Saturday, August 30, 2008
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Observation in Early Childhood
As an early childhood educator I am used to observing children. I always like to write anecdotal recordings. In there, I write what the particular child did and say and how he interacted with his peers. Now you want me to write my observations in only a few sentences, at least in two to three sentences. How can I do that, tell me? Your words and actions then and now just prove how "raw" you are. Sorry dearie, but I cannot for the life of me follow what you want.
Here are some information to enlighten you up. This information is not my own words. They are professional information taken from ECRP Early Childhood Research and Practice titled Wondering with Children: The Importance of Observation in Early Childhood as written by George Foreman & Ellen Hall.
Introduction
Children are sometimes spontaneous, sometimes reserved; joyful now, sad later; friendly and reserved; competent and naïve; talkative and quiet. To be childlike is to experience an almost unpredictable array of discoveries, emotions, and levels of energy. Children are unique and complex and thus often difficult to comprehend. And they do not readily engage us in dialogue in order to explain the reasons for their caprice as they explore the world that surrounds them. Yet, as teachers, it is important for us to know our children deeply, to flow with their currents, and to extend their nascent theories about how the world works.
Given the delightful yet often enigmatic characteristics of young children, we learned decades ago that in order to comprehend children we must begin by observing them as they play. But what do we see as we observe, and how do we use our observations to enhance our effectiveness as teachers?
Five Reasons to Observe Children
Here are some of the reasons that teachers offer when asked about the value of watching and listening to children:
If I watch the children play, I can discover their interests.
By observing children, I can assess their developmental levels.
I look to see what strategies children use to attain their goals.
Observing children helps me know what skills the children need to practice.
When I observe children at play, I learn a lot about their personalities.
We want to use these reasons again, so we will provide an example that illustrates the general meaning of each:
Interests—He loves to play with trucks.
Developmental level—She throws the ball either very hard or not at all, but she does not vary the throw along a continuum of very hard, hard, and soft.
Strategies—She tries to influence her friend’s actions by controlling all of the crayons.
Skills—She has trouble stringing beads onto a knotted shoestring.
Personality—She is reserved and does not like to take risks.
In essence, we can learn at least five attributes of our children when we observe them closely:
Their interests and preferences
Their levels of cognitive and social development
Their strategies for creating desired effects
Their skills and accomplishments
Their personalities and temperaments
Each of the preceding objectives for observing is relevant if we desire to learn about children and thus improve the quality of our teaching. But we think that one of these objectives is best suited for gathering information in order to engage in high-level conversations with young children about their theories and attitudes, conversations that can support and extend their learning in both depth and breadth.
If we truly want to have high-level conversations with children about their beliefs, expectations, and assumptions about how something works or why something occurs, what do we need to know about the children? Quite simply, we need to know their beliefs, assumptions, and expectations so that we might enter the conversation with a paraphrase or counterpoint:
Knowing children’s interests might help us prepare the environment, but it does not help us have better conversations.
Knowing children’s skills might help us think about games to play that might encourage them to practice their skills, but it does not help us have better conversations.
Knowing children’s developmental level might help us predict what questions the children can answer, but it does not help us enter into a meaningful conversation with the children.
Knowing something about a child’s personality might help us be sensitive about our tone of voice or help us know what topics to avoid, but it does not help us have better conversations.
In order to have a meaningful conversation with a child, we need to know what the child thinks can be done in real situations (possible goals), and we need to know the procedures that the child believes will make things happen (possible strategies). If we have watched and listened long enough to determine the child’s goals and his strategies for attaining those goals, then we have both a resource for understanding the child and an interesting basis for a high-level conversation.
We might say, “It seems like you think the ball will roll faster if you make the incline steeper.” Or we might say, “Do you think you will have more friends if you have crayons?” But then in revisiting an experience with a child, putting that experience into words, we need to go beyond the observed strategies and consider the theories that make those strategies reasonable.
