Our First Year (2009-10)

Acton Academy

2009 – 10

Week 1

We had a great first week! How incredibly lucky we are to have had Anna with us from the first day. This week, the class spent time getting to know each other and our new environment, chose desks and started to settle into their personal spaces, named the rooms in our school and developed a system for taking care of them, created a list of class rules to ensure a safe and productive learning environment and began thinking about their goals for the year.

They met Coach Z. at the park for P.E. and had their first art class here at school with Ms. Kristi. At lunch, students tried new foods, and for snacks, they cooked applesauce from scratch and made stove-top popcorn. They also began exploring the library, writing in their journals and playing math games on and off the computers. Today, we had our first birthday celebration and Charlie, the birthday boy, made soup for the class as a birthday gift to us!

This weekend, ask your child about his or her "seeds of potential" or "hidden treasures". We did several activities this week designed to make us think about the gifts and talents we have within us and what it takes to develop these. We cut open apples and examined the star, as well as the “seeds of potential” in each. Next week, each child will establish a set of personal goals for the year as we continue our discussions on courage and go deeper into our core skills work. Each afternoon, we will end with a question that the children can bring home to continue a conversation we have started here at school.

Week 2

It was another full and meaningful week. Students delved deeper into their individual core work in reading, writing and math. As a group, we continued to get to know each other and work through similarities and differences that create conflict and opportunity for thoughtful resolution.

In PE with Coach Z. and with Ms. Anna, students played games that allowed them to see the value in working together as a team. We had conversations about people we admire, things that we want and things that we need, and when we have been courageous in our own lives.

Students also started brainstorming ideas for the Children's Business Fair and had a guest teacher, Mr. Sandefer, guide them through some experiments that helped them see how different people value different things and how having a market that allows free trading increases overall value.

With Ms. Kristi, students made patterns with musical instruments and began work on self-portraits. Ellie found a delicious recipe in one of the cookbooks here at school and treated us all to scrumptious, homemade banana bread.

Students spent time thinking about and discussing their goals for this year, which they will keep in the front of their binders and which we will discuss periodically as they come up and formally at the end of the each trimester. Students also thought about their fears and the tools they have within themselves to help them "crush" these fears. They wrote each fear on a saltine cracker and their "tools" on a piece of paper. They tried to blow the crackers away, but could not.  They then wrapped their "tools" around a rolling pin and used this to literately crush their fears. They tried again to blow away their "fears" and this time they scattered. We discussed how sometimes breaking down fear into pieces can make it easier to overcome.

We also started a tradition which will continue through-out the year of having a riddle presented each day at our morning group that is solved in the afternoon at our closing group.

A note from Ms. Anna:

This week I led the class in a few team building activities. On Wednesday I taught a game called Orientation Circle in which the students had to get into a circle in a certain order as quickly as possible. They had to work together, communicate, and help each other out in order to improve and beat their record time. On Thursday we began the day by doing trust falls to practice having courage. We also discussed the idea that everyone has a comfort zone (in which they feel comfortable and safe, but are not really learning anything new), a challenge zone (in which they are pushing themselves to try different things that might be a little scary, but that will help them to learn and grow), and a panic zone (in which they are pushing themselves too hard and are actually too uncomfortable to learn or gain anything from the experience) - and that these zones are different for different people. As a class, this year we will strive to challenge and encourage one another in all of our learning endeavors!

Week 3

It was another action packed week here at Acton Academy. It is incredible how much we have gotten to know each other and function as a group in only 14 days! While the students certainly enjoy each other's company, they are starting to choose activities more based on interest in the activity than in the participants. This provides a great opportunity for different students to work together and learn more from and about each other.

We celebrated the beginning of fall with an amusing assortment of pumpkins in varying sizes, shapes, colors and textures. They inspired artwork, writing and story-telling all week long and will likely become part of future kitchen experiments.

