"The child is made of one hundred" - Loris Malaguzzi

This Children's Day our preschool children explored their 100.

Have you ever wondered how we can save the world from becoming a garbage pile?
Do you think there's something we can do about it? Any ideas? 
If so, how can you implement them? How can these ideas produce an output?

Well...that is what project T.R.U.I is for!

WHAT IS PROJECT T.R.U.I, you ask?
As sparkling Mindzians, we were troubled to know that the waste, whether we separate or not as dry and wet waste, usually end up in the landfills and all that talk about companies recycling are usually fake. Now knowing that the waste produced in our school will end up in landfills any way, we wanted to do something about it. And that was how the concept of T.R.U.I. emerged -Tinker, Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Up-cycle and Innovate. A project that will help us to not only T.R.U.I. our waste but also even probably sell it. 

SO, WHAT DO WE PLAN TO DO ABOUT IT?
After the tool T.R.U.I. was given to us, we wanted to start the work right away, and so we did. As a class, we sat together and brought different ideas to the table. From coasters to lampshades, sound amplifiers to keychains, pencil holders to racks, our ideas were limitless. We then needed to pick a few from that big pile of ideas. To do this, we came up with a set of parameters that will give us an idea of how 'good' the idea is, what the product will and can be. The parameters we came up with were: effective, useful, abundantly sourceable, sturdy, and aesthetically pleasing. This came in handy as it helped us pick the most matched ideas from the lot. 

LET'S DELVE INTO OUR DISCUSSIONS FROM T.R.U.I. EMERGED FROM
Our discussions started off with the big question, 'Where does our waste go?' We wondered about it for days and days. We enquired about it to many - our maintenance heads, the people who take the garbage and many others. Even after all that the answers were either “It goes to Bannerghatta.”, or “Why do you want to know?!” None of us were satisfied with any of the answers that we received. So many of these discussions and so many questions later, we finally arrived at T.R.U.I and the ideas started pouring in.

MISSION T.R.U.I
Now that T.R.U.I has stepped in and taken a very important role in all of our lives, we were ready to start making the items we came up with. But the facilitators helped us realize that there were more learning and skill set we needed to bring to the table to make this process easier. This created the mission T.R.U.I where all our learnings were connected to T.R.U.I., along with us learning the skills that will help us to create T.R.U.I. Ied items. 


Contributed by Meenakshi, Falcons (Grade 8), Sparkling Mindz Global School.

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#21stcenturylearning
#socialemotionallearning
​#everychildcan

I heard a parent in one of our Parenting as a Skill Workshops say, "My child at Sparkling Mindz is not just a roll number".

The moment that I captured there seemed to have awakened something within me and took me to remembering the days when I was perhaps just another number in my class all through the years of my school and college years.

This led me to wonder, does our education system look at children as just another roll number, another head to count in the attendance register? Or another business number? 

I wondered some more. What about each child? What about their capabilities, curiosities, imagination, wonder, sense of belonging, identities? Are we raising children for them to be chiseled according to someone else's dreams/choices/perspectives? What about the individuality? The choices that they can make? Or truly hearing each of them out- their voice? 

SM's holistic approach to learning and life cannot be complete without our parents. But what is the role of parents at Sparkling Mindz? How do we continue to keep child in the centre, keeping the caregivers in mind? What are the expectations from our parents? 

Let's listen to our founder, Ms. Sreeja Iyer, give us a sneak peak into our culture. 

We at Sparkling Mindz handle children's issues in different ways. One way is to model their behavior back to them, asking them to reflect, take perspective and empathize on how/what they are doing or how others feel as a result of their behavior.

Another way is through role plays and this time, the facilitators at preschool decided to role play as children. They chose three scenarios to role play:
a) taking every communication with peers as an attack and being rude in response to attack,
b) self victimizing by saying they have no friends, and
c) wanting to look like the others and not satisfied with how they already look (especially the skin color).

Each scenario explains what the facilitators role played and what children reflected after each of the scenes.

Scenario 1

Friend 1 makes fun of friend 2's drawing that leads friend 2 to be upset and get into a mode of rejecting the other's friendship and her opinion by telling herself things that are not productive.

Reflections
 
An, "The house can be drawn however we want it to be."
Em, "We should not be rude at other's work."
An, "Friend 1 did not care about what the other child said." 
An, "Yes, she cared only about herself."
Sh, "She was hurt!"
Aad "Friend 2 was upset and was telling herself that she wants to be on her own."
Anya " Yes, she kept telling bad things to herself like, I don't like other people and they are rude to me!"

At this point the facilitator asked them, "Did friend 2 telling herself bad things help her?"

All, "Nooo!!!"

Facilitator (F), "What could she tell herself instead?"

Various responses such as, "I like mine, but I don't know why she did not like mine...", "I like mine but maybe she likes the way she draws...", "We should like what others do...", etc., came out.

F, "Are we expecting others to tell good things about us?"
An, without a blink, "Yes!"

F, "Is it ok when somebody doesn't like what we do?"
An, "It's okay I'll like it anyway."
F, "Okay. You can also tell them politely , "I like the way I have painted.""
F2, "So what did we learn from this?"
An, "To be kind to others and ourselves."

