Ms. Sujata R Kumar, an ardent educationist and a committed Montessorian, has over 29 years of experience in the field. She spent the initial 15 years of her career, working hands-on with children in the pre-primary Montessori section (3 to 6 year olds), in Sishu Griha Montessori and High School, Bengaluru. Her stint here included overseeing the functioning of the pre-primary section in the role of a coordinator.
Gradually, she moved on to consulting and training in the field of education specializing in the Montessori method focussed on pre-primary groups. She has been associated with Indian Montessori Centre since 1990 and from 2010 as a faculty in the area of the Montessori Teachers Training of IMTC. She was instrumental in setting up an IMTC Training Centre in East Bangalore and was in complete charge of training and administration for four batches of trainees (2012-2016). Later she held the position of Associate Director for the IMTC Course being run out of Gurgaon under the IMC Northern India Chapter (2016-2018).
She was also a part of the team of IMTC teachers training courses in Hyderabad. Currently, she is the coordinator and lead trainer in IMCK-Paraspara program in collaboration with VSR Montessori School (training local people in the Montessori method in a 20 house village in Andhra Pradesh). She is also associated with the Montessori training being conducted in Vietnam, in association with the IMC, having facilitated contact classes for them.
She has written and published various articles in the field of Montessori education in the IMC Biennial - Follow the Child (earlier known as "The Voice of IMC"). She has planned and executed Avalokana sessions(refresher courses for working Montessorians)in Bangalore and Hyderabad as well as with schools. She demonstrates proven techniques and expertise in the phonetic method of teaching language and regularly trains teachers to teach a language in the phonetic way to pre-primary children.
As a part of consultancy, she has worked with well-known schools like - Jnana Sweekar Public School (Kanakapura Road), Vagdevi Vilasa School (Marathahalli), Swamy Vivekananda Vidyaniketana School (Neralur, Anekal Taluk), Sparrows Montessori House of Children (BEML layout), Vidyavanam School (Anaikatti, Coimbatore), Silas International School (Udupi), VSR Montessori school(Reddyvaripalli), Cremon Montessori house of Children (Madhapur and Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad).
A staunch humanitarian and process work expert, she has been an active member of Aastha Foundation of Human Learning and Growth, Bangalore. She is a sought after life skills coach and has spoken to various student and teachers’ groups on the topics of communication, teambuilding, Language Development, empowerment and social skills etc.. She worked in the capacity of a coordinator and training faculty for a Bangalore based trust - Athani Charitable Trust, that provided scholarships to underprivileged students, where she personally monitored the progress of the students during and after the program.
A steadfast believer in human potential and energy, she is also a certified Reiki (Usui Shiki Ryoho form) healer and practitioner holding a second degree certification from Ray Infinitive School of Traditional and Natural Healing.
Gayatri Kiran is a Doctorate in Psychology from Bangalore University and is a Post Graduate Alumnus & UGC Research Fellow of Delhi University. She has more than 20 years of experience in the area of Early Childhood Care and Education, including special needs in early years. She is the Founder Director of Samyukta Child Development Consultancy, a Bangalore- based consultancy firm which offers technical support to organisations working in the areas of early childhood care education and special needs; as also private affordable schools. [ www.samyuktacdc.com]
She started her career working as a Senior Psychologist with mainstream schools and special needs centres. She has worked as a part of the team that established and managed the early intervention centre [for children aged 0-6 years] in Spastics Society of Karnataka, Bangalore. During this time she also taught Psychology and Child Development in the Diploma courses for about 13 years.
She has a Masters in Clinical Psychology from Fergusson College, Pune; and a postgraduate diploma in Special Education (multiple disabilities: physical and neurological) from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. She is a certified specialist in Handwriting without Tears®. As a special educator, she has a demonstrated record of working with children from the ages 2-16 years. She has experience of working with the Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC) systems, such as Avaz and Proloquo2Go, by incorporating them in her curriculum. Her primary interest lies in early intervention and preschool education.
Sai Phanindra comes with more than eight years of experience in Instructional Design, media technology, and content creation. In this period, he has worked on a variety of projects such as branding audiovisuals, learning modules, and adult education. He has a proven efficacy of working with and leading teams to develop innovative and engaging learning material. His work has been appreciated by top educational institutions, public works departments, telecommunication, IT and healthcare industries in India and abroad.