Debrief: Implementation of play based program.

It's been a while since I have written. It'd take me a while to remember what I have learnt in the past one year since I have been in Toowoomba.

The reason I am reflecting now is because an acquaintance, (technically my financial sponsor) asked me specific questions about the education system in Australia. I can only share my experiences of those that in Toowoomba, since I was only there all this while.

After experiencing both the Montessori and the Play-based pedagogies educational settings, without looking at it from a biased perspective, I must admit that the implementation of a play-based curriculum is actually much harder than of a Montessori one.

Many of the centres in Toowoomba (as far as I know) employ a play-based curriculum in the setting. But as far as the implementation goes, that is about as far as similarity goes. In a private based centre, the staff are very particular and rigid about the keeping and following of rules and regulations. This is to maintain the image of the school as funding comes from the patronage of the parents.

In a government & public funded centre, there is also an emphasis on following the rules and regulations. However, the following of these rules & regulations are done on a voluntary basis from the staff's own initiative and behalf, as not so much as to follow rules & regulations blindly, but that to maintain that the centre keeps its standards.

A play-based curriculum employs much observation skills and initiative on behalf of the group leader/teacher of the class-room. Materials that are provided in the classroom are the normal standard materials that are found in the classroom, but it is the teacher's skills of observations, planning, implementation and evaluation that makes the difference to the programme that is being employed. The children is given free-choice and access to materials which are set at the children's eye level..

*to be continued later, if I do that is...*

Debriefing: Reflecting on my internship.

Tomorrow I will be starting my 3rd professional experience (ECP2001) and then after, the 4th professional experience (ECP2002) at this C&K centre with a 4-5 year old pre-school group.

The last couple of weeks since I had my post-ECP1002 interview, I was reflecting on some thoughts that my lecturer, Alice was telling me about. My lecturer noted to me that I have a pretty strong personality in which, on reflection, may not be suitable for certain contexts in which, should I engage at.

As it is too recently, a previous communication with my friend, Annie, reminded me about the strengths that I have, and on reflection on that communication with Annie, reminded myself that I should take ownership of it and expand upon it.

Recently, as stated in my past entries, I have just completed in total, an 18-day "internship"(as I would define it) in a private based long day childcare centre located in the midst of town. At the same time, I was in the midst of doing my research in community based C&K centre. To which, I had attended and stayed a few hours in the morning for a couple of weeks to collect my data research. When I was there, I observed some things that was I thought was pretty uncharacteristic.

Saying that, it must be noted that this is my 2nd experience at "another" early childhood centre, and one, where the context of the environment is in total contrast to that of the first. I was pretty surprised at the way things were run there, because I had the impression that centres were to be as "structured" as the first one I attended. In fact, apart from the documentation that took place, everything else was done in a totally different manner. One which I kept on reflecting on.

The things that I had observed was that:

• the children had the flexibilty to go in and out of the shed to take the outdoor play equipment as they wished to.
• the children could paint on the pavements and run anywhere on the outdoor grounds without being reprimanded.
• the children could stay indoors in they didn't feel like going out outdoors to play (provided there was a staff supervising indoors).
• the children did not have to pack away their manipulatives and "work" just because they were going for lunch. There was no emphasis on that.
• the children did not all have to sleep "at the same time". Only those who wanted to sleep will sleep. The rest could just work with the equipment or do their own work.
• the staff did not emphasize on following routines anally, but was flexible on following the children's interests and how their play went like.

The imposition of rules & regulations reminds me of something I read in my ECE2112 (Managing Young Children) readings about following the children's interest, instead of imposing rules and regulations on them. It says that staff who follow the children's leads and interest, end up having a better time at work, because they are not always stressing out and expending too much energy in "policing" children to follow the rules and regulations of the centre all the time.

Last week, one of my lecturers, Michelle, took my Literacies course group to visit two different centres. One of which is another C&K centre in another part of town, and the other, which was a pre-school and kindergarten group in a school based setting.

There was a total difference between both the C&K setting and the school based setting in context to the ones I visited. I brought it up with one of my lecturers, Gillian during discussion about my research project today.

The characteristics of that C&K centre was:

• The C&K had a really home based "feel" to it. It's like you get the feeling like you are entering someone's "home" instead of a school.
• There was no dress code in place for the children
• As it is, one of the notable things of the C&K setting is that, the learning experiences are "individualised" to the children's interest, more flexible
• Very elaborately decorated.
• Vey much less structured!

At the school setting, it was exactly that.

