heroesacademy-blog

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From Failure to Victory (Year 1, Week 10)

Many new experiences awaited the heroes this week, and led to the ending of a wonderful second session at Heroes Academy. This week’s story starts with a Monday morning failure, and ends with a Friday afternoon victory.

Hero Buck Council

The heroes were surprised to enter the studio on Monday morning and find the Hero buck Store had been closed. All items and decoration had been removed and in their place the heroes found these signs:

Over the last 2 weeks, the Hero Buck council has failed to update and distribute hero bucks to all studio heroes. As a result the hero buck store has closed until the heroes resolve it. 

Faced with this dilemma the heroes began discussing it amongst themselves, trying to decide on a course of action. This resulted in two studio members writing town hall meeting request forms with suggestions of how to proceed, including “fire them” and “get a new council”. 

An emergency town hall meeting was called during lunch and, led by Jack, the heroes presented their ideas and discussed their options. It was so exciting to see the heroes initiate and run the meeting completely unaided by the guides. They upheld the rules of engagement and conducted an organized and orderly vote for the new council. After the current council (Caden and Betsy) shared that they no longer wanted the responsibility, the group asked for volunteers who who would like the role. After a vote was taken, Kai and Xaria were voted in as the new Hero Buck Council and have now taken on these responsibilities.

SOLE 

Tuesday morning was another opportunity for the heroes to explore a question and report back to their groups with their findings. This week the heroes were prompted with the question:

Why do people speak different languages? 

In addition, the heroes were also posed with a related challenge:

Learn how to say something in another language.

The heroes explored the questions in small groups, collaborating together and sharing one computer per team. When reporting back findings, each team referred to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel as evidence of why people may now speak different languages. This lead to a discussion of the benefits of knowing another language in today’s world. The heroes were the most excited to share with their fellow travellers phrases they had learned in another language including Spanish and Swedish! 

Writer’s Workshop

The writer’s workshop this week began with an inspiring launch about the power of words. A powerful discussion followed, with Heroes sharing personal examples of experiences when words had greatly impacted them. The heroes are becoming much more familiar with the drafting, feedback and publishing process of the writer’s workshop and their stories are becoming increasingly detailed and creative. Most importantly they are started to show more joy and excitement around writing. 

The end of this blog post includes an example of a published Writer’s Workshop piece from each Flying and Soaring hero. We hope you enjoy reading them.

New Accountability Tools

Throughout this week the heroes have been focusing on upholding their studio contract promise of not distracting themselves or others. After discussing ideas to implement that may help them to uphold this commitment, the heroes decided to try a red card/green card system. Each heroes desk now has a card on it that can be turned to the red or green side. When turned to display the red side, heroes are signaling that they do not want to be interrupted or approached by anyone and, if they are, they will instantly ask for a hero buck. If turned to the green side, heroes are signaling that they are happy to be asked questions by others that relate to core skills or badge work. 

A new “Accountability Jar” has also been added this week to incentivize high standards within the community. Each week we focus on a specific contract promise, and each time a hero holds a fellow traveller accountable this particular promise, a hero buck will be added to the accountability jar. If the heroes reach 30 hero bucks in the jar the heroes will enjoy another studio party.

Exhibition Preparation

With the end of session exhibition approaching, the heroes began preparing for the exhibition by creating the schedule, assigning roles and setting up the studio. 

They have spent Thursday and Friday preparing and practicing for their roles, making improvements along the way after giving and receiving feedback. It has been exciting to see how the real-world experience, like the exhibition, has motivated many of them to step up in responsibility and involvement. 

A Visit From a Hero

On Wednesday afternoon the heroes had the privilege of having a guest in the studio. Jim Escobar, a successful architect from the community, visited the studio to share about his own hero’s journey. 

The young heroes greatly enjoyed having a member of the community in the studio and to have the opportunity to ask him questions about his work in architecture as well as receive feedback about their own work from the architecture quest. It was a rich time of sharing and the heroes were very engaged and excited by the opportunity.

Exhibition

After busily preparing this week, the heroes were excited to have their end-of-session exhibition this Friday. The exhibition was broken up into three areas of focus: the architecture quest, core skills and writers workshop. As usual, the heroes were responsible for planning the exhibition, setting up the studio and presenting the exhibition to their guests. 

After Kai welcomed the parents and guests, time was given for everyone to look at the research, drafts, final drawings, and models completed for the architecture quests. After discussion, the guest judges from the industry, announced the winning model as Caden and Kai’s.

Garrett, Lily and Julianna shared with the group what happens during core skills time, what they most enjoy about core skills, and introduced the core skills scavenger hunt. This was a time to update parents on the progress they had made, and the new processes in the studio.

Jack, Xaria, and Betsy then shared their favorite stories they had written from writer’s workshop.

At the end of the exhibition, parents again had a chance to offer feedback on the exhibition itself. The feedback suggest significant improvement made in the preparation and running of the exhibition. It was wonderful to see the heroes rise to the occasion and demonstrate not only that they are capable of running an exhibition, but also, when given the opportunity in a learner-driven community, they truly can run the school. 

At the end of a wonderful, challenging, and rewarding session, we leave you with the published stories written by our heroes in the writer’s workshop.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP STORIES:

Jack

The strange ring sat curiously on my doorstep.As I pick it up I noticed a strange   inscription “RING of POWER” it read I slowly slipped my finger,when all of a sudden I am where Abraham Lincoln I saw JOHN WiLKES BOOTH  and tackled him the gun shot it hit the chandelier and fell on people then I am back again and I took the gun.And. He got put in jail.

Xaria

I had passed  by the same door every day with my cat’always locked and suspicious’ closed  but  calling,as i  walked by today the  door was open,i stepped in and sudenly…

The  door shut  behind  me,i  heard  a  skream  my  feet  felt  wet  i  slowly  looked   down  and  i  saw Blood,i  shook  what  was  happening  to  me,well  then the  light’s  where  on  now   the  skream  was  only  constructin  metel  the  door  did’nt  shut  there  was  curten’s  and  the  so  called  blood  was  fruit  punch   the  onwer  of  the  house  was  throwing  a  party  and  I  was  invited.

