Friday 28 November 2008

Punishment for the parents or the children?

Whilst I was doig my research for excluded children, I found one information that really annoying me. Under laws which announced in the Education Act 2007 that parents can be hit with fines of £50 if they can't keep their excluded children out of public place and further more it could rise up to £100 when parents can't pay within 28 days and after 42 days if the parents still can't pay then they will face prosecution and a possible £1,000 fine plus a criminal record!!

These children who are excluded from school need help so as their parents and families!! How can they being punish make it work or make it better? Rather then punish the parents, the government should come out some services to support the child and the parents (well there are some but not a great deal and will take forever to get it unless you place your child into care then things will sort out quicker and this comment is only come from my personal experiences). Some parents hasn't got the ability to manage their misbehaviour children unless they have the knowledge and the support. Moreover some parents haven't got the money and time off the their work, it doesn't mean they failed as parents. The stress that parents of children who are excluded from school face are greater then anybody can image especially the school and the government.
However it is parents' responsibility to their own children but as parents you only can do so much. If the child doesn't want to listen to parent and decided to go out in public then as parent can you physically restrain the child? the answer is no, you can't because it will come to the issue that how about children's right?!
By the way, to excluded a child from school is very expensive. The extra resources will spend on the child who is excluded from school like Educational Department, the Social services and Health departments and the police. The cost of one excluded child could up to £4,500 a year (well LA would have to pay for it, maybe that's why the parents gets the fine so they can use it to cover up the cost!!)

Friday 21 November 2008

Is it true that we are too old to understand children of the next generation?

The news that you might be interesting and also relate to our course and the topic that we were talking about - connectivism. This research's finding is:

There is a generation gap in how youth and adults view the value of online activity.

Adults tend to be in the dark about what youth are doing online, and often view online activity as risky or an unproductive distraction.
Youth understand the social value of online activity and are generally highly motivated to participate.
Youth are navigating complex social and technical worlds by participating online.

Young people are learning basic social and technical skills that they need to fully participate in contemporary society.
The social worlds that youth are negotiating have new kinds of dynamics, as online socializing is permanent, public, involves managing elaborate networks of friends and acquaintances, and is always on.
Young people are motivated to learn from their peers online.

The Internet provides new kinds of public spaces for youth to interact and receive feedback from one another.
Young people respect each other’s authority online and are more motivated to learn from each other than from adults.
Most youth are not taking full advantage of the learning opportunities of the Internet.

Most youth use the Internet socially, but other learning opportunities exist.
Youth can connect with people in different locations and of different ages who share their interests, making it possible to pursue interests that might not be popular or valued with their local peer groups.
“Geeked-out” learning opportunities are abundant – subjects like astronomy, creative writing, and foreign languages.

Often children said to me that I am too old to understand how they feel/think and the new world out there. I found myself spilt into two parts because I am still studying in the college so part of me is fresh and still adopting the new tech from the college. But another part of me is a way too old, being a mother of five children (including the foster children), I do feel there is a big gap between me and the children, well not just the age also our values and beliefs. If these children are learning their social skill online then maybe we as parents should go online as well so we can learn and find out more what are children thinking these days.

these information is cited from http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/11/20/online-time-important-to-teen-development/3386.html

Monday 17 November 2008

Erik Erikson's 8 stages of Moral development

After watching all the videos that I can find, I found this one is making more sense to me than other, well personally.
So I would like to share with everyone who are studying ECS, you may find it a little bit boring in the middle of video(well, I was!), just be patient, you may be find it useful for you to understand what Erik Erikson's 8 stages of Moral development. Enjoy

Children see and children do

After watch this video make me relaise how important I am to my children. It's not who I am is what I do. Most of times I wonder how my children behave the way that I never can understand where it come from. I was feeling guilty because being a bad role model but it's never too late to change because children are stilling watching and learning from me. This video is for every parent to see:

How to put video from Y tube to your blog instead take long time to download

I was spending hours just to put Y tube video on my blog. now I found out how to do it in easy and not time wasteing way. here is:

