The Playground: Play in developing Social Skill Awareness.

This article on Yahoo News today describes some of the reasons why kids get bullied and rejected in skills.

As many will know, those who study play in early childhood studies will know that those early skills in the playground are actually essential, and an indicator to an individual's social skills when they are adults.

(will write more on this later...).

Amazing News: 7 Year Old raises £50,000!

According to this news report, this young boy, Charlie Fulham from the UK has raised over £50,000 for the earthquake victims in Haiti.

"Initially only wanting to raise £500, but as news of his challenge spread pledges flooded into his appeal", SKY NEWS reports.

Truly amazing.

I wonder if something similar will happen on Malaysian grounds.

South Korea: High school students come home at 11pm.

When I was in South Korea recently, the schools were having their holidays.

My friend's niece is 13 (Gregorian Calendar) this year, and has just entered Middle School (Junior High). Yet, the holidays is not really a holiday. I was informed that she has to spend at least three hours each day "learning" something. Be it from online learning, or practising the piano, or even Japanese.

It is not that I am against "learning" or "studying", but I am wondering if students there are actually able to apply what they have learnt?

Students stay as late as 10 o'clock most nights for whatever reason it is at school. This I hear too, from the boarding master at the backpackers I was lodging in Seoul . He said it was the norm during his schooling years (he's 27 now). High school students go to school at 6am, and they arrive home at 11pm??

His best friends are the ones he spend the whole day in school at.

Eh?

Have you ever watched the Korean Drama "Delightful Girl Choon Hyang"? The drama starts with students in the high school level.

When I first watched the drama about two years back, they actually have students still in school at around 9 to 10 o'clock. I wondered, who in their right mind would allow their children to be at school at this hour?

Apparently that is the norm in South Korea. 

Related Links:
Education in South Korea.

Racism, Non-Tolerance, or Just The Easy Way Out?

Pix Credits- Flor Saluzzo. 

A conversation with a church mate today led me to think about my practicum experience at uni. This church mate is a lady in her early 50s, and has a daugher currently completing her remainder of her tertiary studies in Melbourne, Victoria.

Her daughter described the experience as "Racist". 

Perhaps for the rest of us Malaysians, who have been fortunate to be trained and taught in the same English language that the Aussies did, and the ability to speak it well too, we may not be at the end-stick of "racist experience."

Some of the incidents that the daughter noted were,

• asians, notedly many from China being shouted at by the Administration staff for not being able to communicate in English. The daughter had to step in to intervene.
  
• cases of Asians (in this case anyways) being bullied at train stations.
  

The mother was concerned that if this had happened in the girl's university, what more could be said if it was out in the bigger circle of the Melbourne city?

The mother also mentioned that perhaps in a city like Melbourne, the growing denomination of asians may pose it too close for comfort for the local caucasian residents, who are lashing back in discomfort at the proximity and rate that the migration is growing. I really do beg to differ.

However from my perspective, it may be worst in a state like Toowoomba, where Asians make barely less than 1 percent. The town where I had gone to complete my undergraduate studies.

I'd like to share my experience of my time there. I've not written much about my time during my practicum at uni, as I was thrown into a situation which I truly did not understand what happened then. Yes, and it took me courage to finally write this down after the incident happened two years back.

During my 2nd year (which essentially was the final year practicum) in Toowoomba, I did my practicum in a Catholic Girls College. It was basically a private all girls school. 

It was not an easy ride for me. I thought I was doing fine until the teacher who had me told me I had to leave !!

Now that I reflect on it, I realised it was a one-down situation for me. Not only did the mentor teachers assumed the very worst of me, they did not inform of what had gone wrong, nor bothered to discuss the entire situation with me. In fact, they blamed me for what had gone wrong.

Let me analyse the situation here for all caucasians, of how a teacher who is brought up in a typical asian background would expect when she goes to an Australian school setting.

TIME SLOT FOR CURRICULUM PLANNING

In a typical asian school, be it pre-school, primary school, or secondary school, most teachers do not have the luxury of what is called "curriculum planning" time.

Whereas from what I have found, even in preschool and primary school, all schools in Australia allocate a special curriculum planning time where the school brings in a substitute teacher to take over the class at least if not once a week, it'll be once in two weeks.

The allocated  "curriculum planning" time is normally about 2-3 hours where the teacher goes to the "teacher's room" and goes and supposedly does her planning.

For a person who's only having her second practicum in an Australian private school, I was not aware of these practices that I'd assume have been going on for the past twenty years or so? (Not that I would know, would I?)

Asians, especially the chinese, like to jest with one another, saying, "hei, lei tau lan ah?" (hei, are you snaking off (from work)? 

When I look back at this, my mentor teacher then related to me that I had "questioned" the motive of this one particular teacher I had seen in the staff room who was not at work.