Betsy

I had passed by the same door everyday always locked suspiciously closed but calling as IWalked by today the door was open I stepped in and instantly I started to hear a sound. I did not knaw What it was So I cautiously stepped forward I see the source I said I Stepped toward it I started to fall I got scared so I started to bail. Once I hit the ground I felt like I broke my leg aw I Said as I notice Where I was in A rabbit hole and I saw a White Rabbit It said it would help me get out if I would be its Owner so I Said yes So the rabbit helped me get out and he came home with me so I could be it Owner.

Julianna

I had passed by the same door everyday always locked in suspicious my clothes but calling as I walked by today the door I stepped in and instantly I started to hear music And I   Take   1   Step  And Is A Dog    Was Plane Music And Saw Me And He was Let me Be With Him And We Went   to  the  Pool   And   we   have   fun   And   We  Went   2   home And   We   Did   Have    A    Game   And    We   Play   It   And   We  Have  Fun

Caden

It wasn't the first time I'd been stuck in a snow drift but it was the first time I had to escape in order to save my life Here's what happened so I was walking in the snow and suddenly snow fell on my head Everything went black when I regained my  senses I poked my head up and got some air I wriggled out of the snow drift and step toward home and my foot sunk into the snow I looked up and saw great polar bear Standing above me I tried to run but my feet just sunk into the snow I couldn't run so I played dead the polar bear walked next to me wanting me to get on Cautiously i got on the bear and the bear ran with me it took me all the way back to my town and the polar bear stopped and I got off the bear and i went back home

Kai

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More John Waynes (Year 1 , Week 9)

It is hard to believe that there is only one week remaining in this session! The heroes seem to be increasingly comfortable in the studio and more familiar with its systems and processes. While there are and will always be challenges and trials that each hero is facing, it is also exciting to see the community continue to develop and many heroes thrive in the environment.

Architecture Quest

The architecture quest is well under way. On Monday, the heroes moved from drafting and sketching their ideas to creating the final floorplan and elevation drawing. They were challenged to use the architect’s scale during this process to create their final floor plan and elevation plan to scale. 

The next stage of the architecture quest began on Friday as the heroes began constructing their models based on their final blueprints. Seeing their designs come to life was exciting for the heroes as they saw their 2D plans begin to transform into 3D models.

Teamwork

While the focus of the quest is building the Heroes Academy building of the future, many heroes are learning the wonders and challenges of working in teams. 

While each team is moving forward at difference paces, each team is challenged with learning patience, listening to others, and solving conflict. These struggles have cause each team to miss important deadlines, which will be transparent during exhibition.

Nesting

The nesting heroes were also presented with an architectural challenge on Monday, using a variety of materials including play dough, cardboard and paper. These heroes were challenged to create a miniature model of their own house using these resources. Their imagination and creativity saw them also add trees, other buildings and vehicles.

As part of the Nesting Quest, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, the nesting heroes have been challenged to complete a series of hands-on, creative and problem-solving activities with points assigned to the completion of each. The challenges are a tactile way to learn problem solving, trial and error, and imagination. 

Nesting heroes can move out of nesting and into flying (which means participating in the quests with the other heroes), by completing each nesting challenge and earning 150 points over a two week period. You can read the full list of Nesting Quest challenges here.

SOLE

The SOLE question for this week prompted heroes to imagine: what would happen if all of the world’s computers disappeared? What would happen if smartphones, laptops, game consoles, computer chips, memory cards, the internet, and cameras didn’t exist?

The heroes researched and chose the ways in which they felt the world would be most impacted by the disappearance of computers. Many interesting impacts were discussed, including loss of all money, traffic signals not working, factories closing down, and machines and electronics no longer working. When asked what positive impacts may occur if their were no computers their responses included, less pollution, more resources (such as coal) and better eyesight!

Character Callouts

The tradition of character callouts in the studio has now extended beyond just friday afternoon’s closing group. A new wall space has been designated as the “character callout” wall in which heroes can write down the character callouts for their fellow travellers. Their goal is to cover the entire section of wall with character callout notes! It is great to see such a strong community of encouragement being established. 

Writer’s Workshop

The heroes have been increasingly engaged in writing this session as each week has given them the opportunity to write a creative story based on a short prompt. This week’s prompt was:

It wasn’t the first time I has been trapped inside a ______________, but it was the first time I had to escape in order to save a life. Here’s what happened.

The Thursday session of the Writer’s Workshop this week was particularly exciting for the heroes this week as those who had completed their stories had the opportunity to read them out to everyone. Two nesting heroes, Garrett and Lily, acted as guest judges to choose which story was the most creative and which was the most unique. The heroes enjoyed sharing their stories, Julianna’s was chosen as the most unique and Betsy’s was chosen as most creative. 

As heroes are being challenged with writing, they are finding joy in the freedom and creativity to write their own unique pieces. A few heroes wrote additional  stories, not as part of the writer’s workshop, as a result of how much they enjoyed the workshop. Excitement and joy around writing is beginning to blossom at Heroes Academy.

Socratic Discussions

Socratic discussions have grown in depth this week as the heroes have discussed further the hero’s journey, discovering their passions and gifts as well as reflecting on if they feel understood by adults. Some very interesting insights were given by the heroes during the Thursday closing group when heroes were posed with the question: 

Would you rather choose the road of trials and a final showdown (hero’s journey) or not working hard and focusing on fun?

Many heroes shared that they would prefer a hero’s journey and discussion about what they feel they have to prove to world followed. Some responses to this question included:

Kai: I have to prove that I can change it (the world)

Betsy: I want to prove that kids can run a school

Town Meeting

Friday’s Town Meeting turned into a discussion of adults and children. 

Do adults understand you?

Do adults treat you fairly?

