June is here and that means it’s back to school time! This year as we fight the pandemic, virtual learning has taken over across the world. This is a reminder that such a crisis could shut schools, but learning never really stops.

Heading a dream lean team of 3 teachers and a nanny, the Center Director, Mrs. Sarika Manivanannan announced the news crossing 115 enrollments in just 5 months. They have more registrations in the pipeline. The corporate team visited the center to celebrate their success.

“Health isn’t just about what you eat, it’s about what you think and feel too.”

I’ve heard there is an emerging word for it right now where a teacher starts a business in the educational world – the word being “teacherpreneur”. Teachers can use their classroom skills and apply them to entrepreneurial endeavors.

Bhavana Madini who was among the Top 51 finalists for the National Spelling Bee held recently at Washington DC was in Chennai for few weeks.

Arise ‘n’ Shine, one of the leading educational enterprises in the country invited Bhavana as a guest speaker to share her journey with the primary students at Anna Adarsh, one of the schools where Arise ‘n’ Shine provides an integrated English and Emotional Intelligence program for the students. ‘As part of student learning and development, we create platforms for students from foreign countries to share their stories, challenges and engage inside the classrooms.’ says Raj Ganesh, CEO of Arise ‘n’ Shine.

Bhavana is a resident of Long Island, New York. ‘The whole journey started when she was little.’ said Arul Arasu, Bhavana’s mother. Her first grade teacher was the first to identify her skills. Bhavana won the prize in almost all the spelling events in her community. She won the classroom bee, school spelling bee and she also competed with all the spelling bee champions from Long Island. Bhavana also wrapped up the top prize at the Regional Spelling Bee and moved on to make it to the National Spelling Bee.

Bhavana had to learn about 70,000 words. She spent about 4-6 hours a day to improve her language skills, vocabulary and etymology. She does a lot of reading. There were times when Bhavana was tempted to give up looking at the intensity of the preparation and the sacrifices she had to make. Every time she felt demotivated, she would think about the road travelled and the little milestones she achieved along the way. Today she is on the top 51. She is determined to travel further to get to the finals and to win the national title.

This 11 year old prodigy’s speech about her journey with the National Spelling Bee inspired both the students and the teachers. ‘If you have a goal and plan a schedule around your goal with a little bit of hard work, you can go farther than you can imagine’, says Bhavana to the students. After hearing Bhavana’s speech, few students came forward and shared their excitement.  Grade 5 student Akshaya Shree said, ‘Bhavana speaks beautiful English. I want to speak with confidence like Bhavana.’ When you create such a platform for your students, it can pay multiple dividends. Yashika, another grade 5 student animated her feelings, ‘I want to be in the news like Bhavana. I will work hard to improve my English skills.’ You never know, both Akshaya Shree and Yashika can be our next news in the upcoming months as Bhavana has stirred their heart and mind to achieve greatness.

‘It was a long day at work. My incomplete To-do list got me thinking on my drive back home. I leaned against the window in exhaustion. When my car took a familiar turn, there was a sudden sense of joy inside of me. As I stepped into my home, I smiled wide as I saw this wet-nosed, silly, tail-wagging, furry creation looking at me in excitement. There he was, Tootsie; my pet pug who simply knew how to make my world a better place’, shares Nivetha Raj who is specialised in Counseling Psychology and an EQ coach. In this blog, Nivetha shares how having pets at home help nurture a child’s EQ in the most simplest and meaningful ways.

Every child has the right to a personalised education. To make this happen, the teacher should understand the importance of being empathetic; putting themselves in every child’s shoes. Here is a true story from Ahsha Mohan, an English Teacher who believes in building a positive classroom culture by imparting empathy.

On the third day of the class, her grandma asked me, ‘What magic did you do to  Ashana? In her entire day she waits till the clock strikes 3 pm to come to your class, she even spoke to her mom and shared lots about you.’ If you call kindness and empathy as magical, yes that is the magical experience we give to the children, says Kiran Jha, an educationalist, Director of Arise ‘n’ Shine and MyBeeClub, who runs her education center in Adyar, Chennai.

With the rise of technology, the hard skills you are learning today might just become obsolete soon. To succeed, there is something else to focus on, Emotional Intelligence.

In this article, Raj Ganesh, the founder and CEO of Arise ‘n’ Shine shares the importance of emotional intelligence and its necessity in our current education system.

In this blog the founder and CEO of Arise ‘n’ Shine, Raj Ganesh shares the importance of Learning Styles which has been overlooked in the education system.