CurlyBrackets

Hello there, person!

I'm trying to figure out if I should make something.

Answering this poll will help me decide. There might be some more polls later.

How difficult is it to organize and keep track of your kids after school activities?

1. It´s difficult
2. It´s somewhat difficult
3. It´s not very difficult
4. It´s not difficult at all

Please answer by writing the corresponding number in the comment field.

Thanks :D

Today we're launching a new project called "Kids Anonymous". It's interviews with kids and teenagers about the school, relationship with parents, friendship and all things that matter.

All interviews are going to be anonymous, you will only get to know the age and the location of the guests.

We encourage you to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section, the main purpose of this endeavor is to start a dialog and for the world of kids to get the voice that is heard.

Our first guest is Z. Here's what she has to say about school:

“I think, school should prepare me for challenging things that I’ll actually face in life. So that when I look back at what I’ve learned in school I’d feel - this was useful and I need and use this in my present life.

I’m struggling to find the reason for why you need to learn a lot of the things that we learn at school. It makes me feel a bit useless. I feel like I could be doing other things with my time. But by now I guess I’m kinda used to it and my mindset is that I just have to get through these years.

I don’t really see the use of it outside of school itself though. For example when I’m studying for a subject or doing homework I think “Ok, I’m doing this for this specific subject or a future test only”. That’s my only motivation. I don’t see any other point of doing it. We sometimes ask our teachers -“Why do we need this in our lives?”. Their usual response is - “You’ll need it in the university”.

At least for now, I haven’t learned that many practical things. Not the ones that I would like to learn. I think the only most useful skill I’ve gotten is presentation or social skills.

I mean, there are positive sides to it. I like the environment I’m in and I get to see my friends every day. That makes going to actual school a little more enjoyable. School gives me a social life. A structure to my days. And sometimes it’s interesting. Also school makes your brain practice to think in a faster, smarter way.

But there is also that other part of it, where all the stress and pressure comes in. When on top of that you don’t know why you’re doing the things you’re doing, you end up spiraling into this hole, where the entire thing just becomes pointless. So I’d say that the system works, but I feel like there could be a way of making it better.”

Z., 16 y.o., Oslo, IB program

The Pandemic Project Live Stream starts at 2 PM (Norway Time)!

35 kids & teenagers presenting the solutions they came up with to problems caused by the Coronavirus.

Use the link below to join:

CurlyBrackets | Pandemic Project Live Stream For the best experience, please join through the desktop application, not the browser. Press the button below and you'll be guided on how to do everything. Questions? Ask in the chat!

The Pandemic Project - free Easter camp from CurlyBrackets.

CurlyBrackets usually doesn’t run any activities during Easter but many things are different from usual this year.

As the world is facing one of the hardest problems of the century, we seek solutions. Some have to come from scientists and doctors. But there are hundreds of other problems that need to be solved for us as a society in this time of change. Those we can try to solve together. To solve them you need to pay attention to the world and people around you and try to think outside the box. Join us for a week-long problem solving marathon and let’s see if we can help the world out.

Follow the link below and sign up!

CurlyBrackets | The Pandemic Project There are problems that have to be solved by scientists and doctors right now. For those problems we have to trust the experts. But there are other problems, that each and everyone of us can relate to. Those we can try to solve together. / For those you don't need a PhD, you just need to look at the...

We thought long and hard about what we can do to help out during this time of social isolation. We moved all our classes and work online and are preparing to run free webinars for anyone who teaches and works on how to organize online classrooms or work-spaces.

However, we want to take it one step further. Quarantine can be a bit lonely but can also be a good time to learn something new.

Starting today, we are offering the first month of our online after school classes for FREE. You can join any of the tracks, save NOK 1499 and have a full month for free.

CurlyBrackets runs classes for students from 9 to 19 years old. We focus on project-based learning and obtaining skills rather than learning things by heart.

