Live Blogging: SAS-HSBC Kinder K(C)ollege Conference Day 4

Today is the fourth day of the Sa Aklat Sisikat (SAS)-HSBC Kinder K(C)ollege Conference. Last week, the whole Sunday was spent learning and relearning educational theories and psychology concepts that are essential to preschool instruction. Ms. Germelina Salumbides did a great job at encapsulating important concepts and pedagogy for preschool teaching.

On this last day of the conference Teacher Ria Tirazona of Playschool International, is providing a session on the different learning styles and strategies to understand and appreciate children with special needs. What made me sit up and listen was her presentation on the essentials of play. Here are my notes from her discussion --

Play stimulates the brain. With out play, higher thinking is impossible to achieve.

Play encourages holistic development as it covers mental and cognitive challenges; emotional and social responses; and physical experiences that contribute to good health.

There are many kinds of play - free play, guided play and directed play.

Children go through stages of play - solitary play, onlooker play, parallel play, associative play.

Responses to the different kinds and stages of play is an indicator of the child's current mental, emotional, social and developmental maturity.

Play is THERAPY.

I look back at my own childhood and recall the amount of play I did. It's never too late to catch up on lost play time.

Live Blogging: SAS HSBC Kinder K(C)ollege Conference

I'm emceeing for Day 2 of Sa Aklat Sisikat's Kinder K(C)ollege Conference. Ms. Germs Salumbides, educator and consultant, facilitated an engaging session on Piaget and basic educational theories earlier. Now, the participants are doing small group discussions on the theories, both psychological and philosophical that has an implication in education specially, preschool level. What's effective about Ms. Germs is her practical approach to teaching backed up by theories.

Some ideas I got from her this morning --

Teach kids how to think so they can READ. Teach them how to THINK so they can read.

TV is the biggest stumbling block in symbolization. It discourages hypothesis building. Hypothesizing is essential to critical thinking.

The most human act is hypothesizing.

There are many ways to teach reading.

Use the child's vocabulary if coverage of textbook is far from his or her own experience.

The SAS- HSBC Kinder K(C)ollege Conference supports the DepEd's preschool program. The participants are fifty preschool teachers from selected public schools in the National Capitol Region (NCR).