Sonal Patel, Co-founder, SuperX Learning
I have got my MS from the University of Houston, Texas. During that time, I developed an interest in the education sector and loved how students were self motivated to learn. Since then, I have been an academician. Over time, I realized, the undergrads lacked skills that they could acquire during school days. Skills such as logic building, creativity, self expression, and many more. With a technical background, I realised that coding was a good way to teach these skills to children, so I founded SuperX Learning.
SuperX Learning
SuperX Learning focuses on 2 verticals: Coding and Life Skills. Coding helps to develop logic, problem solving skills, and creativity in kids. Our curriculum is designed in such a way that kids enjoy the sessions - once they start enjoying the sessions and the basics of coding, we slowly start moving to more complex topics. This too, the kids grasp easily. We stress a lot about a child coming up with their own solutions and ideas rather than us telling them what to do. This helps with self expression as well as problem solving skills in a child.
Coming to Life Skills, we are on a journey of inculcating skills that are not taught in school but are important for a child when they enter adulthood. Skills like money management, time management, stress management, etc. One may think, that stress management may not be helpful, but believe me, kids are as stressed as adults, and since they are young, they need stress coping techniques more than us. These courses are designed based on their age groups. For example, the younger kids learn resilience, conflict resolution, etc.
An introduction to life skills for children
We send the material to the kids prior. They have some creative things to put on their mirrors, cupboards, and walls. Life skills are more like workshops than sessions. The kids interact a lot, share their experiences, and all of them reflect on their actions together. Where we need kids to discuss among themselves and come up with ideas and solutions, we have breakout rooms. We involve parents too, because without their constant support, imparting these skills will be difficult.
Coding for kids
Parents need to understand what coding is more than the kids as they will be investing their money and need to understand what outcomes they should expect from these courses. Coding is nothing but giving instructions to a computer in a language that a computer would understand. More than anything, we stress how coding is different for kids than it is for IT professionals. Coding for kids focuses on developing logic, creativity, and problem solving skills along with coding skills.
What will be your most memorable experience on this journey?
Four of our coding batches completed the entire coursework that we had to offer (in a span of 1.25 years), and were still asking for more. This just shows the faith they had in us.
Usually, it is said that technologists are more serious at work, so how do instructors handle children?
Like I said, coding for kids is very different from coding done in the workforce. Here it is more about using coding to develop skills like logical thinking, creativity, and many more.
What are your future plans for SuperX Learning?
We plan to
- Launch Emotional Intelligence sessions for kids and
- Get our courses offline.
Post Covid, developing a child’s emotional intelligence has become more important than ever. We will be coming up with fun sessions for kids.
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