Considering children’s theories requires more than a careful transcription of what they say and do. We have to dig. We have to abstract the meaning of elliptical sentences, aborted movements, or a confusing explanation, request, or description. Children are competent learners, but as teachers, we have to slow down, carefully observe, and study our documented observations in order to understand the ideas that they are attempting to convey. In addition to slowing down, observing, and studying children’s actions and narration, understanding children’s theories requires a general knowledge of child development and a willingness to speculate.
Now tell me, how to write an observation in two to three sentences?
Here are some information to enlighten you up. This information is not my own words. They are professional information taken from ECRP Early Childhood Research and Practice titled Wondering with Children: The Importance of Observation in Early Childhood as written by George Foreman & Ellen Hall.
Introduction
Children are sometimes spontaneous, sometimes reserved; joyful now, sad later; friendly and reserved; competent and naïve; talkative and quiet. To be childlike is to experience an almost unpredictable array of discoveries, emotions, and levels of energy. Children are unique and complex and thus often difficult to comprehend. And they do not readily engage us in dialogue in order to explain the reasons for their caprice as they explore the world that surrounds them. Yet, as teachers, it is important for us to know our children deeply, to flow with their currents, and to extend their nascent theories about how the world works.
Given the delightful yet often enigmatic characteristics of young children, we learned decades ago that in order to comprehend children we must begin by observing them as they play. But what do we see as we observe, and how do we use our observations to enhance our effectiveness as teachers?
Five Reasons to Observe Children
Here are some of the reasons that teachers offer when asked about the value of watching and listening to children:
If I watch the children play, I can discover their interests.
By observing children, I can assess their developmental levels.
I look to see what strategies children use to attain their goals.
Observing children helps me know what skills the children need to practice.
When I observe children at play, I learn a lot about their personalities.
We want to use these reasons again, so we will provide an example that illustrates the general meaning of each:
Interests—He loves to play with trucks.
Developmental level—She throws the ball either very hard or not at all, but she does not vary the throw along a continuum of very hard, hard, and soft.
Strategies—She tries to influence her friend’s actions by controlling all of the crayons.
Skills—She has trouble stringing beads onto a knotted shoestring.
Personality—She is reserved and does not like to take risks.
In essence, we can learn at least five attributes of our children when we observe them closely:
Their interests and preferences
Their levels of cognitive and social development
Their strategies for creating desired effects
Their skills and accomplishments
Their personalities and temperaments
Each of the preceding objectives for observing is relevant if we desire to learn about children and thus improve the quality of our teaching. But we think that one of these objectives is best suited for gathering information in order to engage in high-level conversations with young children about their theories and attitudes, conversations that can support and extend their learning in both depth and breadth.
If we truly want to have high-level conversations with children about their beliefs, expectations, and assumptions about how something works or why something occurs, what do we need to know about the children? Quite simply, we need to know their beliefs, assumptions, and expectations so that we might enter the conversation with a paraphrase or counterpoint:
Knowing children’s interests might help us prepare the environment, but it does not help us have better conversations.
Knowing children’s skills might help us think about games to play that might encourage them to practice their skills, but it does not help us have better conversations.
Knowing children’s developmental level might help us predict what questions the children can answer, but it does not help us enter into a meaningful conversation with the children.
Knowing something about a child’s personality might help us be sensitive about our tone of voice or help us know what topics to avoid, but it does not help us have better conversations.
In order to have a meaningful conversation with a child, we need to know what the child thinks can be done in real situations (possible goals), and we need to know the procedures that the child believes will make things happen (possible strategies). If we have watched and listened long enough to determine the child’s goals and his strategies for attaining those goals, then we have both a resource for understanding the child and an interesting basis for a high-level conversation.
We might say, “It seems like you think the ball will roll faster if you make the incline steeper.” Or we might say, “Do you think you will have more friends if you have crayons?” But then in revisiting an experience with a child, putting that experience into words, we need to go beyond the observed strategies and consider the theories that make those strategies reasonable.
