I decided to put Scribbles and Doodles for the title of my blog site… Scribbles and Doodles is the title of my column in our school paper- Happy Faces.  I hope they don’t mind me using it… In my column, I usually write about all sorts of preschool things. For my blog, I want to have a wider coverage and go beyond my teaching profession.

What is the origin of scribbles and doodles? As we know, Language Development has four strands: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing.  In contrast to what other people may think, writing skills develop even before children learn to write letters and words.  In fact, early writing skills become evident by the time your child holds a pencil or a crayon and pretends to write.  When babies start to scribble and doodle on our newly-painted walls, important work documents, newspapers, floors, etc., that is already a sign of emerging writing skills.  I know that as parents, our first reaction, if such incident would happen, is to scold our child for being naughty and for messing up our house.  But you know what, beyond that, we should realize that our child is on the onset of a discovery… he or she is learning to write! So before we scream our lungs out, let us think out of the box and consider that it is all a process of learning.  Maybe then, we’d be less angry…

During these trying times, it is really a challenge for managers to keep employee motivation at its peak… The same holds true for our organization…   Studies have attested that employees who are highly motivated give their optimal performance in their jobs.  In consideration of their findings, managers should always be in the know as far as motivation theories are concerned… Below is a short refresher article discussing Maslow, Alderfer and Herzberg’s motivation theories…

What is motivation?

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Brightwoods Preschool Teachers

TIPS FOR WRITING REMARKS

Introduction

Remarks are invaluable tools that teachers use for parents to have an idea of what their children can do or can’t do. For many years, teachers utilize this means to supplement the grading part of report cards.

A lot of resources are available on the internet. However, make sure that the remark really fit the student you are referring to. These internet resources are guides. Modify some terms if necessary. Most early childhood education books are also good references. In most instances, it is better to refer to these books to see developmental milestones in student achievement.

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Assessment period is in the air here in Brightwoods School… For everybody’s info, this is the time when we evaluate student performance based on several skills under Motor Development, Social Emotional Development, and Cognitive Development… What we do is we evaluate performance, then assign letter grades such as VG for Very Good, G for Good, F for Fair, and NH for Needs Help for every skill.  To support our grading system, we usually write remarks… Our remarks aim to describe children’s performance in a detailed and concise manner… with these, we hope that parents will have a better idea about their children’s strong points, as well as their weaknesses… For the longest time, it has been a struggle for teachers to write remarks… That’s why I want to share some of my sample remarks, and hopefully, will serve as valuable reference materials for preschool educators… You can also add in your thoughts and ideas…
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According to Chastain (1988), the purpose of pre-reading activities is to motivate the students to want to read the assignment and to prepare them to be able to read it. With this in mind, we can see that the concept of reading is elevated beyond being a skill to be mastered. Instead, our end goal is for children to appreciate and consequently love and embrace the habit of Reading .

Chastain added that a long time ago, the major emphasis has been on the product rather than the process of reading itself. Because of this thinking, pre-reading preparation has consisted little more than the following:

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Public Fiscal Administration… the MMEM (Master in Management major in Educational Management) course that broke my heart… not because I failed it (in fact I had the highest grade in my class), not because it was complicated (which was by the way, true)… but because the course opened my eyes to many of life’s brutal facts…

For those who would be taking the course, and also for those who would want to get a glimpse of the Fiscal situation in the Philippines, I’m sharing with you some powerpoint presentations that me and T. Joyce made…  Contents are mostly about public debt management, the concept of development, taxation, budget process, etc… I hope you find them useful

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