Sagewood Mirror Image

An app that helps children to selve correct the problem of writing mirror image of letters and numbers.

When I was in Kindergaten, I had experience of getting confused about what directions some numbers or letters face. Sometimes, I ended up writing mirror images of the letters or numbers. Adults including my mum and teachers getupset at me when that happen. I found out that many children my age group make the same mistakes.

As I grow older, I watched with deep pity how adults get infuriated about children writing mirror images of letters and numbers. As adults -  either teachers, or relatives of learners get frustrated, children are equally  at a loss as to what they have done wrong. So everybody gets a dose of the frustration. Especially when the child is a very smart child, adults wonder why such child would write a mirror image of a number or letter, in other words, the adult's expectations on a smart child is far from writing mirror images of letters and numbers.

Also, my mum runs a nursery and primary school in my community here in Nigeria. I go there some times when I am not in school to help with the nursery children. I can say catigorically that 2 out of 3 of children that are just learning to write make the mistake of writing the mirror image. Some are able to snap out of it as they grow, following lots of frusrtations on the part of both teacher and learner and a lot of corrections and re-teaching, while some carry the trait till a much olderage. 

I would say I, along with the children who attend my mum's school are so lucky because we found ourselves in the kind of school that forbids beating or any kind of ill treatment of pupils. There are a lot a lot of local nursery and primary school in Nigeria who adopts the method of inflicting pain on the learner in the course of learning. It is believed that lack of adequate concentration make learners not to be able to do what is expected of them. So they either beat, pinch, twist ears or do any sort of thing that will cause pain to the learner. That way, the learner will give his whole self to what he learns in order not to get a dose of physical pain. Learning through pain is so prevalent  in my local community that from time to time we read headline  news about how a teacher, mother or any other relative inflict injuries on young children because they fail to perform the outcome of their learning goals.                                                    https://tribuneonlineng.com/parents-rage-as-lagos-school-teacher-allegedly-gives-2-year-old-pupil-24-strokes-of-cane/#    https://www.lindaikejisblog.co...          https://www.premiumtimesng.com...         https://www.lindaikejisblog.co...                      

This is so unfortunate and calls for a reversal.

Many teachers and schools, including adults around children don't know how to help and  walk  children through this problem. They get overwhelmed and they resort to inflicting injury on the learner.

Sagewood mirror image will be made into a learning platform that can be downloaded as an app on various platforms like; phones, tablets, laptops etc. It will be in form of a video. It will be very iteractive  and user friendly, so  the childen can use it with little to no parental or teacher supervision. The app will consist of videos which will explain to the children in simple terms how to distinguish between the real way and the mirror image. The videos will be in form of stories of each alphabets and numbers and the direction in which they go.The app is aimed at helping children remember, through story tellihg, the directions in which each letterand nunber go while writing them. It will include interactive exercises in which the child will be able to write letters and numbers following directions and  answer questions. It will be used for lessons on both letters and numbers. After each lesson there will  be an interactive exercise where the child would be assessed on how  to write the letter or number they just learnt the correct way. The child  would then be given digital stickers or stars and different other forms of cheering for encouragement if they got it right. Parent and teachers would also be able to assess the child's progress. 

This is aimed at childrem between the ages of 2-8 in local communities where most teachers are either untrained or inexperienced, because the teachers highest qualifications is High school certificate. The app is free to use which makes access easy to both children and teachers who are underpriviledged. Children can sit down and listen to the lessons and learn how to write the correct way and follow the directions on the video. Teachers will also learn how to teach the children how to write in the correct way through the instrusctions on the video, and they will also gain experience on how to teach, This makes their job easier and less frustrating. It also makes them to learn patience. The app will help both teachers and the children understand better, and both of them will be happy and fufilled. 

I have been privilledged to have one on one teaching experience at my mother's nursery and primary school. since I was in primary school[my mum owns the school], I had the opportunity to observe my mum while she teaches children how to write letters and numbers. I had also watched new teachers in the school, how they struggled to teach, the frustrations and anger  on their faces and the helplessness on tghe part of the pupils. I compared the teachings of the new teachers to how my mum teaches and I watched with amazements how the new teachers are quickly transformed after my mum had trained them. I came to realise the uniqueness in the method my mum uses in teaching letters and numbers. How the pupils will learn with ease, fun, joy and self fulfilment. when I grew older, everyday after school, I helped in teaching the after school kids how to write numbers and letters the correct way. I became acustomed  to and an expert to the unique method of teaching how to write letters and numbers the correct way.

