Session 1, Week 6
“Reflective thinking turns experience into insight.” – John C Maxwell
Acton Academies organize their days, weeks, sessions and years into learning arcs. We begin each learning arc with a “launch.” A launch is a challenge or discussion that introduces, equips, inspires and launches us into our arc. The actual arc is composed of challenges and all the attending experiences. The landing or ending of the arc is reflection. One could argue that the reflection is actually the most important part of the whole arc. Much of the learning actually takes place after a challenge is completed when heroes are given a chance to think about and synthesize what they did or didn’t do, and what they thought, felt, learned and experienced. Whether we are reflecting on the difficult aspects of a given challenge, our highs and lows of a day, our goals for a week or looking at multiple aspects of a full session, we believe the time spent reflecting is absolutely worth it. With the end of the session approaching, we spent considerable time reflecting this week.
In the Spark Studio, exhibitions are a great opportunity for reflection. The heroes were so proud to hold their first Exhibition of the school year. They ran the Exhibition themselves and knocked it out of the park! They voted, voted, and voted some more when making decisions about their Exhibition. They created welcome signs for their parents and guests.
They practiced a song with some sign language and requested the guides to not help them at all. They took pride in their studio as they cleaned it and got it ready for the parents to come. They worked hard showing their special guests the works in the studio.
The Spark Studio heroes owned their exhibition!
One of the big goals of Session 1 is to “Build the Tribe.” As guides, we are in awe as we reflect on how the Spark Studio built their tribe. We have watched them become a tribe of strong allies and helpers:
This hero was frustrated that she couldn’t do a cartwheel. Another hero took the time to teach her a few basic skills and gave her the support she needed.
This same hero was trying to cross the balance beam creation and started feeling uneasy about it. A fellow hero noticed the situation and used his knee to balance the board, making it sturdier to cross. Neither hero gave up. Neither hero used words to communicate. A need was seen and just the right amount of support was given.
Heroes build off each other’s ideas while making up games and challenges. They value team members’ input and are learning how to document it.
With systems and processes in place and a strong tribe built, the Spark Studio has launched into an incredible year of joy and learning.
In the Fire Studio, reflections and the other opportunities that come with the end of a session brought strong emotions of all kinds. At least 7 heroes were in tears of frustration, nervousness, discomfort, or even anger through the course of the week.
Giving fellow travelers warm and cool feedback was a very challenging experience for some new heroes. Receiving the warm and cool feedback may be challenging for others. What is more challenging for your hero?
Preparing for an Exhibition is a big responsibility. It requires many weeks of planning and execution. At CHOICE, exhibitions are completely hero-led, with almost no adult involvement. The volunteer Exhibition Committee does it all. It requires cooperation and maturity as heroes work together to prepare. It requires patience and flexibility as heroes encounter roadblocks or unexpected turns in their plans. As the Fire Studio’s exhibition dress rehearsals devolved into chaos (I should have taken a picture!), some on the Exhibition Committee were almost in tears. However, the heroes showed true grit, regrouped, tried again, persevered and pulled off a fantastic hero-led first exhibition.
Exhibitions are a great reflection opportunity for parents and heroes. It can be a time of celebration for hard work or a time of conversation for what changes heroes want to make in the next session!
When reflecting on how their first exhibition turned out, the Exhibition Committee Chair replied “Much better than I thought it would!”
With the Exhibition behind them, both the Fire Studio and Middle School heroes headed to the mountains for the culminating Grit Challenge of the session—a seven mile hike to Elephant Rock in Mueller Park Canyon. After the Fire Studio studied Greek Mythology for six weeks, heroes were on a quest to find Zeus and receive a gift from the gods.
Hiking seven miles is a challenge, for some it brought a few tears, but every single hero found Zeus and experienced the satisfaction of finishing a challenge. The gorgeous fall colors, beautiful weather, and delightful fellow travelers added to the joy.
A biology scavenger hunt, digging in the dirt, volleyball and a reflection on the session question finished out our day.
We are grateful for tears along the journey. It means we are doing hard things! And as the Fire Studio takes time to reflect on these hard things, they recognize that hard is part of their growth and that there are so many more smiles than tears along the way! (Check out the photo link to see the many smiles!)
In the Middle School their reflection revealed that while they could pull off an awesome exhibition in a short amount of time, they preferred earlier planning next time. And it turns out they did learn quite a bit of biology this session!
A reflection of their dissection exploratory work revealed to some that they loved dissections as much as they thought they would and to others that they want to try it in the future as there wasn’t “as much blood as they thought.”
Middle School heroes wrapped up their build the tribe Session 1 with the acquisition of a new studio mascot from D.I. and a very intense discussion of what music should be allowed in their studio. Learning to stand up for your own opinions and compromise with others’ opinions is a life long journey. It is beautiful to watch them grapple and practice this skill at this age.
We love the rhythm of our school year that gives heroes, families, and guides a chance during break week to slow down and reflect on the patterns of the session they’ve just lived out. Were the habits cultivated intentional ones or default ones? Was the work excellent? How was I an ally or a distraction on someone’s hero’s journey? We often reflect on the incredible opportunity we (as guides) and our children (as heroes) have to spend so much time in this intentional and energetic space where we can learn from the past and always feel hopeful about the future.