Considering children’s theories requires more than a careful transcription of what they say and do. We have to dig. We have to abstract the meaning of elliptical sentences, aborted movements, or a confusing explanation, request, or description. Children are competent learners, but as teachers, we have to slow down, carefully observe, and study our documented observations in order to understand the ideas that they are attempting to convey. In addition to slowing down, observing, and studying children’s actions and narration, understanding children’s theories requires a general knowledge of child development and a willingness to speculate.
Now tell me, how to write an observation in two to three sentences?
Saturday, August 09, 2008
43rd Birthday!!
We had a long and unique celebration of Singapore's birthday this year. We started from my classroom by hanging banners decorated by my children on the last week of July. Then ,we had a dinner on 3rd August with combined performances from Woodgrove Primary, Woodgrove Secondary and Innova Junior College. After that, we had our own centre's celebration and party yesterday. This morning, we had our observance day ceremony at Innova JC. Of course it will not end there. We will still watch on TV the National Day Celebration.Happy 43rd Birthday Singapore!!!
Monday, July 21, 2008
Racial Harmony Day
Chinese Costume
Malay Costume
Indian Costume
Filipino Costume
Korean CostumeWe celebrated Racial Harmony this morning. The children were asked to wear their own ethnic costume or the traditional costume of other races. My own children wore the costumes as you can see above. Nice and adorable children and I love them all!!
I'll post more photos next time.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Difficult People
My husband sleeps early around nine o'clock to nine thirty everyday. When he's already sleeping and the next day will be a no working day, I usually visit other blogs and or post my own entries. Just now,I posted an entry about a meal I cooked ( www.angsaraptalaga.blogspot.com). I also visited blogs. One post I took notice was about the topic of difficult people. There was a question why God gave us difficult people to be with. So I asked myself that question too.
When I was younger, I thought that dealing with difficult people would be a challenge. That was why when I came face to face with real difficult people, I took that as a challenge. I gave myself only a few years, the most two to three to tame them. The first year was really challenging as I tried to revise on the different Personality Theories I learnt in the course of my degree studies. The second year was more on experimentation on why and how those people behave in such a way. The third year was frustrating as I became disoriented on why I could not pin point the rationale of their psychotic behavioural manifestations. The next year, I stopped counting but I continued praying to God to please enlighten them. As I stopped counting, I did not noticed that many years had passed by and I was getting older. When I woke up one morning, I heard a voice as if telling me:" you wasted your years waiting for them to change, did I not tell you that you should avoid loud people in the first place? " Yes, it took me years to realized that most difficult people will never ever change.
Back to the question, why did God allowed difficult people in my life? I don't know if it was fate, but all I can say is that those years with those difficult people made me a better person, mother and wife. Though it made me shaken and disoriented most of the times, I am proud to say that I survived. Yes, I am a survivor. For the strength of mind and spirit I acquired in the process. I thank God. Without God's help, surely I can imagine myself in that cold cruel basement.
So for those difficult people, always remember there will always come a day that your victims will wake up. Got it?
When I was younger, I thought that dealing with difficult people would be a challenge. That was why when I came face to face with real difficult people, I took that as a challenge. I gave myself only a few years, the most two to three to tame them. The first year was really challenging as I tried to revise on the different Personality Theories I learnt in the course of my degree studies. The second year was more on experimentation on why and how those people behave in such a way. The third year was frustrating as I became disoriented on why I could not pin point the rationale of their psychotic behavioural manifestations. The next year, I stopped counting but I continued praying to God to please enlighten them. As I stopped counting, I did not noticed that many years had passed by and I was getting older. When I woke up one morning, I heard a voice as if telling me:" you wasted your years waiting for them to change, did I not tell you that you should avoid loud people in the first place? " Yes, it took me years to realized that most difficult people will never ever change.
Back to the question, why did God allowed difficult people in my life? I don't know if it was fate, but all I can say is that those years with those difficult people made me a better person, mother and wife. Though it made me shaken and disoriented most of the times, I am proud to say that I survived. Yes, I am a survivor. For the strength of mind and spirit I acquired in the process. I thank God. Without God's help, surely I can imagine myself in that cold cruel basement.
