Year 2 Session 1 (9/18/21)
Hey everyone,
Another great week comes and goes at Aim! The Studio is really getting into an impressive flow. Core Skills time has become silent, meaningful and focused. Conversely, Quest time is loud, but exciting and productive. The Eagles are engaged and thoughtful during Socratic discussions, and the Tribe's self-governance gets stronger every day.
The Sparks had a courageous week. More of them have started to hold each other accountable by asking for an Eagle Buck when someone is breaking a contract promise. Others decided to tackle Quest challenges on their own, like the Da Vinci Tower, and succeeded! We also launched Technology Island where the Sparks will get to do some of their core skills on the computer. A challenge was also issued this week for them to find and do research on a hero from the past. Maybe their research comes from a book, website, or video about the hero. They can then present their research to a Guide, and it can be shared during Hero History time on Tuesdays.
This week saw the Studio hit a few new milestones as well. The Council, which is the primary governing leadership body of the Tribe, added three new members as the original three members realized the responsibilities of the Council exceeded that which could reasonably be done by them alone. The Guides introduced a list of Build the Tribe challenges as complementary tasks that must be completed alongside the Physics challenges in order to earn the Quest Badget this Session. This list includes things such as "Each Eagle needs to earn 5 Eagle Bucks" to "Make (and keep track of) 10 examples of Growth Mindset Praise in everyday conversations--no more than one per learner." to "Learners lead at least 3 Launches". Speaking of these last two challenges, we had our first launch led by an eagle this week, and it just so happened to be about Growth Mindset. We guides are going to work ourselves out of a job very soon!
We also revamped Studio Maintenance this week. There are now Area Champs who assign the various jobs among their House members. This has added clarity and accountability to the system and has already made a huge difference. Another 'first' this week was the official opening of the Eagle Buck Store. Several purchases were made on Friday accompanied with great excitement.
In my observations this week, the theme that stood out the most was about the freedoms at the school. It is fascinating watching the eagles grapple with it. They are learning things like freedom needs to be matched with responsibility. Misusing freedom actually has consequences. They are essentially learning that they need to manage their freedoms, or be managed by them! What powerful lessons to learn at a young age.
--
Lance Stewart
