When I recounted my first teaching experience at a Singapore preschool to Felicia, she laughed for a good 30 minutes straight.
Hello everybody! I am Sherine, Empire Code’s Sales and Marketing Executive. Aside from my marketing job, Felicia has graciously given me the opportunity to teach as well. My first teaching experience, however, was quite hilarious. I was trained to teach Cubetto for kids as young as 3. Cubetto teaches children programming using a cute little robot, with zero screen time. It is a play-based brain development programme that targets left and right brain training for early childhood.
Last month, a local preschool invited us to conduct a Cubetto workshop for a class of 9-10 kids ages 3 & 4. I was sent to teach as a main trainer, along with one of my colleagues. I was nervous, since it was the first time I was teaching a very big group of kids and was concerned about engaging such a large group. Hence, I did what I could do to prepare – I braided my hair into pigtails to manifest my inner child, prepared a skit, and made sure my voice was on bubbly mode. The first half of the session went wonderfully well – the kids were interested in their new robot friend, and everyone had fun learning to code the robot using the play-based blocks whilst solving the simple missions given to them.
However, it all went downhill just before the class ended. As they are still very young, their attention span was, of course, limited. That was when everything else became more fun and interesting in comparison to Cubetto… and that included me 🙂
They started to remove my pigtails (I spent 10 minutes braiding my hair), and claimed they would wash my hair using the teddy bear props used for Cubetto’s missions. This was followed by multiple attempts to tie my hair, soap my hair and a pretend hair spa experience, acted out collectively by a group of excited preschoolers, as they clung to my arms at various points.
I tried (very hard) to get them to focus and complete the rest of Cubetto’s missions, but it was in vain. I sent a “help me” look to my colleague, as well as the teachers in Eton House, but they found it so funny they just laughed along with the kids. At the end of the session, my hair was, well, all over the floor. Funnily enough, one of the kids had the audacity to ask me, “Teacher, why did you lose so much hair?”, while I looked on with disbelief.
As I reminisce about this incident, I cannot help but laugh. It was an interesting teaching experience at a preschool, coupled with some hair loss. I have gained a profound respect for early childhood educators. Whether it was Cubetto or the faux hair spa experience, the kids loved the trial lesson, and we were invited to return to conduct a full holiday camp for them.
My boss, Felicia, decided it was a good idea to send me there again to teach…..well I guess I shall wear a cap….