This lead to a meaningful discussion about being heard. Each hero expressed they are not always understood by adults. One courageously expressed how guides in discussions try to repeat back what they are saying, but they get it wrong. Guides are now committed to never repeating back anything a hero says, undermining what they may truly mean.

The heroes also expressed, unanimously, how they often feel treated unfairly outside the studio, but inside the studio they feel free. They feel they are in charge of the way things run, their learning, and they have clear understanding of expectations. A sense of empowerment and opportunity loomed over the group as they were challenged to look for opportunities to make the studio a better place, and that they are trusted here to make important changes to the studio.

Most don’t trust children the way the heroes at Heroes Academy are trusted. Trusting heroes to be in charge of their own learning takes courage. They fail often, and they often slip into chaos. But the work that’s being done here matters. The world is in need of more heroes. “John Waynes,” as one wise parent puts it. While it’s only the beginning of our journey, these young heroes are making courageous choices, ones that are changing them. Ones that will ultimately change the world.

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Strength in Numbers? (Year 1, Week 8)

Today marks the midpoint of session 2, along with the realization that it is moving quickly. So far it has been full of rich learning experiences as the heroes have worked in core skills, the architecture and nesting quests, and writer’s workshop.

Architecture Quest

On Monday the heroes in flying and soaring freedom levels began working on the blueprint and elevation sketches for their architecture quest. The energy was high as ideas began forming of what they would include in their dream studio. It has been an exciting process to see their designs develop throughout the week and their ideas for a dream studio come to life.

Nesting Quest

The nesting quest has also presented the nesting heroes with a variety of challenges this week, beginning with this: 

Build the tallest structure you can using only playdough and toothpicks. 

This engaging challenge saw these heroes attempting different ways to create their structure, facing frustration and distraction along the way and learning how to adapt their design to create an even taller structure. Arturius ended up creating the tallest structure that was 10 inches high!

SOLE Question

The studio was taken over by witches, cowboys, spiders, soldiers, cheerleaders and Egyptian princesses on Tuesday as the heroes arrived dressed in their halloween outfits! The morning then began with the heroes being presented with another SOLE question to investigate and explore. This time the question prompted the heroes to look to the past and consider:

Which invention has changed the world the most?

The creator of the SOLE approach, Sugata Mitra, identifies how SOLE questions support children to tap into their innate sense of wonder and work together.  Heroes are beginning to experience more the power and challenges of team work as well as how to provide evidence and examples to back up their opinions.

Perseverance Launch

The heroes were put into the shoes of surfer Bethany Hamilton during the Wednesday morning launch. Bethany is a skilled surfer who, after the life-changing experience of losing her arm in a shark attack at age 13, decided to continue pursuing surfing and is now a professional surfer. After hearing the story of Bethany, the heroes were faced with these questions to consider if they were in Bethany’s shoes:

Would you persevere and try to become a professional surfer, even though you had lost an arm, or would you find something else to be really good at?

What would be harder: returning to surfing or finding a new passion?

An engaging discussion followed about perseverance and the hero’s journey with the heroes also sharing what they believe will help them persevere when they are faced with challenges and trials on their own hero’s journey.

Writing

Writing is becoming more a part of the studio this session as the flying and soaring heroes continue to work on their creative writing during writer’s workshop. Check out the photo below for this week’s writing prompt.

The nesting heroes have also been practicing writing using a fun studio hack. On Tuesday the nesting heroes explored how to turn their speech into text on a google doc and then copy down the words by hand to write a note to a family member. This skill was quickly given another real-world application when a football went over a neighbors fence during free time (thanks to Jake). One hero helped write a note to leave at the neighbors house explaining what had happened, by using this speech to text process.

Handing Over Responsibility

More responsibility was handed over to heroes during Thursday morning’s outdoor game time. Instead of guides deciding on and presenting the game, the heroes broke into two teams and came up with games they wanted to play. The teams wrote down the rules and then each presented their ideas to the whole group. A vote was taken on which game to play and, after appointing a leader to run it, the heroes all enjoyed a game of Mouse Trap together.

Character Callouts

A wonderful tradition has formed here at Heroes Academy that happens every Friday afternoon. Friday’s closing group is reserved for character callouts, in which the heroes call out admirable character traits that they have seen in their fellow travellers. It has proven to be such an encouraging and uniting time and a great way to end each week. The heroes call out these traits by identifying the admirable action they saw and then choosing a word to describe that characteristic. An example from this Friday’s close was this callout given from Caden to Betsy: “I saw Betsy working hard during Quest time when there were a lot of distractions. I call that hard working.”

Special Visitor

A special day this week was having Jake’s daughter, Adri (who will be joining us soon), for the morning. The heroes were asked why a new student would want to come to this school, and a wonderful discussion evolved about studio life and the joy of being a hero at Heroes Academy. They then expressed encouragement and excitement for her to come. This display of character and kindness is a strong signal of how deep the roots of the tribe are forming. 

One powerful comment was “I don’t feel alone here,” coming from someone who attended a school with hundreds of kids. One might ask, is there always strength in numbers?

While it’s not always easy, it’s clear a wonderful tribe is forming thanks to the decisions of these young heroes.

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Deep Learning and Discovery (Year 1, Week 7)

As we enter session 2, many new and exciting changes await the heroes. A new studio layout, new quests (projects), new freedoms, new hero buck store items, and new challenges. While session 1 focused on building the tribe, with all it’s processes and systems, session 2 will focus on deep learning and discovery.

Newest Quest

After watching an inspiring video about interesting buildings, the heroes were introduced to their first quest of the year. For this quest the heroes will be in the shoes of architects with the challenge of designing the future Heroes Academy building.

Throughout the week the heroes have undertaken a series of challenges including a campus hunt and blueprint challenge to investigate the way the current building has been designed. They were also challenged with exploring measurement and scale problems in order to prepare for creating their own blueprints next week.

