This year’s question of the year is “What motivates a hero?” and we will explore this question throughout the year. The entire school started this process during our annual school year kick-off “Welcome Party” where each hero – and their parents parents – shared with the group one new thing they tried or learned this summer, and what motivated them to do so. It was such a fun way to understand the interests and callings of both the children and adults in our learning community. We were surprised and delighted to learn about children running triathlons, joining a baseball team, taking a cooking class or going to sleepaway camp for the first time. Meanwhile, adults were traveling to far away places and reading books in foreign languages. It was inspiring for the children to see that even adults are always learning!
Embarking on our first week in Discovery this year, we have two former Spark heroes shadowing in the elementary studio. It’s the role of the experienced heroes to help guide the new joiners, while leading and building friendships across this bigger group!
To this end, the Quest for our first session is called “Build the Tribe,” where Discovery heroes discuss together, create their studio contracts, and familiarize themselves with Acton processes and systems. This week, the heroes had fun playing team-building games, collaborating to design their studio maintenance system, and building bonds within their running teams to come up with a team name, vote for a squad leader, and design a team logo. Additionally, Discovery’s focus this week is the lip dub challenge which the heroes will submit to the annual Acton Film Fest!
The lip dub challenge was entirely learner-led and included both Discovery and Spark heroes. The heroes planned the choreography, props that they wanted to show in the video, and filmed the videos. Next week they will edit the video to prepare it for submission. In addition, discovery heroes observed and discussed world-class examples of other Acton’s Lip Dubs to measure progress and excellence. After filming, they have also reviewed the videos and offered valuable feedback to decide areas for improvement in the next take. They have also led the Sparks in the process which has been a lot of fun for both groups to work together!
Some of the things you can ask your child(ren) about this week:
- What are the community contract promises that you promise to try?
- Lip dub video process. Which part did you enjoy the most about? How do you handle challenges that occur in the lip dub process?
- How do you play the chocolate river game? What did you learn about other heroes while playing the scavenger hunt game? What skills did you practice during maker space champion skills check off?
- How do you measure excellence?
- Who is in your running team? What’s your team name?
- What is the pom-pom jar system? How does it work?
