Could “they” have “you”?

 

The Canvas of Society by Joey Velasco in is just within our realms — a painter’s transformative journey through the children’s afflictions, desires, and deliverance from their circumstance that can reach across generations and cultures.

The likes of Nene, Itok,  Imong, Onse, Buknoy, Michael, Joyce, Tinay, Dudoy, Jun at Roselle & Sudan — 12 characters whose cries no one hears, whose scars are already in their being, whose eyes pierce through, whose minds are innocent yet vulnerable to get tempted by the needs unmet, whose character is subject to ridicule … have you ever asked yourself what you can do for them?

“baka may magawa ka pa!” 

The likes of them who have the ardent hope that “They have Jesus” — could be there just within the four corners of the classroom.  How could you give life to them? How could you reach out to that one soul who still wants to be complete despite being shattered? — that every single soul, longing for one who could listen and understand, who could give guidance and counsel?

What is your commitment then — to them, who are expecting to be noticed while you actually gaze at them in those corners of your eyes?

How could you help calm the storms that others have been through?  What could you do to help others’ life not to be wasted?

How much of yourself could you offer to address the needs of those eyes who need not speak?

How much of your time could you share to embrace the situation of those hearts which cannot feel that they are worthy of another’s love and attention?

I know you could be one’s source of hope. This may be the time that while you are challenged to scrutinize your students’ stories to be of significant help, you may as well WORK ON YOUR OWN STORY! For at the bottom of the line, you can never really share what you don’t have.

Let your story be that one which brings inspiration to other’s hopelessness. What you have at hand might just be those five loaves and two fishes — too little as it may seem, but as long as you give God your “Amen”, no amount of yourself will ever be too small. #sunset

 

 

Early Childhood Education — A Moral Issue?

Some business leaders in an International report contended that “Investing in Early Childhood Education is one of the wisest things we can make!”  

Considering the fact that “Children from 0 to 5 can’t fight for themselves to get a better start at life,” they say that this is not just an economic issue, but the moral justice issue of our time.

To align with the promotion of Universal Kindergarten, the Philippine Educational System instigated the Early Childhood Care and Development (ECCD) program. Supported by UNICEF, such program intends to deliver the best start for all children and to contribute to the Global platform for Primary Education. Collaborations have been in occurrence with government & private associates to promote a holistic approach to early learning and to bring in, series of actions for each child’s progress. Parental Involvement is also enhanced, in coordination with educational advocates, so as to appropriately aid the children in their first five years’ crucial development.

However, despite the investment of time, treasure and effort towards the emerging Four Themes in Early Childhood Education, it turns out that we are still facing major issues that need to be addressed amidst pressing times in terms of: [1] the ethic of social reform, [2] the importance of childhood, [3] transmitting values and [4] a sense of professionalism.

On [1] Ethic of social reform, we are currently experiencing inequities & mediocre child care. There is still the deep need for social justice since the goal of closing the achievement gap between disadvantaged and minority pupils have not been realized as of yet.

On [2] The Importance of childhood, sad to say, children of today have no choice but endure “an endangered childhood” because there is so much emphasis on survival, while kids are chaotically exposed to reality and adult experiences. Families, where they belong are under different forms of stress such as restoration of relationships, too busy working parents who rarely have quality time with them, parents who are working their way to the edge just to fight poverty, and the likes.

On [3] Transmitting values, adults as we are: parents and stakeholders, we more often than not forget that “Early learning is powerful!” In a majority of instances, we are caught unaware by our own reactions and viewpoints along with the confronts of media’s exposure of violence, tragedy & social diversity – with which, children are subconsciously developing some kind of behavior, if not deep scar or trauma, especially if we’ve reacted unconstructively.

On [4] Professionalism, not many of our stakeholders are persistent in an advocacy of passionately fulfilling “a better start at life” service in the field of early childhood. Teachers are not given proper and significant training to help them deal with children when differences arise between the cultural patterns of the home, community and those of the school’s.

Fantasy and reality in the minds of young kids are not separate things. Innocent as they are, they have that strong expectation that adults will respond to what they need – in which case, we’ve got to harness the discrepancies between their make-believe and reality, otherwise, we are not giving them THE BEST START that they should get. However, being confronted with the above-mentioned matters in reality, wouldn’t we worry that we may disappoint the youngs of our time? Would you agree that this is more of a moral justice issue rather than economic?

