Ms. Shalini Patnam Gopalakrishna, a Director at the Indian Montessori Centre (IMC), has been part of the Indian Montessori Training Courses (IMTC) – Hosur, Vietnam and Special Batches since their inception.
After her certification in both IMC Montessori Primary and Elementary, she worked as an adult in an Elementary environment at Head Start Academy, Bangalore, working with children aged 6 to 9 years. She then set up Vismaya Montessori House of Children in Hosur, Tamil Nadu.
During her journey to become a Director, a teacher trainer, Shalini enthusiastically supported IMTC by giving lectures in Hosur, Bengaluru, Mangaluru and Vietnam as as well as being an external and chief examiner in many of these centres. Shalini has also acted as a consultant from IMC for various Houses of Children in Shivamogga, Mangaluru, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri, Malaysia and Vietnam, observing them and offering interventions, often helping them by implementing these interventions and reviewing their progress and effectiveness. She would review and offer course corrections to ensure the continuity of support from IMC until the goals are achieved. Shalini has also helped organise various national seminars conducted by IMC.
Given her technical savvy, she played a key role in the evolution of various innovative practices in IMTC – Vietnam, to overcome the various constraints of language and distance, and has conducted both online trainings and contact sessions in both Vietnam and India over the years.
This also helped IMTC – Hosur & Vietnam, IMC to launch a completely new IMTC – Special Batch in the middle of the pandemic in India, that allowed students across the length and breadth of India to avail IMTC. Shalini has been an integral part of this Special Batch too, and she has been a catalyst in the adoption of these practices by other directors.