So for those difficult people, always remember there will always come a day that your victims will wake up. Got it?
Monday, June 16, 2008
Information on Stroke
picture courtesy of Google ImagesSince my husband suffered this cerebrovascular accident or stroke for short, my family learnt a lot about this disease and we learnt to be more health conscious. We are now eating healthy foods, more fruits and vegetables and mostly we buy food items with the Healthier Choice label by the Health Promotion Board.
Here are some information about stroke and stroke prevention courtesy of National Healthcare Group.
Stroke occurs because part of the brain is damaged by lack of blood supply. The lack of blood supply to the brain may be due to blockage or bursting of a brain blood vessel called an artery. The lack of blood supply leads to the symptoms of stroke. About 10% of stroke victims die from stroke. Many of thosee who survive are left severely disabled by the stroke.
Risk Factors:
1. 40 years old and above- but even younger people can get a stroke.
2. Male
3. High blood pressure
4.Smoking
5. High cholesterol
6. Diabetes mellitus
7. Irregular heartbeat (atrial fibrillation)
8. previous stroke or TIA (mini stroke)
9. Excessive alcohol use.
My husband is not smoking, not drinking alcohol, exercises every day, and not diabetic, how come he became a stroke victim? From what I gathered from hospital information and the doctors themselves, stroke is hereditary and is the greatest factor.
As highlighted in www.americanheart.org , here are the risk factors for stroke that can't be changed.
Age - The chance of having a stroke more than doubles for each decade of life after age 55. While stroke is common among the elderly, a lot of people under 65 also have strokes.
Heredity (family history) and race - Your stroke risk is greater if a parent, grandparent, sister or brother has had a stroke. African Americans have a much higher risk of death from a stroke than Caucasians do. This is partly because blacks have higher risks of high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.
Sex (gender) - Stroke is more common in men than in women. In most age groups, more men than women will have a stroke in a given year. However, more than half of total stroke deaths occur in women. At all ages, more women than men die of stroke. Use of birth control pills and pregnancy pose special stroke risks for women.
Age - The chance of having a stroke more than doubles for each decade of life after age 55. While stroke is common among the elderly, a lot of people under 65 also have strokes.
Heredity (family history) and race - Your stroke risk is greater if a parent, grandparent, sister or brother has had a stroke. African Americans have a much higher risk of death from a stroke than Caucasians do. This is partly because blacks have higher risks of high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.
Sex (gender) - Stroke is more common in men than in women. In most age groups, more men than women will have a stroke in a given year. However, more than half of total stroke deaths occur in women. At all ages, more women than men die of stroke. Use of birth control pills and pregnancy pose special stroke risks for women.
So if you have a family history of stroke, you need to be more conscious and well informed. I think, it is a responsibility of a family member who survived stroke to communicate and inform their children and siblings their own experience, like what they felt with this disease so as their loved ones can also prepare and reduce stroke risk.
Symptoms of stroke:
1. Weakness or numbness of one side of the body.
2. Slurred speech, difficulty in speaking.
3. Loss of vision, double vision
4. Unsteadiness in walking, uncoordinated movements
5.Giddiness together with one of the above symptoms
6. The worst headache in your life.
7. Loss of consciousness, coma.
Stroke prevention:
1. Early detection and treatment of high blood pressure.
2. Not smoking.
3. Early detection and treatment of high cholesterol.
4. Early detection and treatment of diabetes mellitus
5. Early detection and treatment of atrial fibrillation
6. Taking prrescribed medication for previous stroke/TIA
7. Limited alcohol intake
8. Adopting a healthy lifestyle.
My husband is taking his medication religiously. Aside from having his physiotherapy and doing his daily exercises, he also eat healthy foods now. I cook food that is less in sodium and less oil for him.
Some of the dishes I cooked for him are here http://www.angsaraptalaga.blogspot.com/.
