Posted by Teacher Ria in Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

PsychConsult Summer Workshops 2011

Just sharing with you dear readers

Here is a list of summer workshops that the clinic I am part of, PsycConsult Inc.,  will be holding over the summer. I’d give you the link to our website, but right now we’re in some sort of a transition, what with trying to find the best web hosting package for our company and while we’re trying to decide whether to get one of those managed hosting deals or what not.  I’m technically trying to figure things out, but there’s really so much I don’t understand yet about the whole process (what with me not understanding how these servers work, what colocation is and even how to back things up manually in a CPanel. Haha). If you can explain this to me, I’d greatly appreciate that.

Anyway, I’m rambling. Lemme get back to the point: here is a schedule of workshops you can check out:

• For therapists, counselors, teachers and other professionals:
  • A Writeshop on Psychological Report Writing, May 6-7, 2011, 8am-5pm
  • Suicide Risk in Psychotherapy: Assessment and Response, May 21, 2011, 8am-5pm
• For children and adolescents
  • Social Skills Workshop (for children/adolescents ages 8-16), April 26-29 and May 2-5, 9am-11am
• For adults
  • Expressive Pottery (for individuals 18 years old and up), may 9-13, 5:30-8:30 pm

I hope you can join in on any of those workshops. As for me, maybe I can find one that can teach me the ropes in this whole IT world that I try to live in…yes, please define HTML, CSS and all those other foreign sounding codes to me!!!

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Multimedia Center, Teaching Resources | 0 Comments

Not All Fun and Games

For the most part, people think the internet, especially for the younger generations, is all a waste of time. I would strongly disagree. Although, yes, I will readily admit that too many a time, it does end up being a distraction and a bad habit for the kids. However, the benefits behind it is so much greater. Just the other day I was discussing with a fellow teacher about how the internet and technology has totally changed the face of the learning environment. She was sharing how the kids now are making investigative projects with a review of related literature that can rival one that is made by undergraduates of our time. For example, if one were to do an investigative project behind, lets say, how insurance companies work, they can simply type in some keywords like life insurance online and then have a whole array of resources to look into. They can also type in online inquiries so they can see how costs are divided for premiums and so on and so forth. Back in the day when this was not available, they would actually have to interview insurance agents and the like to get input, and that can be a little difficult. Of course, it should be pointed out that data may be skewed and not too accurate through the information superhighway (errr…as a radio DJ said the other day: misinformation superhighway haha), so they should still be careful.

Another valuable use of the internet, in my opinion, is for teaching kids how to write essays and the like. I know of this little kiddie blogger, who is actually a daughter of a local blogger herself, who writes the cutest reviews on her blog, and she is all of six years old. She has written reviews about her favorite things, such as books, food and toys. And yes: as far as I know she is the one managing and handling the blog. I can tell because of the way it is written, which really reflects a child’s thoughts and candor. It’s entertaining to actually read her blog.

As a teacher of young kids, I can see the infinite potential of this whole blogging world for them. As children, after all, we were once encouraged to keep journals and diaries, right? Just a reminder, however, it is important to be cautious with the kind of information being shared by these kiddie bloggers. In my opinion, as long as mommy and daddy monitor the blogging behavior, it can be a good thing. In fact, for me, I would prefer that kids had blogs rather than got into Facebook or what not…which believe me, even with age restrictions, still happens a lot.

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Random Snappies | 0 Comments

Today’s Random Snappy: Caught in the Middle

10 days and I find myself caught in the middle…I know I have to let go to soar, but right now, the fear of the unknown, the losing of the identity…it’s getting to me.

Posted by Teacher Ria in Reflections, Teacher's Corner | 0 Comments

No Students Allowed

Working with adolescents still surprise me, even if I have been working with them for the longest time. That’s one major reason why I don’t like adding them up on my social networking sites, although I do know that some of them do read my blogs. I’m afraid that something I say will be taken out of context and then before I know it, I get caught in something that was not meant to happen. For example, I do talk about a lot of personal things I like to do outside of my teaching life. I am, after all, still human, right? But it bothers me when they see pictures of me in compromising positions (errr…I just mean in a party where drinks are served, in the beach wearing a swimsuit etc.) and so I try to avoid allowing them access to that.

Also, I don’t want them to say that they learned something from me inadvertently. For example, what if I say something about an herbal supplement or a diet drink that I tried…then they do it too…and they say I was able to learn more about slimquick here (or whatever, you know what I mean!!!) and pastes the URL of my status message or Tweet to their own walls and whatnot. Dangerous grounds. Haha.

And so while I know there are ways around social media, I make it a point to try to keep my world as student free as possible, albeit I know impossible. I do, however, APPRECIATE IT SOOOOO VERY MUCH when my students drop by my blog and leave me comments or questions Twitter they’re welcome to, but Facebook and Plurk, for now, I will stand firm and say, no students allowed please

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Posted by Teacher Ria in Uncategorized | 0 Comments

Looking Back…

I was sorting through some old photos earlier, some of which were taken about three years ago when I first returned to Playschool after my brief hiatus and couldn’t help but be appalled, shocked and amazed at my size back then. Haha. I was teaching the Toddler’s class and I was HUGE! Maybe that’s why I had one little kid who was terrified of me haha.

Looking back I realized how hard it was to be a fun teacher back then. Sure I did get to play and be silly with my kids but, um, it was so much harder. Nowadays, even if I still am overweight, it is easier to run around and bend over and jump through hoops with the kids (errr..some days though I wish I had some belly fat burners because my abs (or should I say flabs) get in the way of squeezing through the jungle gym and the slide!!!).

It also got me to thinking about physical attributes and how this really affects social interactions. Deep, huh? Seriously though, it made me realize that the way one looks really does affect how others perceive and engage with them. The fear, for example, of that little girl of me was probably unfounded, but because she was so tiny and I so huge, it can be intimidating, right?

So, while I KNOW size doesn’t really matter much and it doesn’t make you a better (or worse) person, being more fit, especially as a preschool teacher, is helpful because it can have the capacity to dictate how you can move and interact with the kids. Let’s not forget, after all, when we work with kids, we sit in teeny tiny chairs and work with smaller stuff right???

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