Aloha To My Ohana EC Bloggers

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

To my Fellow Early Childhood Bloggers,

Welcome to my blog site. Let me say: Aloha to my Ohana, which means "Welcome to my Family".

I am an Asian American who migrated in the US in 1997. I came from the Philippines and Filipino/ Tagalog is my first language. I migrated here in the US to start a family. I am now living here in Hawaii with my husband and three children. I am currently working as an Assistant Director at Ford Island Child Development Center in Pearl Harbor.

This is going to be an interesting journey for all of us and I am looking forward to blog with all of you.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Establishing Professional Contact

Last month, I have a friend who connects with me again after 20 years we separated in college. She decided to visit me here in Hawaii before going to California. We talked about how our lives and priorities have changed over time and during our conversation, she mentions about a friend who turned out to be a teacher at a preschool in the Philippines. I asked my help to get her e-mail address, telephone number or get in touch with me through facebook. I started by leaving messages in her facebook account and she replied back, asking me what she can do to help out. She also gave her telephone number and e- mail account so we can exchange information her, information and ideas to each other. While navigating through the site, I came across another friend who is now an assistant professor in the university where I graduated. I wrote him a letter to help me find someone from the college of education who can assist and help me gather information the early childhood education.

I chose to establish contacts in the Philippines to connect again to my old friends in college and to learn more about the challenges, issues and trends in their early childhood education in today’s time and economy. I am very fortunate to see my friends again, though everything seems by accident, I believe all of us will benefit learning from them.

The early childhood organization I chose is the Early Childhood Council New Zealand (EEC). I have read some interesting articles from their site regarding some of the challenges facing their early childhood programs. Some of it is the effect of the economy, government laws and some changes in the policies or programs in the early childhood field. They have lots of interesting articles on their site especially the promotion and inclusion of different culture or ethnic language in their program. Some articles can only be accessed by members of the council or organization only. I send e-mail to their organization requesting to allow me to be a member though I am neither a resident nor a part of any organization or institution on Early Childhood. I am waiting for their response and hopefully, I will have access to their site and I will keep you posted in the coming weeks of our courses.

Early Childhood Council New Zealand (EEC)http://www.ecc.org.nz/MainMenu
(Review also media resources at: http://www.ecc.org.nz/Category?Action=View&Category_id=159)
International Child Resource Institute

7 comments:

KristiSeptember 11, 2011 at 6:15 AM
While Anabel,

You have alot more opportunities to communicate with the outside world than I do. I always enjoy following your blog. Good luck with your contacts in the Philippines and contacting old friends. I will follow to see your results. Have a blessed day.
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AnonymousSeptember 11, 2011 at 7:11 AM
That is very exciting about making contacts where you went to college. In away it will not only keep you updated on the changes occurring but also reconnect you to a part of your past. I hope you were able to hear back from both contacts!
Have a wonderful day
Amy
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Caitlyn MarktSeptember 11, 2011 at 1:54 PM
This is great that you can connect with friends of friends and people from your past! I do not have any contacts outside of the US. I look forward to learning from you about early childhood education in the Philippines. Good luck!

Caitlyn
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CareyannSeptember 11, 2011 at 3:41 PM
Anabel,
You always have such interesting posts on your blog! I have followed your blog from the Foundations class and always enjoy the information and sentiments that you convey. It's great that you are able to connect with your old friends on a professional level. I think that you many find that you derive more information and greater meaning from this assignment as a result of your personal connection with your early childhood colleagues.
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AnonymousSeptember 11, 2011 at 5:55 PM
Anabel,
Thank you for a fantastic post! It looks like your spirit shines through in your blog, and creates a feeling of beauty. Thank you for your post, I look forward to hearing about your success in learning about the Philippines. I love that you post pictures, please continue to do that as I am a truly visual learner! :) THANK YOU! :)
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God's PearlSeptember 11, 2011 at 7:50 PM
Anabel,

Thank you for your Awesome post!! I am so excited that you are able to contact your friends to help you with this course. That was a great idea to contact your friends through facebook. I think that's the quickest way to contact anyone because they can get their notification on thier phones.
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ncouragingminds~September 11, 2011 at 9:21 PM
Anabel,

Great seeing you in class once again!! I can't wait to hear about your connections in the Phillipines. You always bring a global perspective to the course which enhances the learning experience. I hope that you and your husband are doing well. I wish you the best this semester. Take care.
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My Nanay (means ‘Mother’ in Tagalog) Clarita is the heart and soul of our home. She is a positive thinker and a good motivator. She always look at the good things in life and understands also the challenges that comes with it. The only face you see is her smile which brighten the day of so many people. She lives everyday making sure that she has done everything she could and treated each day as if it was her last day. You will never see her complain about things and finds solutions rather than blame people.