Here are the steps, it may look difficult but trust me once you done it, you will think it's EASY

1) go Y tube find the video that you want
2) copy the video's "Embed address" which just placed next to the video
3) go to your blog and open your new posting
4) on the top right of your posting, you will see "Edit Html", just change format from "Compose" to "Edit html"
5) paste your video's Embed address in the post and place it any where you want in your post
6) after you finish, don't forget to change back to "Compose" to carry on your normal writing
7) don't forget you can't see the video when you creating the post but you will see it when you view your blog
enjoy your blogging
if you ever cross any problem, let me know and I will happy to help

Saturday 15 November 2008

My beautiful daughter Jessica

In this piece of writing, I will talk about my daughter Jessica, she is the most beautiful girl in the world who is always in my eyes and in my mind. How does she looks like? Why is her personality so special that shines? Moreover there are some memories that we have as mother and daughter. I will try to explain it but I might fail as there are few words good enough to explain the love that I have for my daughter Jessica. I could never have imagined that I would consider giving up everything in my life for anyone else. I never thought it would be possible to love someone so much and can also give you so many headaches. So with this in my mind, this is how I am going to describe what my little princess / monster is like.
Jessica is my first-born child who is now seven years old. She is small for her age compared with other children who are at the same age. Jessica’s dark, long and wavy hair looks like that she could be on a hair shampoo advert because of the texture of silky and shiny hair. When the light hits her hair it looks like streaks of gold. Her face is round and looks like she has nuts stored in her cheeks. This does not distract people’s eyes from her as she smiles and two big dimples appear on the each side of her rosy cheeks and other two little dimples on the each side of her tiny chin, it is the cutest thing I have ever seen in my life. As Jessica is mixed race, her facial features are very different from English children or the Chinese children. Her eye colour is dark brown and shaped like an almond with long and curly eyelashes that makes her eyes seems to other people that she is talking through them. This makes her look very unique and beautiful both in England and Taiwan. Her skin is not white or brown but a lovely soft mixture. And when we go on holiday, her skin does tan easily which she is very proud of. Her face does not tan, instead she gets lots of freckles.

We take her to swimming lessons on Friday every week which is her favourite activity outside school hours. When she walks to the pool in her swimming costume, she normally walks like she is Britain’s next top model. She has a very athletic figure for her age which makes me worry when she gets older as any mum would be. She has a very strong personality that I could see the moment she was born. While other babies were crying for a feed, nappy change or ask for attention, she was quiet unlike other babies in the room. All she did was to make a little noise that could be any kinds of sound enable me to tell when she needed feeding or changing. In her early years, she rarely asked me to pick her up or rock her to sleep. When she was four, she already had her own opinions and choices for a lot of things by told us what to do or matched her own outfit including the shoes! Once she made up her mind, it’s not easy to change unless she has been asked by the teachers or myself, however this not always the case.

There are many more ways that I can describe my daughter Jessica if only I had the chance. However this is the start of my journal, in the future there will be more to write about my beautiful Jessica and my other family members.

Thursday 13 November 2008

Dr.Nina Simone



Dr. Nina Somone was born in Tryon as the sixth of sven children in a poor family. She prodigy played piano at the age of four. With the help of her music teacher, who set up the the fund for her so she could continue her genered and musical education. To support her family financially, she started working as an accompanist and she was trained to become a classical pianist, stepped into show business. When four black children were killed in the bombing of a church in Birmingham in 1963, Nina wrote Mississippi Goddam, a bitter and furious accusation of the situation of her people in the USA.
There is more about her, and this is the website that if you are interesting - http://www.ninasimone.com/nina.html

Tuesday 11 November 2008

Maybe the theories aren't always right!!

