1. You: Working with Young Children
Chapter 1
You: Working with Young Children

2. What is a Career Goal?
A career goal is the end product of a long-range occupational plan. It is a stage that can be reached by accomplishing objectives, or steps, organized to attain it.

3. Why Set a Career Goal? . 
Competition for jobs exists to a certain degree in any field. 
The career goal-setting process means examining yourself and performing research on occupations.  Going through this process helps you determine what your values, needs, interests, and aptitudes are at the present time.  This knowledge increases your self-confidence and provides energy for other activities.
People do not just "fall into" exciting, challenging careers.  The aimless wandering from job to job, trying out different occupations, in an attempt to "find yourself" can be expensive in time, effort, and money.  Even a person who continues to explore career interests after high school needs a basis for comparison--a "hook" on which to hang a search.
Competition for jobs exists to a certain degree in any field.  Employers are not impressed with applicants who have no idea what they want from life.  Having a career goal--even it it turns out to be temporary--shows a potential employer that you are serious about your work, that you can organize your priorities, and that you are a skilled decision-maker.

4. Compile a list of careers related to the development areas of the early childhood education industry.
Battered women’s shelters
Child care centers
Crisis nurseries
Nursery schools
YMCA
United Way
Prisons with in-house child visitation
Programs sponsored by religious organizations
Parks and recreation programs
Hospitals with sick bay child care services
Head start
Family education agencies
Elementary schools

5. Objectives
Explain how social and economic changes will increase the need for child care services.
Describe career opportunities in the early childhood field.
Describe the CDA Credential
List responsibilities of the early childhood teacher.
Explain how certain personal characteristics can help early childhood teachers care for and educate young children.

6. Vocabulary 1) early childhood 2) nanny 3) au pair
4)  licensing specialist – the role of this person is to protect and promote the health, safety, and welfare of children attending centers.
5)  entrepreneur – a person who creates and runs his or her own business. 
6)  Child Development Associate (CDA) Credential – those that have take n postsecondary courses in child care education and have demonstrated their ability to work with young children.  
7)   ethics – guiding set of moral principles

7. Explain how social and economic changes will increase the need for child care services
a.Changes in Families
b.Changes in Employers’ Attitudes
c. Changes in Education Attitudes
Have students discuss advantages of employer-sponsored child care.
Have students state reasons why a greater allocation of resources is going to early childhood.

8. Identify specialized target markets
Think about a career that interests you. Determine what suggestions may best prepare you to sample a career. Talk with your family, guidance counselor and teachers about your interests.

9. Education and Training Needed to Work with Young Children
High school courses
CDA Credential
Bachelor
Graduate degree

10. List rewards and drawbacks of working in the child care field
can be draining, emotionally and physically.
Exposed to many minor childhood illnesses. (eventually guild strong resistance)
Often requires long hours

11. List rewards and drawbacks of working in the child care field
Children make you feel needed and special
You can make a real difference in the lives of young children.
Helps you stay young
Working with children is seldom boring. Use many talents and skills.
A love of children

12. Describe qualities people need to be an early childhood professional
A appreciation of children
Energy
Sense of humor
Patience
Compassion
Flexibility
Creativity
Resourcefulness
Sociability
commitment

13. Assess your own suitability for a career in the child care field

14. List responsibilities of the early childhood teacher
Have class members work with partners to discuss their teaching strengths.
Have students discuss ways young children can raise their self-esteem
Have students define the following terms in their own words: compassionate, dependable, reliable, friendly, flexible, knowledgeable, and spontaneous.
Have each student write a one-page paper on why he or she wants to teach children.
Have students list some of their interests, feelings, and satisfactions. Students should then write a short evaluation of how their interests, feelings, and satisfactions relate to a desire to be an early childhood teacher.
Characteristics for Working with Children, Activity D, SAG, Have students use the form to rate themselves in terms of characteristics for working with young children. Then have a friend or family member rate them using a second form.

15. Explain how certain personal characteristics can help early childhood teachers care for and educate young children.
a.Fondness for Children
b.Patience
c. Compassion
d. Confidence
e. Sense of Humor
f.  Commitment
g. Personal Desire
h.Physical and Mental Health

16. The need for child care has become an increasingly more important issue because of
a.family mobility
b.greater numbers of dual-earner families
c.the increased divorce rate
d.all of the above D

17. Describe the CDA Credential

18. a.the decrease in the overall poverty rate
One of the reasons that early childhood education has come to the forefront of public awareness in recent years is
a.the decrease in the overall poverty rate
b.the ineffectiveness of early intervention programs that were intended to decrease poverty
c.advocacy by early childhood professionals
d.a stable divorce rate C