If I am not for myself, who will be for me? - Year 1, Week 1

 

School is in session!

Check out Studio updates below


spark studio

Welcome back to School!

The Spark heroes have been informed that they have been chosen (by the Paw Patrol) as an elite Superpower Squad to take on a 5 week (“confidential”) mission. We must each identify our superpower and then join forces to build a Superpower Tribe. But first we must learn our way around the Studio, meet other chosen heroes, discover the learning tools we will use, create a Contact of Promises, and, of course, make our capes. What’s a superhero without a cape? The Spark heroes are eager and curious to learn more after a fun week of games, lessons, socialization, and patience. Thank you to Coach Fantasia and Miss Shelly for introducing us to PE and Art. We had so much fun and look forward to every Tuesday and Wednesday. Lastly we spent time thinking about “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” and what it means. What a great dinner conversation this could be?!


elementary studio

Welcoming Elementary heroes back, the first week has been nothing short of fun and friendship!

We started the week off doing a name ball challenge to get all heroes to know and remember every person's name. This activity was followed by a series of team building exercises, including; find someone who, human shape, balloon shoulder challenge, story writings and much more, to get heroes acquainted with each other and their Studio.

We launched off our Hogwarts Quest on Monday. This Quest focuses on building the character trait, curiosity, as heroes embark on a journey of enjoyable challenges such as learning about colorology, etymology, and crests/ wands. Though the Quest has just begun, heroes are all aboard in learning and keeping a growth mindset about the Wizarding World of Hogwarts. In order to earn Chromebooks, heroes received an egg baby whom they were responsible for caring for and tending to show they can handle the responsibility of a laptop. We had lots of joy and cheers. We even had a group of heroes start an egg ER help group.

All that to say, cheers to a great first week!


middle school studio

“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting.” – Buddha

Welcome to the 1st week in the Middle School Studio! This week heroes “boxed” their way through new chapters and continued rounds. Heroes where stoked to start their first week of school by meeting one another. Like we do every morning, we launched with our 15-minute socratic discussion where heroes discussed how to push through obstacles they will face in the school year, good or bad. Accountability is a focal point this year, so heroes broke down their Badge Plans and taught new heroes all about the following: Apprenticeship, Deep Books, Quest, Studio Contract, Studio Maintenance, and Socratic Launches.

This week the Studio focused on purpose, building their tribe, and making sure that everyone feels like they belong. We did this by various team building activities such as Charades, 2 truth and a Lie, Chair Tic Tac Toe, practicing names, Time Management, etc. Heroes rated the overall week a 8.5. What a high Standard!

Continuing throughout the week, we went over the new technology policy for the 2022-2023 school year. Furthermore, we handed out Chromebooks to the Heroes. Then partnering with their Squads, they discussed what friendship means, how they would like to receive feedback, how they learn best and most importantly, how they want to schedule their personal work time for the session. We ended the week with our introduction to Quests and Core Skills.

The ball is rolling and Middle School is ready for an amazing change and push into a positive direction!


high school studio

Wow! What a week!

This week we took a ton of time to simply get to know each other, from team building games to group discussions. We dove into many topics about ourselves to foster a Studio of patience, respect, and collaboration for one another.  We discovered how we work independently and collaboratively, our preference of communication for both casual and critical conversations, and our favorite color, ha! After we had a little fun, we got down to the brass tacks.

Our head of school Tyler did daily launches on purpose, curiosity, and various thinking routines such as how to evaluate claims and consider different levels of analysis.

As a Studio, learners established our Rules of Engagement, Studio Contract, Running Partner expectations.  On Friday we will dive into our first Quest! 

We are all in for a treat for the upcoming Exhibition!


 
Tyler Thigpen