Session 2, Week 5
As our family and friends were standing, jumping, and collapsing around the T.V. screen screaming at the top of our lungs last weekend, it would have appeared to an onlooker that there was much more going on than a college football game! This is a fun time of year for college football fans; “Big” games lead to big wins and big losses. This is also a fun time of life for our children. Each day brings wins and losses – some small and some feel really big! So what were some of our small wins this week?
Every morning in the Spark Studio, we have Show & Ask. Heroes are invited to bring something special from home and then ask questions to one another. One learner brought it to the attention of the studio that we could be asking better questions instead of always asking, “Where did you get that?” Heroes started noticing questions that start with ‘what’, ‘did’, or ‘how’. Later some Delta Studio heroes came to show the Sparks their stop motion video. After the video Spark learners asked questions like, “How long did it take to make this?”, “What made you decide to do this story?”, “Did you use wood to make the characters?” Sparks are learning how to have deeper conversations not only amongst themselves, but also with heroes older than themselves. And for the extra win… this was all initiated by a Spark hero!
Another win we noticed this week was more friendships blossoming. We noticed heroes playing together that maybe haven’t played together before. We noticed a more introverted hero getting many requests to make paper airplanes. He decided to teach the others how to make their own with a step-by-step demonstration. We noticed learners inviting a new friend attending a shadow day into their activities and play. All these small wins point to the big win of heroes breaking out of their comfort zone and challenging themselves socially. As this happens the heroes feel more comfortable being vulnerable with each other. They start doing things like reading out loud to a large group, making more comments during discussions, and even trying an especially challenging Montessori work.
In the Spark Studio we use ‘I statements’ to work through disagreements. It helps each person feel heard and have empathy for the other which in turn helps find a resolution. For some heroes, this practice has been more difficult than for others. As we use this method each day, it starts to come more naturally. As a disagreement started to get heated between 2 younger heroes, a guide walked over and asked, “what ‘I statement’ could you use?” One of the heroes (who in the past has struggled with I statements) quickly went into the “I statement” formula without any other assistance from the guide. Small win = the two heroes smoothly found a compromise they were both happy with. Big win = heroes are learning a healthy method of conflict resolution for life.
Whether it was completing their daily checklist, finally mastering a tricky math level, finishing the The Giver, earning an ice skating trip for their final GRIT challenge, facing up to a fear of the Spelling Bee and sheep brain dissection, or even getting into the Green Freedom Level for the first time this session, small wins came flying in all week in the Fire Studio.
Two bigger wins from the week were an accumulation of many small wins. First, the FS Jolliness this week focused on gratitude–specifically the practice of noticing good things that tend to turn invisible when we see them all the time. A few heroes were invited to the center of the rug for the studio to re-notice things they appreciated or admired about that hero. It was a bonding and gratifying moment for the whole studio. After sitting in the center for his turn, one hero new to the school, was suddenly willing and even excited to read the apology note to the studio he had prepared for losing 4 Moolahs. Feeling the appreciation and admiration of his fellow travelers gave him appreciation and admiration for them in return! The cheers from the studio and the smile from the hero after he shared his apology note was a BIG win for everyone.
Another hero found a choice before her last week: she could compete in the Yellow level Spelling Bee, which would be a shoe-in win for her and require very little work, or level up to Orange, which would require learning 24 new and challenging words, and a bigger chance of not winning. On her own, she eventually decided to take the harder road. Her studio win in the Orange level felt like a huge win for her and everyone who knew the work that went into studying those new words all week and performing under pressure!
This week in Quest the heroes felt the thrill of failure as the efforts to transfer the stored electrical energy from their hand crafted Voltaic Piles did not end in creating enough electricity to illuminate their led lights. Despite this shared setback many other fun discoveries and mini inventions were created along the way!
