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Institutos Educacionales Asociados IEA is located in Caracas Venezuela. The school runs a program as part of the curriculum called The Trix and Trax Talent and Skills Program that helps Students from 10-17 years old to discover and develop their talents, socioemotional and XXI Century skills, integrating technology encouraging them to dream big.
Overall impact
The Skills Builder program has enriched our talent and skills programme. The essential skills have been incorporated in the planning and curriculum content of other subjects like Language and grammar and Psychology. The resources and activities set for each skills stage has complemented our content and also our ways to measure progress. It has helped our teachers and learners have better understanding on how to develop each skill. The resources and activities are very useful and easy to implement during the class sessions; the learners like to interact with the resources. This year, we not only celebrated the II editions of The Trixandtrax Talents and Skills Challenge but also our students organized and facilitated an event for their parents, teaching their parents to work in teams through the role-playing methodology that they experience every time they have to do a presentation. This was a real highlight of the year that allowed them to put into practice their ability to solve problems, communication, leadership, Teamwork, and creativity.
Keep it simple
We have been able to keep it simple by using the online resources from Skills Builder in our classes. We recognise and reward student effort and achievement in relation to the essential skills using our Talent and Skills Challenge and the Trix and Trax Award Ceremonies. We gave out awards such as Best Captain to demonstrate progress made in Leadership, and Best Teamwork award for those demonstrating progress in Teamwork. This is also celebrated on Instagram.
Start early, keep going
Some students have regular opportunities for the learning and practising of essential skills. This year, we focused on students aged between 12-17 years.
Measure it
We start each quarter with the evaluations completed by teachers. At the end of each quarter, teacher re-evaluate the students and their progress using the Skills Builder Hub. We also use specific questionaries and student testimonies to measure the impact. Some students use Skills Builder Benchmark as a self-evaluation tool.
Focus tightly
With the planned activities and the understanding of the level of development of each group, teachers remind students of their focus skill. For example, teachers remind students to listen and appreciate each members opinions with respect or to think strategically to make effective group decisions. Using specific steps from the framework allows teachers and students to focus tightly.
Keep practising
We create activities to give students the opportunity to put in to practise the theory and experience real life situations so that they can practice their skills. The Talents and Skills Challenge competition is an opportunity to reinforce teamwork, leadership, creativity, listening and speaking skills. Students also have the opportunity to present their ideas (speaking and listening skills) and create and organise their own events (creativity, speaking, listening, leadership and aiming high). We also introduced a project called “The World in 30 Years”. Students are encouraged to imagine the world in 30 years and how their talent and skills would form part of the world. This project provides an opportunity for students to keep practising the skills that they have developed.
Bring it to life
The Talents and Skills Challenge Competition is a great way to bring the essential skills to life. We celebrate this on Instagram, and it helps to ensure that students see the relevance and importance of essential skills in the wider world.
What's next
During the summer recess we want to incorporate academic coordination personal and school human resource personal to Skills Builder training sessions so they can help us to train more teachers to get them motivated to use the program. We will also focus on rewarding essential skills in award assemblies and writing essential skills into the curriculum policy.
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