Being both A FACILITATOR OF LIFE and a CURRICULARIST, would it then still be wise to Invest in Early Childhood Education? Please share your idea.

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If we are not prepared, we are going to spend the rest of our time REPAIRING!

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PhotoCredits: http://www.livequotes.online/library/quotes/quotes-on-education-for-all/quotes-on-education-for-all-12.jpg

Resources:

http://www.brighthubeducation.com/teaching-preschool/104635-trends-in-early-childhood-education/

https://mymission.lamission.edu/userdata/bazikyi/docs/COC/15_GordonBrowne9e%20PPT.pdf

http://www.delmarlearning.com/companions/content/1418011339/resources/Ch1.asp

http://voxglobal.com/2013/05/top-trends-and-issues-in-education-takeaways-from-the-education-writers-association-ewa-conference-2013/

THE CHECKPOINT!

What will make education exciting is that we should TALK ABOUT US and OURSELVES!

You can make that difference when you’re already THERE “in that position”!

— but DO NOW while you’re still WHERE YOU ARE!

Modernization of Times, as well as Global Alignments both demand Education to be “exciting” — yet Stakeholders and Cohorts do not really succeed as they should! – don’t you think so? – but WHY?

Millennial generation wants EDUCATION TO BE EXCITING! They “do not do well being passive learners” (Starlink, 2004). A group of students born between 1982 and 2000, they are also dubbed as “Millennials”. They have the characteristics unique to the digital age. Their comfort level of technology is on ipod, laptop, cell phones, computers and the Internet – at which, the students that we actually have at present are already so much exposed and even addicted to.

Institutions cannot deny the point that the “digital age” could possibly cause GAP between expectancy & actuality. The reality that education could be creating may not be what Millennials are expecting – which could be the reason why even at this point, some of our learners would still not have enough motivation to battle against their “night afters”.

Meeting students’ needs should be very crucial and should be the optimum goal of stakeholders and every educational entrepreneur.

Educational Organizers & Managers may have all the skills thereat required to get promoted to a position level after gathering years of experience in service; they may have gone through the tedious process & flow of the Essential Fundamentals of Management; and they may even have gotten several trainings on School Leadership – but what could have been wrong, or what could have been the “missing link” why the MILLENIAL GENERATION still do not get the help that they need that would make them totally engaged in their learning?

Reality & Expectations -– where will both ends meet?

Credits to the following links:

http://www.facdev.niu.edu/facdev/resources/guide/students/millennials_our_newest_generation_in_higher_education.pdf

http://www.starlinktraining.org/packets2004/packet129.pdf

http://image.slidesharecdn.com/portmoodysecondary-november222013-share-131125113818-phpapp01/95/planning-with-the-end-in-mind-approaches-to-summative-assessment-2-638.jpg?cb=1385379618

 

 

The Future that we should Take Care Of

“We cannot move forward if we allow the past to pull us back.

It is the present that we are concerned with

and the future that we should take care of.”

– Pres. Rodrigo R. Duterte, 1^st SONA, 25 July 2016

The response and performance of a TEAM is the REFLECTION of its Manager’s ATTITUDE! – would you believe so?

If “Management” is the judicious use of means/resources to achieve goals; and having commands of the whole range of management skills, what can you say about Pres. Duterte’s statement which gained applause during his 1^st SONA — what “manager’s ATTITUDE” is he trying to portray?

Any institution could only have worthwhile accomplishment if the one leading it has a healthy concept of what he should FIRST & FOREMOST DO to eventually meet a successful end!

With every MAN leading for a certain cause, CHANGE is not always easy – BUT it is something that we always seek out in different areas of life: in any group, in any institution, in whatever situation. Hence, one can never really EFFECT CHANGE if he does not INFLUENCE anyone.

What does it take then to be an “effective influencer”?

Making a RECALL of the activity that we did in class: [you can insert a picture of your output] the various dots that you have placed all over the sheet which you preferred to work on, how you’ve plotted/organized your dots, the innate skills that you can share, the responsibilities which you’ve accepted to fulfill, and the four quadrants where unaware as you were you’ve placed those “life elements” – what does it tell about you as a “manager of your own life”? How do you think could it help you AFFECT INFLUENCE?

