Time Well Spent

For the past two years I have devoted my time to continuing my education. I have taken the time to look deeper inside myself to help educate young children. I have developed a greater appreciation for  the early childhood education field.

The most important thing that I have learned through this experience is how to find and dispel biases that I have. It is important to put my feelings aside in order to give the children and their families the best education possible. I have also learned that it takes many different people to help maintain quality education. There are so many different problems that families face all over the world and we can't tackle them all on our own. We have to come together as a community of educators to make sure that children are able to reach their highest potential. The final thing that I learned is that just being a teacher in the classroom isn't enough for me. During this process I have found so many different job opportunities that interest me. I use to think that I was making the biggest difference being the teacher in the classroom, but what I learned is that I want to do so much more. Now I know how to make those dreams a reality and take my education and goals to the next level to reach even more children.

My long term goal is reach as many children as possible. I want to continue my education so that I can go on to do more and take even higher job opportunities. I would love to open my own childcare center that is affordable for all families but offers an extremely high quality of education. I want it to be a center that values for education not only for students but also for the teachers. If I could open  more that one center, I would open as many as I can to make the biggest difference.

I would like to thank all of my colleagues and instructors that have helped my on my journey. Without your help I would not have been as successful as I am today. Your comments and questions have helped me broaden my thinking and imagine new possibilities. I wish you good luck on your journey after your masters program and wish you great success in reaching your goals.

Lauren Downer

lmdowner@live.com