Celebration of the Appreciation Day for Early Childhood Professionals at SEGi College

A gifted storyteller, Judy Shaik shares with Early Childhood Educators the art of story telling for young children.

22nd September 2006 Approximately 200 childcare providers, kindergarten teachers and early childhood educators attended the Appreciation Day for Early Childhood Professionals organised by the Faculty of Education and Social Sciences (FOESS) of SEGi College Subang Jaya. “ This is a special day to recognise the work of childcare providers, kindergarten teachers and early childhood educators. Early Childhood Professionals work hard to provide quality education and care for young children and their families across the country. Young children and their families benefit greatly from the work of Early Childhood Professionals. Good Early Childhood Professionals are the key to the programme's quality,” said Lydia Foong, Dean of FOESS at SEGi College Subang Jaya . The FOESS first began this event last year 2005. Due to overwhelming response, it was decided that the event be held annually. This year, the halls and classrooms were just as packed.

“We hope that this appreciation day, as we continue to advocate, will provide the opportunity for parents, communities, and policy makers to appreciate the valuable work of Early Childhood Professionals,” said Foong.

The event was divided into 5 parts and the guest speakers for the event were Alec Chang, Victor Tan, Cherry Pua-Africa, Nallini Swaminathan and Judy Shaik.

Alec Chang, an adjunct lecturer in the Faculty of Education at UKM, highlighted the vital role of the adult in communicating accurately with children, especially in the early years. “We look into the peculiarities of children's language and the need to block out language bloopers and blunders,” said Chang.

The second speaker of the day was Victor Tan, advisor of the curriculum panel for the Chinese Private Secondary School music. Tan shared the importance of sharing within families through music and movement. He even introduced music and songs specially composed to provide learning and development ideas for teaching young children named “Family Tide”.

“Let us sing, dance and laugh together with ‘Family Tide'. It brings a closer bond within the family, neighbourhood, community and nation,” said Tan.

Always a hit with the crowd, Tan's antics and openness brought on a lot of smiles and laughter.

After lunch, the Early Childhood Professionals gathered into groups to attend their choice of workshop conducted by remaining 3 speakers.

Ms Cherry Pua-Africa, the managing director of Never Ending Stories Singapore and consultant to numerous schools in the USA , shared the magical effect of stories in teaching. She taught the participants the basics of telling stories, the difference between telling a tale and reading a story, why stories are important in the classroom, how stories can be applied in all subjects, the different techniques of telling stories, the use of voice and movements and so on.

“Children may have considerable difficulty in trying to tell us what they feel or how they have been affected by what is troubling them,” said Nallini Swaminathan, a co-founder of “Metta”, an organization that help individuals cope with life's challenges.

“In the presence of a caring, sensitive and empathic adult, children will show what they feel through toys and materials they choose, what they do with and to the materials and the story is acted out,” added Nallini.

Judy Shaik, a freelance storyteller in the libraries and bookstores around Kuala Lumpur spoke on “The Gift of Storytelling”. She demonstrated the use of felt board storytelling as well as interactive stories that can be told to a wide age range of children, including second language learners.

“Good storytellers have good skills. You can have a lot of fun with storytelling and gain these skills so that we can motivate our listeners to become avid and enthusiastic readers,” said Shaik.

The event ended with an exhibition of Early Childhood Products. The participants went home with goodie bags full of interesting products and rejuvenated minds.

“ As this is my first experience with SEGi, my comments are nothing else but two thumbs up for the effort to upgrade the standard of early childhood professionals and also to provide a platform to enhance the professionals of this industry. Thank you!” said an enthusiastic participant.

SEGi College FOESS is dedicated to improving the quality of programmes for young children. The early childhood profession is becoming a popular career option as well as a programme that young parents to learn about tied, tested and proven methods of bringing out the best in young children.

“SEGi's FOESS is dedicated to improving the quality of programmes for young children. Up to now, we have produced over a thousand graduates who are serving the children in our country. In April this year, we have also witness the graduation of our first batch of graduates from the Bachelor of Early Childhood programme through our collaboration with University of Southern Queensland . We offer a full academic pathway in early childhood education from certificate through to diploma, degree and master's programme,” said Foong.

Partnering with Montessori Centre International, SEGi College offers the International Diploma in Montessori Pedagogy. The Intake is in October 2006.

The International Diploma in Montessori Pedagogy include subjects such as Montessori Philosophy, Child Development, Observation & Assessment, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood Education, Childcare, Health and Special Education Needs, Practical Life, Sensorial Education, Literacy Skills, Mathematics, Cultural Studies (Science, History, Geography) and Creative (Arts, Drama, Music & Movement).

The diploma programmes are approved by the Ministry of Higher Education.

Upon completion of the Diploma, Students have the option to articulate into the Bachelor of Early Childhood Degree from the University of Southern Queensland, Australia.

SEGi College is the largest private education provider in Malaysia. With a network of 66 campuses in 5 major towns and cities in the country, the college has a total of 15000 students. SEGi also own St Nicholas Montessori Centre for children aged 2½ to 6, located at Bandar Utama, Subang USJ, Klang, Malacca and Penang.