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Deep Learning and Curiosity

6/4/2016

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It's in the deep application and understanding of something of interest to you that true insight, innovation and ideas lie.

Your child who trusts the system, is repeatedly told to toil hard and put hours and hours of effort into meeting expectations is cheated out of one of the most precious gifts the human brain has which is to be curious and ask questions to learn.

The education system with its focus on learning from textbooks and regurgitating that information in exams takes away from children the power to delve deep and explore to come up with more questions of their own, make multiple connections, figure out answers themselves and make contextual meaning and sense out of the content they discovered in the process.
As I interact with children across age groups at Sparkling Mindz through our Young Achievers Program, through the TED-Ed Clubs, I see a shift in the attitude towards learning. Most of them trivialize learning, want to run away from it, don't think it is useful or meaningful in their lives and those who put in hours of effort too only know how to figure out the answers for questions in the text book so they could excel in exams. When you run on the treadmill of exams there is little time for anything else.


The world, however, has higher expectations from your child. The world expects your child to discover and nurture their uniqueness, develop an opinion, a voice that they can use to stand up for not only themselves but the community and world at large, to solve problems bigger than themselves and how are you training your child to develop these skills?


The classic moment was recently when I asked a bunch of children, "What do you learn English for?" pat came the answer, "for exams" and after a moment of silence I heard one of our Young Achievers voice, eyes shining, she said, "for communication." and the room lit up in awe. I would think every child should have thought of and known the answer to that question as most of them learn the English language for well over 16 years as a subject!


Another interesting conversation I had with a 14 year old. He was quite angry with the fact that his mother thought that video games were a waste of his time. He loved to play them and saw a future in the industry. However, according to the mother not wrongly so, no exams, no marks, no future so he should study and keep the video games aside for a while. He took it up as a challenge to prove to her that video games were not so bad. It took him a while to research the pros and cons, articulate what he felt, figure out what to use/discard from the research and eventually change his stance to "too much of anything is bad" and pick up and analyze examples of learning from games that he liked. Much of that too was researched data, the child did not yet know/understand how to add a layer of own insight into the research. Diving deeper into topics results in children discovering their own interests, passion and a sense of identity like nothing else does. Like everything else in life, it is a matter of choice to empower your child with the skills to go deep and discover themselves or skim the surface of learning where everyone else remains too.


At Sparkling Mindz, it's our mission to nurture and develop children's curiosity and make them confident learners. 
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What does your imagination look like?

2/9/2015

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Can you imagine a child in kindergarten as an author of a story? Our children had been experimenting with visuals, words and sentences for a while now to express their ideas. We thought it would be a wonderful thought to ask them about stories. We saw excitement in their eyes when the concept was introduced to them. They had been hearing stories since they were babies and now was their chance to make one of their own!

 We explored the book, “The little Cloud” and we wondered aloud whether we could see more shapes in clouds. All the children volunteered to lie down and watch shapes in the clouds on our open terrace garden. Lying on the cool green patch, experiencing the light wind and the harsh sun they squinted their eyes to make out the clouds and the shapes within them. Finally something had caught each one of their eyes.

They stepped back and designed their own clouds on different colour papers of their own choice and traced shapes on it from their imagination. Then began the journey of their own little cloud which had a family and would listen to its parents and so on. In children’s eyes everything around us is alive and learning merges with imagination to breathe life into the stories they create. 


Their journey as authors was just beginning. Once they were done the facilitator asked them whether they would like to create stories with characters different from the cloud?

That’s how this little wonder came alive!

 “The octopus and the sword fish” is the story by a 5.8 year old in the class. In the story a little octopus gets its tentacles stuck in the sea weed and is rescued by a sword fish. 

Taking inspiration from the sea visuals painted on the wall in their class, Aaryav used his vivid imagination to craft a story filled with interesting characters, friendship, helplessness and brave choices. His choice of the octopus to get stuck and the sword fish to rescue show the synthesis of information and facts and beautiful connections in the imaginary world to craft stories that look and feel real!

