National/Federal ECE Jobs/Roles

The first organization is National Institute For Early Education Research.  NIEER, as it is referred to, came into my school this week for research on early childhood environments.  NIEER conducts research to support high-quality, effective early childhood education.  Their research areas include, but are not limited to access, quality and curriculum, special education, ELL's, state programs, and teachers.  Currently they are offering vacant positions for Assistant Research Professors, and Data Collectors in nationwide positions.

The second organization I have researched is Children's Literacy Initiative.  CLI, as it is referred to, has helped to improve 38 low income district in Philadelphia, Chicago, Camden, and Newark NJ, and other places such as Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, and Virginia.  CLI works with teachers so that children can become powerful readers, writers,and thinkers.  Essentially, CLI coaches teachers both in and out of the classroom, and I have had the pleasure of atttending workshops given at CLI, and I also had a CLI coach a few years ago.  Currently, CLI is hiring part time literacy consultants in Pennsylvania and NJ.

The third organization I have researched is Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations for Early Learning.  CSEFEL, as this is referred to, is focused on promoting the social emotional development and school readiness of young children birth to age 5.  CSEFEL is a national resource center funded by the Office of Head Start and Child Care Bureau for disseminating research and evidence-based practices to early childhood programs across the country.  The Center is located at Vanderbilt University, and collaborates with the University of Illinois, University of South Florida, Georgetown University, University of Colorado at Denver, and ZERO TO THREE.  The website itself is such a valuable resource for parents and classroom teachers.  They have a wealth of information such as social stories, strategies, and training materials.  I did not see any current career opportunities, however, I feel this is a site for future reference.

Resources
http://www.nieer.org/home

http://www.cli.org/

http://csefel.vanderbilt.edu/

Exploring Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

This week’s blog includes organizations at the local and state levels which I find helpful at the early childhood level.  This is an assignment that I enjoy because I have a “resource file” of helpful websites and organizations which I utilize on a daily basis.  Because this course is focusing upon my Capstone Project, I am choosing those resources that will most benefit me in reference to this assignment. 

The first organization is Food Bank of South Jersey.  This organization provides immediate access to emergency food, nutrition education, and sustainable ways to improve their lives.  Quality, fresh food and nutrition education is an issue in the poverty stricken areas, and childhood obesity is prevalent among our children in these areas.  This organization helps aide in those issues as well.  This organization partners with many non-profit organizations and initiatives to educate our people.  The Campbell Soup Company is a large contributor to the food bank as well as another organization called The Food Trust, which focuses upon educating our youth about food, and food choices, and healthy living. This is a wonderful resources, even for those not living in the New Jersey area, and can be found at http://www.foodbanksj.org .

The second organization I have chosen and found to be most helpful is www.hhs.gov,  US Department of Health and Human Services.  Currently if you visit the site, Healthy Eating is one of the focal points, as well as many others.  All of these topics take you to outside links with a  wealth of information.  If you go to the search bar and type childhood obesity, a wealth of information is presented and these are wonderful resources for both teachers, and families. 
The link is http://www.hhs.gov.

The last organization I would like to focus upon is the New Jersey Association for the Education of Young Children.  This organization is the state represented affiliate of the NAEYC organization.  This is a wonderful reference for position statements as well as resources covering a wealth of topics in Early Childhood.  Regarding childhood obesity, this website has links to state programs for childcare nutrition guidelines, as well as resources for parents and educators.  Whenever I need a scholarly resource regarding any topic within my profession, this is one of the first places I peruse for information.  They can be accessed at  http://www.njaeyc.org.

Many of these resources have employment links within their website.  Additionally, if you contact a live person at the contact phone number, they are helpful in finding employment resources as well.  When one is looking for employment within these different early childhood related entities, one needs to be creative in finding those resources as they are sometimes not readily available.  The one position I discovered at the Food Bank of SJ, is for teacher trainer and parental liaison.  Teaching and sharing is my passion, and if I were currently looking for a new position, this would definitely be one I would pursue. 

Website References

http://www.foodbanksj.org/

http://www.hhs.gov/

http://www.njaeyc.org/