When I got to secondary school, I started volunteering at my mum's school to teach kids how to read and write during summer camps.I also show new teachers how it is done when I noticed they are still they have not yet mastersd the method It had been an amazing experience since then. This inspired me to want to create an app so that many children and teachers in my local community can benefit from the the unique method, and by extension teachers and pupils all over the world can also benefit from it, so that a part of teaching and learning becomes easy and everybody will be happy.

I have experience in app building. Thanks to Technovation girls who gave me my first opportunity to build an app in 2021, when my team[ the Navigators] was a semifinalist in my region. Since then, I had nursed the desire to create Sagewood mirror image. I have the permission and support from my to turn her unique method into an app.

I have worked with many nursery school usinng this unique method to teach them at Sagewood school, Ilupeju, Lagos, Nigeria which happens to be my mum's school. I had been volunteering at this school for the past four years and it had always been a great experience. I usually go through a live experience of what was translated into a video with the kids in the school and the outcomes had always been at 95% success. Ever since the method was translated into video, we[my mum and I] had usrd the videos for vitual lessons for the pupils in her online school[Sagewoodhelp4pupils] and the results have been fanstetic.

The method in my solution was developed by my mum through her yearsof experience with children. She was able to comeup, after experimenting different approaches, with this unique approach which she had been using over the years and I have used them too and they have been very succesful. It is a very innovative method that, each letter of the alphabet and numbers has its own story and each story ends up teaching the child the directions of the letters and numbers while writing them. It is innovative because children are usually facinated by stories and it is almost immposible for them to forget stories, so it becomes difficult for the children to forget the directions of the letters and numbers, which they have learnt through stories. It also provides a more relaxed atmosphere for the children to learn. Children are able to learn in a fun way. Teachers also have opportunity to learn how to teach the directions of the letters and numbers.

My goals are to turn my solution into an app and the app to be able to reach first the pupils and teachers in underserved communities all over Nigeria.

The solution uses the aid of the internet. It will be both an application and a website that can be visited and downloaded on any form of devices eg: Phones, Tablets, Laptops etc.

We plan to serve not less than 1 Million pupils and teachers in the coming year.

The solution will take time to be built because I am only experienced in coding to a certain points so, it may take a longer time to develop the app. There will also be some financial setbacks because we would need to pay for a server/domain that will host the website and the app to make it streamable for people on the internet.

I am currently in partnership with Sagewood Schools. They play a part of making the content of the app and website used to teach the children. The proprietress developed the method and content that will be embedded into the app and website that the children and teachers will learn from.

The app will help create a fun and fantastic atmosphere for children ages 2-8 years to learn the correct directions of letters and numbers. It will help to eradicat confusion, helplessness and frustration that young kids face when they start to learn how to write letters and numbers. 

The app will also make the job of teachers easier when it comes to teaching lettersand numbers. Teachers are able to learn the fun way to teach letters and numbers. It will take away the frustrations teachers face when pupils keep writing mirror images of letters and numbers. 

Although the app is aimed at serving underseved communities, private schools could also use the app for the sake of their nursery pupils and teachers. I am looking at the possibility of the government of each state in Nigera adopting the app for the nursery and primary schools on Nigeria.

I also hope to be able to sell the app to International organisations who are concerned about education of children, especially early childhood education. They could use the product to empower millions of teachers across the globe and be able to add value to early writing in early childhood education.

Individuals like parents and gurdians could also subscribe to the learning platform and get the app.

I hope to create revenue for the development of the learning platform and app through different means. First, I hope to solicite donations from well established companies in Nigeria to support the course.

Secondly, I hope to search fo and apply for available grants from international organisations that support education. I also will pursue opportunites to enter into contracts with different states in Nigeria to train teachers on how to use the app to teach pupils how to write numbers ad letters the correct way. 

Finally, I will sell the app to individuals through social media and the internet.