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Becoming Changemakers - Step 1

2/8/2021

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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.

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Learning Cannot be Messy or Can It?

22/9/2013

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Picture
For the past few years our team at Sparkling Mindz has been engaged in creating activities for children to enable them to think and communicate their thinking process. At the very outset we began an uphill battle with this simple thing called the "eraser". What we observed was that it was simple sure, but could severely limit the thinking process. How? You might ask and rightly so. We have all grown up using the eraser and loved its elegance, right?

As part of our activities there always comes a time that children record their ideas, thoughts, capture their imagination in pictures/words and time and again, we saw children looking up from their work because they had made a mistake and wanted an eraser urgently to erase it. Sometimes, they would go rushing about the room in the hope that they would find one that allowed them to erase their "so called mistakes". In fact the next class some of them even bought an eraser from home! Most of the times when we looked at the so called "mistake" they wanted to erase in their work, it was a very tiny little mistake – a wrong line here or a curve gone haywire there, a letter a bit shaky or a word out of place – nothing much compared to the quantum of thinking they just disrupted to go look for the eraser! (Sometimes, it was a clear indication of the fact that no real thinking was probably happening)

We did a nice little trick at our centers, we banished the eraser! We told the children the erasers had gone for a walk and would come back when they were ready to tidy up their work.

What we realized was that in our education system, it was easy for the teachers to focus on neatness, it was not a process it was an outcome. Easy to see, easy to grade, easy to appreciate. Hence, all attention was diverted to a neat outcome vs. a thoughtful one (which was of course process oriented). In fact, this amount of focus on a single dimension (neatness) cultivates an underlying assumption in a novice learner that ‘learning cannot be messy’

To me, it has greater implications in terms of stifling the very process of creative thinking itself – where mistakes are not only permissible, they are essential part of the thinking process. In fact there is no concept of something being ‘wrong’ or a ‘mistake’, else how will one generate lots of ideas? how will one think out of the box? if you are constantly self-censoring yourself and correcting what you ‘assume’ to be mistakes!

Additionally, it also shows a larger inability for the learner to let go of a small error and focus on the larger goal at hand of generating ideas, thinking and owning the learning process itself. After all in life, we cannot erase mistakes, we have to learn to live with them right?

Obsession with neatness is killing the learning process and the learner in our children. The eraser needs to be banished from classrooms until children have learnt to think for themselves – let them be messy!

As one of my professors in college used to say, "I know how much thinking you have done by how messy your book is!"


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The Thinking Junior Masterchefs!!!

30/6/2012

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As the Junior Masterchef's end drew closer and competition intensified, lots of clarity in 'thinking' and 'strategies' began to emerge.

Jack, every time he faced a challenge, put on a 'creative hat', decided to do a twist on a recipe like 'snail porridge' that had taken the original chef himself over 10 years to perfect and came out in flying colors! It was because of his creative thinking capability that he was able to score 3 times 11/10 in the final challenge, a feat that not even someone in Masterchef has achieved, so far!

Isabella, on the other hand, every time she was faced with a challenge used her 'critical thinking' abilities. She fell back on the time-tested recipe's of her grandmother. Something that she knew she could execute to perfection, something that she knew that only she knew, something that would stand her out. It stood her too in good stead. However, for the final challenge, she was able to win it only when she combined her 'critical thinking' ability with a more open-ended 'creative thinking' process to achieve a perfect '10' from 5 of the judges and become the first ever 'Junior Masterchef' in history!

If you ask me, even Jack had to use his 'critical thinking' abilities to approach his 'creative problem' and execute it to perfection but his lead system was always 'creative' and Isabella's was always 'critical'! It stood them apart in style and brought their individuality out, so well! 

It was not just this, in the final moment when the results were announced, Jack showed such a unique interpersonal skill that not even adults show! He told Isabella, "You deserve it, Izzy. Friends going in, friends going out!" What better sportsmanship can a child, all of 13 years, aspire to show? 

Shows like this help create good role models for our children in India and don't miss the next show as it rolls in the next season!
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Why we work with 8 and 13 year olds in one batch...

12/12/2011

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We frequently get asked this question. Isn't 8-13 years a very wide age group, how will you manage the session to be age-appropriate? Here's why the age group is this wide in the first place in our sessions and how we ensure that every child progresses at their level...


1. Age matters only as long as you are in school - looking down upon (as if they were a baby)/looking up to (because they have grey hair) at someone based on their age gets embedded in us though for life! Doesn't help your cause if you are only willing to work/compete with someone who is of your age, life is unfair that way, honey!

