Know

Throughout this module, you have learned about the importance of professionalism. Working with children, youth, and their families is an important endeavor. It means that you will have young, impressionable minds watching, listening, and learning from you. It means that you will interact with family members who will be your partners throughout this process. And it means that you will work with colleagues to provide high-quality care for children and families in your care. While doing all of the above, you must be acting as a role model at all times. Being a positive and supportive role model will strengthen your work and will positively affect the lives of children and families you interact with.

The field of child care has grown tremendously over the past several years, and there is always new information and research on the significant roles adults can play in children's development. You can truly make a difference. The more skilled, committed, and knowledgeable you become, the more effective, meaningful, and long-lasting your influence will be on children's and families' lives. As a direct-care staff member, you want your practice to be continuously improving, striving to be the best that it can be for children and families. You should look forward to going to work and creating positive, caring environments for children and families in your care. You should also work with your trainers or coaches to continue to learn and grow professionally. Your high standards and expectations for professional behavior will positively affect the quality of care you provide, as well as the quality of relationships of those around you, as well as the quality of relationships of those around you. 

Always Keep On Learning

Throughout this course, you have read about the process and the path of becoming professional as well as the attributes, skills, and knowledge you need to pursue. No matter how experienced you are and how much you know, it is important to continue to pursue education and training to learn more about your field and to further grow as a professional. This is true for a number of reasons (Koralek, Dodge, & Pizzolongo, 2013):

You care about children and their families.

To be a successful staff member, you need to care about children and families you work with. This means that you want to improve you knowledge and skills, update what you know, and strive for practices that will positively impact development and outcomes for all children and families. Think about working with children and youth with special learning needs, for example. Because you care about what you do, you will approach working with children with diverse abilities as an opportunity to meaningfully engage them in experiences, and you may invite their families in your classroom or program to share their knowledge about how to best work with their children or youth. Ultimately, you want to provide best practices and your love for what you do drives you to be the best in doing that.

Continuous learning allows you to recognize, evaluate, and improve your existing practices.

Self-awareness enables you to acknowledge strengths, talents, skills, and accomplishments, and at the same time it helps you recognize and identify competencies or skills you need to improve. Knowing who you are as a person and as a professional is empowering, as it enables you to engage in self-improvement and growth. You can do this by talking with colleagues and arranging to observe each other to learn more and improve each other's practice. Or you can review materials and resources that keep you updated with new ideas and research in your area of expertise. You should also participate in professional organizations and training events and opportunities.

You want to grow professionally.

Being committed to ongoing learning can improve your knowledge, skills, and performance. This learning will help you gain new skills and hone existing skills, and this may come with increased confidence, more responsibility, and even a promotion.

There is always new information to be learned!

The Indian mystic Ramakrishna said "As long as I live, so long do I learn", and the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates said "True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing."

All professionals need to keep up with new information, knowledge, and research in their fields. As a responsible and committed professional, you have an obligation to keep up with new information and use that in your practice with children and families.

Experiences and Resources for Professional Growth

There are many excellent resources on professionalism. Educator Fran Simon (2015) provides a list of suggestions:

• Be open to what is possible, not held back by what you think is impossible.
• Join professional associations, attend conferences, volunteer.
• Be curious and ask questions.
• Value and work to establish and maintain relationships in your daily practice.
• Make time to learn, connect, and network.
• Be authentic and open with the people you meet along the way, even if you do not share their viewpoints.
• Participate in live and virtual professional learning networks.
• Share your ideas with colleagues, trainers, and managers.
• Engage in formal professional, career, and leadership development.
• Find a mentor! Everybody needs inspirational people in their lives.
• Build a library on leadership and related topics.
• Subscribe to email and print newsletters and professional journals from a variety of sources.

Considering your Own Wellness

Self-awareness is very important for your own professional growth and learning. Educators Donna Wittmer and Sandy Petersen highlight that, "Knowing ourselves involves exploring our strengths and vulnerabilities. We need to wonder about, and try to understand the meaning of, our reactions, our frustrations, and the parts of our job that bring us joy. This exploration can sometimes be difficult or uncomfortable" (2013, p. 409). Another way to think about this is the "care" that is behind the "caregiving".

All of us can find ourselves struggling to make sense of situations and relationships involving children, youth, and families. As you likely learned in other courses, observation is one of our best strategies. Observation can help you get to know and understand a child or youth in your program better, which in turn can change your feelings.

Another strategy you can use is visualization. As a staff member, you are likely to encounter children, families, and fellow staff members from a variety of backgrounds. It is important for you to understand the complexity of culture's influence on identity and equally important to understand individual differences. For example, a family member who has had a lifetime of encouragement, praise, and support, may have a very different parenting style or needs from a family member who has experienced extensive criticism, doubt, and isolation. See yourself interacting positively with a child or family in your program. If the child is displaying behaviors that seem to disrupt your teaching approach, try seeing this child without those behaviors and you responding in a caring way. If the family has views that are different from your own views (e.g., when it comes to eating independently or providing assistance with tasks), try to understand the family's point of view and respond in a respectful and caring way. As a staff member, you will need to be able to provide children, youth, and their families with culturally and developmentally sensitive care and help them be successful.

Self-care is a very active and powerful choice to engage in the activities that are required to gain or maintain an optimal level of overall health. This includes not just the physical, but the psychological, emotional, social, and spiritual components of an individual's well-being. In your role as a direct-care staff member, you can create an environment that supports children's development. Your own self-care practices can be a starting place to demonstrate the importance of self-care. Learning to use self-care practices is an indication of developing a strong self-concept, and staff members who are aware of self-care practices can act as positive role models for children, families, as well as fellow staff members.

Many of us are accustomed to saying "yes" to everything that is asked of us for fear of appearing weak or uncooperative. Learning how to say "no" is a good skill to cultivate, and it shows you know your limits and are able to put your needs first, which will make you a better colleague and team member. It is also important that you learn to let go of stress. Here are a few tips:

• Consider keeping a journal. It can be therapeutic to write the day's events and your perspectives on paper. You might also consider keeping a gratitude journal to help you be mindful about the positive aspects of your life.
• Make connections. Reach out to friends, family, and acquaintances. Go out for lunch or for a cup of coffee with a friend. Speak to the person in front of you in line at the grocery store. These small moments can help you feel connected and supported.
• Even a little regular exercise can help you feel better, sleep better, and cope better with life's daily stressors. Healthful eating can make a difference, too.
• Remember to breathe. As we get stressed out, we tend to breath shallower. By taking a moment to take a few deep breaths, we are taking time for ourselves and lowering our stress levels.

See

Do

According to child-care expert Jeff Johnson (2010), your attitude can help you make changes in your life and your program. Johnson has six suggestions:

• Positive outlook: Thinking positively about situations and people can help you bring about beneficial outcomes. Your personal outlook on life plays a critical role in your level of self-care.
• Self-awareness: Knowing who you are includes being aware of your feelings, your emotions, your thoughts, and your relationships. Start by taking an inventory of your strengths and weaknesses. Examine your life, past and present. Notice how far you've come and the skills you possess that got you to this point.
• Healthy selfishness: It's important to recognize your own needs as valid and do what is necessary to meet them.
• Relinquish control: Allowing yourself to relax and see things as gray instead of black and white can allow you to see more options and opportunities.
• Playful attitude: Changing your mindset requires playfulness, curiosity, and excitement. Try exploring life through the eyes of a child and see how different things seem.
• Thoughtful choices: As life gets busy, slow down and make sure you are making thoughtful choices. Reconcile with yourself that you may never master a task perfectly and sometimes it is going to have to be good enough.