Session 1, Week 2
In the Hero’s Journey, after a hero accepts a Call to Adventure, they Cross the Threshold and enter the Special World. Whether this is a hero’s first year at CHOICE, or they have been here many years, we are all beginning a new Hero’s Journey. Thus, as we enjoyed our second week of school, heroes stepped into the Special World and are getting better acquainted with all it holds.
For some heroes in the Spark Studio everything about school is new. For others, they are experiencing new friends, new opportunities to lead, new works, and a new school year.
All of them are discovering a stronger sense of self as they become more independent and branch out from their old support system to develop new friendships.
Every Day “Dumbledore’s” sends us challenges to help us on our journey. Monday Dumbledore challenged us to: “Look for examples of Ambition, Patience, Creativity, and Courage helping your community.“ One example is when a hero waits for a turn on their favorite bike.
Tuesday we were challenged to write letters to help our community. Each hero was eager to write letters and loved having Hedwig deliver them.
Wednesday Dumbledore’s challenge had us learning to collaborate as we worked with our house (squad) to figure out how to protect our house stone.
On Thursday we learned that a lullaby would help us get past Fluffy, the three headed dog. We played instruments, made instruments, and even wrote down music for our lullabies.
Because the Hero’s Journey happens within, you can be in the same place yet crossing a new threshold. Many of these heroes are returning to the same studio, yet each of them seem to be challenging themselves in new ways.
The Fire Studio is discovering that we work hard and play hard at CHOICE. At the threshold of a new year, heroes spend plenty of time debating and crafting the Rules of Engagement that will make their discussion rug a more enjoyable, respectful, and engaging experience for the whole tribe. These discussions bring up issues that can be challenging to agree on–even for grown people! How can discussions be a safe place for everyone to share and shape their opinions? What does respect sound like and look like at the discussion rug? How do distractions influence the quality of our discussions? What do we define as a distraction?
Entering the Special World also means learning routines. This week heroes worked to establish new core skills routines in the morning. They were introduced to The Challenge Donut, as well as to their new Writer’s Gym materials and a few of the math and language activities they will be able to choose from in core skills time. This week Fire Studio also had their first Jolliness (wellness) unit of the year and brainstormed the big feelings they hope to explore.
Playing hard is also an integral part of tribe building and heroes find lots of time to join in play, be it grammar skits, a board game, Harry Potter madlibs, a physical challenge with their running partner, emotion charades, or a house vs. house sports match in PE. With every game, every little victory or defeat, every laugh or comforting pat, heroes are growing into a strong, connected tribe ready to support one another on their Hero’s Journeys.
During Week 2 of Quest it has been amazing to watch communication strengthen in the Fire Studio. We have continued our focus on Building the Tribe through Lip Dub planning, challenge games, and group, and partner work. They are learning quite a bit about AND from each other.
This week we talked about the magic of writing; how a story is magical because of the everyday moments coming to life with detail. Each Hero practiced brainstorming and writing about a personal moment (ex. Going to Cherry Hill, first time flying); capturing every detail they could think of. Quite a few heroes felt they could not think of anything at first, but as we discussed, their lists of details filled their page. They then had to see if they could capture their personal moment in a picture and see if others could guess. When you provide detail with words, pictures can become clear in the mind (think of the images that come to mind when you read Harry Potter books!). We will be doing exercises like this for a few weeks so they can have a final “story of moments” completed for their Hero Book.
We are also exploring a watercolor skill each week for a finale piece to showcase at Exhibition. This week’s skill was how to create dark to light with the colors. We are also practicing collaboration. Heroes shared with each other how they could improve a technique, or what they noticed is needed to achieve a technique. The discussion during the painting earned their Houses points – so there were some great comments of advice, encouragement, and teaching going on.
In the DELTA Studio, it was fun to watch the transition from carefree fun and novelty, to heroes begging for time to work and dive into their passions this second week of school. A huge part of this Special World is creating their culture and governance. Now that the heroes have Crossed the Threshold and have been together a little while, they are starting to perceive the issues that will need addressing as they draft their contracts and continue to consider the culture they want to be building. We continued to enjoy plenty of games and tribe building challenges as part of building that culture:
We also began to figure out what work we actually do in this Special World as all the different types of work and learning were introduced. Heroes spent a day exploring Deep Books and the process of a Deep Book badge.
Heroes spent a day exploring habits- specifically the Servant Leader habit. DS heroes practiced serving the Spark heroes by spending 15 minutes doing a work one-on-one with a Spark hero. (Check out the weekly pictures: “Mixed Studios” to see all the pictures of these awesome one-on-one experiences).
DS heroes practiced serving the Fire Studio heroes by helping them log into their chromebooks and programs and by making, serving and cleaning up a pancake lunch for them.
A mentor named Pete came and introduced the heroes to what a passion is and what that looks like in Exploratory Works. His breakdancing and chicken coup were epic.
During Civ some heroes greatly enjoyed the role of Landlord while other heroes sadly experienced the unfair realities of sharecropping.
As the Heroic Parenting Studio attended their first Parent Meeting they were introduced to how to mentor their learners in this Special World.
Choosing to accept the Call to Adventure was a big decision. Now that we have all Crossed the Threshold, and are exploring and discovering this Special World we are on our way to finding our Allies, Helpers and Mentors and soon will find our Road of Trials. It is an exciting journey to be on together!