I need to share this news with everyone who is studying this course. This could be a break through for the attachment theory that we studied before.
Remember the monkey experiment by Harry Harlow? He concluded that baby monkey cannot grow up to be 'normal' without live mothers after the experiment.
If you want to read more about the baby monkey experiment, here is book that you can have a look, 'Child Development A First Course by Kathy Sylva & Ingrid Lunt publish in 2003, P15-P23


There is a medical research prove that he could be wrong.
this is the website that you can read the news, http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/11/11/incubator-care-reduces-depression-risk/3312.html

HW for Brian's lesson - The High/Scope

The High/Scope approach is baded on 40 years of research and practice. It centres on recognising and supporting the unique differences in children aged between two and six and developing their self-confidence by building on what they can do. It influenced by the writing of Jean Piaget. Piaget's theory of development supported the original curriculum team's philosophical orientation toward active learning. As the approach developed, the teachers involved in the project concentrated on the pragmatics of integrating theory and daily classroom practice.
The High/Scope programme was devised by Dr David Weikart in response to the continued low achievement of students at high school in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

The principles of High/Scope programme
The child is the central as active learner
Active learning
Key experiences
Adult-child interaction
Learning environment
The daily routine
The plan-do-review process

The influence of High/Scope
show the long term impact of children's involvement
an impact in the classroom
promote problem-solving, listening and evaluation
encouraging children to evaluate, reflect on or review what they have done is very helpful in the learning process
the High/Scope Educational Foundation has been active in exploring the needs of children from birth to three, infants and toddlers, and in expanding the knowledge that we have of children's development.
and is referenced in Brth to Three Matters

This infomation is cited from 'How children learn' by Linda Pound

Positve or Negative?

After read the news, I found it interesting due to the lastest topic that we were talking about connectistivm. For me to see, maybe this is a good chance to introduce positive thought to the internet user in China. If they can use this internet addiction in educational way to encourage students use it wisely, that will great developing in their education system.

Monday, Nov 10 (Psych Central) -- Despite there being no agreed-upon definition of “Internet addiction” amongst international researchers, the Chinese health ministry has adopted a new manual recognizing Internet addiction as a legitimate medical disorder.
The new guidelines, likely to be adopted by the government next year, suggest that Internet users who spend six hours or more per day online could be diagnosed with the disorder. Users would also have to exhibit at least one additional symptom, such as difficulty sleeping or concentrating, a yearning to be online, irritation, and mental or physical distress.
The news was reported earlier in China Daily, which cited Chinese psychologists involved in drafting the diagnostic manual. They view the new disorder similar to compulsive gambling or alcoholism.
China has the world’s largest online population at 253 million people, according to official figures, and is growing rapidly as computer use rises along with income levels.
But that has also fed growing concerns over compulsive Internet use.
It’s now estimated that about 10 percent of China’s Internet users under the age of 18, or four million people, were addicted to the Internet. Officials claim that teens and children are mainly “addicted” to “unhealthy” online games.
Chinese officials put the number addicted at 14 percent of China’s Internet users in 2007.
The Chinese government has tried various measures to regulate the booming online gaming market and curb Web use by teens.
In 2005, China opened its first clinic designed to treat Internet addiction. According to a story in the Washington Post in early 2007, however, some treatment for Internet addiction resembled military-style “boot camps.”
In 2006, it ordered all Chinese Internet game manufacturers to install technology in their games that demands players reveal their real name and identification number.

this news cited from http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/11/10/china-declares-internet-addiction-real/3309.htm

Saturday 8 November 2008

If this research is true then should the bullies get penalized?

After read the news from Psych Central that research shows bullies take pleasure in other people's pain, I was confused and immediately come out the question that if the research is true then should the bullies get penalized.
Maybe this research show us what is the possible reason or excuse for children who are bullies, however what we can do about it and can we seem it as type of mental health issue, well I don't know!!??
If I link attachment theory to this research then I can persume that bullies' brain activity have something to do their internal working model which cause similer behaviour from their parents or the primary carers. Internal working model is like the blueprint of child's experience that is stored in the brain and it guides the child and adult's future expectations of self and of others.
This is just my guess of method, if anyone across this area or information, please give me some advice and comment on my personal thought, thanks.