MANAGEMENT may never be an easy task though; but so long as you would strive to experience it FOREMOST TO YOUR “SELF” even with struggles, you would eventually realize that with the way you ORGANIZE your thoughts and your actions, you can certainly TAKE CARE not only OF YOUR FUTURE – but of your CHILD’S & others’ LIFETIME too.

 

“Every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little,

has its stages of drudgery and triumph;

a beginning, a struggle and a victory.”

                          — Mahatma Gandhi

What will make you Ready?

In this course, we will be Assessing the Behavior of Young Children who belong to our Early Childhood Education Program.

If you will initially be asked to do your first “Assessment Task” among these Young Children, what “emphasizing truth?” could you observe?  Do the kids really get that “meaningful experience” which should be rendered to them in terms of Assessment?

More often than not, most of us may have that natural tendency to identify factors that should give that “consequential experience” from the outside – such as lack of facilities, number of teachers, inconsistencies, and the likes – such that we may find it an excuse that our actions are limited by the outside “consequences”. But US, being part of Early Childhood Education should be the first customers of our program. Attempting to Assess the Young Children’s Behavior is just like “looking into their eyes” with an “innate skill” which “i feel” is actually not significantly accorded in any Teacher Trainings if there are any.

We can never really see what lies within each child’s eyes if we haven’t exerted effort “looking into our own” – for we can never really deliver that “meaningful experience” if we haven’t even devoted ourselves through it.

“The first years of life are important because what happens in early childhood can matter in a lifetime!” – Harvard, 2009

Kids have dreams! They hope we would care to shape their future!

Our existence as teachers would matter in each child’s lifetime – yet, we can never really give what we don’t have; and we wouldn’t know what to give if we wouldn’t identify what we have. In the same way, we wouldn’t really strive to work for something else if we are not aware of what we don’t have.

To BEST BEGIN, why not strive “to look into your own eyes” – the window of your soul!?

It’s never too late: PEEP-INto your OWN WINDOW! Grab this opportunity now … look within, query around, reflect on feedbacks, find opportunities of your better understanding your “self” so that you may also be able to understand the young children you’re catering to.

Begin filling in your window:

Photo Credit to: http://www.startofhappiness.com/wp content/uploads/2012/07/johari_window.png

This is a Johari Window, a Model developed by American psychologists Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham in 1955, an idea derived as the upshot of the group dynamics in University of California. The name ‘Johari’ came from joining their first two names: Jo-Har-I.

As a Psychological Tool, the ‘Johari’ window model is relevantly used to identify TWO TRUTHS in your life: the “known”  and the “unknown” areas which you and others “see” and “do not see” .

It could aid in improving self-awareness, ‘soft’ skills and in motivating personal development as you go through the journey of discovering “who you are” as a person. – while you enhance your perception on others through social  “trust” as you thrive to achieve the task of understanding and enhancing communication for interpersonal development when you’re already in a group.

Each person is represented by the Johari model through four quadrants or window panes which signify personal information, feelings, motivation and whether that information is known or unknown to oneself or others in four viewpoints:

1. “Open self” or Arena – the “Public” area which you and others see in you: attitudes, behavior, emotions, feelings, skills and views.  You typically do not mind discussing with others this part of you. Most of the time you agree with this view you have and others have of you upon “feedback solicitation”.
2. “Hidden Self” or Façade– the “Private” area which  you see in yourself but others don’t; known to you but is kept unknown from others which you feel reluctant to reveal: feelings, past experiences, fears, secrets, faults, weaknesses, and dysfunctions due to modesty, vulnerability & protection.
3. “Blind self” or blind spot–the area which you do not see in yourself but others see in you: those that others know in a group but you are unaware of it. Others may interpret yourselves differently than you expect; sometimes a mismatch between your talk & walk which you fail to detect.
4. “Unknown Self” area – the “Undiscovered” area of your self that you cannot see nor others around you: your feelings, capabilities, talents; even the traumatic past experiences or events which can be unknown for a lifetime and makes you unaware till you discover your hidden qualities and capabilities through observation of others. You would need to strive for Open Communication to effectively decrease the unknown area and thus to communicate effectively.

