Rachel Gillen's Blog

International Organizations or Communities of Practice that Appeal to me: United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization After reading their vision, I find this to be an extremely important challenge to address and when this challenge is addressed at a younger age, a greater impact is made.  International Step by Step Association They are a membership association that focuses on holistic development. With my background in mental health, I have a strong passion for holistic development as it greatly impacts our mental health.  World Organization for Early Childhood Education Created for nothing more than benefiting young children. I regularly say I do this work for the kids and that should be everyone's thought when working in our field. International Job Opportunities: I am not sure this job opportunity exists but, I currently work for an organization that utilizes the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics (NMT) and I would love to be a certifi

Three National/Federal Organizations or Communities of Practice that Appeal to me: I have always been interested in Zero to Three as the impact they have on the field across the country is so great. I have always seen this as an organization that supports the passion of early childhood development. I also believe this organization stays up-to-date on early childhood issues like mental health in early childhood which is something I am very interested in.  HighScope also sparked an interest for me. This was an organization I did not know a lot about until I hired a teacher who came from a HighScope program. Unfortunately, due to life I was never able to look more into the program but, this week I was able to look into it more and found it incredibly interested. Child Trauma Academy-I currently work for a mental health agency that partners with this agency and their focus on mental health in the early childhood years has always been a topic I am incredibly interested in and passionat

Local and State Organizations and Communities of Practice: Clayton Early Learning- https://www.claytonearlylearning.org/ I chose Clayton as they are an organization in Colorado who are known in the field for their strength in the Early Childhood field. They receive a great deal of funding to provide care for all children and continue extensive research into the early childhood field.  United Way of Weld County- https://www.unitedway-weld.org/ I recently interview here and was extremely impressed with what they are doing for early childhood education in their rural communities. Had the pay been more livable, I would've jumped at the occasion to work for this organization. The team working for early childhood programs seems like a strong community of practice.  Denver Preschool Program- https://dpp.org/?npclid=Cj0KCQjwn_LrBRD4ARIsAFEQFKtyXWDeA8PuAdgGWSNabr8cA504LVOJzAAp7l3L-GCFTr0ROs2rbOoaAuEnEALw_wcB This organization works to provide tuition assistance for all prescho

I have had group experiences where I have been relieved that a group project has come to an end and there have been a few times in my professional life where I have been sad to see a project come to an end. I recently left a team of supervisors at my old job that was extremely hard to walk away from. Although we had our challenges amongst each other, we were a very hard working group who was extremely close. Due to the field we worked in, we had all been through crisis situations together which I think always make you stronger as a team. It has become a tradition in that group that whenever a person leaves, we go out and celebrate together to ensure that we have closure. Unfortunately, the majority of this group has left over the past year. I do believe this group was hard to leave due to the level of functioning we were at as a team. I was very scared to walk away and never experience another team like that again.  It will definitely be interesting to adjourn from my master's

I have recently started a new position at a new agency. Due to this, I wouldn't say I am experiencing any major disagreements or conflicts but, more challenges in communication due to learning how my new coworkers, supervisors, and staff communicate. We recently opened two additional classrooms in our school and there were times that I disagreed with my new supervisor on a specific item for the new classrooms. In the past, at my previous job, we were really pushed to lead with the facts and then tell our story based on a training called Crucial Conversations. I have found this to be extremely successful when communicating in disagreements or conflicts. It was helpful to tell the facts behind why I thought what I thought regarding the classroom and then finish with how I felt. Another incredibly important piece is allowing the other party to present their facts and stories as well. After this, it leads you to a resolution which could ultimately be a compromise. I think Crucial Conve

One of the people I asked to complete the questionnaires for this assignment has been a supervisor and a friend and that made things more interesting. She didn't necessarily look at my communication in regard to only my professional world or only my personal life, she looked at both. The other person I asked to complete the questionnaire mainly looked at my professional communication and I would say I did the same. There were definitely times where my supervisor and friend struggled to answer the question because I might communicate differently in a professional setting than a personal setting.  I learned this week that communication can cause anxiety even when you feel extremely confident in communication. I believe I am confident when communicating with parents but, I have recently experienced a lack of confidence when working with new families. I definitely think this showed in the questionnaires.  I think these questionnaires will help my communication growth in the futu