A quote that I found from the Family Preservation Advocate.com is: "Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." - William Faulkner
What inspires and excites me most about my advocacy plan and being an advocate is that this is something that will relate to my home daycare business. My advocacy plan is to get effective parental involvement, specifically, how to get the parents to work with their children at night on skills they have attempted during the day (partnering with their teacher), as well as showing the child that what their child does is validated and not just "busy work".
The challenges and anxiety I feel is that the teachers will not like my plan as they have had a resentment built up already against the parents. Hence, which is where I come in. I think a "seasoned" teacher will not be up to the challenge, mostly due to time, and rightly so. Anything with change entails time and when you are tired and have been challenged by your students all day, the last thing that you want to do is to create something out of your comfort zone.
I believe that if I just go ahead and plow in with my plan with the gusto and passion that I feel, I will have a positive reaction and outcome to my plan. As I have become educated with those I am addressing and getting on board with my plan, I will be more calm and less stressed with the whole plan, especially when I present it. So I guess that practice makes perfect and will help me with any challenging emotions I may be feeling with regard to presenting and implementing your Advocacy Action Plan.
I can encourage others in their advocacy efforts by telling them to not give up, to reach out to those they feel may help their plan or for feedback as well as helping me stay on track (or get on track) with my plan of parental involvement.
Resources: http://familypreservation.blogspot.com/p/inspirational-quotes.html
Vicky, I applaud your passion and commitment to your advocacy action plan and truly understand where your are coming from. I think many of the teachers at my intern site do not want to venture outside their comfort zone because of past failures, lack of interest, support and help by parents pertaining to their own children. It can be hard to put yourself out there when the parents do not want to get on board.
ReplyDeleteI think we have to plow in as you mentioned and show them what changes and benefits can be made when passion, gusto and commitment are put to work in order to make things better for their children. Sometimes the parents and other teachers need to see someone else actually putting the work in before they will put themselves out there and help. I also think it will help when they see that quitting is not an option when you are committed to helping children.
Encouraging others not to give up is something we all need to hear when time is limited, you lack help and support and feel like you are beating your head against a wall trying to get others especially parents to help you. It maybe helpful for us to exchange ideas to get teachers and parents on board our advocacy action plan.
I checking to see if my comment post because I have been having a hard time posting comments.
ReplyDeleteVickie,
ReplyDeleteYou are right, change is never easy but your attitude of plowing on with enthusiasim will get you where you need to go. There will always be those that resist because change is hard, especially for teachers that have been doing this for a while because they have always "done it this way" and see no reason to change. By working with them and showing them the positive outcomes of change will help you get your cause across. Many times teachers do not see the benfit of parent involvement, all they see is someone new in the room that affects the children's behaviors and reactions.
I also agree with Jacquelyn that encouragement is something everyone needs to here often. We all get caught up in too little time to get everything done and then when others do not listen or follow through we become very discouraged but need the support to not give up. Best of luck with your daycare and your advocacy.