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Follow Your Dreams
Above are photos of my husband before he had his left thalamic bleed. And whenever I look at him now, I feel a little bit sad. Sad that he is not that healthy now. There are so many "ifs " that are flashing in our mind which we should have done to prevent that stroke. You see, stroke is hereditary. As the doctor said, it is bound to happen but can be prevented. "If only if."What console us now is that my husband is stronger in spirit now. He always recite his affirmations to himself which helped him realized how great a person he is. Here are some of his affirmation (taken from a book I let him read):
1. I am relaxed, trusting in God's plan that is unfolding for me.
2. I have a positively thinking mind and a perfect body.
3. I let go anything I have ever held against myself and see it dissove into the highest light.
4. I give myself permission to live, laugh & love to my fullest capacity.
5. Divine love now dissolves & dissipates every negative condition in my mind, body & circumstances.
6. My sense of worth cannot be measured by comparison with others.
Me and my daughters are very hopeful that my husband will recover fully. And this day, we want him to know that he is well loved. Happy Father's Day! We love you!!
This is for you.
Follow Your Dreams
Follow your dreams
wherever they lead,
don't be distracted by
less worthy needs....
Shelter them, nourish them,
help them to grow,
let your heart hold them
down deep where dreams go.
Be faithful, be loyal,
then all your life through,
the dreams that you follow
will keep coming true.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
My Pride and Joy
Since morning I was thinking of a way how to place all the photos my daughter sent me last month on my computer. My scanner has retired already. Then I remember my digital camera, my Canon IXUS 850 15. I decided to take a shot of each of the photos. You know what happened? The photos looked as if I took their pictures myself. Who would imagine I just aimed my shot on the paper and not on them posing in front of me? Thanks to my digital camera.
Now look at them, my pride and joy.
Now look at them, my pride and joy.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
My Thoughts
Hmm, I am now sitting in front of my home computer and decided to visit this blog site of mine. I decided I better write an entry now, while I am not that occupied yet. Well, I am on my fourth day of school holiday. And on the 23rd of this month, classes will resume again. Therefore, this is the right time for me to write my thoughts, those thoughts that are swaying and dancing in my mind.
1. When my husband suffered a brain attack or stroke for short in December 2007, I almost decided to resign from my teaching job so I could concentrate on my husband. In the end I continued teaching and find an alternative care for him. Now that he is already “well”, I am thankful that I made the right decision. I know in my heart that my pre-school children helped me a lot in coping with my situation. They made me happy, confident and loved even though I felt so lost, scared and confused then.
2. I heard a lot about anti-depressant pills like Prozac. Of course, I have nothing against these pills as long as they are prescribed correctly to the right people who need them. Though there are many articles stating new ideas or research which claims that millions of prescriptions for anti-depressants may be having no medical effect at all on the people taking them, I still cling to that idea that it can cure acute depression. But how to know if a person is suffering from depression? Just because a person is manifesting one or two of the symptoms, the doctor can assessed in one sitting that the patient is depressed? With that, I beg to disagree. Correct me if I am wrong, but I learnt in my Clinical Psychology that a person has to go for a battery of tests before he can be diagnose as suffering from depression. Though I believe that pills can help a lot in curing depression, psychotherapy should not be forgotten also. Why I am saying all these? Because my husband’s rehab doctor prescribed 20 mg of Prozac to be administered for a month without my knowledge. Oh, I was not there when he went for his outpatient appointment. But people could not understand why I was so ANGRY and decided not to give those pills to my husband. Why” marunong pa raw ako sa doctor…”? Well, I am “marunong pa sa doctor” for these reasons:a) the doctor concerned should treat my husband’s post stroke problems and not his well being, he is not a psychiatrist by the way, b) I have my right to refuse prescriptions which I think is not appropriate for him, c) I know my husband’s personality and state of mind. I’ve known him for years compared to this doctor who have known him for only a few months, d) I just don’t believe that my husband is depressed, PERIOD. NOW I am thankful that I never let my husband took a single of those pills. I let him read books on relaxation. I let him do relaxation exercises/techniques too.
