Teachers are an important part of one’s life when growing up.

On Aug. 31, the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) uploaded a heartwarming two-minute video on Beanstalk’s Facebook page.

The video features a group of bumbling toddlers describing their teachers at preschool.

Preschoolers describe their teacher

The young and innocent students described their preschool teacher in the most imaginative ways possible:

According to them, she’s rather tall. How tall?

“Reach until there.”

Apparently, their teacher is pretty strong too, as two of them illustrate.

Their teacher appears to have “superpowers” as well, so they claim.

According to these kids, their teachers’ list of superpowers includes (but is not limited to):

• Having “happy superpowers”, i.e. being able to make them laugh till they have bellyaches;

• Making their tears disappear; and

• Being able to come back really quickly from the toilet.

Expressing gratitude to their preschool teachers

To commemorate Teachers’ Day, the students created a special card to express their gratitude to their teachers, as proudly displayed by the children in the video.

The card was an amalgamation of various things that their teachers have taught them, from knowledge about planets and outer space, to washing their hands with soap to “defeat” Covid-19.

The gratitude did not come only from the students, but also parents, who had relied on the teachers’ virtual classes to keep their children occupied while working from home.

“Her virtual classes make all the difference when working from home,” one parent shared about a teacher.

Another parent shared how the preschool teachers were able to constantly think out of the box to come up with creative ideas on how to keep their young students engaged during classes.

More than just teaching young children

In the classroom, these preschool teachers are clearly more than just educators who teach ABCs and 123s. They also facilitate the children’s playtime, mediate conflicts, help instill good values, and even remember every child’s food preferences during mealtimes.

A preschool teacher once recalled how she would gently persuade and encourage children who tend to be picky with their food, to eat more vegetables when they leave it aside.

Children would get into petty quarrels and disagreements with each other on a regular basis as well. As their teacher, she would come up with different ways to help mediate such conflicts and teach them to get along with one another.

During the circuit breaker period from April to June earlier this year, most preschools were limited to holding virtual classes as part of safe distancing measures to prevent the spread of the virus.

Workers in non-essential industries were also mandated to work from home, and many parents were unable to seek help from grandparents living in separate households to help take care of their young children.

In order to facilitate teaching and learning during the pandemic, many teachers, including preschool teachers, were faced with the challenge of conducting virtual lessons, which was new and perhaps daunting to many.

Despite the difficulties, these children seem to have enjoyed learning from their teachers and were greatly enriched by their lessons.

Many preschool teachers also went above and beyond their duties in the (virtual) classroom by organising virtual birthday parties and festive celebrations on Hari Raya and Mother’s Day for their students, as well as regularly checking in with the children and their parents.

Some even went out of their way to deliver groceries and learning materials to families who were unable to leave their homes.

Besides their primary responsibilities as a teacher, our preschool teachers have also grown to become role models who inspire many young children.

Through their hard work, professionalism and passion, these preschool teachers are responsible too in many ways for shaping Singapore’s future by igniting the spark in our children that would define the generations to come.

Happy Teachers’ Day to all our preschool teachers!

To find out more about the important role that early childhood educators play in Singapore, you can visit the ECDA website here.

This sponsored article by ECDA makes this writer miss the teachers that have taught her everything she knows today.

Top images via ECDA