How Can We Change The World? - Year 3, Week 13 in Review
If you had the chance to change the world, what would you change?
This week our learners connected with nature and faced finding solutions for real world problems.
spark studio
We spent the week learning and exploring gardening. The tactile and sensory experiences of gardening can help children self-regulate. The feel of the soil and smell of the earth may bring comfort. Gardens can help children begin to work independently as they plant seeds or pick produce. We are excited to see growth as we experiment with different conditions. The heroes were asked to imagine if there were no grocery stores. How would they get food? Would they garden, hunt or something else? The conversation that transpired was very thoughtful and enlightening.
We will begin preparation for the Exhibition and are excited to share what we are learning.
Never underestimate the healing power of a quiet moment in the garden. - unknown
elementary studio
Our mission at The Forest School is for each person who enters our doors to find a calling that will change the world. How is this done with young learners? One way we accomplish this is to introduce heroes to users with real world problems for them to solve.
This session, our heroes have been focused on physics and learning about how it is used in their everyday lives. We were lucky enough to work with Kefi: A member club focused on wellness and play in Atlanta. At Kefi, one of the most popular areas is called Fun Field. To keep things super fun and interesting, they have large, moveable blocks that can be arranged lots of different ways for various activities and events. The problem: these blocks are difficult to move and rearrange easily. It is up to our heroes to use their knowledge of Physics to create a solution that helps them move the largest blocks more efficiently and easily! What knowledge of simple machines, force, gravity and motion can our heroes use to create this mechanism? The most exciting part is that heroes may actually see their machine put to use.
That is the power of solving real world problems. Some of our youngest heroes have a chance to actually use what they have learned to change the lives of those that work at Kefi. And thus, adding one more notch to their belts about what the possibilities of their calling to change the world may be. Maybe we’ve sparked a future engineer through this challenge.
middle school studio
We don't have grades at The Forest School, we have badges. At the beginning of the year, learners look at all of the badges they need to master over the course of Middle School and create a customized Badge Plan. The great thing about a self-paced environment is that a learner can work on their Badge Plan at their own speed. What we do as Guides is hold up a mirror, showing each learner where they currently are on their Badge Plan and how long, at that pace, it would take them to complete it.
We do this in a couple of ways:
We have weekly check-ins with each learner where, together, we look at their current progress on their Badge Plan, identify struggles and roadblocks, and brainstorm strategies forward.
In our Studio, we have a poster on the wall with the headings of "Ahead," "On Track," and "Behind." Each learner's name is placed in the appropriate spot. The goal here isn't to shame learners who might be behind, but rather create a public, transparent tracker of where everyone is on their Badge Plan.
At the end of each session, we send an email home to parents with information as to whether their learner is "Ahead," "On Track," or "Behind."
Just this week, two learners, without prompting, moved their names from "Behind" to "On Track" on the poster on the wall. They knew what they needed to do and they did it. They were proud of that moment and publicly celebrated in the Studio. Part of having a self-directed learning environment that works is giving each learner clear ways of knowing the work they need to complete, providing world-class examples of the work in action, providing plenty of growth mindset praise, and celebrating hard work and progress.
high school studio
The passing of knowledge is one of the greatest gifts from educator to educator. -Brittney
Education is in a transitional swing; with an understanding that many aspects need changing for the betterment of all students. This week, The Forest School had the opportunity to be shadowed by another educational institution who is trying to make changes. It is always a humbling experience for our staff and heroes to be able to share our knowledge, while still learning how to master this model, and adapting the stance of always learners and never experts!
In the studio, heroes dissected the conversation of transgender bathrooms. Learning about state and local laws, sharing their own perspective, and challenging others to keep an open mind as we learn to live together. The week ended with numerous team building and stem projects as we continue to build our tribe throughout the year.
G.K Chesterton once said “fairy tales are more than true; not because they tell us dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten”. Next week heroes look forward to showcasing their ideas for solutions to historical social issues. Stay tuned!
-Onward
Have a great weekend!
Banner image via