Humans Of Create Lab

FEATURE ONE: AMY

Welcome to #HumansofCreateLab where we feature a minion at Create Lab who has been working super hard behind the scenes and making all of this possible.

For our very first post, we have Amy! It wasn’t difficult to figure out why our students love her so much after looking at how she conducted her lessons. She was very patient when teaching the kids and we saw how she was really passionate in imparting her knowledge to her students during the lessons. Without further ado, let us find out more about her!

1. What was the thing you enjoy most about working at Create Lab?
I must say it’s teaching kids about computing! I love kids, and I personally enjoy coding. Nothing can be more awesome than getting a combination of all that while playing a part in exposing these kids to technology. I am also very grateful for the opportunities that Thilan, Drhuv and his team have given me. They are very kind and flexible people who were willing to guide beginner instructors like me and have also imparted a lot of knowledge to me. Thank you so much!

2. I see that you really love teaching the kids, were there any instances when you felt that you also learnt something from your students?
Definitely! My most memorable incident is when I tried to settle one of the students who was a tad more active. He was very distracted during the lesson and was also disrupting the others who were trying to learn. Afterwards, I realized that he was actually very keen to learn when I gave him more affection and patience, and that he was disrupting the rest to to grab my attention the whole time.
That was when I realized that as instructors, we have to constantly adapt to the needs of the students. At many times, when the class is not going the way we want it to be because of a particular student, we will have to quickly pinpoint the reason behind the student’s action and solve it on the spot. It really forces me to think on my feet and this is a valuable skill that I will be working on down the road as I gain more experience.

3. Seems like you have really learnt quite a lot while working with the kids, care to share some of your favorite memories with them?
Kids are a bundle of joy, for most of the time hahahaha! I especially love seeing the kids interacting with the robots because they always look very excited. Some of my favorite moments are definitely seeing them share the equipment with one another politely and their big wide smiles on their faces when they eagerly show me their finished projects after a period of hard work.

Hope you guys found out a little more about Amy and her time at Create Lab. Stay tune to Create Lab for more #HumansOfCreateLab! See you next time!

FEATURE TWO: HONG YI

Welcome to our second feature of #HumansOfCreateLab! Today, we met up with Hong Yi, who is another of our dedicated lead instructor here at Create Lab.

We could really sense the passion and dedication in this young man when he shared with us about his teaching experience at Create Lab. Let’s hear more from him!

Just to know a bit more about you, were you more of a rebellious or obedient kid?

I was actually quite obedient in Primary School! Was quite like a model student – punctual in submitting my homework and always following instructions from my teachers. But all these changed in Upper Secondary. I became rebellious and almost flunked the O Levels with very bad results. Fortunately, I was able to still get a placing in Temasek Polytechnic (TP). So then, something struck me when I was studying in TP, things got better from there and eventually I got into university and here I am today.

Wow, I couldn’t tell! You look like a really obedient kid hahahaha. So, I know you have taught some of the classes at Create Lab, what were some of the things you did to try get a kid’s attention when they got too noisy or distracted?

It really depends on the age group I’m dealing with. If it’s a group of younger kids, it will be a lot harder to get their attention. So in order to get their attention, what I usually do is to give them sweets to grab their attention. Whenever they listen, or they participate in class, I will give some sweets to them as a form of reward. There can be many forms of incentives, but my primary one would be food hahahahah.

For the older kids, what I will do is to set some ground rules before the start of the class so that everyone comes to a common consensus on what can be done or not be done. It applies to the younger kids as well.

Seems like you really have a way with kids! Were there any instances when you felt that you learnt something from your students?

After every class I teach, I get reminded that every single one of us are creative in our own way. Sadly, as we enter adulthood, it seems that many of us are very concerned with adhering to social standards. I’m sure that many of us now are doing something different from what we aspired to be when we were a child. If we are able to ignite the dreams that we yearned for and dare to utilise our creativity to do it, there would definitely be more happy people contented to work what they like instead of adhering to social standards and stuck in the ‘rat race’.

Hope you guys have enjoyed the #HumansOfCreateLab feature for today. See you guys again next week! 🙂