When I Reflect About My Collegial, Professional Learning Community

When I Reflect About My Collegial, Professional Learning Community

This has been a very insightful and informative course as I learned about early childhood systems and some of the bonds of a collaborative learning community. Although, it was a very small class I learned from each of my classmates and the instructor provided excellent feedback and resources so that I can continue to research and learn after the course ends. We shared personal and professional knowledge and experiences that each of us can take with us as this course comes to an end. I would welcome the opportunity to stay in touch with each of my colleagues as we continue to advocate for high quality care in early childhood education and beyond.

I enjoyed reading my colleagues blogs and was encouraged that they had so much to share about their professional experiences which was similar to mine although some of us worked in different early care systems. I learned more about Head Start and how it operates as well as how child care programs in other states operates. I hope they have learned from my experiences and knowledge as a former child care owner/director in the state of Georgia.

 The first consequence I experience as being a part of a caring, collaborative learning community is that all of my colleagues are early care professionals that are passionate about the early childhood field which is great for all the children, family and communities we work and live in.
 The second consequence is that I have gained new information and resources that I can utilize in my professional growth and development. These resources will be added to my list so that I can refer to them as needed.
 Third consequences are that all of my colleagues expressed their strong beliefs in advocating for changes in policies so that it will affect early childhood education in a positive way.

My goal from this collegial experience to enhance my system development work on behalf of young children, families and the early childhood community is to collaborate with this group of early care professionals to document some changes to recommend to policy makers as they make decisions on funding early childhood education. I believe that my colleagues are a unique group of professionals because we share some of the same ideas and our experiences are practical and hands on in classrooms or child care centers. I believe that the information and resources my colleagues shared will help me as I continue to work on behalf of the children and families in the early care community. I believe that I can realize this goal if we as a professional group of early care advocates keep in touch and keep voicing our opinions to the policy makers and politicians.