LittleLives Visits Future Preschool Educators

A few weeks ago, LittleLives conducted an early childhood education lecture series for students in ITE College Central! These lessons were conducted by our very own COO Arjuna Raj, who’s currently pursuing his Masters’ Degree in Early Childhood, and has been with LittleLives for the past 6 years! Arjuna and our Angel Bryan, shared with students their insights on using EdTech, classroom management, and creating lesson plans.

“Before this workshop, I thought that technology in classrooms was only used to provide visual aids and such for the teaching process itself.”

— Kasthuri Marjorie, Year One, Early Childhood Education

Over the course of four sessions, they shared:

• an introduction to EdTech and LittleLives apps
• the challenges in early childhood education
• lesson planning strategies
• an introduction to data in early childhood education

We weren’t the only ones doing the sharing! Some of the dedicated students and teachers we met in ITE College Central shared their thoughts and concerns with us!

Kasthuri, who was present for the workshop shared that, “[EdTech] was a new concept to me. Before this workshop, I thought that technology in classrooms was only used to provide visual aids and such for the teaching process itself. Now, I know that teachers can use technology to take attendance, upload videos and pictures, and communicate with parents! It was new to me, but I definitely think that this is something we need in the industry right now.”

[Arjuna and his team] also went the extra mile to make sure that the training complemented what our students are learning in school!

— Chng Voon Nee Jerine, Section Head, Early Childhood, ITE College Central

Ms Jerine, the Section Head of Early Childhood in ITE College Central, also gave us some feedback on the sessions! She very kindly let us know that, “I realised that Arjuna and his team are very dedicated to the training of our students. There was evidently a lot of prep work and a lot of thought that went into the sequence, pace, and content of the training sessions. They also went the extra mile to make sure that the training complemented what our students are learning in school!”

It was a fun four days of learning for the students —and on their fourth and final session, the students got to take over and conduct lessons of their own! Groups of 4 to 6 students took turns to execute lesson plans for classmates who pretended to be four-year-old preschoolers.

“The group of classmates I got to work with really behaved like four-year-olds!”

— Muhammad Syahir Bin Mohammed Alwi, Year One, Early Childhood Education

It got silly and funny; but most importantly, it gave the “teachers” a taste of what it’s like to manage a classroom of little children!

Syahir, another student who participated in the workshop commented, “It’s something that I didn’t expect. The group of classmates I got to work with really behaved like four-year-olds! It gave me some perspective on the kind of challenges that teachers face in terms of classroom management. With this experience, I think that I’ll be better prepared for challenges that I’ll face when I go for my internship. I’ll have better knowledge about what I should and shouldn’t do when dealing with a class of four-year-olds.”

We’d like to extend a thank you to ITE College Central for inviting us. We hope it was as enriching for their students and teachers, as it was for us! It’s always a wonderful experience to meet young people who are excited and looking forward to a future in the Early Childhood scene!