Session 1, Week 1

What Makes a Culture Flourish? An important question for every community to discuss, whether that community be a country, a city, a family or a school. Each year CHOICE chooses an overarching question. The overarching question is a question that we discuss all year and use to guide our Quests and challenges. Every Session will have its own sub question that relates and is posted on the front doors. “What Makes a Culture Flourish?” is our overarching question for this year. One thing that we believe can make a culture flourish, is a strong start. And what a strong start we had this year! We had an incredible first week of school, filled with fun and meaning in every studio.

In the Spark Studio we started out this year with a Harry Potter theme. The heroes explored the studio with ‘new eyes’ using their Harry Potter glasses to find a challenge. We were amazed how the heroes were so ready to jump into new challenges and push themselves so quickly. 

Some of the skills we are learning to help a community flourish are magical. Like the magic of learning others’ names.

We learned that we can solve our challenges in many different ways. We can be courageous, patient, ambitious, and creative. 

We learned how to cultivate a feeling of belonging in ourselves and in others. We learned there is magic in making new friends. 

The Fire Studio is a beautiful mix of returning FS heroes, Spark Studio heroes moving up to Fire, and new-to-CHOICE heroes. Heroes young, older, and new didn’t miss a beat this week in building a united Fire Studio tribe. CHOICE has a unique culture and there is a lot to learn the first few days, including new freedoms, new vocabulary words, and new concepts such as “Growth Mindset,” “Hero’s Journey,” and “Rules of Engagement.” Having to take a stand in Socratic Discussions was a little uncomfortable for some new heroes at first. But surrounded by allies, helpers and lots of games, each hero is finding their way into the center of an uplifting studio tribe. 

A Fire Studio guide overheard an inspiring conversation between two heroes new to CHOICE this year on day 3. One hero called to his friend, “Only 45 more minutes until school is over!” The friend automatically replied, “SWEET!” The guide was interested because in all her guiding time, she had never heard a conversation like that at CHOICE. The “SWEET!” was followed by a quick moment of silence and then the friend said, “But wait, school is fun! I don’t want it to end soon.” The first hero replied, “Yeah! NOT sweet!” The guide laughed to herself as she witnessed first hand a moment in their transformation from traditional-student to hero-learner. 

Quest time was focused on Building the Tribe this week. The Fire studio was separated into 4 houses (Harry Potter themed), then given a challenge to build a large fireplace puzzle for our “Common Room”. They soon realized they needed to work together as a whole in order to finish…it took 45 minutes, and they were determined! Once they hung it on the wall, they were adamant the room needed to be rearranged around the fireplace. They listed what makes a room with a fireplace somewhere they want to be: Feeling safe sharing and expressing, safety in the environment, the way the room is arranged, kindness, and supporting each other. Another discussion was about how to engage in meaningful conversation. One Hero used a phrase I will not forget: “Listening means putting energy into what is being said by another.” We then designed wand pencils to use in interviews for The Daily Prophet, where they practiced eye contact, asking engaging questions, and showing confidence in speaking one-on-one. There was a focused discussion about keeping their space clean. Many commented on how important a clean environment is on mood, learning, and concentrating. 

Nothing builds a relationship more than solving problems, overcoming obstacles together and having fun! The DELTA STUDIO spent their week doing all three. As Mission Impossible agents, the Delta Studio heroes deciphered codes, raced to find food, solved technology problems, built flood-evading structures, played a lot of games, and met the tough demands of Agent X.

Tribe building challenge to build a structure to evade a flood
We played lots of games!
A secret ops mission: Finding their Running Partner at Smith’s

Through their spontaneous morning greetings, and after school games where FS and DS heroes played together, the DELTA Studio heroes are already discovering a great secret to a flourishing culture… older heroes reaching out a hand of friendship to the younger heroes.

One way our culture flourishes is celebrating together! On the first day of school, we all came together at lunch. Those heroes who had Put In Effort over the summer (P.I.E) helped us get a little messy 🙂 The DS heroes watched over the Spark heroes outside while the guides were “occupied.”

Our week ended with an incredible camping/rafting trip. We watched our culture flourish as heroes of ALL ages came together and shared food, companionship and experiences. The bravery to go on a raft, or talk to someone new, combined with the generosity of everyone to share everything they had – including friendship – was beautiful to observe and experience. I was filled with gratitude.

I am convinced that one week in, our culture is already strong. I am truly excited to watch it flourish as we experience our Heroes’ Journeys together this year!