Graduate school infographics on early childhood education

San Diego State University offers a Masters of Science in Child Development and a Graduate Certificate degree in early childhood socio-emotional and behavior regulation intervention. Check out the following infographics to learn more about these programs. 

The application period for Fall 2015 is open until March 2nd. 

For more information on our graduate and certificate programs, visit coe.sdsu.edu/cfd. Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for program and application updates. 

Amy Gregory on becoming a change agent in early childhood education

Amy Gregory is a current student in the EC-SEBRIS Graduate Certificate program at San Diego State University. She shared what she is learning about becoming a change agent in the lives of children and the field early childhood education. 

My experiences in the EC-SEBRIS program so far have been eye-opening, rewarding, and exciting. I never envisioned a graduate level program that could be so hands on, practical, and comprehensive. The EC-SEBRIS has encompassed all of these qualities for me so far!

I like that the information I am learning in my classes can be taken and directly applied to my work in the classroom. For example, thanks to my Ecobehavioral Assessment and Intervention class, I am able to pick out which assessment would be useful for each of my students. Then I can serve them better or get a better idea of their home life and family background.

Each class relates to one another in way that ties different areas of child development together that I had never considered before. Being able to analyze the teaching practices of others as well as your own in the reflective supervision class definitely makes you a change agent in recognizing best practices.

Presenting group research at the We Can't Wait conference

Taking a class dedicated exclusively to reflective supervision is great. It is an opportunity to review and share videotape interactions of my teaching practices with my 18-month old class.

My reflective supervision group is very helpful in giving me constructive criticism on how I could improve my teaching practices as well as helpful tips on how to deal with some of the challenging behaviors taking place in my classroom.

Seeing myself teaching on videotape really helps me identify what I do well and what I can improve on. It gives me the opportunity to review things that happen in my classroom that I may have missed in the moment. Being able to view videotapes of my fellow students' interactions with children in their worksites is helpful to me too. I make mental notes of positive ways to interact with children and creative activities to do. Seeing several different early childhood work sites gives me ideas of how to design classrooms that are effective.

Having a reflective supervision group is like having free help to support what you are trying to accomplish. Being a first year teacher myself, I have greatly appreciated this free help as my support system during a new life experience!

For one of my classes I worked on a group project about the effects of adverse childhood experiences relating to premature deaths. We completed research and created a professionally printed poster on our topic.

It was the first professional poster I have ever made and having my own work reflected in such a manner made me feel high up in the world. We had the opportunity to present our posters at the Early Childhood Mental Health We Can’t Wait Conference.

The opportunity to present at such a well renowned conference in the field made me feel like a real professional. Getting the opportunity to share my research with other professionals in the field, get their feedback, and in some cases teach them something new felt great. Seeing so many people in one place who all cared about the growing field of child development made me even more excited about my future career.

The EC-SEBRIS Graduate Certificate program is housed in the Department of Child and Family Development at San Diego State University. Certificate courses can be applied towards a Master of Science in Child Development.

The EC-SEBRIS program will accept applications for Fall 2015 admission until March 2, 2015. For more information on the EC-SEBRIS graduate certificate program, visit our website.

Master's Student Mashaael Alwashmi Explains Why SDSU Is First Choice

My name is Mashaael Alwashmi and I am from capital city Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I graduated from Princess Nora University, which has the largest female campus in the world. My undergraduate major was Home Economics that includes subjects about home, family, and children. I decided to join the (KASP) King Abdullah Scholarship Program that offers full funds for distinguished students because I graduated from PNU with honors.

I chose San Diego State University in particular for many reasons. First, my brother, uncle, and cousin were in San Diego seeking their education, and they highly recommended San Diego as a nice city for studying and for families. Second, SDSU was one of my first choices because they ranked high, especially the College of Education. Also, the Child and Family Development department has the most suitable master’s program that is an actual extension to my undergraduate major. In fact, the Ministry of Higher Education in Saudi Arabia added the program to their list for recommended and approved programs all over the world on: http://ru.mohe.gov.sa/default.aspx

I started planning to apply when I was in the American Language Institute (ALI) at SDSU by learning about the application requirements and completing them one by one. During the language-learning period I was able to earn an English level sufficiency certificate, qualify my undergraduate degree certificate, take the GRE exam, and write the required essays. After sending the required documents, I was extremely happy to hear from the department as per the scheduled timeline they had provided telling me that I was accepted in the Fall 2013.

I have loved the program so much. During the first semester, I had the pleasure of working with many people with different backgrounds. I especially loved the courses CFD 634, CFD 660, CFD 590 as well as ED 690. Additionally, the program was flexible to the extent that I was able to take some undergraduate classes that I really enjoyed and learned from. This gave me a whole new perspective in this filed and made me interested more and more about children's problems and developmental challenges. I look forward to the courses I will take this year that will assist me in writing my thesis on children’s school readiness in Saudi Arabia. I cannot wait to apply the knowledge I have gained from this master’s program in my country.

My goal is to enhance the invaluable experience of working with children during my studying in SDSU. I want to work with the SDSU Children’s Center and learn the successful ways that they follow, and apply them to my future children’s center in Saudi Arabia. Also. I will back to work at PNU as a lecturer, so I get the opportunity to transfer the great information and knowledge from the CFD master’s program to the Early Childhood Department at PNU.