Teacher Andrea Cal of Midway Government Preschool Wins National Storytelling Competition
The month of March is being celebrated as Child Stimulation Month under the theme, “Hug Me, Listen to Me, Read with Me, Help Me Grow.” Across the country, there are various activities being held to highlight the importance of early childhood development. Today, a national storytelling competition was held at the Bliss Centre for the Performing Arts where teachers were put to the test. Teacher Andrea Cal of Midway Government Preschool from Punta Gorda came out on top. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Teacher Andrea Cal of Midway Government Preschool in Punta Gorda won the 2020 National Storytelling Competition by the Ministry of Education. She won with a creative spin to teach preschool children about colours.
Andrea Cal
Andrea Cal, Teacher, Midway Government Preschool
“My story was about a magic cat. The objective of the story is to help the children to learn their colours in a fun way with expression and with things that they can relate to with colour. It feels very good, I was very excited, very happy.”
Teachers representing twelve schools, two from each district, competed in the nationals, having won their district competitions. The entries could have been original or a Belizean version of a story, and today, they took to the stage at the Bliss with props and in character to bring their stories to life for a packed auditorium and the judges.
Lurleen Betson-Gamboa
Lurleen Betson-Gamboa, Early Childhood Unit, Ministry of Education
“Teachers were able to showcase their talents in terms of storytelling and in terms of what is being done inside the classroom setting at the preschool level. The teachers had between three to four minutes to do their stories onstage. The story that they displayed needed to be in terms of what would take place in a preschool centre so if they were going to use props or whatever it is. One of the criteria is that it had to be one teacher on stage. They could have used students as props and like I said the story must be engaging with the students.”
Lurleen Betson-Gamboa says that it is important to the work of early childhood development and is a scale of where the teachers are creatively.
Lurleen Betson-Gamboa
“The whole thrust of it is for us not only to let teachers be able to showcase their talents, but the whole idea is we want our teachers to know that when you are telling stories to three year olds and four year olds, your story must come alive. You must be able to have a lot of expression in your stories, capture your audiences, which would be your three and four year olds.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
