In-House Newsletter Volume XXXVII For Private Circulation
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Motivational Session by Ms Pinky Roy, Senior Marine Psychologist, from Anglo-‐Eastern Maritime Training Center, marked the beginning of our new Academic Year, by motivating and inspiring Buniyaad’s Teachers. Ms. Roy’s expertise lies in Behavioural Training and Development, and Psychometric Studies. She conducted an introspective session for teachers to help them gauge personal strengths
and limitations, in the field of teaching. The ‘take-‐homes’ were various constructive measures to enhance positives, overcome identified hurdles, be persistent in achieving their set goals etc; all recommended by Ms. Roy. Buniyaad thanks Ms. Pinky Roy for sharing her valuable time and
experience, which helped us gain precious insights. Workshops on ‘Super Brain Yoga’ and Soft Skills: Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel -‐ Socrates True to this statement, we had value-‐add workshops for the teachers and volunteers, alike, by Mr.Kalpesh Kadu and Mrs Rajeshree Kumar. Mr. Kalpesh Kadu is a practicing Pranic Healer and Trainer.
He has trained more than 300 students and nurtured three trainers in his Pranic Healing Centre in Powai. Mr. Kadu has also introduced Pranic healing to several groups like Senior Citizens group in Raheja Vihar, Hiranandani Solitaire etc. His expertise in ‘Super Brain Yoga’ has been utilized by schools
like St. Anthony Church, Badlapur College, Sister Nivedita School, to name a few. ‘Super Brain Yoga’ is an age-‐old method to improve the academic performance of children. This technique improves concentration, and children become more focused. For our young toddlers, introduction of this method at this age and its regular practice in the Nurseries is sure to impart long-‐term benefits in education and daily activities. The next session was on ‘Writing readiness and Pre-‐writing Skills in Early Childhood’ by Mrs. Rajeshree Kumar. Mrs. Kumar specializes in Early Childhood Education. She is also
experienced in planning and conducting workshops for teachers and parents, to facilitate and guide them. Mrs. Kumar shared her experiences about various steps involved in the early learning process for a child. She also touched upon development of soft-‐skills for teachers. She explained that a child 's skill to learn is associated with physical, mental and social development. Here, she stressed upon the roles played by volunteers and teachers in educating parents to help the child develop socially. Mrs. Kumar also highlighted various pre-‐school activities to develop motor skills, hand and mind co-‐ordination etc. The training enhanced Buniyaad’s methodology of play-‐way learning methods. ‘Capsule School’ in collaboration with Buniyaad: With the help of technology, Enactus MPSTME has overcome geographical factors, physical & mental obstacles. All this to make essential education feasible in an innovative way via ‘Capsule School’ to communities who are deprived as a result of the above factors... Buniyaad Volunteers helped to formulate a meticulous course structure with worksheets and follow-‐up sessions in English Language. Ten hours of educative material was recorded. This has been implemented in two NGOs under the umbrella of Aastha Parivaar and has reached 110 students in four months. The English Language project garnered interest and applause at the Enactus India National competition with 92 colleges participating. 200 judges, many of whom were eminent personalities, CEO’s from well-‐known companies like Coca-‐cola, KPMG, etc. evaluated the projects. Panelists appreciated the concept of ‘Capsule School’ and asked for relevant details. It was recognized for Innovativeness and Quality. Buniyaad is proud to announce that Enactus MPSTME came in the Top 10. We are extremely happy to be associate creators of this Capsule, which has great potential to educate, empower and sustain large number of communities.
In-House Newsletter Volume XXXVII For Private Circulation
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Editorial Initiative: Project – HAND WASH This year’s Editorial Initiative introduces the habit of washing hands from an early age. The aim is to inculcate effective hand washing as a habit for long-‐term health benefits. The project stretched over the months of July to September 2015 and was executed in two phases, visuals and audio. First stage was ideating, prepping and making charts to depict situations that necessitate washing of hands. Along with it, Nurseries also had to depict the harmful effects of not washing hands. Second stage was to create a Jingle on the benefits of washing hands so that the message gets through to masses. Volunteers, children from the Nurseries, and their parents supported the Teachers. The Jingle was taught to
children and it was judged on the basis of relevance of the words, high recall factor of tunes, presentation, etc. For Project -‐ Hand Wash the winner was Nursery No 5, and the runner up was Nursery No. 2. Heartiest congratulations to Mrs. Vidya Ahire and Mrs. Sarika Matode and their teams for persevering through both phases… For more pics,
http://www.buniyaad.org.in/activities_EdInit.html FIRST CRAFT COMPETITION The first Craft Competition still brings out nervous anticipation amongst many… Despite this, Teachers channelized their innate creativity through this competition. A huge outline of an elephant, with marble-‐paper mosaics, was handed over to the teachers and their teams of toddlers. The challenge was to create an elephant and even accessorize it in a fixed timeframe. The craft pieces were judged on parameters like neatness of execution, presentation etc. Volunteers from Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd., Xoriant Solutions
Pvt. Ltd. and Anglo-‐Eastern Maritime Training Center judged the onsite competition in progress. Dr. Saidivya Adersh, who creates handmade visuals and paints in her free time, judged the final craft
pieces. The proud winner is Nursery No. 1. Kudos to Mrs. Bharti Ahire and her team who used the square-‐ish mosaics to artistically create and accessorize the rotund elephant!!! We take this opportunity to thank our Corporate Friends for devoting their time and effort to be a part of this Competition at Buniyaad…For more pics, http://www.buniyaad.org.in/activities_art1.html
CELEBRATIONS: Independence Day: Kids colored individual icecream sticks in the tri-‐colors with their tender hands. They assembled the colored sticks in correct order and created the National Flag with the Ashoka Chakra at the centre. Nurseries echoed with the tunes of patriotic numbers sung by the children, Teacher and the Volunteers. For more pics, http://www.buniyaad.org.in/activities_indepday.html Friendship Day: Introducing children as each other’s friends was the highlight of Friendship Day in Nurseries. Kids were asked to pick a ribbon from a bowl. They had to then find their partners -‐ another child with a ribbon of the same color. The pairs were declared ‘friends for the day’ and they shared chocolates and goodies with each other. For more pics, http://www.buniyaad.org.in/activities_frndshpday.html Teachers Day: Nursery Children were asked to color a smiley each and these were affixed to a straw. A whole ‘bunch of smileys’ was then presented to the teacher arranged in an attractive flower vase!! Kids beamed with joy for being able to do something themselves and give it to their teacher!! Teacher’s Day celebrations did not end here... We bring to you excerpts from experiences shared by one of our teachers, Mrs. Mitali Jadhav: “One day I received a call from Buniyaad Center that we Nursery teachers were going to watch a movie, ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’, as a treat for September 5th, Teacher’s Day celebrations. We reached R City, where our seats were booked and we entered the theatre like excited little girls. We enjoyed the movie very much. Chatting and laughing among ourselves, we kept all our problems aside for a few hours and decided to be carefree. After the movie all of us went to the Food Court for snacks and had a wonderful time gossiping. I sincerely want to thank Buniyaad for this wonderful day.” For more pics, http://www.buniyaad.org.in/activities_tchrsday.html
Editorial Team: Jaya S, Hema R, Rekha J. Special contribution in photographs: Sai Jyothi M. Special Contributors: Valli, Hema K, Latha K, Archana P, Shikha P, C Sudheshna, Chitra V. Email us at: [email protected] Log on to our website: www.buniyaad.org.in