 He wanted to illustrate his story and added darker and lighter shades of blue in his drawing to show the depth of the ocean. (The above master piece was drawn by him to represent his visuals of the story) It made me wonder about the depth of the perception of a child of the world around them and the courage to represent it from their own perspective. In spite of knowing the reasons and several facts about oceans we may not have the perception or the courage to show the different nuances represented by the child in his picture. 

Looking back at the creation I could see how the values, emotions, knowledge and creativity came together in his work. If you expressed your imagination in pictures or words, what would your imagination look like?


Contributed by: Kishore S,  Learning & Innovation Engineer at Sparkling Mindz.
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Visual-Kinesthetic Learning Spaces

28/7/2014

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As children we are natural Kinesthetic learners. As adults too, we may not realize it but many of us feel drained and are unable to think of ideas unless we move our bodies around. Our mind-body is a connected system and for many of us restricting our body movements can lead to an inefficient learning experience. So, then, why are classrooms, conference rooms, training rooms designed the way they are? Well...that's an interesting question best answered through an interesting design that we used for our classrooms. Keeping in mind that children needed multiple kinds of learning experiences and not merely "Auditory or Visual" lectures we chose minimal furniture and a design that let children move around, dance, huddle in groups and achieve maximum learning through movement. We chose to use stories, role plays, drama, experiential and hands-on activities to engage students through multiple modalities of learning outcomes. Most importantly, we chose learning outcomes that would engage their whole being in the learning experience - developing a positive attitude, perseverance, focus, deep engagement and multiple connects with prior knowledge, a thirst to learn more, perspective to look at problems as challenges and more...

A child who can connect with learning outcomes higher than mere knowledge, use their entire mind-body to experience learning and work with others confidently to achieve desired results is going to be successful in any economy, any crisis, any situation that you put her in. In fact, she might be the one that chooses the toughest situations to spend her energy on because she can, because it is worth her while and because nothing LESS will do!

Seriously, as parents it is time for us to collectively decide, NOTHING LESS will do for your child. It is important that they experience learning in enriched visual-kinesthetic spaces with facilitators who understand the importance of visual-kinesthetic learning. It's upto you, you can choose to give them an EDGE today.

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"Mamma, Papa, I did not give up" - a child's journey to find her inner strength

2/11/2013

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When we reached the school to participate in her Sports Day little did we know that the day was filled with learning and revelations for us. When she started her relay race she was leading but suddenly fell down, and got hurt badly. For a second she looked at us and then stood up and started running again. She managed to cover up and her team came second. Just after the race, her teammates told her that but for her fall they might have come first! She retorted positively, "What would have happened if I had given up?" Everybody appreciated her spirit including her Principal, class teacher and sports teacher. 
We thought she would give up but no, she made us feel so proud, and we have learnt from her, not to give up. "Love You my baby."
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Today, Muskan had her Sports Day at school. As usual it was amazing, all the kids participated with enthusiasm and sportsman spirit. Muskan won the third prize in the inter-house swimming competition and stood second in the relay race. 
 


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At the end, the school organizes a parents race. We did not participate due to our breathing problem. Muskan asked us after the program as to why we did not participate. When we told her the reason, she said,"Ok and smiled". Then she asked us,"Please try and participate the next time. Mamma, Papa, I did not give up. You should also try" is what she said!!! I had tears in my eyes.
We really appreciated her thought and will take care of it. I thought, my daughter had grown up all of a sudden. She had started thinking positively and showed assertiveness, which I as a mother really lack. 

Sparkling Mindz. Thank you so much! You are the reason for her positive attitude and motivation
I remember that last year she did not win any prize or perform well. At that time, she felt very low and said, "Mamma, I know I cannot do anything. I am not good and that is why I did not win any prize." We tried to motivate her after which she was fine. 

But all of a sudden this morning, just before her sports day, she remembered everything and discussed last year's incident. She told us, "I will do my best and not demand anything in return."In the end, she did not ask for anything after the program, though she deserves it and we will give it to her.
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