My mother raised seven children and she treated each one of us uniquely because she believes that each one of us have our own strength and weaknesses. She treated us differently in a good way because she believes that we are unique in our own special way. She also respects us and allow us to grow independently knowing our unique qualities. She also make sure that we discover our own identity and passion and supports us in any endeavor that we want to pursue.

I remember when I was little that my father an mother were so proud of my siblings because they excelled academically in school. I remember my brothers and sister compete in spelling bee or represent our school in science, math or debate contests. Every recognition day, my parents stayed on the stage to accept awards or medals for my siblings achievements. My mom never said anything to me but I know she tried her best to motivate, inspire and give incentives or recognition to inspire me to do well in school. She continued to support me in any activities that I am interested and always believe in me. She reminded me all the time not to feel or think that I am different but believed in me all time. I may be different from my siblings but I am no less than them. She said that each one of us has our own unique way of doing things and should not be compared with each other. She never compared us with each other. She accepted us as unique individuals with unique qualities and abilities.

Now that I am a parent of three wonderful children I would like to do the same with my children. Respect their differences, support them with their choices and guide them to become a better person.

Tatay Benito

My father is the foundation of our home. He is a good provider and has dedicated his life working to send us all to a good school. “Good provider to us” is giving all he got and most of the time “more than what he got”. My father works as a supervisor in Central Bank of the Philippines. Though he does not have enough to take home for pay, he still managed to send us all to college and to a good school too.

I remembered my father telling us the importance of education. He said his wish for us is to study hard and finish college. I remembered him saying that he regrets not going to school, he often said: “If only I studied harder and finish college, our situation will be better than this.”

During enrollment time my father will bring the title of our land and our house to the bank and serve as “collateral” for our educational loan. One time, my little brother wanted to buy something and he asks my father if he could have five pesos (our currency), my father gave his pay envelop to him. The coins fell off the envelope, my father only have about five pesos and about sixty cents. My little brother gave it back to him and never asks money from him anymore.

Another experience my eldest brother shared with me was when my father brought him to the cemetery, the jail and the museum, where they display the pictures of the President of the Philippines and their accomplishments. My father told him: “Son I brought you here to show you that these are your choices in life - either you die, go to jail or make the most out of your life and become a successful person; it is up to you to make that decision”.

With these inspiring stories and experiences that I learned and wanted to pass it on to my children. I would like them to make their own choices and whatever decisions they made, whether it is right or wrong, they need to take responsibility, find resolution and face the consequences of their actions.

These are my brothers and sister. Believe it or not, we never ever fight. We have so much respect for each other. When our parents ask us who is going to wash the dishes or clean something, all of us are in a hurry to do it first. When somebody gets to do it first, we still help each other out to finish the tasks. I am the fifth out of seven and I treat my elder brother and eldest sister with much respect as we have for our father or mother. In our culture, when your big brother asks you to do something, we just do it without asking questions. We just obey. If we have one candy, we will cut it into small pieces and get our shares, the weirdest thing is: the biggest portion of the candy will be left and nobody will take it or we give it to our youngest brother. We complement each other and respect each other’s privacy.

Our house has five rooms on the second floor. Our rooms do not have doors on it because my parents believed that an open room means open communication. Anyone can go in and out of any rooms. When I was little, we all sleep together on the floor with mat on it; except for my eldest sister and eldest brother they have their own bed as well as my parents. Nobody says: ‘it’s not fair!”

Aloha To My Ohana EC Bloggers

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

ALOHA TO MY OHANA

Saturday, September 10, 2011

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