themselves.  I learned from Dawn the importance of making sure that as an educator I work with the parents and make sure that I am there for them when they are going through the EI process.  I understood that parent need our support but after talking with her and finding out how much she appreciated the support of Michelle throughout the process was outstanding to me.  From my understanding, Michelle was doing an assessment on Shawn when he was still an infant and noticed that he was not responding to sounds and his eyes were glazing over and mentioned this to mom.  At first mom did not want to believe this information but after going to the doctor she came back and told Michelle that she was right and that they diagnosed him with CP.  Since then they have worked together to get him the EI help he needed and when he started kindergarten he was part of one of the first inclusion classes in his school.  Shawn is now in fifth grade and not only does mom thank the services of EI for the therapy he was getting but the center for supporting her.  Shawn also walks and even plays basketball with his friends when the doctors told him he would never be able to walk.  Everything about this family showed me that Michelle and the family advocate EI services for Shawn and that it definitely helped him became the confident young man that I observed in the after-school program with his friends. 

The first insight that I learned this week was to make sure that I work with the parents and support them throughout the whole process and not just the beginning by helping them get the services but by being there for the family.  I saw that the center and the family were also advocating the services for other families that may need the services.  If Michelle saw that, someone might need services but were not while to learn about the EI program she would asked if the families would be willing to talk to Dawn.  I really thought that it was great that Dawn was so willing to be an advocate herself for the EI services.  I learned from her how important it was to stay up-to-date on the services and even though her son was not getting EI services, anymore she is a big advocate for their services.  The second insight was to never give up on the families even if they are not sure about the services.  To make sure that I am there for them if they have questions and be willing to just be a sounding board if they have questions or concerns.  Sometimes the best thing that families need is someone to listen to them and their concerns about their child and the EI services without an opinion.  I have to thank Dawn and Michelle for showing me that listening is a big part of being an advocate and not just talking about the services.

Observing and Interacting with Program Director and other Administrative Staff.

 

For this module, I had the pleasure of observing the director and the assistant director of the center that I have been observing.  The assistant director is Ms. Kate who is also the 4-year-old preschool teacher that I was able to observe for the last module.  Ms. Tina is the center director, has been working in the field for over 16 years, and has been the director at Little Steps Big Steps preschool center for the past 3 years.  During my time with Ms. Kate and Ms. Tina, I was able to watch no only interactions with the children that were already receiving early intervention services but with a child that they were assessing and thought would need the services.  After they were done with the assessment process, I was allowed to sit in the meeting with the parents and see how they dealt with the parents that have a hard time believing that their child needed care.

The best insight that I received during these past two weeks was how important it is to make sure that the administrative staff and parents have a good relationship.  I say this because without this relationship the parents would not have been open to the care that their child may need.  They understood that the staff was just looking out for the best interest of the child.  I think that it was important for the staff and the parents to work together and find the help that the little girl needed.  I was also able to see how the staff was able to have all the information about early intervention that the family would need and even was able to answer the questions that they had.  To me, I think my biggest challenge would have been in making sure that I had all the information available and on hand for the parents, which I thought was the best thing that they could do for the family.  Another thing that I noticed in the office was that they had a stack of pamphlet about early intervention and the program for cases just like this that they could give out at a moment notices. 

When putting my plan into action I plan on working with the directors at this center because they have great ideas about how to involve the families in early intervention.  I am hoping that they can help me work with other centers in the community about getting the word out about how important it is to work with different companies that deal in early intervention.  While I was going to other centers they did tell me that they have children that use the services but that they do not have information available for families on hand that may need it.  I am hoping also to work with Early Steps, the early intervention program that is part of the Florida DCF. 

I am open to any suggestion from my colleagues about how they would incorporate early intervention to their program.

Module 2 Blog: Observing Professionals and Colleagues working with children using EI services

I was able to observe and interview this week the teachers in the 3 and 4-year-old classroom.  Both of the teachers have a child that is using the Early Intervention program and had nothing but good things to say about the program.  In the 3-year-old classroom, I talked with Ms. Jessica; she has been working in the field for about 10 years and is a mother of four.  In her class, she has a child that I will call “Mark” that has cerebral palsy (CP); he was born with and has a physical and occupational therapist that comes to the center to work with him.  I was able to observe the physical therapist working with Mark on the day that I was there.  While some therapist work with the children in different rooms she did not, she wanted to stay in the room because that is where Mark felt the most comfortable.  This was great for him because not only did he practice holding toys but the other children in the classroom were also encouraging him.  As you can probably tell the center, where he is at could be called an inclusion center.  The do not discriminate and the other children do not even see that Mark cannot not do some of the same things that they can to them he is just a friend. 

