“Hatten” refers to the process of “developing”, creating, improving, or expanding something. “Ki” is the universal energy or force that can be harnessed for healing and self-improvement. “Ki” also means a “tree.” Hattennoki, in Japanese, translates to a "tree of development."


Many believe that education is the pathway to a career and a school is the foremost space for a child's exposure to social interaction. While it may be true, the holistic purpose and effect of education, learning, environment, and schools can hardly be measured or encapsulated.


Learning is lifelong and education is multi-purpose. As equalizers, schools promote social justice, shape society, and give individuals tools for problem-solving, flexible thinking, and logical reasoning to make connections and applications in the real world. Learning must not only be a source to expand one's intellect but also being recreational, joyous, therapeutic, and experiential, a stairway to growth, wisdom, and understanding of one’s and others' beliefs, values, and ethos. Education must teach kindness, perseverance, a growth-mindset, risk-taking, focus, and provide one with a firm yet gentle foundation to understand and interact with the world around us.


Hattennoki sums up my work with schools, parents, teachers, and children to make learning, teaching, curriculum, classrooms, mathematics, reading, language, and comprehension engaging and meaningful. Driven by brain science, child development, research in teaching and pedagogy, my work at Hattennoki aims to spark and sustain engagement, build and nurture curiosity, resilience, creativity, joy, thought, humaneness, and discovery in teaching and learning. 


When schools invest in their learning program beyond the curriculum and textbooks, when teachers grow professionally, when parents are partnered in the process of learning, children automatically benefit.


Hattennoki gives me opportunities to:

I started Math with a Smile with a vision to make math education more engaging, accessible, and enjoyable for all learners. 


Hattennoki is the next milestone in my journey as an educator. It aptly captures the holistic nature of education; ergo, Math with a Smile is now a subset of Hattennoki.

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