Researchers at the University of Chicago found in the new research that un­u­su­ally ag­gres­sive youth may actually gain some enjoyment from in­flict­ing pain.
Vid­eos of peo­ple get­ting hurt were found to trig­ger flur­ries of ac­ti­vity in a brain ar­ea associted with re­ward in ag­gres­sive youth, the researchers said. Non-aggressive teens had no such brain activity. The researchers measured brain activity using a common brain scanning technique called fMRI.
For ag­gres­sive ad­o­les­cents, see­ing some­one in pain trig­gered strong ac­tiva­t­ion in a brain ar­ea called the ven­tral stria­tum, which re­sponds to pleas­ur­a­ble events, re­search­ers said.
The re­search shows some ag­gres­sive youths’ nat­u­ral em­pa­thet­ic im­pulse may be dis­rupted, said the uni­ver­s­ity’s Jean De­cety, who led the re­search. “This work will help us bet­ter understand ways to work with ju­ve­niles in­clined to ag­gres­sion and vi­o­lence,” he added.
The sci­en­tists com­pared ad­o­les­cent boys with no un­usu­al signs of ag­gres­sion to eight 16- to 18-year-old boys who had shown dis­rup­tive be­hav­ior, such as start­ing a fight, us­ing a weapon or steal­ing af­ter con­fronting a vic­tim.
Par­ti­ci­pants un­der­went brain scans while watch­ing videos of peo­ple hav­ing their foot stepped on, hav­ing a heavy bowl fall on their hands, or the like. The scan­ning sys­tem was of a widely used type known as func­tion­al Mag­net­ic Res­o­nance Im­ag­ing (fMRI), which meas­ures brain ac­ti­vity based on where blood is flow­ing.
Ag­gres­sive ad­o­les­cents showed a “spe­cific and very strong ac­tiva­t­ion” in a brain ar­ea called the ven­tral stria­tum, known from pre­vi­ous stud­ies to re­spond to pleas­ur­a­ble events, De­cety said. Un­like the con­trol group, he added, the more ag­gres­sive youth did­n’t ac­tivate brain areas in­volved in self-con­trol, called the me­di­al pre­fron­tal cor­tex and the tem­poropari­etal junction.
The more nor­mal youth, De­cety said, acted si­m­i­larly to youth in a study re­leased ear­li­er this year, in which his group used scans to show 7- to 12-year-olds are nat­u­rally em­pa­thet­ic toward peo­ple in pain. The scans showed that when the chil­dren saw an­i­ma­t­ions of some­one get hurt, the same part of the brain that reg­istered pain when they hurt be­came ac­tive up­on see­ing some­one else hurt, he ex­plained. When they saw some­one in­ten­tion­ally hurt, the part of the brain as­so­ci­at­ed with un­der­standing so­cial in­ter­ac­tion and mor­al rea­soning be­came active.

this information is cited from http://psychcentral.com/news/2008/11/07/bullies-take-pleasure-in-others-pain/3289.html

Wednesday 5 November 2008

What is the successful interventionist for community education?

In Brain's lesson yesterday, I believed everyone had really good time for discuss what is the definition of successful interventionist with the community education. And we've been asked from our tutor to write it down what's our personal thought of the question. Here is mine.

My definition is to provide varies service to improve the community without disturbing the people's personal life. The purpose of the intervening is to change or improve people's life and their values and beliefs but to be careful not to upset or up side down their thoughts. Respect is the key word for it, people within the community have their unique background and culture. To show them what they can achieve and to meet their full potential are the tasks that government should focus on. Everyone has different standards of SUCCESS, so how to judge is a big question for me or everyone who are interesting to provide good intervene service within the community. Pen Green family centre is a good example of government service, they have been really susscessful for what they are trying to achieve. Their aim is for people in the community to raise their self-esteem, self-confident and to improve outcomes for children and families.