Students continued to get more involved in their individual core work in reading, writing and math, both on and off the computer. In response to a group reading, we had an interesting discussion about what makes a good judge and the challenges that come with choosing a judge and being a judge. We also read The Orange Shoes, a short story by Trinka Hakes Noble, that led to a discussion about the courage and creativity a young girl showed when faced with a difficult situation. Mr. Sandefer came back for more economics experiments that focused on pricing and on the different lessons that can be learned from assembly lines. As part of the second set of experiments, the children made sandwiches that were brought to a local soup kitchen, Caritas. With Ms. Kristi, the children continued to make music and work on their portraits and with Coach Z., they learned new games and had a blast at the park despite the weather.

Ms. Anna has started reading to the children each day before lunch, while they relax and listen. She is reading them a biography of Neil Armstrong that focuses on his childhood years. After about 15 minutes, the students are excused from group to wash their hands and serve themselves lunch. They have to pay close attention, as we have begun incorporating Spanish words and phrases into this process. For example, Ms. Anna might say: If you are wearing a blue shirt, you may go to the kitchen...however, she would say this entirely in Spanish. The students help each other out and are able to determine the meaning of her words. During lunch, we use Spanish words to talk about the food we are eating. Sitting around one large table, the students have also begun using the different question cards we have to stimulate their own conversations. Today the conversation was mostly focused on the food because each student made their own pizza!

Several students brought special objects from home to display on their personal shelves at school. These are things that are special to them that they like to see here at school and that they would like others to see as well. They have all agreed that they would never touch the things on someone else’s shelf, though they are encouraged to admire them and ask questions about them.

Each student now has a library card and can check out one book at a time. They created guidelines for this process, including a “Proper Book Care” policy, a 5 day check-out policy with an option for one renewal, and a 5 cent per day late fee for unreturned books. These guidelines came 100% from the students.

We had a wonderful Friday afternoon today, enjoying the sunshine outside and getting our hands gooey with some clay that Bodhi found in Shoal Creek and brought in to share.

Week 4

We had a productive week here at Acton Academy. With the students directing themselves more and more in the choices they make for their core work, we were able to spend a lot of time this week talking about what being a hero means to us and what it means to be on a Hero's Journey. We had several intense, meaningful conversations that resulted in a multi‐faceted definition of hero with contributions from each student.

A Hero Is…

A hero…is someone who has or will make a good change in the world…is someone who develops and practices their talents so that they can help others…is someone who has lots of courage…is someone who takes care of themselves so that they can help others…is someone who sets a good example that people look up to…is someone who would do anything to help others…is someone who cares about other people…is someone you depend on…is someone who creates things to help other people…is someone who teaches you something valuable…We are all heroes in our own way.

This in turn developed into a student contract. The contract begins with the words, "I am on a hero's journey" and ends with the words, "I will never give up on myself". In between are seven specific commitments, written as a group, that they feel are essential to their Hero's Journeys.

Acton Academy Student Contract

2009-2010

I am on a hero’s journey.

Even through hard times, I will not give up because I have courage.

I will be honest with myself and others about the way I lead this journey.

I will try my hardest to reach all of my goals and I will make new goals as well.

I will try new things I have never done before, even things I might not be good at, to discover new talents.

I will encourage other people on their journeys, but make sure they want and need my help.

I will take care of the things around me that help me learn and live.

I will take care of my body, my brain and my heart by giving them the things they need to be healthy and grow such as exercise, information, challenges and love.

I will never give up on myself.

On Wednesday, we had a very special invitation to visit the recording studio across the alley from our school. They had four professional violinists playing songs from the movie Grease that will be used as the soundtrack to a new Wii game. It was a fascinating experience for all of us to listen to the musicians play and to watch all the other things that go on in a recording studio at the same time. When we returned to school, we sat down to talk about the experience. One student said, "You know how we said that a hero develops and practices their talent to help others? Well, those violinists are heroes because they are using their talents to make something really beautiful and that is good for all of us."