A fun win this week was the maiden voyage to our new winter PE facility. The heroes now have the amazing opportunity to enjoy their physical play in a beautiful indoor soccer facility. It is spacious and warm and dry and will provide a welcome backdrop for the myriad of engaging fitness activities the heroes conjure up. It was so fun to listen to their shrieks of joy as they entered the room and immediately started running around and then watch them self select into different leveled soccer groups. One hero commented, “I don’t usually like soccer, but today was so fun!” Having enough room to split up and enjoy playing at their own level was a win for everyone. Perhaps my favorite win during P.E. came after P.E. was over. Two heroes had been pretty competitive and perhaps a little upset with one another during their soccer game. After their game was over however, one of the heroes walked over to the other and said “good game” and gave a high five. The other hero reciprocated with a high five, a thanks, and a huge smile. All contention was gone.
The Fire Studio was also able to experience a big win in the form of an earned reward from their participation in the daily Grit challenges. Those heroes who were eligible had the chance to go and explore the wonder and frustration of learning to balance on 2 thin metal blades while propelling themselves around and and across a frigid sheet of ice. We observed a myriad of small wins in the form of displays of friendship: heroes helping one another up, holding hands guiding a hero learning to skate, and giving up the push cart for a hero that needed it more than them. We heard many small wins in the form of growth mindset comments such as: “I am so good at falling!” “I have improved a lot since last year” and “I made it around one time – I can do it again!” And on the way out, the employee who had helped our group of 40+ find the right size skates commented on how polite and kind our group had been.
What a week for the DELTA Studio during Quest. There were lots of wins! The boat valves have all been removed from the head and are being cleaned up. After two ‘professional’ spring compressors didn’t work well, they resorted to a quick ‘bam’ on the valve stem with a sledge hammer… it worked! The heroes also thought (all on their own) to organize and label all their parts as they were taking them apart to facilitate the putting back together. Check out their awesome label names!
The GoKart team has the frame welding finished and is starting on the floor, steering and brakes. They are so proud of their welding work! The transmission has been disassembled and they are rearranging the gears to make it go fast, with less torque rather than slow with a lot of torque. There is a good set of gears and pulleys to start with.
The resin team is almost finished with all their final projects.
The Nissan now runs over 30 mph (the original limitation) having had some creative catalytic converter repairs. Next challenge will be the emissions test.
Those working on architecture are anxiously engaged every day in a way they haven’t before been.
And a new group is starting on – and excited – to do some color theory and furniture DIY work!
Outside of quest, there were some awesome wins in the form of DS mentoring this week. DELTA heroes have such a way with the younger heroes. Whether it was mentoring during Core Skills,
or during the sheep brain dissection
or during the Blurp meeting
The Spark and Fire heroes know the DELTA heroes are there to support them. This was illustrated beautifully this week when a FS hero who was really upset was asked who could help him with his frustration. He paused a moment and then stood up and walked into the DELTA Studio and came back with a DS hero who has mentored him in past weeks.
It was also a win to come back into the DS after being with FS and see two different groups of heroes gathered around a table engaged in a writing squad. We have been discussing what it looks like to truly participate in a productive meeting (sitting around a table vs sitting on the floor, facing one another vs facing all different directions, everyone having papers vs just one or two heroes having papers). It was a win to see heroes making changes of their own choosing based on discussions and modeling – not to mention they were truly trying to give each other good feedback on their writing.
Watching heroes during the session Deep Book launches also portrayed several wins. Heroes were split up into groups of 3 or 4 to participate in hero led Socratic discussions. Listening to some really great Socratic questions was one win. Listening to heroes who tend to be more quiet in a large group share more passionate opinions in this smaller group was another win.
An engaging jolliness about the plasticity of our brain and creating new pathways, listening to heroes read their birthday picture books, and DI finds to protect clothing from grease were also small wins this week.
And of course, the P.E. facility was a win. Not only did the heroes LOVE the big space, but their creativity and willingness to play, was so fun! By the end of P.E. there was an intense rugby game, a creative volleyball game and a killer soccer game all happening simultaneously.
I was sitting in the guide office for a brief moment during this week when a DELTA hero walked in and asked me “Do you ever just walk through this place and notice how much joy there is?” The fact that a teenager sees this when she walks around her school was perhaps the biggest win of all this week. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t tears, and hard times, struggles, disappointments and challenges, but it means that all those things are leading towards joy. I can think of no bigger win!