Roles in the ECE Community: Local and State Levels

Currently I am working in China, in an International school, but I can see some time in the future that I will go back to Washington State. I might teach there as well. Thinking of that, I was looking for the organizations and agencies that I might have interests in, as I never thought of doing any research of that before. YMCA is the one drew my attention. It is a national-wide organization, and it has branches here and there. There are few in Washington State too. I was checking on their website, their mission statement is really inspiring. I like the flexibility of YMCA, as they provide various programs for parents and families to choose from. They can put their children in a full day program, a partial day program, or an after school program depending on the unique situations of each family. Meanwhile, parents will be confident to know that their children are in somewhere safe and stimulating. Parents can better focus on their work, when they know their children are taken good care of. I really like the flexibility of YMCA, and the varieties of their offers to support children’s cognitive, physical and social development. There are job openings for early childhood teachers, and I think I would be very interested in working in the organization. I can work either part time or full time, as long as I can serve children the best. I would like to bring my anti-bias educational ideas and stories to the organization to benefit children. I need to be more flexible and more observant to children’s needs and interests. I need to see children individually, and plan my curriculum to support their development. Last but not the least, YMCA aims at creating safe, caring, educational environment for children to learn and thrive, and that is my goal for all children in the world. I hope every child can have equal access to a nurturing learning environment to show their potentials and to be proud of who they are.

In the neighborhood that I live, there are many communities of origins, like Korean community, Chinese community, and German community. Children all go the the English speaking international school, and white middle class culture is the dominant culture at school. Chinese community offers after school programs to help children from China to practice their English and Chinese, as they believe their children need to learn both languages to thrive as healthy and happy children in the world. People in this community share the same goal is to support their children to be bicultural children, so they can fit in both at home and out of home.  I agree, as their home language is Chinese, and language is the best carrier for children to learn about their home cultures. They always want to have some teachers to work for their after school programs, and they hope the teacher can both speak fluent Chinese and English. I think I might take the chance to volunteer to work there. As I grew up in Chinese educational system as most of those parents did, and we want something new and inspiring for children in nowadays. Memorizing is an efficient way, but not the most inspiring or creative way to educate children. With the educational background I have, the knowledge that I have learned through my master degree, and the working experiences with a large number of ELL students, I think I can be a creative Mandarin teacher to those students.

There is another charity organization in my neighborhood called Pfrang. Its mission is to help children from poor areas in the North Jiangsu Province in China. Our school is part of that charity organization. I want to contribute more than before, as I only donated money in the past. I would like to take children from our school to visit the schools in rural areas in China, and children from both schools can have activities and classes together for 3 days. I think it is a mutual beneficial way for students from our school and children from local schools. Children from our school, the trip may help them build sympathy and empathy for children and others who cannot have sufficient support from their lives, while students from local schools can learn something new from the outside of the world. Pfrang organization has regular visits to schools in rural areas in Jiangsu, and I would like to be a volunteer to go to those schools to help children. Meanwhile, I would be interested in taking a part-time job in Pfrang to bring more ideas of teaching and learning to the schools that Pfrang sponsors. Learning supplies can only give children the pen to write with, while the way of teaching and learning can offer children the future for them to write about. 

I hope more children can be involved in a caring, nurturing educational learning environment, as all children should have the equal access to high quality early childhood education. I am working on it with many other colleagues, and children’s families, and I think we will do whatever we can to help as many children as possible.