We read a couple short stories this week that helped us continue our discussion of courage. Reviews of these books, The Odd Egg and Stand Up Molly Lou Melon, can be read on Acton Academy's new Goodreads website. All of the stories we have read together have been reviewed by the students. You can also see the books they have read individually this school year and the reviews that they have written for those.

Next week the students will be taking the Stanford Achievement Test – 10th Edition. They will do one or two sections of the test each morning, taking breaks to run around outside and have snacks. We discussed the importance of getting rest and a good breakfast before the test, so hopefully students come to school on Monday ready to go!

A Note from Michael and Kristi Zumpano of Minds in Motion:

For Physical Education with Coach Z., we're wrapping up a unit on Cooperative Games with Throwing and Catching activities. Looking ahead, in October we'll focus on Soccer Skills and Games. To give the children opportunities to develop healthy habits, part of each unit includes fitness components and yoga experiences.

For Fine Arts with Miss Kristi, we're in the final stages of painting self‐portraits as part of a Myself unit. This week we've looked at photos of ourselves, building upon the partner work we did last week, to find what facial features make us unique. We are beginning to polish up our work to be hung on the school walls, taking risks and being courageous in stretching ourselves. We continued the Myself unit, representing different ways each of us can be a hero, through song, visual representation and physical expression. We envisioned ourselves as heroes in yoga poses and developed concentration skills, too.

Week 5

We made it through the Stanford Achievement Test Complete Battery (sounds fun, huh?) with great attitudes, full concentration and even the comment, “I call this learning‐fun”. The testing took the better part of our mornings, but we were still able to have some great discussions about our Children’s Business Fair projects, Personal Presentation ideas and our school mascot. In the afternoons this week, students continued to work on their self-portraits with Ms. Kristi and their soccer and teamwork skills with Coach Z. In P.E., they are steadily increasing the length of their running warm-up in preparation for the 1K Run for the Water!

We had a series of “writing workshops” this week leading to a wall of Courage Heroes that makes us all very proud. The first day of our workshop was focused on research. Using Neil Armstrong as our example, we used note cards and wrote down courageous things he has done. Then each student went into the library to brainstorm and choose a person they think is heroic because of the courage they have shown. They found resources to read and learned more about that person. The following afternoon, each student had written at least three note cards with facts about their hero. We went back to our note cards about Neil Armstrong and read through them to decide how we wanted to structure our paragraph. We wrote a paragraph as a group and then broke up to work on our own paragraphs. On the third afternoon, we took colored pencils and with a critical eye, edited our paragraphs. This morning, each student took great care to rewrite their paragraph and then found a picture of their hero on the internet (with guidance) to accompany their writing.

Another exciting experience this week was choosing our school mascot. We have one more step left before finalizing the decision – a vote from the families. After several days of debate, we have narrowed our choices for the school mascot to three: the Acton Academy Eagles, the Acton Academy Owls and the Acton Academy Aces. Before choosing actual mascots, we had a discussion about what ideas and qualities we wanted to this mascot to represent. The most popular of these were: courage, honesty, imagination, peace and challenge. Each student and parent will have one vote. We will announce the mascot after the upcoming break, on Monday, October 19th in morning group.

We have spent a lot of time these last five weeks establishing rituals and traditions within our day and building a sense of community which will lead to more meaningful collaboration on projects and discoveries as we move forward. We have also laid the foundation for understanding what it means to be on a Hero’s Journey and the importance of this. When we come back to school in a week, the students will sign their contract, committing to this journey and all the challenges that accompany it. We will also place the stepping stones that each family has created at home on that day, Monday the 19th, to mark the beginning of this journey.

This week, students each chose their topic for Personal Presentations and picked the day that they wanted to present. Discussions at home may help the students refine their ideas. Students will be invited to work on the research for their projects at school, but may choose to do this at home.