With it’s in depth, real world application, this quest will bring many opportunities to learn to be and learn to do. A few examples being:

Real world math 

Project Management

Creativity

Teamwork

Scaled model building

Craftsmanship

Following codes and regulation

Reading and deciphering blueprints

Research

The energy is high and heroes are engaged, getting ready to exhibit each step of the process (research, design, and construct) in their end of session exhibition. They look forward to industry leaders coming and judging their work at the end of the session.

Studio Hacker Quest

For the younger, nesting heroes, the week started with an inspiring TED talk by Logan LaPlante, who takes you on his journey of quitting traditional education and beginning his “hackschooling.” Much like Heroes Academy, Logan spends his days looking for innovative ways to learn real world skills that will help him on his own journey. 

The heroes were then introduced to the “Studio Hacker” mini-quest. Based on the concept of “hacking” as an unusual, creative or innovative way to get something done, nesting heroes will complete a range of “hack challenges” that will help them to operate fully in the studio. The hacks include challenges such as how to copy and paste text, how to use a text to speech website, and how to create and share google docs. This mini-quest will flow into new discovery based projects for younger heroes.

Introducing SOLE

Sugata Mitra won the 2013 TED prize with his “Hole in the Wall” experiments and an incredible TED talk to show his findings. We recommend everyone, especially Heroes Academy parents, watch this video: https://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_build_a_school_in_the_cloud

Based on the idea of challenging students with big questions and letting them explore, this week we introduced our first official SOLE (Self Organized Learning Environment).

The question this week was: Which insect is most dangerous to humans? 

The heroes enjoyed researching the question in teams and exploring different theories and ideas. This provided the basis for a powerful discussion. There was high energy and debate on if the Black Scorpion or Anopheles Mosquito was most dangerous. Each side had strong arguments and provided evidence to support their position.

Writer’s Workshop

Tuesday was also an introduction to a key element of writing at Heroes Academy: Writer’s Workshop. Writer’s Workshops are part of every session and will help the heroes to learn to love writing and become highly proficient writers.

This session, the focus is creative writing based on prompts. The heroes go through the drafting, peer revision and publishing stages of writing, with each hero having a piece published on this blog by the end of Session 2.

It was wonderful to see the creativity and imagination behind their writing as they formed their stories. The following is this week’s prompt:

“Hello”, said a voice on the phone, “my name is ______________. I know you never expected a call from me, as famous as I am, but i have been given your name as someone who can help me______________.

Paper Airplane Competition

The schedule for Thursday morning involved a combination of a team challenge and an outdoor experience with our first Heroes Academy paper airplane competition! In two teams, heroes had 20 minutes to research designs and create 5 airplane designs to trial.

Once outside, each team tried their designs and chose which airplane to use in the final competition. Both decided on different designs and after a very close competition, Team 2 (Caden, Kai, Canyon and Arturius) won with a throw of 29ft 8in!

In Summary

While many of the processes and systems introduced last session, like core skills, are running smoothly, new challenges are accompanied by resistance and trial and error. Many heroes are recognizing the new challenges both challenging and exciting. Some are having struggles working with a long term partner, others working on a long term project. Some are feeling the frustration and struggle that comes with writer’s block, or tasks just outside their challenge zone.

Following the struggles, however, are several moments of individual or group celebration as challenges are overcome and new learnings unfold. The perfect formula for a hero’s journey.

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Exhibition One (Year 1, Week 6)

The last six weeks have been a time of immense learning and growth. We can see that a truly learner-driven community is beginning to be formed. As the session comes to a close, we celebrate how far we have come. 

We celebrate the call to adventure, entering the unknown on the first day of school, meeting our fellow travellers and guides, and finishing our first exhibition on the road of trials. It has not been any easy path for any of those on this journey. Parents learning to forgot the old and embrace the new, heroes facing difficult challenges that form character and develop skill, and guides balancing stepping back against stepping in.

Here’s what some of that looked like this week...

Exhibition Planning

This week began with the heroes planning and preparing for Friday’s exhibition in teams. The heroes have been completely responsible for organizing the exhibition, including setting the schedule, planning the scavenger hunt items and preparing for the Q and A panel.

Exhibition planning time began slowly, and moved slowly for the first few days of planning. Although given ample time to prepare, many of the heroes didn’t quite grasp what the feeling would be like for parents to be arriving on the day of exhibition. 

Discussion continued every morning in anticipation of Friday’s event, followed by time to prepare programs and materials that would be used for the event. 

Pizza and Movie Party!

The heroes have had a group goal of reaching 6,000 points this session, if the goal was reached the reward was a pizza and movie party. The heroes far exceeded their goal reaching a total of 7,518 points! On Thursday afternoon the heroes enjoyed some pizza for lunch followed by some relaxing time watching the film “Kung Fu Panda.”

Town Hall Meeting

Friday began with the weekly town hall meeting, facilitated by Jack. Jack brought a suggestion to the group of breaking up every half an hour of Core Skills time with five minutes of a stretch or game time. A passionate discussion ensued as the heroes all shared their opinions of what games should be played during and how winners should be rewarded. A quasi conclusion was agreed upon, but it’s still uncertain if the changes will actually occur.

Final Exhibition Preparation

Following lunch on Friday the preparations for the exhibition were in full swing. The heroes busily finalized the schedule, displays and decorations. About an hour before parents would arrive, and after the first of a few practice run-throughs of the exhibition, heroes started to recognize how much prep needed to be done, and that time was waning. It was crunch time and they were feeling the pressure.

The Exhibition

2:00 came quickly, and even though many of the heroes felt unready, they knew the show had to go on. They lined up at the door, and greeted excited parents for their first exhibition. 

The exhibition proceeded promptly with a heroes Q&A panel. Following the panel was an individual scavenger hunt with parents and their young heroes. After showing parents how to set goals, the points they had earned, the tech rules, and other various items, the event moved on to the contract signing ceremony.

