Thanks For All Of The Support!

I would like to give thanks to all of my classmates for all of the support, ideas, and suggestions that I may have received during this advocacy in action journey! I wish all of you the best of luck in any and all of your future endeavors and career paths that you may take on!! See you at GRADUATION!!!!

Enlisting and Providing Support

     As you many of you may know, my advocacy issue is teenage and young mothers. I teach so many children who have teenage or either very young mothers, my plan is to  present my advocacy action plan to the teenage parents at a parent meeting to provide them with the current issue which is teenage parents and all of the many concerns and or issues that accompany teenage parents. Some current issues are child abuse and neglect, lack of education or understanding of child development, which leads to the lack of parenting skills, and continuing their education, and the important role that family involvement plays in both their lives and their children. I would like to share some information and provide these mothers with resources, referrals, and emotional support to help resolve some of these issues. I am open to any suggestions, resources or ideas that any of my collogues have to offer to help my advocacy action plan be successful. Some resources that I have found to be helpful are; Options for Youth. (2010) Creating Options for Youth: Retrieved from http://options4youth.og , Mangino, J.G. (2008). Voices of teen mothers: Their challenges, support systems, and successes. Retrieved from http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ , and the Subsequently Pregnancy Program.

Personal Advocacy Journey

An inspirational quote regarding advocacy in the lives of families, children and teachers that I believe can uplift spirits when things are getting rough is the following:

 

"When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place."

~ Unknown                                                                                                                                                        
I believe that when you are fighting for what you believe in, at times a person can become weary and lose faith or focus, but when you remind yourself about the importance of your cause and how long you've been fighting, protesting, speaking, or educating others, you some how gain momentum to carry on. It inspires and excites me to help teen mothers, because I too was a young mother and I know their plight, I also know that having a baby young doesn't mean that it's the end of the road, but a beginning and another reason to make something out of ones life. At the present time I don't foresee any challenges, but I do have some anxieties, such as; hoping that my plan is interesting enough to get others involved and with the hopes that I can reach the teen parents, because there are some teen mothers who just don't see the big picture and I would hate to see them miss out on a prosperous life. I believe that to be most effective in overcoming any emotional challenges, I need to be honest, approachable, friendly, reasonable, understanding, and practical when working with teenage mothers, because I do believe that that want help and guidance; but, not from a person who looks down on them, and from a person who does all the talking and no listening. I will continue to encourage others in their advocacy journey, by providing them with reflective comments to their blog post, suggesting ideas, and opinions, as my colleagues can offer me the same inspiration. We are all in this journey together as educators, and we have to consistently offer our help to others!

Hello fellow classmates, we made it.. can't wait to begin blogging!