Week 6

This week was a great start to our second session of school. At the end of each day, we take a few minutes to write in a group journal. The students all contribute sentences, and a teacher writes them down. We have discussed structure and word choice in our own writing and get to practice this as a group. The students have started to regulate the process by saying thing like, “Wait, I have a sentence that should go after that one” or “I can add something to that sentence” or “I have an idea, but it would make a good conclusion”. On Friday, after we have written in the journal, the students listen to the entire week’s entries before going around the circle and sharing one or two highlights from the week.

Here are this week’s journal entries, followed by the highlights:

10/19/09

We are back from Fall Break. Hello. We now have a mascot and school colors. We are the gold and blue Acton Academy Eagles! We had cake to celebrate that had “Go Acton Eagles” written on it in blue and gold icing. We got new jobs; however, only two people got jobs that were new to them. We also signed our Acton Academy Student Contract and put down our family stepping stones. We went to P.E. today where we played 4-goal soccer. We had a new Touch Pebbles with a painting where we write the story instead of being given a story. It was another great day with the Acton Academy Eagles!

10/20/09

We came into school today and saw blue and gold decorations in the Artichoke Room because they are now our school colors. In group, we shared our guesses about who did it. This afternoon, we had art, after we had devoured noodles for lunch. For dessert, we had leftover cake and it was yummy. We started doing research on the Colonial Period. It was a decorative day.

10/21/09

Today we had P.E. inside. We played yoga games that got us to stretch. For lunch today, we had meat tacos. We could choose crunchy or soft. We had soft, sweet cookies for dessert. More of us picked our Colonial Times heroes to be on the day before Halloween. Chris gave a presentation on the piano. He played a Christmas Carol and gave us a quiz on the notes and their sounds. It was another great day with the Acton Academy Eagles. See you tomorrow.

10/22/09

Today we had art outside because it was a beautiful afternoon. We traced object shadows. We got a new character wristband and a new character trait: Honesty. We read a book called The Empty Pot. The main character had to use courage to be honest. We had macaroni and cheese, fruit salad and veggies for lunch. Some people chose to make their own sandwiches. For dessert, we had muffins. It was the best, honest day at Acton Academy.

10/23/09

Today we went to the park and played “Kick the Can”. We brought Frisbees, a soccer ball and a football with us. When we walked back to school, we had popsicles that Ellie made. They were yummy, sweet treats. The flavors were orange and strawberry. They had popsicle sticks in them, but some of us used spoons because they started to melt. Some of us finally solved the Johnny, Johnny riddle. For lunch, we had a make-your-own pizza day. It was a great, almost-weekend day at Acton Academy.

My highlight/s of the week were…

…playing “Kick the Can” and eating the cake.

…playing “Kick the Can” and finding out our mascot.

…eating the cake and eating Ellie’s popsicles.

…reading about Pocahontas.

…playing “Kick the Can” and solving my first riddle.

…getting my first lesson on the Language Drawers.

…eating the cake and eating Ellie’s popsicles.

Week 7

We had another full and fabulous week here at Acton Academy.

What a wonderful inspiration Gilbert is for us all! In preparation for Gilbert’s visit, we talked about his life here and in Burundi. We introduced new terminology associated with the Hero’s Journey that we will continue to use throughout the year and used Gilbert’s journey as an example to help explain the new concepts. We also looked at pictures of life in Burundi and tried to imagine what it would be like to grow up there. The students spent some time thinking about questions they would like to ask Gilbert and were delighted that they actually got to ask them and that he gave them answers. They next day, students wrote in their journals about the experience of meeting Gilbert and what they learned. Then we came together to write him a thank you note. In the combined words of the students:

Dear Gilbert,

Thank you for coming to Acton Academy. We had so much fun and all enjoyed your visit. We love your accent and listening to you speak and most of all we love YOU! You taught us that you can take from your life to help others. You are a hero to us. See you when we run for the water.

Yeong Way,

The Acton Academy Eagles

Earlier in the week, we read an adaptation of the Aesop Fable, The Lion and the Mouse which lead to an interesting discussion about the fact that we all have different skills that distinguish us from one another, some of which are natural to us and some of which we have learned. We broke into smaller groups to talk about what skills we have and what skills we would like to have and gave each other advice on how to improve upon our desired skills. We discussed that, like Gilbert, we can use a combination of our natural skills and our learned skills to make changes in our lives and the lives of others.