With time approaching so quickly during final prep hours, the signing ceremony was not practiced before-hand. Although they planned to explain and read the contract, nerves and lack of practice led to a quick signing of the contract with no explanation.

Parents were ask to give feedback on various parts of the event, including the flow, the appearance of the studio, and various parts of the exhibition. Positive feedback included having a good schedule of activities, the Q & A panel answering important questions, and the scavenger hunt being a good way to learn more about how the studio works. Valuable feedback for improvement included having a cleaner studio, having more heroes participate, and having a better explanation of what was happening (like what signing the studio contract meant). Valuable lessons for future sessions.

Looking Forward

With every celebration our eyes begin to look to the horizon. What will the future hold? What challenges are awaiting each of us on this next part of our journey? What lessons are yet to be learned? 

We look forward to upcoming session and the exciting challenges it will bring.

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Saying Goodbye (Year 1, Week 5)

This week we lost one of our young heroes, Solace. She has worked really hard, but it has proven to be just a little out of reach for her right now. She hopes to return when she’s a bit older. The heroes were sad to see her leave, but plan to invite her to our party next week if they earn it.

Heroes are also realizing that if they are breaking the contract and aren’t doing work, indicated by having negative hero bucks, then they will be asked to separate from the community until they can prove otherwise. The heroes that were separated this week learned a lot from this failure, and have come back with far more intentionality and focus.

Earning the Quest

This week and next week are key weeks for the heroes. They each have to focus extra hard to earn the freedom to join the quest next session (which is anticipated to be a lot of fun). Their goals are to earn over 150 points and not have negative Hero Bucks.

Daily and transparent goal setting is helping heroes have a clear understanding of what work they need to do and how they can support their fellow travelers. For some, this has kept motivation high, while others will likely experience the consequences of lack of focus next session.

Full Circle Feedback

Monday morning began with the introduction of Full Circle Feedback. Full Circle Feedback is a survey in which heroes give each other feedback to help each other see things about themselves that they may not normally be aware of. The heroes practiced giving feedback to each other using the two stars and a wish method. An example of this would be:

Star: Thank you for always helping clean after lunch

Star: I appreciate that you work well in your group

Wish: I wish you would talk less during Core Skills

Emotional Safety at Heroes

Tuesday’s launch started with a discussion about bullying and watching a video of a mother who lost her son to the emotional pain of bullying. Guides reinforced the strike system, and that any form of intentionally hurting others emotionally will result in a strike. While conflict is okay and part of the hero’s journey, Heroes is committed to keeping these children safe, both physically and emotionally.

Heroes Journey Art Project

The heroes continued practicing giving and receiving feedback during their time spent creating artwork for our Heroes Journey Art Project. As part of the process of producing excellent work the heroes first gave each other warm (positive/encouraging), cool (suggestions/improvements), warm feedback in pairs about their drawings from last week. Based on the feedback they received the heroes then made changes and improvements to their artwork in preparation to display it next week.

On Tuesday, the heroes continued working on their art pieces for the Heroes Journey map. As part of exploring and experimenting with watercolor paints the heroes first completed a challenge of trying to recreate a variety of watercolor effects.

The heroes then added color to their drawings using the watercolor paint.

Egg Drop Challenge

This week the heroes were posed with an interesting challenge. In teams, could they create a structure to support an egg that, when dropped from a 10ft height, would prevent the egg from breaking?!  

The heroes chose teams of girls vs. boys and then had 30 minutes to design and construct their egg-protecting structure. The materials they could use were 40 straws, cardboard and 1 meter of duct tape. The teams produced two very different designs and all were very excited to complete the drop and see which eggs survived!

The first drop was completed on a grass surface and the designs from both teams were successful in protecting the eggs from breaking. After this, the structures were both dropped again, this time onto a concrete surface. The girls egg broke during this drop and the boys egg remained safe. Enjoy these videos of the winning egg drop!

Mindfulness

Each day after lunch we have been having a time of mindfulness for the heroes to relax, rest and refocus. Typically this has been lying silently on the rug and spending time listening to relaxation music. However, this week we experimented with reading books aloud as a group. We chose books that followed the Heroes Journey narrative. The heroes loved this time to engage in a good book, and it has opened up great discussions about heroes and the hero’s journey. We will continue this practice as it is growing their love of reading.

Outdoor Experience

During the outdoor experience time on Thursday morning the heroes played nature bingo as we went for a walk as a group. The heroes all competed to find the most objects from the list and enjoyed the active time spent outdoors. 

Hero-Led Town Hall Meeting

Guides were asked to not participate in this week’s town hall meeting so the heroes could take over the discussion and make changes to the Hero Buck process. 

Not only did they come to an agreement on the new Hero Buck process, but they decided to role play the process. After learning the new process, they moved the discussion on to goal setting, where they set goals for the day as a group. This was an exciting moment for guides to watch as heroes took ownership of the studio. Everyone loved it.

A lot of people don’t believe kids can run a studio and be in charge of their education. These heroes are proving otherwise.

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Brilliant Hero or Lucky Fool? (Year 1, Week 4)

There are a few big happenings in the studio this week. The heroes are discovering:

they have the power to make changes in the studio.

they are free to make choices.

the choices they make have real consequences.

The week kicked off with an inspiring video of Brook Raboutou, an 11-year old rock climber who is shattering world records. We rated her goal of reaching the top of her most recent climb to see if the goal was SMART. After some discussion, the heroes came to the consensus that the goal rated high for all 5 categories:

Specific

Measurable

Achievable

Relevant

Tough

This helped reinforce the importance of daily SMART goals to help get into flow during Core Skills time. 

All Aboard!

To break up the core skills sprints during the day, the heroes faced a team-building duct tape challenge called “All Aboard”. The goal of the challenge is to get all heroes inside a small square that is marked out on the floor with masking tape. The difficult part is no part of your body can touch the floor outside the square. 

After facing many tests of patience, perseverance, and strategy (and many failed attempts), the heroes finally completed the challenge successfully!