2. It is funny though, when it comes to creativity (and even thinking), age is not a barrier - exposure, application, thinking on your feet, flexibility of thought, openness to learning matter more...we have seen 5 year olds who are set in their ways and some 40 year olds who are open to learning like they were just born! 8 year or 13 years is not a large age difference in our open-ended scheme of things...

3.  Self as a peg for improvement -  every single activity/tool we use is scalable to be very deep. So based on the application capacity of the individual child we can take them deeper and further than the others. As a first step, we work with them to hang the comparison peg on themselves rather than others' work (this is easier than it sounds, there is years of unlearning involved already and a lot of pre-conceived notions!) and the next step is to go deeper...

4. Flexibility of the facilitator - our facilitators have been trained to be flexible enough to accommodate the entire range of inputs for the age group. They are not just from teaching backgrounds but also understand the psyche of the child and have had varied exposure in the real world of how things work/don't work which makes them very passionate about the work they do and it shows in the excellent way in which they facilitate the activities and discussions in a session

5. Open ended nature of problems/challenges - unlike a typical classroom, our problems/situations are very open ended and that means there is more than one correct answer. Which in turn, lets every child come up with answers based on their age/exposure/depth of understanding and they are all welcome. It brings us to the interesting concept of push-pull...next 

6.  Push-pull -  The different age groups have a push-pull effect with respect to energy, openness on one side and exposure and balance on the other side. It is very interesting to watch the ebb and flow of the discussions and how they learn from each other too! by the way, if you are not pushing your boundaries and comfort zone you are not growing - so it is ok if some of them feel a bit Why would we deprive children of such a glimpse of real life? 


What do you think? Should we narrow down the age group and not let children benefit from a real life thinking scenario? Let us know your thoughts...
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(Mis)Understanding Communication Skills

8/12/2011

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We recently launched a few new batches of our communications module. We have been having very engaging and interesting conversations with children and parents on this front. I'm going ahead and talking about the broad spectrum of misconceptions, complaints and concerns around communication skills:


Children first...
1. "Communication is about talking" - nothing can be further from the truth! Within 2 sessions children realized this!!!

2. "Listening is boring" - shattering this myth takes a bit longer, the process begins early on in the sessions though! Listening is a fine skill, it can make the difference between a winner (a person everyone wants to be with, a confidant, a great boss, a great entrepreneur...) and a smart-know-it-all (that everyone puts up with, at best!) 

3. "Group, what group? Did I win?" - many children show a reluctance to work in groups, even going to an extent of changing their body language (wherein it seems smaller than usual or even contorted). Interestingly, even the ones that find it interesting, sometimes tend to dominate and not take the whole group with them (end up doing all the work and become the object of wrath from all the other members)

Parents..
1. "My child only needs communication skills" - for one, we acknowledge that as a parent your read may be quite right. However, there is a logic to putting communication skills in the middle of our program and running all three modules as part of a single program. Creative & Critical thinking helps build structure of thought in children along with confidence and a flexibility to start looking at the same problem, solution in different ways. This, in turn, leads to building a good foundation for the communication skills module. We see a large difference between children who have attended the 'creative & critical thinking' module and those who haven't when they come directly into the communication skills module. We would like to recommend that, if given a chance, you do it the order suggested. All the three modules are important for the whole brain development of the child.

2. "Child is shy, needs to open up/be more assertive" - becoming assertive in a group requires a set of skills to be developed ranging from awareness of emotions, self-awareness and flexibility to put forth a different response than the one you are used to, not to mention practice in this kind of behavior and positive feedback to take it forward. It takes time to develop these skills, it is not a one-shot exercise. It is possible to do and can be accelerated with your support and encouragement, but will not happen/sustain over night.

3. "Needs to open up at home" - several parents have this concern that child is not very communicative at home and we understand the concern because you genuinely want to know what is happening in the child's life. There are several reasons why a child may not share/be reticent at home and not be so at school/in a program like ours. For parents with this concern, please mention it to our facilitator and we can definitely help you out.

How to really understand communication skills? What is it really all about for children? ...will be covered in the next blog post - so keep checking for updates!


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Who needs a Thinking Skills program?

28/11/2011

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If you ask us in person, in a lighter vein, we would say everybody! But you know, hold on, even seriously - everybody!