Looking to heroes from another time, students worked on our Colonial Hero speeches and thought about what those people did to change lives. As they were working, the electricity went out and we got a brief taste of what it might have been like during the Colonial Period. Today, the students delivered their speeches with enthusiasm and listened to each other with interest. The costumes were great. We made buttermilk biscuits and enjoyed them with hot tea for a proper Colonial snack. We also watched some of “Liberty’s Kids”, an animated television series originally broadcast on PBS Kids which focuses on historical figures and events from the Colonial Period and the American Revolution. We will continue to watch episodes from this series and incorporate them into our discussions of this time in history and its great significance to our lives.

Due to the weather, P.E. was inside both days this week. Coach Z. introduced new yoga poses and incorporated storytelling to keep the students moving and stretching. They were sure to take advantage of the times when the sun did come out for some soccer on the Sport Court. The students organize themselves into teams and really enjoy this competitive game. There are plenty of opportunities for conflict resolution and practicing sportsmanship, as situations do arise frequently that require discussion. It is a safe and healthy place to practice these skills. Increasingly, teams have begun communicating strategies to each other and cheering each other on by acknowledging good effort and successful plays.

In Art, the children have been working on “hero poses” for a mural they will begin next week. They have also been using patterns in nature to inspire their artwork.

While the weeks seem to fly by faster and faster, it is still remarkable how bonded our group has become in such a short time. With Ms. Anna and two students absent yesterday at lunch, one student said, “I feel like three of our family members are missing.”

Week 8

The students were each given a chart at the beginning of the week where they can begin to record the work they are doing each day. This is the first step in helping them learn to manage their time and set goals for themselves.

This week, we talked a lot about honesty, role‐playing various situations that call upon the students to put themselves in the shoes of someone faced with a difficult decision involving whether or not to be honest. We also created a web of lies by rolling a ball of yarn back and forth across our circle, telling lies with each roll. We discovered that the more lies we told, the more difficult it was to move within this web. Using scissors labeled with the words “I lied, I’m sorry, I admit, Forgive me” we cut the tangled web. We discussed that confessing and apologizing (when necessary) does not make the lies disappear completely, but it makes it possible for you to continue unhindered. This afternoon we went to the park with our backpacks and again told lies. This time, with each lie, a rock was added to the backpack. When the children said their bags were getting heavy, they walked around a little. When they were ready, they unloaded the rocks, saying phrases such as “I lied, I’m sorry” with each rock they took out. Then they walked around without the weight of the rocks and felt the difference. We also read a story, Edward Fudwupper Fibbed Big which reinforced the concepts that the more lies one tells, the more difficult things become and that confessing can relieve you of this growing burden.

We also continued to watch episodes from Liberty’s Kids, getting to know historical figures such as Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Paul Revere, Thomas Paine and Benedict Arnold and learning about “the shot heard round the world”, the Second Continental Congress and the Battle of Bunker Hill. This series provides a context for more in depth discussions that we will be having about liberty and what it means to us.

During their Personal Presentations, Cash impressed us with his knowledge of cowboys and his skill with a whip and Sam taught everyone some basics about football. Ellie delighted us from the kitchen once more with homemade scones, served up with hot tea.

It was another great week. See you on Sunday morning at the Run for the Water!

Week 9

Students continued tracking their work using charts this week. On Thursday morning, they paused to look at what they had accomplished so far in the week. We discussed the amount of work time we have in the morning and each student made a plan for the day, assigning themselves work. At the end of the day, they evaluated their progress. Students will continue to use the charts to make plans each morning and track progress through the day, learning how to manage their time and prioritize. Each child has their own system of recording and tracking their work. They will bring their charts home on Fridays and can use these to talk about their week with family members.

