Professional Goals, Hopes, and Dreams

Professional Goals, Hopes, and Dreams

The biggest issue regarding quality and early childhood professionals where I live and work is the recent vote for teachers to walk out next week on April 26^th. Although this affects all teachers, support staff, and children and their families, it is still a discussion concerning recent issues and trends in early childhood. The reasons for striking effect all of us. I feel this relates to our current discussion regarding professionalism because teachers are standing up for better pay for themselves and for support staff, and for their students. They want consistent funding for better infrastructure, up-to-date curriculum, and smaller class sizes. Without these things, schools and programs cannot possibly be effective and high-quality.  Joe Thomas, president of Arizona Education Association, wrote an opinion piece on January 18^th, 2018 that pretty much states the same things but added how our current governor takes away and/or cuts this funding only to reinstate some of it later, call it ‘new money’ and take credit for helping out (Thomas, 2018). Issues such as this, a current lawsuit, and not seeing any real evidence to the promise of future funding, is why teachers are going on strike. Our governor promised a 20% increase in teacher pay by 2020 with no real proof of funding for the promise (Irish, 2018). Our local school district, at first, was allowing only 25% of staff to request time off during the strike. Shortly afterward, our superintendent made a statement that he would work with the schools, staff, children, and their families with what he called “new territory”. It will be interesting to see what teachers in my area will do, especially after watching my Oklahoma teaching family walk out. I do not see it affect where I work since we are a small private school not affiliated with the district. I also saw teachers in Phoenix were already taking donations of food for children who might go hungry if they do walk out.

For my little school, we are adding our 3^rd Prekindergarten classroom next year. We have an increase in numbers over the last few years with one of our classrooms had 21 students with 3 teachers. I am happy to say that I will be in this new classroom with another teacher. I taught Kindergarten with her last year due to large class size and followed this large class up to 1^st grade this year. We will be working over the summer (we are a year-round PreK program) to get our classroom ready and working on being a more cohesive team with more planning and professional development. My co-teacher will also be our supervisor. Previously, all things went straight to our director. I am excited about all the changes and opportunities for our school. To make this work, we are no longer offering 5^th and 6^th grades. Our school will only go to 4^th grade and aligns with our local district. Elementary school is K-4^th; Middle school is 5^th-6^th; Junior High is 7^th-8^th; High school is 9^th-12^th. We follow NAEYC guidelines for teacher requirements and professional development. Our local community college provides an AA in early childhood. You can apply for scholarships to help with the cost through  First Things First Arizona and the Arizona Early Childhood Workforce Registry. Most of our assistants and co-teachers have gone through this program. We also attend area conferences to keep up with the latest news and research.

One of my goals was to continue my education so I could increase my opportunities within my school with the potential of moving on to new things. Currently, I am happy with my adventure in our newly added prekindergarten classroom next year. I will still have a few long days when it is my turn to help in the after school program instead of every day like I am doing right now. I also am one of the substitutes for all the classrooms that will not happen next year.  On the other hand, I will still be responsible for tutoring Kindergarten through 4^th-grade students with dyslexia using the Barton Reading and Spelling System. At least I will go to wearing many hats, to only wearing two!

As far as our profession as a whole, I hope to see prekindergarten available to all children. I also hope to see our profession unified under one system and following the same guidelines that are developmentally appropriate. I want play seen for what it is--the foundation for all learning. I want our pay to reflect the hard work we put into our profession. I want to see our profession as a whole to be respected by those who do not already respect what we do.

References

Arizona Early Childhood Workforce Registry (2018). Retrieved from: https://www.azregistry.org/index.cfm?module=login

Associates of Arts in Early Education (2018). Retrieved from: http://catalog.yc.edu/preview_program.php?catoid=12&poid=2535&returnto=1050

Barton Reading and Spelling System (2016). Retrieved from: http://bartonreading.com/

Irish, Lisa (2018). Governor proposes a 9% teacher pay raise this year, building to a total of 20% by school year 2020 (+ videos). AZEdNews. Retrieved from: https://azednews.com/governor-proposes-a-9-teacher-pay-raise-this-year-building-to-a-total-of-20-by-school-year-2020/

Thomas, Joe (2018). Teachers won’t fall for governor’s claim of ‘new money’ (Opinion). Arizona Capital Times. Retrieved from:

               https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2018/01/18/teachers-wont-fall-for-governors-claim-of-new-money/