Time Well Spent

     This has been an amazing journey! The end of this journey opens the door for many other journeys ahead.  I have learned how to become a better writer, learning how to express my thoughts better.  The feedback from different instructors and colleagues has been so helpful and unforgettable.  I feel like I am for sure an emergent leader in the field of early childhood. I now have more of a international view of early childhood and recognize the importance of a global view.  One of my goals when starting this journey in the MS ECS program was to learn  how to become an effective advocate for children.  I now have the knowledge of how public policies are formed and how I can be a social change agent.
     One of my long term goals is to move towards affecting policies to advocate for people who teach young children to be educated, even down to the infants.  Some many times in the field of early learning it is found that the least educated of teachers are the ones that teach infants and toddlers.  The crazy thing about this is that this the time in life where children are learning the most.  As I have learned how children learn, it has become even more evident that young children need educated teacher as well.  The goal lines up with my goal of all children have the opportunity of quality early learning experiences as well as closing the learning gap.   My goal is to continue with my doctorate degree eventually, but I have to take a break for now to spend more time with my children and husband. Working full time and having a family has been a challenge, but we did it!
     There is still so much to do and though this part of the journey is ending, we shall continue.  I want to thank all my colleagues and instructor for your words of encouragement and feedback through this journey. It was so helpful, you just don't know.  I looked forward to reading your response.   I would love to continue this journey with you all and so here is my personal contact information.  gjonesdance@gmail.com and Gloria Jonesdodsondance on face book.  Look me up and I will be looking for you!  I am going to miss you all (with tears in my eyes), but I am so excited about moving on.
God Bless you all,

Gloria Jones-Dance