In today's fast pacing and ever-changing world, the requirements of children are also rapidly and constantly shifting. To be able to help them access their highest potential and become the best versions of who they can be, those around them also need to adapt and evolve, and we can start from the basics - our education system.

Today's education system needs a major transformation so that children's needs can be catered to in a holistic manner. It goes without saying that educators play a huge role in this. Here is our founder, Ms. Sreeja Iyer, in conversation with The Better India about today's education system and its role in shaping today's generation and the many more to come, and why it could be an 'unconventional' career path.

​At Sparkling Mindz Global, it's not just the children who have fun learning and creating, but the facilitators too; making mistakes, learning through them, co-creating a safe, happy and creative environment for each other and growing  together as a community!

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#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
​#inspiringconfidentlearners
#facilitatorlearningdiaries
#learningneverstops

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

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

Our 5 and 6 year olds have been going on a learning journey with one of the characters of SM, called Treeous, who is a traveling tree who loves adventures. One day, during one of his vacation days, he travels to a forest here in South India and gets lost while awaiting his friend who promised to meet him there. Children, journeying with Treeous in the forest, went through their imagination of the different kinds of forests they were in, and created them at home.

Owning and personalizing learning goes beyond class hours. From the limited number of hours with their school mates and facilitators, children take their interests, curiosities and exploration to their lives around them, making their learning deep, wide and connected. After all, imagination knows no bounds indeed!
 
Contributed by Sruthy Krishna, Learning Facilitator at Sparkling Mindz Global Preschool.
​
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#inspiringconfidentlearners
#reggioinspiredlearning
#21stcenturylearning
#emergentlearning
#progressiveschool

It's been a very different year for all of us collectively, this year. But that has not stopped us from exploring, especially during this Independence Day!

Explore what? You may ask.

​Well, we explored our culture, identities, and much more. And we would like to share it with all of you through this video.

#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#everychildcan
#21stcenturyleanrning
#reggioemiliainspired
#socialemotionallearning
​#independenceday

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:
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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.

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#sparklingmindzglobalpreschool
#inspiringconfidentlearners
#21stcenturylearning
#empathyroutine
#socialemotionallearning