The first four skills commonly included under the 21st Century Skills banner are: Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication. One might wonder where is curiosity?
People often ask me where my curiosity comes from. Like most things about me, I tell them, my parents. Both of my parents were public school teachers with my mother choosing to be a stay-at-home-mother to raise my brother, my sister, and me. This meant my father worked more side jobs than he had summers. For a while, he sold encyclopedias–try asking a kid today what one of these are. Since he was a salesman, he got a free set, so even though we couldn’t afford a lot of things, we always had the best encyclopedia in town.
Whenever I was bored (which was often) I would randomly pick one of the books in the encyclopedia and read an entry. I would search for whatever got me curious in the entry and repeat the process until I had nearly the entire encyclopedia set scattered around me on the floor. My learning was ferocious and would sustain for hours, or until my mom said there was food to be eaten.
What if, instead of being a “skill,” curiosity is the “energy” that powers every, single 21st Century Skill?
What if curiosity is something we are born with and without limits? What if, this means curiosity is something meant to nurture rather than acquire? What if, by nurturing curiosity, we are ensuring the of the skills needed for this century and future centuries would be taken care of?
What if, this is why Belouga starts with curiosity to generate momentum throughout its CLAI (Curiosity, Learning, Action, Impact) Methodology that powers all learning on its platform?
Within the Continued Learning Community (CLC), curiosity is the launching off point. The CLC network of global educators also provides an engaged community with whom to communicate, collaborate, create, and think critically about global education.
Here’s how the Belouga Builder Can 21st Centurize Your Classroom:
Clear (and Collaborative) Starting Point: You’re down with the 21st Century Skills (maybe even giddy about them), but have no idea where to start. We get it. All the time, actually. One of the biggest gripes we hear from educators is that they are constantly being told “what” they need to do, but rarely without any of the “whens,” “wheres,” “whos,” “hows,” or “whys” behind it. Belouga has you covered. By participating in the CLC you are immediately taking action on the four Cs (Critical Thinking, Creativity, Collaboration, and Communication) of 21st Century Skills with a global community of educators. These Cs are foundational to the rest of the 21st Skills; especially seen with educators sharing their own work in their classroom through the CLC network.
Connect All Skills Together: Belouga does not just believe in the 21st Century Skills, it was built on them. As you go through the lesson plan builder as part of your CLC enrollment, you will see how these skills are woven directly into our DNA.
- Communication: Communication starts with you; the Belouga Builder brings the tools to make it easier and more robust. After every student response, they immediately see how other students from different parts of the World responded to the same prompt, making every student response a new opening for global communication.
- Critical Thinking: You can use multiple choice questions in episodes you design to help your students self-assess instead of being quizzed on right or wrong answers.
- Creativity: Give your students permission to let their creative side lead their learning by designing episodes that ask them to respond with videos, photos, sketches, or mind maps.
- Collaboration: Belouga loves raising the volume on teacher voice, but really gets down to the sound of a teacher choir. Whether you design episodes solo or connect with other educators around the globe, the opportunities for meaningful collaboration abound on the Belouga Builder.
Click here to join our growing community of rockstar 21st century educators!