We continued to role‐play situations that force us to think about honesty. The students have started to brainstorm and write their own honesty scenarios which they will present to the class at the end of next week. Students will have the opportunity to role‐play these scenarios, allowing the writer to see what questions arise from the situations they have created.

Our Touch Pebbles discussion on Monday began with a version of the Greek tale, Pandora’s Box. The story led us to a discussion of curiosity and when it has created difficult situations in our lives. We then looked at curiosity from another angle and talked about the positive things that come from curiosity. We talked about scientists and how they often have a deep curiosity about something that leads them to look at the world in different ways. With some subtle guidance, the students came up with the idea of inviting Simon Solotko to the class to help us learn to see the world in different ways. They wrote him a note and he graciously accepted the invitation. He came in on Friday and showed us all that there are many more ways to look at Tic-Tac-Toe than we had imagined. We played on a 4x4 matrix and in three dimensions!

After an interesting discussion about inspiration sparked by our morning newspaper article, the students journaled about a time when they have been inspired by someone else and a time when they believe their actions or words may have inspired someone else.

We were all inspired this week by Bodhi’s and Charlie’s Personal Presentations. Bodhi taught us about the Underground Railroad to which he has a personal connection, keeping us engaged with music, pictures, interesting facts and stories and a fun activity. Charlie “blew” us all away with an explosive chemistry experiment that involved pouring Mentos into a two-liter bottle of Coke.

In PE, the student started a unit on football. With Ms. Kristi, they have been working on a mural for our fence. We continued to watch more episodes from Liberty’s Kids, following the events of the first few years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Week 10

As part of studying the Colonial Period and beginning of the American Revolution, the students were part of an experience this week designed to let them understand what it means to have your personal liberties squelched. For three days, they received proclamations at random imposed by King George and delivered by Royal Governor Anna, each one taking away a privilege or freedoms. For them the first day of this was fun. The second day, not so much -- the students got highly annoyed and frustrated with these random and senseless new rules to obey. They decided to revolt and they wrote their own Declaration of Independence:

This has gone too far. We are people not animals. We are not British. We are not part of the crown. We are free. We are not slaves. We do not approve of the king and his ways. We are the independent people of Acton Academy.

We had a long discussion about the consequences of revolting – in this case losing dessert after lunch for the rest of the school year and continuing with on-going proclamations. Students took a night to think about their decision. Signing the Declaration would mean they were revolting and the success or failure of the revolution would be determined by a role of a die. A 1 or 2 meant victory for the students, a 3, 4, 5 or 6 meant defeat. They fully understood the odds were against them ‐ just as the odds were against the Founders. After studying probabilities for 2 days, they understood the 1 in 3 chance of losing.

We started the day with a discussion about why they were so impassioned. What was it that they were fighting for? What had been taken from them? Was it really dessert? They thoughtfully realized it was not the desserts. They said things like, "We can have dessert at home." And, "we have enough food at lunch."

So really....why did they want to take this great risk to declare independence? Each student said it was because they were losing the freedom to learn as much as they could and that made them very angry. The proclamations took away their ability to read for long periods of time, concentrate and get into flow. One student said, "we have a right to learn all we can and do something important with our lives."

After the discussion, they made a unanimous decision to sign their Declaration of Independence, which they did -- with big swirly signatures. Then, they rolled the dice. It was a 1! They all started screaming and hugging and yelling, "We're free!" They stormed the wall and tore the proclamations up into tiny pieces.

Within just a few minutes, they began taking advantage of their reinstated freedom – choosing what to work on and where to do it. They didn't waste a moment more of their precious individual work time. It became very quiet in the building as they began the work they now claim as their right to do.

