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- Broccoli-Covered Chocolate
Broccoli-covered chocolate made on Midjourney
Sending this week's newsletter couple of days late again. Nothing to do with the World Cup this time. I've been busy working with my team to get a new product out. I'm calling it Broccoli-Covered Chocolate.
Couple of weeks ago, I asked you, dear readers, for advice on what Doyobi should do.
"We built something (most) parents don't know they want (or need). Kids like it. Parents who sign their kids up for it like it. And we can see the transformation in kids.The quiet kid who now negotiates harder than anyone else on his team. The excitable kid who now thinks, analyses and organises his thoughts before he speaks. The shy kid who has taken up leadership roles in her community in the metaverse. It brings me great satisfaction observing kids in class, debating, collaborating, problem-solving, laughing, and learning.
The problem is that not enough parents sign up."
Thanks Daan, Lihong, Swee Pei, Winnie, David, Alex and Zara for replying to my newsletter. A few people said I should stick to my guns and keep doing what I believe is right for kids. Some others said parents are too busy to be experimenting. David pointed out that teaching English is a great way to teach critical thinking.
David's reply got me down the rabbit hole of looking at the websites of English-focused tuition centres. Two things stood out. One's how most tuition centres claim to have a proprietary method to help students write better. ABC Approach, XYZ Methodology, etc., are just fancy names for memorising essays. Rote learning in sheep's clothing. The second's how bad some of the English is.
“… we recognise the important role which the act of teaching has in the process of learning.
The greatest joy in giving small group tuition is a teacher’s ability to create greater impact in the children that have been entrusted to her care.”
It's frightening how a tuition chain that writes like that can offer creative writing workshops, composition writing workshops, and English tuition across all grade levels. If this is the standard, surely we can do better.
Many edtech products are chocolate-covered broccoli. Doyobi's new composition writing workshop is 🥦 broccoli-covered chocolate 🍫.
First, the broccoli. Composition writing is examinable. It counts towards the grade kids get for English. Parents care about grades. Above all else. Hence, broccoli for parents.
Underneath the broccoli is the chocolate.
Chocolate for kids. Kids really like solving quests in the Doyobi metaverse. We see it week in week out with the cohorts we have. They find it fun exploring the Doyobiverse, working on challenges together, debating amongst themselves. Very unlike any other class they attend.
Chocolate for team Doyobi. We love having kids in the Doyobi metaverse. It's as fun for us as it is for the kids. It's incredibly fulfilling knowing we are helping kids develop the skills and mindsets to make their way in the world and set them on a path to become original thinkers with a sense of purpose.
Finally, chocolate for parents. Kids learn different forms of literacies at Doyobi. Financial literacy. Digital literacy. Environmental literacy. Global literacy. Parents know these forms of literacies are important. They just don't have the time and energy to help their child be literate in all these different ways on top of doing well in school. So we take care of it for parents. Yup, parents get treats too.
It's a lot we are promising in a two hour workshop. The hope is that once kids experience the 'magic' in the workshop, parents will send them to us on a weekly basis. Maybe for composition writing. Maybe for situational writing. Maybe for reading and listening. Composition writing is just the start. There's a lot more we can do to help kids with language arts.
This composition writing workshop is co-designed by Doyobi and Ken Mizusawa. Ken was the Subject Head of English at Dunman High School for 10 years. He started his teaching career as a teacher in the Gifted Education Programme (GEP). In 2017, Ken received the Excellence in Teaching Commendation Award from the National Institute of Education (NIE). Ken is currently a lecturer in the English Language and Literature Academic Group at NIE. He is also the Programme Leader for the Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) in Literature at NIE. Ken is a playwright and published author. Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed (2018) has been adopted by over 45 secondary schools in Singapore. TLDR: we know what we are doing.
Sign up for Doyobi's composition writing workshop for P3/4 and P5/6 via this link.
If this essay resonates, you may want to check out the weekly quests we offer at Doyobi. Next cohorts starting this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
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Till the next issue!