So long as you are ever willing to open up those windows, more doors of opportunities will be opened.

Now that you have accomplished such self-discovery and disclosure, how do you think would this self-assessment help you in Assessing the Behavior of Young Children?

 

Thanks & Credits to these links:

http://communicationtheory.org/the-johari-window-model/http://www.slideshare.net/ksdhillon85/the-johari-window

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johari_windowhttp://www.businessballs.com/johariwindowmodel.htmhttp://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/07/08/the-johari-window/

We Should Do Something for Them!

Kids have dreams!

From Early Childhood to Growth …

Amidst Individual Differences which are needed to be addressed and understood, someone out there should say “i care”!

Welcome to this Course: Assessing Behavior of Young Children and find out for yourself “how you can” and “how should” you “care to care”!

 

 

What is Your “Piece of Peace”?

#Master of Arts in Educational Management 
#Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education

Can we not strive for this?

You are beautiful! You are unique! YOU are YOU!

YET, you might have forgotten to ASERT YOURSELF because you might have had so little confidence in your self.

Over some period of time, there might have been some incidences of feeling neglected and it gave you enough justification  to shy away from the world, from other people; shy away from yourself until you’ve just been contented hoping to just blend into the background.

Could you ever imagine when was “that time” you begun feeling worthless?

When was it that you started changing yourself, hoping to just impress the thoughts of others?

Without you realizing, you are actually harming yourself because you’re hoping to improve … when in fact, you’re doubting your very self because you no longer feel that confident to VOICE OUT amidst those times when your thoughts and actions have just been rejected & by-passed. In effect, it gave you the only choice to just close your eyes and shrug your shoulders because you allowed yourself to feel helpless.

You no longer feel great just the way you are because you’ve already forgotten WHO YOU REALLY ARE!

You believed it when people say you’re not worthy; you stopped giving yourself the chance to gain credits despite the many striving times you’ve exerted. You’ve pressured yourself too much because you’ve allowed those chaotic, abrupt-changing systems to disturb your “simple piece of peace”.

You were supposedly to work giving out your BEST for God’s glory in an imperfect world; yet, you keep on justifying that you are “not perfect” — that is why, you’re also justifying “not being able to give your BEST” in every little thing that you do because of what you believe in.

“You can never be perfect?” What does it say about your “self esteem”?

Could you imagine what will happen to “that thing called Tadhana” if everyone of us would take care of this kind of mindset? Destiny — as a predetermined course of events may be conceived as a predetermined future.  What lies in the future would always depend upon WHAT WE DO TODAY!

Many of us would tend to complain about several “turn out of situations which doesn’t give us any choice!” — that is why we keep on “piercing our heart” with that arrow which we keep on pointing to other direction other than our own SELF!

If there should be some "PIECE OF PEACE" that we should bring to our future not only as a teacher but as a Child of God, 
what do you think would that be?

Try visiting these links for progression:

http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/21st+Century+Teacher

http://www.principals.org/Content.aspx?topic=61219

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2013/09/11/03mindset_ep.h33.html

If you only have 15 Dots …

How many times would you lift your pens up in connecting your available DOTS?

#Curriculum Making for Early Childhood Education

In "crafting", there are no mistakes; 
it is your own unique creation!

If you only have 15 dots, how would you connect each, to come up with something that would TELL WHAT YOU WANT?

What would each dot represent and how could it align with your Philosophy, Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives?

Those Significant DOTS …

Yes, in crafting, there are no mistakes … but considering that when you “craft” in Curriculum-Making the  UNIQUE development of each CHILD” should be our “apple of the eye”, an educator’s COMMITMENT should then really matter the most.

TIMES may be tough and there may be VAGUE SPACES between dots YET, EVEN THE LIFTING OF OUR PENS would talk about our ADVOCACY while we DRAW OUR LINES so carefully so that our unique creativity will "not mark a mistake" in every child's life. 

“

The Invisible Essential

Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education. 

ECE 111. Early Childhood Curriculum

Shall you have all the opportunity to CRAFT a Curriculum for the young generation, what would you be willing to GIVE?

It takes a happy heart to build a well-founded school
for our future generation.

