Week 5 9/22-9/28

Of course no one is perfect and we still have many rubber bands to stretch and challenges to overcome, but the progression we are seeing in both studios is beautiful…

From the Spark Studio

From Miss Anna: This Tuesday we put our Heroes to the test – we added TONS of new materials to the shelves (mostly math), many of which were complex, multi-step and require lots of focus to complete. As I’ve written about in previous weeks, our learners have been stretching themselves as they’ve been adapting to an environment where they are free to choose how to use their time during the work cycle, but have to stay within our peace boundary in order to make our studio a productive and joyful place for all. Many have also been adapting to long, full school days as well – a huge feat within itself. 

Despite (or likely due to) this adjustment period – our learners thrived in their access to so many new materials! To a child with little self-discipline, having too many choices is overwhelming and paralyzing. To our Heroes, the new opportunities sparked excitement and a desire to tackle new challenges. Miss Jeanette and I spent the week very busy and engaged in new presentations – we had so many requests that we could hardly keep up! It’s a great problem to have!

Another benefit we got to enjoy this week from greater self-discipline was more freedom with our schedule. Each day after outside time, we come in for Turtle Time. The first few weeks were borderline painful for them – it was so hard to sit still on a yoga mat for more than a minute. But as we’ve kept at our meditation practice and encouraged them to be “meditation masters,” each of them started to discover the joy of following along with our imaginative, guided meditations (which are only five minutes). The last few weeks I started reading a chapter book (voted on by the tribe) after the meditation and encouraged them to relax quietly on their mats while they listened. Again, adding this extra step to Turtle Time was hard at first, but this week after starting our second book on Wednesday, the Heroes were quite literally chanting “more, more, more!” when I’d get to the end of a chapter. We made it 70 pages in two days! They would not have been able to experience the joy of reading had they not been able to exercise that self-discipline we’ve been working so hard on this session. I am so proud of them!!

Another benefit enjoyed from greater self-discipline this week, was more freedom with our schedule. Each day after outside time, we come in for Turtle Time. The first few weeks were borderline painful for them – it was so hard to sit still on a yoga mat for more than a minute. But as we’ve kept at our meditation practice and encouraged them to be “meditation masters,” each of them started to discover the joy of following along with our imaginative, guided meditations (which are only five minutes). The last few weeks I started reading a chapter book (voted on by the tribe) after the meditation, and encouraged them to relax quietly on their mats while they listened. Again, adding this extra step to Turtle Time was hard at first, but this week after starting our second book on Wednesday, the Heroes were quite literally chanting “more, more, more!” when I’d get to the end of a chapter. We made it 70 pages in two days! They would not have been able to experience the joy of reading had they not been able to exercise that self-discipline we’ve been working so hard on this session. I am so proud of them!!

From the Elementary Studio

From Kara: The heroes put on a beautiful opening ceremony to their CHOICE tournament. They formulated an oath of sportsmanship for all participants as well as a motto, and enjoyed participating in some pageantry and competition tradition. I’m excited to see what they decide to share at the exhibition! We had discussions this week about the role of referees, the appropriateness (or not) of trash-talk in competition, and about fairness in our tournament. We are all learning life lessons about how nothing is perfect, but we can make the best of it regardless!

From JeVonne: My highlights came through small moments throughout the week; moments that I couldn’t catch on camera. Moments where I observed paradigm and attitude shifts –

  • Listening to a hero decline playing a computer “game” because in her words “math is so fun now” (once the heroes finish their course challenges they are really enjoying their math lessons!)
  • Watching a hero who was previously very distracted during D.E.A.R. time sit down and engage with a book.
  • Observing heroes self-select a challenging grammar level rather than choosing the easiest route.
  • Witnessing so many of the heroes enthusiastically volunteer to spend some of their time each week as mentors to the Spark Studio heroes.
  • Listening to the heroes vote to read “gotchas” two days a week rather than one because they have so many compliments they would like to give one another.
  • Seeing a hero stand up for another hero that perhaps they wouldn’t have stood up for a few weeks ago.

These are the moments I treasure. Progression is a beautiful process to observe. Until next week –

Live your dreams!