ITBS Test

Tuesday’s schedule was a bit different as the heroes all took the IOWA Test of Basic Skills. This test is used as a benchmark of sorts to see how heroes compare, over time, against themselves and others. Neither the heroes nor the guides found this to be very enjoyable...

This led to an interesting discussion about what type of school the heroes wanted to be a part of: Did they want to part of a school where enforced standardized testing (and testing in general) was the norm? Or did they want to be part of a school in which they were responsible for their own learning and encouraged to find their calling and change the world. They all agreed on the latter!

Heroes Journey Map Project

On Wednesday a new challenge was launched to the heroes. As part of making the studio their own, they will be responsible for creating artwork to depict the Hero’s Journey on one of the studio walls. Each hero is creating piece of art based on one of the stages in the hero’s journey. They were all very excited about the prospect of decorating one of the walls!

Failure: A Requirement for Learning?

Another key discussion this week put the heroes in the shoes of Elon Musk, an entrepreneur spending millions of dollars trying to get a rocket to land safely back to earth. The heroes had to decide if they would keep trying, possibly losing billions of investor dollars, or quit.

This lead to a difficult question:

Is failure a requirement for success? In other words, could there have been someone better who would have succeeded the first time, or would anyone who tried have to fail first?

They then watched the successful launch and landing of the Falcon 9 rocket. They were left with a difficult question:

Was Elon Musk a brilliant hero, or a lucky fool?

Being a Good Neighbor

Tuesday starting out with a new piece of equipment in the studio - a Yacker Tracker. After a day of figuring out what it does (and setting it off over 100 times), the next morning’s launch challenged the heroes with this question: 

What does it mean to be a good neighbor? 

Does it mean not hurting your neighbor, or does it mean helping your neighbor?

We were posed with a dilemma of moving to a new house and having a neighbor ruin something important to you. When the neighbor’s yard was being damaged by a stray dog, do you choose to help your unfriendly neighbor? 

They then discussed a goal for the day to try and limit the number of times they disturbed the neighbors, measured by how any times the yacker tracker went into red. They decided on a goal of 20 times.

By the end of the day, the heroes were unsuccessful in remaining under 20 warnings. When asked what a good neighbor would do, they determined they wanted to visit the neighbors and apologize for the noise level. The surrounding businesses were very appreciative and the heroes experienced a real-world consequence of being a poor neighbor. 

After talking with the neighbors, they decided that a better goal would be 7, because disturbing the neighbors was a big deal. They also decided they wouldn’t want to do it again because it would be really embarrassing to go a second time...

...which happened the next day when they hit 9 (lots of progress, but not reaching their goal). They decided again to apologize (this time with two volunteers), and both agreed it was a bit more embarrassing. They all are a bit more committed to being a good neighbor.

Another interesting development this week in the studio was the forming of a small group to try and bring change to how the daily studio maintenance time is running. A number of leaders in the studio have become frustrated by others who are not performing their daily studio maintenance tasks, which has imposed on their free time.

[Town Hall meeting request and signatures of parties in agreement]

[Xaria raising Studio Maintenance issue in Friday’s town hall meeting]

Turns out they all agreed on the changes anyways, and the studio maintenance system now has more personal accountability and stronger consequences.

Parent Night

The final highlight of the week was parent’s meeting together and discussing a few key questions:

What motivates you as a parent?

What long-term outcomes can you control as a parent?

What type of boundaries do you set?

A few key points parents made were that good character matters deeply, and that children will have to make choices on their own, whether now or in the future.

This opened the discussion to freedom levels and choice inside the studio, and why guides are so focused on freedom of choice, and letting the consequences of choices be the teacher.

It’s a lot of change for both heroes and parents as we embark on this new journey, but the families that are with us are some of the best. We’re grateful for their courage and input as Heroes Academy moves forward on a mission to change the world.

[heroesacademy-blog]

Ebbing and Flowing (Year 1, Week 3)

This week we are seeing our high priority goals coming to fruition. Long sprints of core skills time with heroes in flow, launches becoming more powerful and engaging, and heroes gaining a better understanding of the new systems.

[Betsy and Julianna enjoying Freedom Level “Soaring” by choosing their furniture during core skills time.]

Our first launch this week began with a challenging scenario:

Imagine you own a stable with several horses. You ask a friend of yours to come to the stable and show you some horses you are interested in buying. You both agree to meet at 10am. At 10:15am the man is still not at the stable. 

Do you wait for him, or do you leave?

The discussion was lively with 6 people saying they would stay, and 5 saying they would leave. We considered if leaving was dishonest, or if it were dishonest for him to not be on time. 

This led to the story of George Washington when he asked a man to bring by some horses he was interested in buying at five in the morning. When the man arrived fifteen minutes late, he was told by the stable groom that the general had been waiting there at five, but had now moved on to other business, and that he wouldn’t be able to examine the horses again until the following week.

We discussed George Washington and how his life was characterized by being on time.

This was an important discussion because this week they were responsible for following the weekly schedule on their own, which they did really well.

Following this discussion was a block of core skills time. A few heroes decided turning the lights off would help them focus. After debating back and forth, they decided taking a vote was the best way to decide. Lights off was the clear winner.

Another exciting launch this week was being asked to step into the shoes of William Wallace. The heroes were forced to choose if they would fight for freedom (possibly giving up their lives) to protect their homeland Scotland, or give up their freedoms to save their lives. 

Many took a stand for their freedom, others took a stand for their lives and the lives of their families. Energy and engagement was high and before we knew it 45 minutes had passed!

This launch proved to be very relevant for the day as Freedom Levels were reintroduced with an easier to understand visual version of each level.

Another first we had this week was a special journalist from IdahoEdNews.org doing a story on Heroes Academy. While none of the heroes knew who he was, he observed our launch on “Flow,” where we discussed a state of being hyper-focused or “in the zone.” 

After watching this video on flow and discussing how to get into flow, we had one of the longest most concentrated blocks of core skills we’ve ever had. They worked hard and focused hard, and the journalist was very impressed. 