The way we look at things are affected by the way we feel! …  Would you believe so?

‘Wanna try if such contention could be true?

What catches your attention first would determine how you feel at the moment!

Take a look at this picture … what then did you first see?; what element captured your attention at your first glance? … and doing some self-check of how you feel, what does your choice indicate?

Sometimes, we just can’t find enough motivation to find a spot for whatever emotion there is deep within us — thus, we need to identify: are we filled or drained? happy or sad? up or down? inspired or tired?

We may need to look around and find some sure identification of our state of emotion. Why? … because the way we feel would always affect the way we deal with others.  Our perspectives would more often than not be influenced by the kind of feeling that we have — and on the other hand, our emotion would moreso determine up to what extent we would work on the fulfilment of our Philosophy, Vision and Mission.

At a quite dangerous side, our undefined emotions may stagnate our supposedly  healthy perception of each child — to the point that we may misinterpret what we just see instead of appreciate and look into what we do not see.

What then is there to realize for us to be able to give the best that we could?

What then should we do to build a well-founded school for our future generation?

http://www.slideshare.net/GailMontero/m1-lesson-1-concepts-nature-purposes-of-curriculum

http://47inspired.blogspot.com/2014/01/what-can-happy-person-give.html

A Course in Curriculum is a Course in Life

Will our Vision & Mission suffice and meet an Expectation such as this?”

Master of Arts in Early Childhood Education, Educ 111. Early Childhood Curriculum

Congratulations to you, Early Childhood Education

Teachers and Stakeholders!

Credits to you:

“All a child really needs to know, he/she could learn from YOU!”

Such honour, isn’t it?

And so, that child, whose curiosity is at the peak of gathering all the experiences he could and at the height of asking all the questions he wants to get answers from, has TO MEET YOU!

Why? … because YOU, being there in THE EARLY CHILDHOOD/PRESCHOOL Educational System, could do MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE — to “SQUARE A CHILD’S EXPECTATIONS”!

AND SO, here you are NOW, taking a Course in Early Childhood Curriculum to align, if not just “meet halfway”  with Robert Fulghum’s VISION:

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.

That myth is more potent than history.

That dreams are more powerful than facts.

That hope always triumphs over experience.

That laughter is the only cure for grief.

And I believe that love is stronger than death.”
― Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Not all the answers that we could give a child could be taken from the piles of book that we may require them to have or that we’ve personally gathered to equip ourselves with answers to kids’ queries which may at times stun us!

Some of the answers that we would give them will be what we have in our PERSONAL CURRICULUM!

However we see life in its DIFFERENT SEASONS will be that same POINT OF VIEW that we would share with those innocent minds.

And so, take this CHALLENGE NOW!

Identify, define, specify, and SOUL-SEARCH with these stuff and START PREPARING your PERSONAL CURRICULUM! 🙂

1st, TRADITIONAL or PROGRESSIVIST … what IS YOUR POINT OF VIEW?

2nd, DEFINE WHO YOU ARE and the LEGACY that you want to live-by!

Create your own VISION and specify it in your MISSION!

3rd, Considering the Components of Curriculum based on the Philippine Constitution of 1987,

what AIMS, GOALS & OBJECTIVES could you personally come up with?

4th, Having inputted with the Aims of Elementary Education [Educ Act of 1982],

what do you see should be your AIMS, GOALS & OBJECTIVES as a teacher?

… what about COMING UP WITH YOUR OWN SCHOOL? [be ready for this 🙂 ]

CREATING A CURRICULUM that would BUILD LIFE can be very AMBITIOUS! — ARE YOU too?

So there, WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN!

Now let’s bug our imagination:

Who REALLY HAS THE TASK TO INITIALLY LEARN? .. THE KIDZ or the TEACHER?

Our POINTS OF VIEW as we go through the Seasons of Life will matter a lot as we strive to meet up and square A LIFE for the YOUNGs — but we should foremost nurture our heart and let these lines be ours too:

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.

That myth is more potent than history.

That dreams are more powerful than facts.

That hope always triumphs over experience.

That laughter is the only cure for grief.

And I believe that love is stronger than death.”

― Robert Fulghum, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Credits to:

http://www.amazon.com/Really-Need-Know-Learned-Kindergarten/dp/034546639X