A Halloween trip to the Popeye village in Malta. It was so much fun being scared all evening. We laughed and screamed like crazy. They really put a lot of effort into decorating the village and scaring us. It was amazing. Especially the haunted house.

Here is a picture of the village during the day. Not scary at all 🙂

The Popeye movie was filmed here back in 1980.

A day trip to Gozo.

School is so amazing this semester. First of all, getting dressed has never been easier. Just throw on a dress. Done. Then, we live so close to the University of Malta that it takes longer to fill up my 2.5 l water bottle at the fountain than it takes to walk over to school. And lastly, I have time for Yoga before going to school. I remember working the early shift at Pooh Corner and waking up tired every day (and then I still had to go to classes at night). 8 hours of sleep are amazing. I recommend it to everyone.

In our last module we’re looking at curriculum. Vanessa Paki from New Zealand is our lecturer; her and Linda Mitchell (also form New Zealand) co-taught the module that we just finished. It’s nice to have the continuity and have Vanessa here a little bit longer. She infuses the classes with some of the amazing things they have been doing in New Zealand. If I’m planning to go for a PhD at the Uni of Waikato, I will already have family there… Linda and Vanessa have been absolutely wonderful.

This week we’ve been busy analyzing New Zealand’s Curriculum Framework, Te Whāriki (this is Maori for a woven mat). The curriculum is built on four principles: Empowerment, Relationships, Holistic Development, & Family and Community. The mat is woven around these principles. Every mat is unique as it reflects the diversity of each ECCE service.

In this course we’ll be analyzing our own curricular frameworks. In Canada we don’t have a national curriculum, but some of the provinces have started to design curricular frameworks; British Columbia has developed the Early Learning Framework in 2008. When I worked at Pooh Corner, I somehow missed the wave that told educators about this new framework. I’m learning now that the authors of our framework have been influenced by New Zealand (and others…). I was much more informed about another development in my province, because I was a student at Capilano when the Community Plan for a public system of Integrated Care and Learning was released. We went to a session to learn about the plan and later wrote a letter provide feedback to the authors. I can look at our early learning framework and the plan through different eyes now that I’m in this MA program.

Why am I telling you all this? Remember last year when Lucy and I wrote an article for a journal in BC about the new ECCE degree at Capilano University? We concluded the article with our hope that “the Plan, the framework, and the degree can work together”. Looking at that sentence now is quite strange. I know that we wrote it, but I didn’t really think about how connected they are. I knew that the BA degree was important, but I didn’t know enough about the plan and the framework. Stepping back now and analyzing the different documents has been so much fun. I’m excited about all the advocacy in BC and I can’t wait to find my place once I return. I guess I’m already in my place right now…

I remember back in Oslo I was certain that I could go back to work at Pooh Corner after this degree. I still believe that I can. I think it’s important to have educators with BA and MA degrees working with young children. However, I feel that many other doors are opening in front of me and it’s just a matter of going through. I have sooo many ideas of what I would like to do. In fact, I might just have to write my own job description.

Good morning 32.

Audrey is my friend from Ireland. I first met her family in Norway when we went to IKEA together. This seems like a lifetime ago. Then, Audrey’s family welcomed us in Ireland and took us on the most beautiful trip. Today I saw Audrey and her dad at the seawall in Malta 🙂 and later in the day I ran into them at the pub… What a nice day. We had such a  nice time and laughed a lot. The world is getting smaller by the minute.

And once again I ran out of time to look over my research proposal. We’ll have to present it in a month from now and then we will also find out where we will spend the last semester. I’ll try my best to work on it this week, because we’ll be swamped with homework for the new module before we now it.

This was a great 4 day weekend, we were good tourists and mediocre students. All in all a 10/10 for this long weekend. My eye infection is also gone, tomorrow I will start taking anti-histamines, it looks as though I am allergic to cacti. noooooooo, lol.  I have no idea what’s blooming, but my eyes & nose sure don’t like it.

PS: Did I mention that I went for a swim in the Mediterranean today?

In the last couple of weeks we’ve been able to visit some schools here in Malta. They are grouped in 3 categories: State, Independent, and Church schools. I spent some time in an independent school and in a state school. Here are some observations.

1. Religion is a part of the programs and prayers are a part of everyday life.

2. Every classroom has an interactive whiteboard, I would love one for my house.

3. The classrooms are quite structured and academic. They are located in schools and look like classrooms. The three year olds sat at table and learned their ABCs for most of the morning. When it was “free play”, the teacher told the children where they could play. You play with the blocks, you play with the sand, and you two can do art. For art they coloured in the number 1 with paint. Finished. Move on to the next activity. What a difference. I never realized just how much freedom we enjoyed at Pooh Corner.

4. At drop-off & pick-up, children are handed-over at the gate, and there is little parent communication. I’m not sure when the parents actually go to the classrooms. At the independent/private school, drop-off was done in a gym-like room. There was so much noise and craziness that I felt so lost. There must have been over 70 children running lose. Then the head of school blows a whistle, all children line up, and they pray together.

5. In the independent school children speak English, in the state school children speak Maltese.

no alarm, no essays, no homework.

We’ve finished the first course here in Malta, Professional Reflections. The paper was the most challenging paper I’ve written so far, but I loved stretching my brain in new ways. We ended the course with a guest speaker from Denmark. He talked to us about ECCE and the 17 of us were happy to listen to a man for a change. His way of being/ teaching reminded us of our teachers in Norway. I cannot believe the amount of people we’ve met from all over the world.

Today we’re handing the paper that has been taking over our lives for the last weeks. Mine is waiting to be e-mailed, I’m too scared to click send. Seems so final.

Today I also woke up with an eye infection. Time to take a break from my laptop.