This week we also experimented with mindfulness practices after lunch. Instead of going right into a new block of Core Skills, the heroes (and guides) took some time to rest, relax and calm down with some relaxing music. This shifted the energy and helped the heroes re-focus, getting more out of their afternoon session of Core Skills.

Team Building Challenges

Breaking up the days were some fun team building challenges. One challenge, the smiley-face challenge, was to use duct tape and a marker to draw a smiley face on a piece of paper without stepping inside the circle. After several failed attempts of using the tape and marker in a “fishing line” set up, the heroes eventually developed other (more successful) strategies.

There were many lessons learned about working in teams during this activity, along with many lessons not yet learned. Both teams failed the challenge, primarily due to team struggles. This lead to a discussion about working in teams and the struggles that come with it.

Each day at Heroes Academy is full of many victories and many failures: 

Long sprints of focused work contrast distractions, chaos, and loss of intentionality during core skills. 

Team building challenges with high functioning teams contrast teams that struggle to get started. 

Guides fully equipped to handle the situation contrast situations in which guides have far more questions than answers.

The question we are most curious about, however, is this one:

Are we learning more from the victories or from the failures?

Either way, ebbs and flows are starting to emerge, and learning to be and learning to do are part of each passing moment.

[heroesacademy-blog]

New Freedoms and New Responsibilities (Year 1, Week 2)

While only 5 days, this week has been jam-packed with lots of nuances. At the end of the week the studio was equipped with many new processes and systems that will be key to the journey for each of these heroes. These include:

Core Skills time

Setting SMART Goals

Contract Creation

Hero Bucks

Freedom Levels

Each of these plays a key role to creating a learner driven community where the learners are in charge of their own learning, both as an individual and as a community.

Core Skills

Monday began with the heroes being introduced to Core Skills time. The heroes were so excited to use their chromebooks to access the variety of programs they can use including:

Khan Academy 

Lexia

Dreambox

Think Through Math

It was wonderful to see them help each other to work out how to log in, access the programs, and explore the badge requirements together. 

This was extremely well received and the heroes worked diligently everyday developing their math and reading skills. It may have been one of the few times of the day you could here a pin drop!

Core skills will be part of everyday life at Heroes, and getting into the right rhythms and habits is the key focus of this session. 

SMART Goals and Points

Tuesday began with the heroes setting their own SMART Goals to work towards during Core Skills time. Using Journey Tracker (the online program designed specifically for Acton Academy schools), the heroes created a goal that they felt was in their challenge zone (see the challenge donut from last week’s blog post) and would help them towards completing a badge. 

They then explored how reaching these goals correlates to points in Journey Tracker. Points can be earned in several ways including:

5 points for mastering 1 skill in Khan Academy

3.5 points for completing 1 lesson in Dreambox

1 point for reading 2 pages in a badge book

1 point for every 2 minutes spent in Lexia

Points are a great way to track effort in core skills time, and are used in other systems like Hero Bucks and Freedom Levels.

Hero Bucks

Wednesday began with a discussion about Leeches, Spiders, and Bumblebees. Following a video about symbiotic relationships, the heroes were asked:

Can you imagine a situation where parasitism (like the leeches) could happen in our studio? 

Can you think of a situation where commensalism (like the spider) could happen in our studio? 

Can you think of a situation where mutualism (like the bumblebee) could happen in our studio? 

This led to a wonderful discussion about contributing to the community. They concluded that if we all acted like leeches, it would not be exciting to come to school, but if we acted like bumblebees we could create a world-class place to learn.

This led to the introduction of Hero Bucks. Hero bucks allows the heroes to earn buying power to buy items from the Hero Buck store, awarded based on the amount of points they earned through effort in Core Skills (50 points = 1 Hero Buck). 

Additionally, it allows each hero to hold his or her fellow travelers accountable to the promises they make within the studio contract. When a fellow traveler breaks a promise, a hero can ask them for a Hero Buck. 

Hero Bucks essentially represent how much you give verse how much you take from the community.

After several role plays, they decided the best way to ask for a Hero Buck was to be kind and concise. 

Like riding a bike, this system will take some figuring out, but the heroes are already using it to hold each other accountable. They are learning to be both warm-hearted and tough-minded. For some, asking for a Hero Buck is harder than being asked for one, while for others its harder to be asked.

Contract Creation

Throughout the closing group each afternoon this week, the heroes have been responsible for creating and refining what will become their final Studio Contract. The heroes commit to the promises outlined in the contract in order for the studio to be a safe, respectful and fun place to be. The have been going through the process of trying, recycling and committing to contract ideas throughout the week, and will be finalized over the next week or two.

Freedom Levels

The final system that was implemented this week was Freedom Levels. 

Following a discussion about freedom and responsibility (and a fun food fight video), the heroes were introduced to the new freedoms they could earn in the studio. These included:

Access to the Breakroom (full of comfy furniture, puzzles, and games)

Access to approved online games

Access to computers during free time

Freedom to work on a personal passion during core skills

Freedom Levels reward heroic choices and hard work with more freedom and responsibility in the studio. Focused time spent working on Core Skills earns heroes more points, maintaining this focus allows them increased freedoms and privileges. If focus lags and heroes do not maintain the required points level, freedoms and privileges can be lost.

Some heroes quickly grasped the importance of hard work to earn freedom within the community. For others, it hasn’t quite sunk in...

Along with the heroes learning these key systems this week, they also had lots of fun.

They enjoyed exerting some energy doing sport games and skill stations (Tuesday and Thursday mornings)...

They got to use new boards to block distractions (they loved this)...

And they continued to forge new relationships and deepen others.

Ultimately the week was packed with new experiences and lots of learning. 

For some the journey got just a little bit harder as they realize the extra work they will need to do to earn more freedom. For others, it’s a time for celebration and excitement as they realize their hard work and contribution to the community has earned them more. Both key parts to any hero’s journey.