Right now we’re offering 4 tracks:
— Game Development
— Web Development
— Computer Science
— Math

Our classes last 1,5 hours and run once a week. We also have a project day on Sundays (from 12:00 to 16:00) during which we present anyone who joins with a new challenge to solve. It is optional to join on Sundays.

You can read more about our after school classes and see the schedule here:
https://www.curlybrackets.no/free-month

And of course, share widely. Help the kids of your friends, family or coworkers to spend this quarantine learning something new (and save some money while they’re at it)!

This offer works for all new registrations from 17.03.20 to 17.04.20. Your free month will start from the first class and not the date of the registration. If you choose to cancel by the end of the month you can do it freely, with no strings attached.

All our teachers are fluent in both Norwegian and English.

CurlyBrackets | Limited Quarantine Offer: Free First Month In case it’s your first time on our website - welcome! We’re a Norway based educational company. We teach through practice, building projects and believe in obtaining skills rather than learning things by heart. We thought long and hard about what we can do to help out during this time of social...

The whole world is talking about the Coronavirus. You probably already know all there is to know about the virus so we won't add anything.

We want to do our part.

We have been holding online classes for more than a year now. Currently, more than 60% of our students attend our classes remotely from home.

Starting today, we’re pausing all in-person attendance to our classes, camps, and events.

Classes will go on as normal, with everyone attending remotely from home.

We don’t know when we will resume in-person attendance again. For this reason, we are also opening up for remote attendance for all of our summer camps for 2020.

How we are handling the Coronavirus - The Bracketeer We want to do our part in slowing the growth of the virus. Starting today, we’re pausing all in-person attendance to our class, camps and events.

Hey there! Rafid here from CurlyBrackets. I thought I’d share a personal story from my childhood:

I was 5 years old when I moved from India to Norway with my family. We moved because my father wanted to do graduate work at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway. My parents decided to send me to an International school, so in case we decided to move back to India, I wouldn't have much trouble adjusting.

That changed when I was 8 years old. Things were going well and my parents decided to settle down in Norway. This meant that I needed to learn Norwegian. I was therefore moved to a special school in Trondheim, where I would learn enough Norwegian over the course of a year to be able to transfer to my local Norwegian school.

In August 1999, I attended the first day of school. I always liked the start of the school year, because we would get new books. My favorite subject was always math, so I was especially looking forward to getting the new math textbook.

At the end of the day, I packed all the books in my Lion King backpack and took the bus home.

When I arrived home, I immediately took out my new math book and started working through it. "It's quite easy", I thought to myself. I knew most of the material already.

Before I knew it, a couple of hours had passed, and I had finished the entire book.

I felt quite happy and proud of myself.

The next day, I was excited to show my new teacher everything I'd done. I was especially excited because I was sure that I would get a new, more challenging book to work on.

It didn't quite turn out that way...

When I told my teacher, she took me aside and started yelling at me. She asked me "What are you supposed to do for the rest of the semester?!?".

I felt sad and ashamed.

I was instructed to erase my work. I used the same book for the rest of the semester like all the other students.

---

I think about this story often. Why did it happen?

As I got older I knew I wanted to do something to fix this problem. Every day, hundreds of millions of students go to school and have a similar experience. They are either bored, struggling or they just don't care. Are there some amazing teachers working in the school system? Absolutely! I've had some myself. But the whole system is a one-size-fits-all model. And it just doesn't work.

That's one of many reasons why we started CurlyBrackets.

We want to make CurlyBrackets a place where any student can join and start growing and learning at their own pace. A place where students can discover different learning styles so they can learn how to learn. A place where they can get challenged by working on problems that are hard. A place where they can create projects that they care about and are proud to show off. A place where they can befriend and team up with other students and feel like they belong to a community.

We are still very early in our journey and we have a long way to go. But we are very hopeful about the future because we get to work with some amazing students every day.

We want to be part of the solution. Because our kids deserve the best.

Do you have a school story to share? We would love to hear it!

A sad story from 1999 - The Bracketeer I was 5 years old when I moved from India to Norway with my family. We moved because my father wanted to do graduate work at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway. My parents decided to send me to an…