Week Two: 9/1-9/7

As we came back together for Week 2, both studios met together for the first time and talked about apples! Apples??? We are all like apples; we all look very different from the outside, but we are all stars and have seeds of potential on the inside. It is such a gift to see the unique potential in all of our heroes at CHOICE.

From the Spark Studio

This week our Spark Heroes were introduced to our language program! We are so lucky to have an engaging and thorough program – it is self-paced, meaningful and hands-on. Once they master all the letter sounds, they get to begin using our colorful shelves, loaded with miniature drawers which contain everything they need to build a strong foundation for literacy. Everyone was anxious to get started as soon as the shelves were uncovered! I’m so happy we have a group of Heroes who are excited about reading. 

I also introduced our overarching guardrail: Peace. As the learners have been getting more comfortable at our studio, we’ve started seeing some not-so-peaceful choices. We discussed the issue as a studio and the learners decided it would be fair to get a strike if you are doing something that is not peaceful. They voted on having a max of three strikes, with the final consequence being that you lose your freedom to choose where to work and what to work on. It has been a big adjustment for many of our learners to practice peace and learn from uncomfortable consequences. I have seen HUGE progress however, and I am so proud of each one of our Heroes for supporting each other with respectful reminders and trying hard to make more peaceful decisions. 

From the Elementary Studio

The greatest challenge this week came from our Lip Dub competition (a music video contest among the other 250+ Acton schools). I introduced this Acton wide competition with what I thought was a great song. The heroes overwhelmingly revolted! We decided that if they could choose a new song within a designated time period, that fit the criteria (the song had to feel positive and contain clean lyrics) we would use their song. I left all discussions entirely up to them. Their initial discussion was chaos and yielded no result. In their second discussion they chose a well known song. However, the next day when they had the printed lyrics in front of them, they maturely decided the song did not fit the criteria. Filled with frustration they entered their final discussion. With time running out they came to a decision on a new song that fit both criteria (if we start one stanza in). It was great lesson in the democratic process; strong emotions, disagreement, not everyone happy with the final decision, and yet they did it! In our two short weeks I think every learner has already experienced the frustration and disappointment of being outvoted in a studio vote. What a difficult and applicable life lesson!

Our launches during quest time were all about sportsmanship this week. Video clips of good and bad examples of sportsmanship in professional athletic events were instructive as we discussed the character we are trying to build. It was great to see the heroes patiently teach each other new games and work together as squads to accumulate points.

Thank you for sharing your heroes with us! Until next week —

Live your dreams!