Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Every year chong boon holds a annual camp for all levels. The lower secondary students stay in school and participate in exciting activities planned by the teachers and the upper secondary students get an opportunity to venture out of school bounds and stay at a government authorised camp site.This year things were done a bit differently as my school wanted its students to experience the world outside school.This time round the upper secondary students,being the SENIORS, had a choice of going to the camp in Singapore or the one organised in Malaysia.Many of us were enthusiastic about this new experience awaiting us.However only some of us were chosen to go.And eventhough I was one of the selected few,I did not want to leave my friends and have fun in malaysia all by myself.Hence I decided to stay in Singapore.The days flew past and the camp was just around the corner.After packing my bag,I started thinking on how much I'm miss all the facilities at home.I had an early night so as to not be all so droopy in the morning.The next day, we met all our instructors and headed for the campsite.Along the entrance of the campsite,we saw many high elements and we were all tickled pink!We were looking forward to the interesting activities lined up for us. After alighting the bus we were seperated into our respective groups and were sent to our bunks.We had a quick change of clothes and headed towards the assembly area.All the groups started off with ice breaking games and we were instructed to come up with a group name and a group flag.We came up with a very unique name of UNDERDOGS.It was approximately 1 pm in the afternoon and we started doing our high element activites.With a huge fear of height i surprised myself when I came forward and attempted the absailing activity. And soon after we had lunch.After lunch we had a lot of time to prepare for our camp fire item and we decided to dance for a NEW and HIP song.We had the best dancers from our class to come up with the dance.And as the time flew by it was soon night and we had a night study activity which wasn't as boring as expected.The next day we were very excited as we had a canoeing activity planned for us.It was almost ruined by the unexpected downpour.However we managed to overcome the weather and went canoeing.It was indeed a very very scary experience but a REAL good one.Soon after night came and the much anticipated camp fire was next.We were all excited and looking forward to our turn.The night was young and we were enjoying ourselves ALOT!Everything has to come to an end and so did this.The next day arrived and we were all set to go home.On our journey back to school we caught up on some lost sleep and had cool dreams on our exciting 3days.
It has always been my dream to be an Early Childhood Educator. Some inquisitive minds may ask why that is so, well I have my reasons for my choosing it. Since young, I have always been fascinated by my mother who is an Early Childhood Educator herself, she has always been bubbly interactive and creative with the kids, and most importantly my mom was satisfied with the various roles she played and the results of educating the young minds. After touring my mother’s living hood, I have my own philosophy for my chosen field, as I do not wish to be a typical teacher but a creative, lovable and having the ability to enrich the young minds.
When I began to develop a passion for this job I was astonished with the amount of responsibilities required .Before gaining knowledge from my mother, I always thought that being an Early Childhood Educator only required one to teach the children simple subjects. However, I was taken back by the amount of responsibilities that an Early Childhood Educator needs to take on. For example, one has to be a facilitator, care-giver, educator, nuturer, learner, reflector and a motivator. After being aware of all these responsibilities, my passion grew stronger and deeper.
I feel that my philosophy of Early Childhood Education is greatly child-centered education. There should be a great focus on the importance of play. As it provides children the opportunity to discover, manipulate and to interact with the environmnet. It motivates children to explore, discover, create and encourages them to take risks as it adds to their understanding of the world. Moreover, it confronts the chidlren to accomplish new levels of people around them, events, and the environment by interacting with concrete materials. It allows them to experiment the world them and the emotional world within them.
Even though, I have my own philosophy in this field, it is not as easy as you think to qualify for this job, one should at least hold a Diploma in Early Childhood Education. One can also upgrade onself to a higher level in the field by either holding a Bachelor Degree or Masters. Even though I aspire to be an Early Childhood Educator, I would always like to upgrade myself and one day I wish to be either a a Director of a Childcare Centre or a Speech Pathologist. I want to open my very own speech therapy centre and finally it is my dream to promote good speech amongst young children.
In conclusion, I strongly believe that to be an innovative and an inspiring Early Childhood Educator one has to have the passion towards children. I know that I have been putting in my fair share of commitment in working hard to achieve my goal. So far, I have read up on the common duties and various other aspects of Early Childhood Education. In addition, I am aware that if I work harder academically, I will achieve my dream of becoming an Early Childhood Educator!