It is not just if your child is not doing well in school or has any other behavioral issues. In fact, if they are doing well in school they might need the thinking skills program even more. Why? Ok, I'll list out the reasons for both:

1. If your child has problems in school/is showing behavioral issues - you are perhaps, frantically looking for a solution and you are right in doing so. The earlier a problem gets rectified the better. Now, the issue could lie in any of the thinking related corners of the brain and through our entire thinking skills program we provide a lot of opportunities for the child to create the right kind of spark at the right kind of moment so that they come out of their pattern effectively. It also builds a lot of confidence in them to stand apart, be unique and an initiative to better themselves.

2. If your child is doing well in school already - then you don't really need to teach them how to think, right? Well, not entirely true. A child who has learnt how to excel in school could have learnt the process of achieving it too or maybe just outsmarting the system. In the latter case, what happens when system changes? What happens when life throws open challenges at you? In the former case, the child may not have consciously internalized the process of figuring things out - "I just do it well, don't know how!" (as a child told me today). For a smart child, it could be one of the best gifts you could give them.

Our program has the flexibility to cater well to both the categories of children, without being exclusive about it! The beauty of being creative, huh? 

Moreover, our thinking skills program caters to a set of specific modules that help create a platform of success for the child, many of the modules are not covered in the regular school curriculum and hence, are not things that a child is generally exposed to. That adds to both the points above, that children today are in urgent need of these skills - reason being 'success' in life!
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Communication Skills - for 5-7 year olds? hm...

18/11/2011

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Over the past few weeks we have launched a bunch of new programs for 5-7 and 8-13 year olds in Bangalore and also, one of our latest modules on Communication & Interpersonal skills. For 5-7 year olds, several parents have this question for us - why do we want to work on communication skills of children at such a young age?

Well, in all honesty, we teach our children reading/writing at this age (in fact, even earlier!). We start teaching them right/wrong at this age (and wish, they just knew it!!!). We start teaching them basics of mathematics, science and more at this age, don't we? Then, why not communication skills?

Now, when you meet a child does any of the reading/writing matter directly, if the child doesn't communicate effectively? Your first and probably last impressions are formed based on how the child interacts with you and how s/he talks/behaves in a group. It is the same between children too, they weigh and judge each other this way (and don't we too as adults?). 

Just like we can embed all these other skills at a young age, we can embed communication skills as a habit at a young age too. If it comes as a reflex to communicate well, it is a part of you forever, right? If you know how to be aware and how to express your emotions, no one can take you for granted or take you for a ride, can they? There is no need to wait till one is in their 20s or even in your teens to learn these. You will have loads of unlearning to do first, at that age!


We teach these concepts through simple, understandable and age-appropriate methods and children learn to apply them in their own surroundings as they learn! Feel free to contact us if you have further queries or suggestions, we would love to help you.
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Having fun vs. learning

15/9/2011

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This is a question we encounter on a daily basis. Being an activity-based module, we get asked this question quite often, "If children are having fun, are they really learning?"

The answer to this question in our minds is very clear - YES! When you have fun, you are in an open state of mind and it is a very conducive state for learning. The truth is, when children play there is a lot of subconscious learning happening about team work, self-confidence, learning from mistakes etc. Add a little bit of structure and reflective thinking into the mix, you have an ideal environment to not just teach concepts but work through applications. That's what we achieve and it helps children internalize concepts much faster.

Then, there is another question we get asked (rarely, but it does happen), "What do you do to make sure children are having fun?" In order to answer this, I have to mention a basic philosophy of ours - "we aim to create confident thinkers" - fun and activities are just part of the process to get there. While we try our level best to keep things fun, the definition of 'fun' is very subjective and can mean many things to many kids. Especially when it means running around unsupervised, destroying things, watching TV for as long as they want and not engaging in any brain work - that doesn't help their learning process and goes contrary to the whole reason for the program. So, we have to first work on expanding the definition of 'fun' with the children and we are creative thinkers, so if one of our tools/methods/approach does't work, we try others...then, ask the question again! 
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Can children really think for themselves?

19/3/2011

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Many parents ask us, all that you say sounds very interesting but can children really learn to think for themselves? At this early an age?

This is an interesting question, because in our minds there is no doubt that it is possible. From our experiences, we have not had any instances where children have not begun to demonstrate thinking skills once we start working with them.

In fact, even the most reluctant of kids mid-way through one of our workshops opened up with, "I have an idea" and then refused to stop contributing this thoughts! We work with them in a "play" environment and reflect with them freely, this leads to a learning space where the facilitator ends up learning as much from the children about the activity as the other way round. This builds a lot of confidence in the child about his ideas and his abilities. When the learning space is always about open ended solutions, there can be many winners and confident thinkers are born!

The question regarding age is a very interesting question and a topic for another blog...keep watching this space for more thoughts from Sparkling Mindz team!
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