From late February through March 2019, our elementary school learners are taking on the following Quest: How might we serve immigrant children as they transition to life in the United States?
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Hard work, Dedication, Focus
According to Fernando Bryant (Amber's husband), former NFL player for the Detroit Lions, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Pittsburgh Steelers, there are three things it takes to get to the finish line when it really counts - hard work, dedication and focus. This week…
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Learning To Live Together
This session the heroes were granted a freedom they had longed for since day one: the ability to choose their own Quest groups. They had the following parameters to follow: 1) your group must be a mix of boys and girls; 2) you must represent…
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Join us this Friday, February 15, 2019, at The Forest School for our Session 4 Exhibition, which focuses on composting and access to healthcare.
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Creation is hard work
The Hero’s Journey is a path that is anything but predictable. We don’t know when we’ll be called to leave the ordinary world, who our mentors will be or what trials we’ll face. We’ll meet many people along the way—some for a reason, some for a season, and perhaps, some for a lifetime. This week we said goodbye…
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From early January through mid February, 2019, our middle schoolers are taking on the following real-world Quest: How might we improve access to healthcare for rural Georgians? Our learners will play the roles of healthcare advocates and investigative journalists.
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What is school for?
That was the question scribbled on the whiteboard as a Hero led our afternoon launch. Anyone who knows or has ever been a school-aged kid is familiar with the question: Why do we…
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One of the trickiest pieces of any democracy is the hand-off of leadership. Heroes prepared for this transition period in a couple of ways:
First, inspired by the communal "house" structure of Hogwarts in Harry Potter…
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What is learning? At The Forest School, it's baked into everything we do. We categorize "learning" into the following four areas…
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In December the heroes were invited to create a holiday window display, as you might see in stores during the season. We talked briefly about why stores create engaging displays, and the role of a display designer...the heroes had the opportunity to create a display that both represented the school and caused others to be curious about what (who) was inside…
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What is learning? At The Forest School, it's baked into everything we do. We categorize "learning" into the following four areas…
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Join us this Thursday, December 20, 2018, from 4:45-5:45pm at The Forest School for our Session 3 Exhibition, which focuses on our city of Fayetteville, GA! The event will be completely learner-driven.
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This week, Heroes took another big step in Studio governance. They saw a need for more accountability to the principles they put forward in the Studio Contract earlier in the year. They needed a code to live by and a clear consequence progression for violating it.
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This session is fairly short—Four weeks from beginning to end. As we approach the halfway point, Heroes are starting to feel the "pinch" of time more and more. On a wall in our Studio, they've posted their goals for the session—a certain percentage of Khan Academy, a completed Deep Book Badge, a milestone on their Grammar Badge. These "self-paced" goals are held in tension with our session badges—Quest, Storytelling, and Civilization. How do Heroes manage such a full plate?
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Today’s Children’s Business Fair from 12-4pm will be located in the Pinewood Studios Production Center’s gymnasium! The address is 461 Sandy Creek Road, Fayetteville. It is across from the north end of Pinewood Forest—at the second roundabout where Sandy Creek intersects with Veterans Parkway.
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How is science taught at The Forest School? Heroes are wrapping up week 1 of our Biology Quest, which is set up as an "intensive" deep dive into biology basics. This week, our focus has been on cells. But how do we do this without a "teacher?" Why not make it a game?
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We are thrilled to announce our judges for the Children's Business Fair this Saturday, December 1, 2018, at the Pinewood Forest Holiday Marketfest. These experienced entrepreneurs and social entrepreneurs will spend quality time with each of our kidpreneurs to understand their businesses, provide valuable feedback, and ultimately choose the top prizes for the business fair.
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Which would you rather have—awesome skills, a fixed mindset, and a sub-par attitude OR a growth mindset, good attitude, and skills with room for improvement? When questioned about how he chooses players for his team, renowned head women’s basketball coach at UCONN said he would rather lose a game than play an athlete with poor sportsmanship.
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What if learners ages 6 through 15 were the best consultants? For the last month, Forest School learners worked on their first consulting project for a real-world client—Pinewood Forest—to help them reimagine and redesign their upcoming Spring Family Market.
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Another week, another milestone. As the learners take on more and more leadership, the Guides continue to step back. We continue to hold up our end of the deal: to provide a safe learning environment; to hold up a mirror to Heroes on the state of the Studio; and to create engaging Quests, challenges, and launches that inspire Heroes to pursue excellence. But an important baton of leadership has been passed to the Heroes themselves. What does this next stage of self-governance look like?
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