• There was a dress code in place.
• Less elaborately decorated.
• More structured "feel" to the environment.
• More of a "group" rather than "individualized" planning to it.

In reflection on it, after the students brought up the differences on both the centres to our lecturer, Michelle, she said that both her children were attending two different centres. One which had individualized programming, and the other which was the school based centre we attended. She said that both of the centres had its pros and cons, but it also depended as well on the children's personality too.

Michelle said that she opted to send her children to the two different centres, as she felt that her son could cope better in an individualized program class as his personality was suited to that kind of environment, whereas, her daughter benefitted and coped better in a more structured environment.

Of which, after reflecting on my thoughts on both the centres above, it helped me put in perspective my internship experience on the centres where I had done my internship. I should say that I should not "generalize" how centres are run, but individualize the way I respond to it according to how the centre's ethos and philosophy is run.

Pre-ECP1002 Week Block.

I have not written in a while. I know that. Tomorrow is my ONE WEEK BLOCK pract. After which, I am FREE!!! (Well, at least until I start my ECP2001 & ECP2002 professional experience, that is).

I am kind of freaking out, just trying to prepare everything for this one week. Last week, I went to the Pedagogical Resource Centre (PRC, or formerly known as the EML) to borrow the resources that I think could be of use during the span of this week (maybe as spontaneous activity). The EML is closed on weekends and closes at about 5 on weekdays, so I really did not have much of a choice. I had to borrow what my puny brain could think of.

I borrowed stacks of books from the Toowoomba Junior Section of the Uni.

2 from Australian authors.
1 from Walker books.
and about 3 with animal themes.
A kangaroo hand puppet.
A bag of Safari wild animals manipulatives.

So here I am.

Trying to write up all the paperwork so that I can print it off tonight at the K Block later after dinner. Have to wake up early tomorrow by 6am (the least!) to get to the 6.45am bus. (Actually it really does not matter, as I have the luxury of taking a later shift for this week. But I'd rather wake up early, so that I can go home early. But beggars can't be choosers, since I am relying heavily on the public transportation to take me around town.)

Spring Bluff & orientation at a preschool room.

Last Thursday, the group at my professional experience went for a train ride to Spring Bluff. Coincidentally, this coincides with the local Flower Festival and the train runs from Toowoomba to SpringBluff. The trip itself took about 30 minutes or more one way.

We got back to the child care centre at about noon time. The children had their lunch and then went straight to their nap time. That day, I presented my "goop" lesson. I also showed my mentor the lesson plans that I had written and typed up.

It was the 5th day of the professional experience, and also the "At-Risk Day", if my mentor felt that I was at risk.
Well, it so happened that on the Tuesday before, I had gone to see my Professional Experience Co-ordinator, Alice, and had spoken to her. She in turn went and called up my mentor to ask for feedback.

Her general feedback to me was I needed to think about the ways I could put my knowledge I had into practice. Alice was very supportive and gave me a lot of ideas for me to use in planning my activities. It was very good, as I had prayed a lot about it for the past whole week. It just feel really *worthwhile*.

On Friday, I went to M. Child Care Centre, which was a C&K Centre to do my research work for my course. I am planning to do research on "literacy experiences through Play". The topic might be a bit too broad, but I plan to refine it and read up more on it. I also have to fine-tune the information I have collected, in order to categorize it, interprete it and analyse it.

Basically, I was not *really* ready before going there, because I had a lot of reading work to do before going.
I was panicking a lot, because I was trying to find a proper "data collection" method in order to collect the information I needed for my research, and did not really have had the time to read up on my work in the past week before that. So there I was praying about it the entire night before.

The next morning, I arrived at the centre at 9am. I spoke to Ruth, the Director of the childcare centre. I showed her my student ID and the Blue Card for identification purposes, and even showed her "hand-written" letter I wrote, but she asked me to get a formal one from the university instead.Then Ruth led me to the pre-school room (4-5 year olds) and introduced me to the two staff handling the room, Cathy and Janette. Cathy & Janette were really welcoming and friendly, and introduced me to the children.

They were having a structured lesson on music, and were working with Rhythm Sticks when I was coming and asked me to join in the group, which I did. I really enjoyed the morning there. It was really a child-centred programme and used a really child-centred approach to teaching and learning in the classroom.

The philosophy of the classroom was "What is important is not the Finished Product, but the the Process of learning". Which both the staff really took to heart. This they showed even in their outdoor play, where children are allowed open access to the equipment shed. All the children needed to do was just to open their mouths and ask for it.

(will write more about this in the morning tomorrow....too tired to think now).