We had an incredible first week, with heavy focus on building bonds between these young learners. The inaugural morning launch was spent discussing our overarching Question of the Year: "What is the Hero's Journey?". We'll be reflecting on this question often, and it will anchor all that we do in our first year together here at Acton Nanaimo. We explored questions about friends on the journey, how they help heroes, and who has helped us before? We got to know each other through fun games like "Get on the Boat", "Would you Rather?", trust exercises, and many opportunities for collaborative activities like puzzles, boardgames, and free exploration time. We discussed our Provisional Studio Contract and the 3 promises we're making to each other to uphold our commitment to creating a world-class studio: (1) Treat the studio as a sacred space (2) Speak only with kindness, encouragement, and truth, and (3) Never distract yourself or others.
We discussed our Studio Guardrails: non-negotiable boundaries put in place by the Guide to ensure safety. We then reviewed our unique river guardrails before setting out on our first group excursion to the river. Houses and home bases were claimed, prisons for bad guys were established, and bets were made about what lay beyond the tunnel!
This week we also began our routine of studio maintenance, taking individual and collective responsibility for maintaining our studio as a sacred space. These young heroes rose to the challenge immediately and came together to tidy, sweep, vacuum, and wipe down surfaces. The studio's never looked so good! One of the most exciting developments was our Thursday Contract Launch, where learners began to contribute ideas to our "Idea Lab": things they want to experiment with before committing to at our Contract Signing Ceremony. Some of the rules these learners independently came up with were no yelling in the studio, no running in the studio, putting away work as soon as you're done with it, and daily show and tell. The incredible thing about giving young people the space to come to these conclusions themselves (and they do!) is the powerful sense of ownership that inevitably follows. Immediately I witnessed learners approaching others to say, "We don't yell inside", or "You didn't put your work away, can you please do that?". Without an adult having to say or suggest a thing. Amazing.
Each afternoon we spent long stretches of time running in the field, rock painting, exploring the river, playing in the Anji-Inspired loose parts zone, or reading quietly alone or with a friend during DEAR (Drop Everything And Read). On Friday we made our first entries into our Gratitude Journals (a tradition we'll be continuing all year) and concluded our week with Character Call-Outs: another Friday tradition where we call out specific positive attributes we've noticed in our studiomates throughout the week. Next week, it's on to core skills and introductions to the e-learning programs we'll be using to master reading, writing, and math.
One thing is certain. This group is destined for greatness!
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