• Tell me, was it wrong of me to ask what she was doing in the staff room? 
  
• Was it wrong of her to assume that I was being "condescending" to her?
• Who exactly is right in these situations?
  

AUSTRALIANS ARE VERY PROUD OF THEIR WORK

Actually the same applies whether they are working at the front desk, as the contract household cleaner, or even the part-time teacher that comes in to help with the work. This I believe, applies to all individuals who have grown and brought up in an Australian setting for more than fifteen years the least.

Perhaps the same applies to those brought up in New Zealand, but for now, this only applies to Australia, as far as I am concerned.

I have observed that even classroom assistants are proud of their work, whereas their counterparts in an asian setting (meaning Malaysia) do not regard their work with the same respect as those in Australia do.

It was when I returned to Malaysia and tried to apply the same regard for my work, and found some "people" regarding my work in a condescending manner that I begun to be able to empathize with how these Australians feel.

When my mom came to visit Melbourne last year, she encountered the incident of a pedestrian (actually the correct term to describe the lady was "female vagrant") who shouted at the driver for not dropping her at the stop she wanted to get off.

How do you describe a "female vagrant"? It's basically someone who is dressed in rags, and is really dirty all over, without having showered for days, and her hair is all unkempt.

In a similar situation in Malaysia, most "female vagrants" or vagrants for that matter, would not have the gall to shout at anyone, as everyone would just avoid them, and not look too highly upon them.

My mentor teacher then related that I had been *condescending to one of the classroom assistants in the school. 

SO IS IT RACISM, NON-TOLERANCE, OR JUST THE EASY WAY OUT?

At the private girls college where I had gone to complete my studies, the teachers from the onset seemed to be very "friendly" and "nice". But that was where it all stopped.

In total, the mentor teacher finally informed me that "after much discussion", I as a student teacher was not "ready" nor "suitable" to be a teacher, and their school had to release me.

Ironically, I had been working in Sydney for the past 8 months after that as an Early Childhood Teacher in preschools, and under a number of employers.

In my opinion, I'd rather have completed my practicum in a place like Gold Coast where the schools had more exposure to asians. It may not be as asian-crowded as places like Sydney, nor Melbourne, but from what I have heard, the schools there are more understanding of the differences and the needs of international students.

And especially for Student Teachers who have to go to schools to complete their practicums. These are some of the issues that schools should clarify and have dialogue with to clear these things that may crop up.

Malaysia: Free 30 Mins Pre-Natal Massage@ Soul Nibanna review

Are you currently a pregnant mother who is already in her 5th month of pregnancy? Hankering for someone to just rub those aching shoulders of yours, i.e. getting a complimentary 30 minutes massage in the ambience of a spa?

Well look no further. As I was surfing through the world wide web, I found this blog review from Eat N Play about the Soul Nibanna spa in SS2, Petaling Jaya.  

Eat N Play has included a lot of glossy pictures of the spa, so we can have a peek at what's inside Soul Nibanna. According to Eat N Play, Soul Nibanna is currently having the complimentary 30 minutes pre-natal massage promotion for all pregnant women. As my blog is related to parenting as well as early childhood, I thought it appropriate to add the link to the review here.

The first 4-5 months are considered the few months that mothers are not to over-stress their bodies, but it is normally considered safe by the 5th month. According to Eat N Play, the owner of the spa states that

Prenatal Massage will help to reduce stress and also promotes relaxation to pregnant women and there are lots of other benefits such as relieving muscles spasms, cramps and pains; increasing blood circulation; relieving anxiety and depression; improving labor outcome and eases labor pain.

So, for 5 -9 months pregnant ladies, do check out Eat N Play's review if you want to procure the complimentary 30 minutes pre-natal massage!

And I"m Off To Singapore, Guys!

 Hi readers, this is to inform you guys that I'd be away this coming weekend (19th-21st September) to Singapore for 3 Days 2 Nights.

Well, that is, should everything go as intended.

With Raya around the corner, it was truly a last minute decision. I was not even sure if we'd be able to even get accomodation, nor transport to head down. But it seems that some ad-hoc trips could be sheer fun for the stress it produces! Heh. What with the Grand Prix F1 that will be on next week, and everything, I thought accomodation would be like looking for a needle in a haystack..

I'll be checking in at a budget accomodation, very near to a MRT (lucky us!), costing a mere SGD58 for a twin-bed sized room.

Along the way, I'll be there to check out their local early childhood scene, as well as make some research on their early childhood rearing practices and teaching qualifications. Well, not that I'd be working there, but it's still good to know a bit more of a subject matter related to one's professional training. ^^

Okay, Ta-Ta!  Enjoy your Raya holidays!

This blog will remain as it is.

After much consideration, I have decided that this blog will remain as it is.

As much as I would like to execute any changes, this blog has a 5 year history. Hence, any changes may be detrimental to its health.