week 3 discussion 1

Prior to beginning work on this discussion, review the NAEYC’s Code of Conduct and Statement of Commitment. (Links to an external site.)

You are quickly impressing your lead teacher and director. Your director sees such promise in you that she has asked you to help her prepare for an upcoming staff meeting. Although you are nervous, you are excited for the opportunity and you truly want to impress them!

The director has been made aware that a few policies are not being enforced or were not made clear. She wants you to help her tackle this issue in the upcoming faculty meeting. You have heard a few people complaining about these specific policies, so you are excited to tackle the project. You hope that your contribution to the faculty meeting can help get everyone on the same page.

As you dig into the policies, you begin to realize that some policies aren’t followed because some staff believe these policies do not benefit the children and do not wish to engage with them. You have an ethical responsibility to your colleagues, children, families, and community to advocate against policies that do not benefit the children, so you must carefully consider these policies before presenting at the staff meeting.

Policy #1: Instruction will not change from student to student. All students are to be treated like equals and instructions will not be modified under any circumstances. Often times in life accommodations aren’t made and we want to set our children up for success.

Policy #2: On water day, each kid must have a pair of water shoes that are rubber bottoms and purchased by the parents. If the child does not have them, they are not allowed to engage with water play and must remain in the classroom while their peers are outside.

Before you write your response, make sure to review Chapter 10 of the Gadzikowski (2013) text, in regards to advocacy and the NAEYC Code of Conduct and Statement of Commitment to be clear on your obligations as an early childhood professional. In your discussion, answer the following questions for both policies individually:

• Is this policy ethical? Why or why not?
• If it is ethical, how will you get all staff on the same page and begin to enforce the policy? Be specific and consider revising the policy slightly to get more staff “buy in.”
• If it is not ethical, how do you plan to be an advocate? Be specific with your step by step approach and address who you will contact and what your plan is to bring awareness.

Guided Response: Review your classmates’ posts and try to choose two students whose answers were different than yours. Assume the role of a staff member in the meeting and answer the following questions:

• As a staff member, do you agree with their recommendations? If not, why?
• What could have made their recommendations better or easier to support as a staff member?
• If there was an advocacy plan, do you think this approach would work? If you were in the meeting, would you support the initiativ
  

• week 3 discussion 2

rior to beginning work on this discussion, review the NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment (Links to an external site.).

As an early childhood educator, you will often run into situations that require the application of NAEYC Code of Ethical Conduct and Statement of Commitment. While this document is important, it can sometimes feel lengthy and hard to remember. Choose one the following methods to change this written statement into something more intriguing, interesting, and easier to comprehend:

• Rewrite the Code of Ethics as a pictogram and attach.
• Rewrite the Code of Ethics into a song or a poem and attach.
• Rewrite the Code of Ethics into a children’s book using Storyjumper (Links to an external site.) and attach.
• Rewrite the Code of Ethics into a poster for your classroom and attach.

For your discussion, attach your Code of Ethics revision and explain why you have selected this approach. If you have created a visual (such as a poster, book, or pictogram), explain in detail what your visual looks like and the word selections you used. If you created a song or poem, include the lyrics within your post.

Guided Response: Review your classmates’ posts and respond to at least two of them. Respond to the following points:

• One thing you liked about your classmate’s original response.
• One thing you would suggest changing.
• One question you have after reviewing your classmate’s response.
• Could you use this in your classroom? Why or why not?