And the facilitator added, "Saying good things to ourselves and what we choose to do is not for other people's approval."

Scenario 2

Facilitators role played 2 kids playing and talking about their interests. Another child who wanted to join them did not want to join them as he did not get invited, and how the child 3 feels sad.

​Reflections

2. Step In
Step In Routine Involves the following.
I'm the other now (assume that is X). So, I'm X  (I step into the situation as X and answer the following prompts):
I see: 
I feel:
I care about:
--------------
You can ensure you are not projecting at this stage by asking yourself, "Would X say that about themselves?"

3. Step out

​You physically step into a different space and do this part of the routine.

​Knowing what I know because of my Step In what can I do differently?
Was the "I see" objective and wide in perspective? If not, how might we see/show objectivity and a wider perspective?
Was the "I feel" resourceful? If not, how might we bring/show awareness and help shift state to something more resourceful?
Was the "I care about" expressed resourcefully? If not, how might we encourage a more resourceful way to express the care about?

4. Iterate
​
​At this stage, you check if the solutions you had found are working or not . If yes, you have just now resolved something with empathy and creativity. Time to celebrate!
If not, you iterate back to the leverages in the "step out" stage and see if you have exhausted all your options. If not, use them. If you have, then you iterate through the "step in" stage. Maybe you missed something there. A different see, feel or care about that given this new information of what didn't work can reveal itself and you find yourself with multiple solutions again to work with.
No two situations, the underlying intentions or the resolutions are the same. The only thing that really works is remaining creative, resourceful and empathetic.

Contributed by Sreeja Iyer, Founder & CEO of Sparkling Mindz Global School & Preschool.

#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#21stcenturylearning
#empathyroutine
#socialemotionallearning

In May, children at SM had created the first edition of SM Times, our student-led newsletter. The process of creating these newsletters was challenging and fun - just the way any true learning process is. And it left all of us with a feeling of growth and inspiration. The second edition of the newsletter is about just that. About how the children have continued  to grow and stay inspired despite the lockdown. 
At the start of the lockdown, Sreeja ma'am had asked the children "No virus can stop us, can it?" They answered with a wide-eyed, open-hearted 'Yes!" The newsletters below are a compilation of some parts of their journey of learning, growth and inspiration... 

​

Contributed by Poorva Agarwal, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global School.


#sparklingmindzglobalschool
#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#youngachieversacademy
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#everychildcan
#21stcenturylearning
#buildingownershipinchildren
​#gamebasedlearning

What are PFCs, you may ask.  Perhaps if I say PTA (Parent- Teacher Association meetings), it might click? 

Here at SM, our PTAs are called PFCs (Parent - Facilitator Connect). At SM, adults who interact with children are called facilitators. We believe that we facilitate learning in children and not 'teach' them, all this while going deeper in our own learning too; as we believe children are individuals who are capable of achieving just about anything in the world that they put their minds to. 

As it is the time of the year to wind up the current academic session, the third term, we have our third and final PFC just around the corner. All of us are busy with the preparations, digging through our notes after notes, reflections, e-mails we had sent... and that could have possibly looked like a lot of work or such a chore. But this is imperative so as to not miss even the tiniest of information about the growth of our children as we can. At one point, we realized we were lost in the nitty-gritty and needed some BIG INSPIRATION to keep chugging along. So we got together as a team and reflected on the prompt 'What does PFC mean to us?' It was an attempt to find our beliefs about PFCs and create the necessary inspiration and momentum. We each shared our beliefs and here is what we arrived at,

1. PFCs are for community building. We at SM strongly believe we are a community and not just a school with teachers, students and parents. When we say community, it means to us that we are all in this together, for the holistic development of the child. So when we come together for PFCs, we get to see where each child is at with regards to how they are at home, parents get to see how children are at school on a regular basis as we openly discuss about the achievements, milestones, patterns of the children and what parents can do to help the child move forward. Both parents and we are on the same side of the boat, working together as one entity, for the child, enabling trust on each other from both the parties.
2. PFCs are for bridging the gap. Connecting to the previous point, both the parties get to see a complete perspective of the child and not just one aspect of how the child is just in school. 
3. PFCs are for showing the parents how we see children (capable, curious, empathetic, creative, and so on). Sharing the developing and ever-evolving image of the child through stories of their growth, reinforcing our belief that children are so much more than just marks.
4. PFCs are also a  moment to reflect how we have grown as facilitators and they as parents.

Our discovered shared mission and purpose inspired us to power through the PFC documenting work with renewed energy and vigour. Like piecing together a jigsaw puzzle we had put together all of our varied thoughts on PFCs and built our very own PFC quilt to motivate us to work towards the higher purpose of working on the PFC documentations.

We, as a team, not only came out of the feeling stuck moment, we also know that if we do get stuck in the future, we can always refer back to our purpose and get going and know that we are not alone in this journey; we have this whole community cheering on with us!

#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#teamspiritstories
​#discoveringthepurpose

Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.