3. My husband is back to work already. It has been a month since he went back to work. Though he still got difficulty with walking and he has problems with his posture and balance, I can see that he is progressing day by day. I bought the thread mill and exercise bike for him. He still is undergoing physiotherapy and massotherapy every weekend. I am doing my best to help him recover fully. Though, I need to be patient. But I am sure one day he will his own self again.
4. I will always feel the pain those people had inflicted on me and my daughters. Though I may have forgiven them, I will surely not forget. So please, I have closed the book already. Don’t ever come back to our lives again. We don’t need you.
5. I want to say that we still enjoy TFC here in Singapore. We all like LOBO very much. We like Angel Locsin. She can really act.
Oh, this is getting longer. I better write TO BE CONTINUED….
1. When my husband suffered a brain attack or stroke for short in December 2007, I almost decided to resign from my teaching job so I could concentrate on my husband. In the end I continued teaching and find an alternative care for him. Now that he is already “well”, I am thankful that I made the right decision. I know in my heart that my pre-school children helped me a lot in coping with my situation. They made me happy, confident and loved even though I felt so lost, scared and confused then.
2. I heard a lot about anti-depressant pills like Prozac. Of course, I have nothing against these pills as long as they are prescribed correctly to the right people who need them. Though there are many articles stating new ideas or research which claims that millions of prescriptions for anti-depressants may be having no medical effect at all on the people taking them, I still cling to that idea that it can cure acute depression. But how to know if a person is suffering from depression? Just because a person is manifesting one or two of the symptoms, the doctor can assessed in one sitting that the patient is depressed? With that, I beg to disagree. Correct me if I am wrong, but I learnt in my Clinical Psychology that a person has to go for a battery of tests before he can be diagnose as suffering from depression. Though I believe that pills can help a lot in curing depression, psychotherapy should not be forgotten also. Why I am saying all these? Because my husband’s rehab doctor prescribed 20 mg of Prozac to be administered for a month without my knowledge. Oh, I was not there when he went for his outpatient appointment. But people could not understand why I was so ANGRY and decided not to give those pills to my husband. Why” marunong pa raw ako sa doctor…”? Well, I am “marunong pa sa doctor” for these reasons:a) the doctor concerned should treat my husband’s post stroke problems and not his well being, he is not a psychiatrist by the way, b) I have my right to refuse prescriptions which I think is not appropriate for him, c) I know my husband’s personality and state of mind. I’ve known him for years compared to this doctor who have known him for only a few months, d) I just don’t believe that my husband is depressed, PERIOD. NOW I am thankful that I never let my husband took a single of those pills. I let him read books on relaxation. I let him do relaxation exercises/techniques too.
3. My husband is back to work already. It has been a month since he went back to work. Though he still got difficulty with walking and he has problems with his posture and balance, I can see that he is progressing day by day. I bought the thread mill and exercise bike for him. He still is undergoing physiotherapy and massotherapy every weekend. I am doing my best to help him recover fully. Though, I need to be patient. But I am sure one day he will his own self again.
4. I will always feel the pain those people had inflicted on me and my daughters. Though I may have forgiven them, I will surely not forget. So please, I have closed the book already. Don’t ever come back to our lives again. We don’t need you.
5. I want to say that we still enjoy TFC here in Singapore. We all like LOBO very much. We like Angel Locsin. She can really act.
Oh, this is getting longer. I better write TO BE CONTINUED….
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Busy...
I am busy with these kids. I find joy being a major part in their over- all development.
I am also busy with my husband. I feel happy and satisfied that he makes it a point to finish the food with less salt, less sugar and less oil I prepared/cooked especially for him.
And I am as busy as them. Photo 1: My 2008 pre school children. How nice to see them smile on camera.
Photo 2: My husband with me at Narita Airport. How nice to see him so healthy and fit.
Photo 3: My twin grandkids. How nice to see them at play.
Oh, I've really been soooo busy. Do I complain ? No, I never did. How come one person asked me to take a break? Wow! If she only knew that my being busy is a play for me. Yes dearie, I am busy but I am happy. Can you beat that?
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