AspiringShe: Aspire to Inspire, 2016
“Cognitive development must go hand in hand with emotional and social development. The latter two aspects do not receive the attention that they deserve. Brain development requires all 3 facets. In the past decade, enough has been done to make classrooms stimulating. However, what still lacks is mindful learning. Learning can be retained only if it is done mindfully.”
Dynamic Vaishali Bafna of Thinkashram says that her start-up idea was not instant coffee but a slowly brewed and carefully measured filter coffee. It is not always necessary that the idea of a start-up should come in an instant. Sometimes, it is the culmination of years of experience.
My eureka moment was not in an instant. The setting up of Thinkashram has been a long journey. I have been in the field of education for over a decade. I have taught in classrooms, helped children with learning difficulties through one on one intervention and designed curricula. Having worked in various capacities with children in a mainstream school and following research studies conducted in the field of neurosciences and brain development helped me gain a wider perspective on the link between education and cognitive development. I got some invaluable insights that drove me to set up a centre, Thinkashram, to fulfill some exclusive needs.
Cognitive development must go hand in hand with emotional and social development. The latter two aspects do not receive the attention that they deserve. Brain development requires all 3 facets. In the past decade, enough has been done to make classrooms stimulating. However, what still lacks is mindful learning. Learning can be retained only if it is done mindfully.
Students are expected to only use their brain to think and hand to write. The rest of the body is pretty much restricted from facilitating learning. This widens the gap between the mind body connect. Like whole brain, we must use whole body for learning.
The concept, approach and structure of the organization was very clear in my mind when I started. The struggle was to make others understand the philosophy that drove the concept. Social media helped me to simplify and present the different aspects of the philosophy and its impact to the viewers. Parents who see the change in their children also recommend us to their dear ones who need help. To reach out to the audience and communicate the philosophy is a challenging task. One has to see it to believe it.
I have conceptualized and set up Thinkashram. I am the founder as well as the facilitator. I look into the interaction and planning for each student personally. All the resources are conceptualized and designed by me. I also conduct workshops for parents and teachers and individually consult them too.
With a start-up, time management becomes extremely crucial. I switch roles between planning, organizing, administration, mentoring, teacher training, resource development, personal education and development, communication, liaison, family duties, etc. Beginning each day with a ‘To do’ list for every small detail of work that I have to do, helps me mentally prepare myself and finally execute them. I think the most important ingredient is passion. I, usually, do not have to shift my deadlines. I am ever so thankful to my team, my personal hand diary and, most important, a functional, trustworthy and cooperative staff at home.
We are a small organization. The concept is so personalized that I decided to grow organically and build capacities accordingly. We started with one student and today we conduct about 50 personalised sessions a week. This year, we have also been able to consolidate our thinking skills program for groups and launched our first batch that enrolled for the whole year. We are started a distance learning program for teacher training. We have trained teachers from Belgium and Dubai.
For the near term, I am looking at educating more children with the concept of organic thinking, a better option to following structures and instruction-taking and reaching out to more parents through our four scientific workshops that pretty much empower parents in taking an informed decisions for their children in any field. Plus I am willing to throw open the doors of Thinkashram to peers who can approach us for any specific needs or even training.
Honesty and passion hold the key. Passion never makes one feel tired or lonely in the journey that has started. Passion makes you constructive and forward seeking. Honesty ensures that we remain truly committed to the cause and never give up.
Children learn with joy when they attend a class in Thinkashram and that is something that we have aimed to achieve. It shows that the integration is complete and the students are mindful. Each of my students is special and I cannot forget their special stories. A student who previously hated Chemistry started liking it, another one had ‘speech-impairment’ but with a couple of months intervention started speaking clearly, a student with a ‘reading hatred’ started doing so after intervention. These are a few of the beautiful stories we have seen unravel. Since each program is personalized, the impact is seen within a few weeks to months.
Thinkashram, the name itself, means an abode of thinking. Its logo also represents a tessellation of thoughts. This is how our thinking develops and learning takes place.
https://iwsclub.blogspot.com/2016/12/start-up-story-vaishali-bafna.html
Cognitive development must go hand in hand with emotional and social development. The latter two aspects do not receive the attention that they deserve. Brain development requires all 3 facets. In the past decade, enough has been done to make classrooms stimulating. However, what still lacks is mindful learning. Learning can be retained only if it is done mindfully.
Students are expected to only use their brain to think and hand to write. The rest of the body is pretty much restricted from facilitating learning. This widens the gap between the mind body connect. Like whole brain, we must use whole body for learning.
The concept, approach and structure of the organization was very clear in my mind when I started. The struggle was to make others understand the philosophy that drove the concept. Social media helped me to simplify and present the different aspects of the philosophy and its impact to the viewers. Parents who see the change in their children also recommend us to their dear ones who need help. To reach out to the audience and communicate the philosophy is a challenging task. One has to see it to believe it.
I have conceptualized and set up Thinkashram. I am the founder as well as the facilitator. I look into the interaction and planning for each student personally. All the resources are conceptualized and designed by me. I also conduct workshops for parents and teachers and individually consult them too.
With a start-up, time management becomes extremely crucial. I switch roles between planning, organizing, administration, mentoring, teacher training, resource development, personal education and development, communication, liaison, family duties, etc. Beginning each day with a ‘To do’ list for every small detail of work that I have to do, helps me mentally prepare myself and finally execute them. I think the most important ingredient is passion. I, usually, do not have to shift my deadlines. I am ever so thankful to my team, my personal hand diary and, most important, a functional, trustworthy and cooperative staff at home.
We are a small organization. The concept is so personalized that I decided to grow organically and build capacities accordingly. We started with one student and today we conduct about 50 personalised sessions a week. This year, we have also been able to consolidate our thinking skills program for groups and launched our first batch that enrolled for the whole year. We are started a distance learning program for teacher training. We have trained teachers from Belgium and Dubai.
For the near term, I am looking at educating more children with the concept of organic thinking, a better option to following structures and instruction-taking and reaching out to more parents through our four scientific workshops that pretty much empower parents in taking an informed decisions for their children in any field. Plus I am willing to throw open the doors of Thinkashram to peers who can approach us for any specific needs or even training.
Honesty and passion hold the key. Passion never makes one feel tired or lonely in the journey that has started. Passion makes you constructive and forward seeking. Honesty ensures that we remain truly committed to the cause and never give up.
Children learn with joy when they attend a class in Thinkashram and that is something that we have aimed to achieve. It shows that the integration is complete and the students are mindful. Each of my students is special and I cannot forget their special stories. A student who previously hated Chemistry started liking it, another one had ‘speech-impairment’ but with a couple of months intervention started speaking clearly, a student with a ‘reading hatred’ started doing so after intervention. These are a few of the beautiful stories we have seen unravel. Since each program is personalized, the impact is seen within a few weeks to months.
Thinkashram, the name itself, means an abode of thinking. Its logo also represents a tessellation of thoughts. This is how our thinking develops and learning takes place.
https://iwsclub.blogspot.com/2016/12/start-up-story-vaishali-bafna.html