Ms. Jessica is great with Mark and the other children.  As I interviewed her, I was able to ask her if the other children or parents ever treated Mark differently.  Her response was NO, they all love Mark and he is a happy go lucky child, which I witnesses first hand.  She told me that he was born with CP and has come to the center since he was 5 months old.  The teachers, parents, and children just think of him as another child and treat him like everyone else.  I asked if they ever had a problem with the EI services while Mark has been there.  She informed me that EI was very helpful to Mark’s parents and are the ones that suggested coming to the center so that the parents can continue to work and that he can get the care that he needs.  He will be going to a public school program soon and the parents are more worried about what will happen when he goes to that school.  I asked about the public school he will go to and I found out that while it is a public school it is a school for children that have special needs that have their own therapist on site and that he will continue to get the care that he needs.  I was so excited to be able to observe in Ms. Jessica’s class because it was wonderful to see all of the children work together and help out when not only Mark could not reach something but they also helped each other.  This showed me that Ms. Jessica was a great teacher that has taught all of the children to not only share but to care about each other and to treat everyone the same.

The only challenge that I saw in this classroom was that it did not have the proper handicap accessible bathrooms for Mark to use.  He is at the beginning stages of potty training, he was arm braces to help him walk, and there really was not anything in the bathroom for him to hold on to.  Yes, Ms. Jessica did go in there and help him but I think that it needs help so that when he gets further in the training he can go to the bathroom by himself.  She told me that the director is working on updated the bathrooms so that they all have handrails so that he can go in there by himself.  I thought that was great because they were trying to make the situation for him better. 

The other classroom that I observed in was with Ms. Kate, she is the teacher in the 4-year-old classroom.  She has been a teacher for 20 years and enjoys working with the preschool children.  The child in her class that is using EI services is seeing a speech therapist because he has a stuttering problem and the parents are not sure why.  The therapist comes in once week and they practice pronouncing words and letters.  I did not get to witness the therapy session but I did get to observe how Ms. Kate worked with “James.”  She was great with him when he started to talk to fast is when he would stutter and she would tell him to slow down start over and it worked for him when he talked slower the stuttering was not even there.  She informed him that by working with him he has come a long away and the speech therapist that has been working with him has helped him and the family so much.

I really enjoyed my observations this week and I am looking forward to all the information that the directors and EI personal can tell me about their program in the coming weeks.  I think that in the coming weeks I will be asking the professionals how they came to work with the EI program and if they had any suggestions for other centers on how to get EI services for children in their programs. 

Interview with Early Child Care Professionals

My research topic is early intervention (EI) and inclusion in the classrooms.  I interviewed a childcare center owner/director that has been in business for over 12 years.  She is also a mother of seven children and her youngest are twins that were born premature and had the services of early intervention the first three years of their life.  The second person that I interviewed is a pre-kindergarten teacher in the school district; her classroom is an inclusion classroom that currently has 3 students with IEP’s.  After talking with these professionals, I am even more determined to advocate for the children that need early intervention and for them to have inclusion when possible. 

Some of the insight that they both gave me from their personal experiences were great.  The Pre-k teacher told me that some of the things that she talks to her colleagues about is that they sometimes have a hard time meeting the academic needs of all of the children and trying to fit in all required academic standards and benchmarks into the daily allotted time.  the child care center owner, and the teachers in the center believe that have EI services in the classroom is the best for children and will have the best rest for all involved.  This will teach the other children empathy for their classmates.  It shows that just because someone is different does not mean that they cannot be our friends.

Early intervention advocates are doing so much now for young children and more children are in an inclusion program.  They are catching learning needs early to provide all students a good foundation in the lower elementary levels.  They are also allowing the children to all learn together and they are having more specialists and therapists come into the classrooms.

When it comes to things that concern them the most is that the criteria of who needs the EI needs to be adjusted some.  Because the criteria is so stringent, some of the children that may need the service do not get it because they are just missing the requirements that are currently in place.  Another concern is that while the children are having inclusion in the schools they need to have inclusions in all aspects of the children’s lives.  These children are forming bonds in class and they have common interests out of school, they should be able to play sports or other activities today.

The questions that I have for my classmates would be:

1.       Have you ever worked with children with a disability before? What were your experiences?

2.       Did the child receive early intervention services?

3.       How were they treated in the classroom?

4.       Do you agree with inclusion?

EDU 450 Internship

I am currently working on my internship for my Bachelor's Degree at Kendall College.  I will be using this blog to talk about early intervention and how important it is for young children to recieve the care that they need and deserve.