Building the Tribes: Year 5 - Week 2 In Review

 

With our second week coming to a close we are grateful for our wonderful families and for what lies ahead!

See below for what we’ve been up to this week!


spark studio

How do you build a Superpower Tribe?

According to one of our youngest heroes you begin by making a plan. Building a tribe takes patience. We are working on policies (Contract of Promises created by learners) and procedures (routines). Do you know daily routines provide a consistent pattern of activities for learning time, meals, rest, and outdoor play. The predictability of the routine helps the learners to feel secure and positively influences their emotional, cognitive, and social development.

Our team building challenges are always fun and we are so close to knowing everyone’s name! It’s been a week of building friendships, fun, and learning. Enjoy your weekend!


elementary studio

Week 2 went off without a hitch as our elementary heroes dived into the Wizarding Worlds of Floriography and Herbology during Quest! They researched the symbolism and historical usage of several flowers and even had the opportunity to convey their own messages by creating tissue paper flower bouquets of their own. Later in the week, our young wizards continued their studies with botany and plants of their own to take care of.

The heroes also continued brainstorming about their podcast topics for Storytelling as they learn about the work surrounding creating and producing their own podcasts. After finding the intersection of topics they know a lot about, are interested in, and are impactful, learners began brainstorming about the possibilities for their podcasts.

Civilization is off to an exciting start this year as the Elementary Studio delved into what it means to be a civilization with culture, history, and geography. What a strong start for both Upper and Lower Elementary!


middle school studio

We made it through another week. What a week to become more engaged in our own learning . We started the week off with learning the brain-based SCARF model and how heroes can apply it to their lives by designing their own motivators. Every morning we started off with Squad Check-In’s where heroes continue to get to know each other and check in with all their assigned work. The Studio finalized their government system and dedicated an hour to electing their council, including president and vice president. All of the candidates were required to complete a speech and also campaign for their votes, it went well! We also spent time discussing the roles and consequences of the Studio.

 As we work our way through Quest we continue to introduce labs where heroes learned about stressors and their nervous system. We had our first storytelling challenge which we’re now calling “Story Arts”. In this session we want Heroes to become in tune with their imagination and creativity. We had them create music videos and beats and to analyze their favorite songs. To top the week off we will discuss Apprenticeships by getting their minds ready for things their interested in learning about and things they don’t want to learn about. Our new heroes are doing extremely well with making efforts to learn what a self-guided learner is. They continue to show leadership in the studio and their peers are holding people accountable.


high school studio

This week was operation heavy in our Studio, and it went well! The High School heroes are still focused on deciding exactly what systems they would like to be in place this year, and how to make these systems more efficient for all. In addition to that focus, we dove into some great work as we began our Quest, Story Arts challenge, and Civilization challenge! We have also begun check-ins with the heroes, thus getting to know each one more deeply, and that has been super fun!


 
Tyler Thigpen