[heroesacademy-blog]

Failures and Victories (Year 1, Week 1)

This week can be summarized by a few words:

Chaos

Fun

Challenging

Bonding

Day 1 started off by fast forwarding to 2037 and pondering what life would like. We wondered if Caden would start a company with self-driving car technology he created, or if Arturius would be traveling the world... without flying, or if Betsy would be running as Governor for the state of Idaho.

We then dug deeper into our motivations as heroes on a hero’s journey. We wondered which is more motivating, inside motivation, like the good feelings that come as a result of doing something, or outside motivation, like the money you earn in exchange for a good or service.  

But by the end of the day we were in total chaos!

Puzzles, games, blankets, pillows, chairs and guides without accountability systems in place all contributed to the mayhem. A few heroes came together wanting to make some changes, which lead to our first discussion of the studio contract. We discussed what would make our studio a great place to be, and watched how freedom inside google works with accountability in place.

Day 2 started with the studio entrance door barricaded by the heroes’ new contract. To choose to enter the studio meant you were willing to uphold the contract, and hold each other accountable to it.

In addition to the contract, the heroes were also introduced to a new system of accountability called the strike system. This is a boundary system that ensures that the studio is a safe place for them to be.

The final system established was the studio maintenance system. The task list they created is performed at the end of each day in order to keep the studio clean and uphold their contract to treat the studio as a sacred place.

And while the new systems created far more order and less chaos, the main focus of the day was working on their first challenge, creating a Lip Dub video!

The Lip Dub is a great challenge for the first week at Heroes because, even though the final product is a simple video, it took a lot of work to produce. 

Wrapped inside this simple video are all sorts of lessons.

Character lessons:

Listening

Patience

Teamwork

Courage

Leadership

Real World Skills:

Planning a project

Filming a video

Critiquing and improving to create excellent work

Memorizing a song

Choreography 

Problem Solving

Meeting a deadline

Meeting challenge requirements

After several attempts, critiques, and no guide intervention, the final video the heroes chose was this one. Enjoy!

The heroes had time to film a few more times, but since one of their fellow travelers, Solace, went home early because she felt sick, they decided to skip improving it further so she could be in it.

Amid all the filming and critiquing (they shot the video over 20 times), there were several other fun challenges this week.

The Chocolate River!

The challenge is to have everyone cross the chocolate river without touching it. You have 8 “marshmallows” - unless of course they are left untouched and a  hungry crocodile snatches them - and you have to complete it in 4 minutes.

This was a highlight of the week as they learned a lot about teamwork. After nearly an hour of trying and failing, we regrouped, discussed the struggles they were facing, recommitted, and after a few more tries, crossed the river! Everyone was excited and cheering after crossing the bank of the river.

Knot-So-Fast

This challenge required the heroes to form a circle, each person holding a scarf. Once everyone had picked up the end of the another person’s scarf they began the difficult task of trying to untangle their circle without letting go of the scarves!

The heroes found this to be a very challenging and frustrating task which went on to lead to a good discussion about comfort, challenge and panic zones. They were introduced to the “Challenge Donut”, an illustration we will continue to use to help identify which zone they find themselves in during different aspects of their days and weeks.

After much high energy activity, we also had time to wind down and tune out the noise. Heroes spent 30 minutes to an hour each day in D.E.A.R. (Drop Everything and Read).

This helped them recharge and get ready for more high energy activity.

Ultimately the week was packed with failures and victories, frustration and excitement. 

Guides failed, heroes failed, and everyone learned.

One thing is for sure, these heroes are going to change the world.

[heroesacademy-blog]

Family Night: Welcome to Heroes Academy (Year 1, Day 0)

In the Treasure Valley there are over 100,000 students enrolled in public or private schools. There are thousands more in other alternative education environments, like homeschool. Just 11 students and 6 families will embark on a new journey with us at Heroes Academy. Some would call it crazy, others would call it courage.

Tonight we began our journey by:

Learning about our fellow travelers

Celebrating a new adventure

Committing to a series of promises

The evening started with casual conversations, followed by the brief introduction of our new guide, Kara. Everyone loved Kara’s thoughtfulness (she knew who everyone was before they had met), cheerful demeanor, and, of course, her accent (she traveled from Australia to be with us).

The young heroes then went on a deserted island adventure, discovering what would motivate them to stay alive (our question of the year is “What motivates a hero?”), and searching the island for objects they could use to creatively increase their chances of survival. Among several great ideas were a water filter, a dog (to catch food and be a companion), and the use of a box for trapping food.

The parents stayed with Jake (our Head of School), where they discussed three questions:

What is your biggest hope for the year?

What motivated you to choose Heroes Academy?

What is your biggest fear for the year?

Parents shared heartfelt emotions about their struggles with previous schools and alternatives, and why finding a place like Heroes Academy was important to them as parents on a hero’s journey.

We finished the night with a story about Hernán Cortés, the great spanish conquistador who traveled to Mexico seeking the riches of the Aztec civilization. While many great conquerors around the globe had tried and failed to conquer this land, Hernán Cortés was the first to succeed.

How? When they landed, Cortés said three infamous words that motivated his men to ensure victory at all costs. “Burn the boats.” 

With a chance to take their deposits back and not embark on this new journey, all parents and students recommitted to a new year at Heroes Academy with the signing of contracts between them and their guides. 

Then, just as Cortés burned the boats, we each had a chance to burn our biggest fears for the year as a sign of commitment and courage.

There were two key outcomes of the night that made it a wonderful event:

The young heroes bonded quickly and are excited for the new year with their fellow travelers.

The bonding of parents as the foundation for a strong tribe that is beginning to form.

Heroes is extremely lucky to have great parents and heroes on our journey with us this year. Families all over the valley will be looking at them as examples of the type of people that are part of Heroes Academy. What they are doing matters: to us, to them, and to our community. 

We are excited to walk alongside them as we embark on this new adventure.