Following a busy day of enjoying their regained independence to work as hard they wanted on Wednesday, we started Thursday with a discussion about what it felt like to work freely the day before. We then talked about the probability of rolling a one, as they had the previous day. They were each given a die to roll for a few minutes and record their results. We then tallied up the totals from each person and saw that we had a fairly even distribution of ones, twos, threes, fours, fives and sixes. They all agreed that it was, indeed, very lucky that they had rolled a one the day before. This brought us to a discussion about the colonists and the decision they made to start a revolution despite the fact that many people believed their odds of winning were even smaller than their odds had been the day before. Was it just luck that they succeeded in winning the revolution? The students discussed the driving power of what the colonists were fighting for, the courage and honesty of the people and how they used their words and actions to inspire and persuade others to join their important cause. While they acknowledged that there were elements of favorable timing, they concluded that it was not luck that established our country.

This week’s Personal Presentations were also memorable. Saskia and Ellie delighted our senses with their thoughtful presentations. Saskia taught us about her violin and then masterfully played us a few songs. Ellie prepared four solutions representing the four main tastes: sweet, salty, bitter and sour. She gave us each a blind sample of these and had us think about where on our tongues we were most sensitive to these tastes. After spending some time tasting, she had us guess what taste each solution represented and how they were made.

Before heading off for Thanksgiving Break, we celebrated the Colonial times with festive snacks, games and a lack of electricity on Friday. We lit a candle and went around the circle, each saying something for which we are grateful: the opportunity to learn at Acton Academy, family, friends, exercise, God, trees and the changing weather were among the answers. Each child took home a card that they are to write in over this break, adding another thing for which they are grateful each day. They made candles which they can light as they contemplate the many things that bring light into their lives.

Week 11

On Monday morning, we welcomed each other back to Acton Academy by sharing the words and phrases on our gratitude cards. Family, friends and liberty were the most commonly expressed gifts in the lives of the students. We had several discussions focused on gratitude this week and will continue with it as our character trait for the next two weeks.

We had the opportunity to show our gratitude three times this week by writing thank you notes! On Wednesday, Nat Miller, the Education Director of the Paramount Theatre, did a workshop here at school to prepare us for A Glow in the Dark Adventure, the show we will be seeing on Monday at the Paramount. The students learned about the actors/dancers in the show and how their costumes work. They also worked with Nat to show emotion with their facial expressions and their bodies, and went on an imaginary adventure of their own. More than half of the students said this was one of their highlights of the week! Another highlight, was a special presentation and performance given by Katharine Harris on Thursday. The students learned more about string instruments, orchestras and the dedication it takes to master something. They were also thrilled to hear Saskia and her mother play together. Today, Carolyn Robinson came and helped the children make English muffin pizzas for lunch. They then had a great conversation using question cards as prompts. There was lots of laughter and creative energy in the room!

We went on a field trip to Whole Foods today where we searched for the best deals on bread, meat, cheese and condiments and recorded the prices and quantities for these. Back at school, we analyzed our data and calculated the unit price for a single piece of bread, meat or cheese and for a serving of mayonnaise or mustard. We then figured out the cost of making a sandwich. The students will be analyzing similar data using Costco prices. They will be making sandwiches to donate to Caritas next week with a budget of $35. After analyzing the data from Costco, they will decide which store they would like to get the sandwich ingredients from and how much bread, meat and cheese they can afford on their budget.

We learned a new form of riddle this week called a Hinky Pink. These riddles come in the form of a clue and from that clue, you must think of two rhyming words that are synonymous with the clue. If you are told it is a Hink Pink, then each of the two rhyming words must have one syllable, a Hinky Pinky has two two-syllable words and a Hinkity Pinkity has two three‐syllable words. To reinforce our work with syllables and Hinky Pinks, we also worked with Haikus this week. We read several books written in Haiku form and each student worked on writing their own.

While the students seem to like the new word riddles, they were not satisfied having them replace the regular riddles. So, they started writing their own! Each day this week, one student presented an additional riddle to the class.

We have had several discussions about the way we approach our work and the need to seek out challenges and even errors in order to constantly learn and improve. Katharine’s presentation on the practice necessary for mastery reinforced this idea beautifully. With this approach, we had our first Town Meeting this week. The goal of our Town Meetings is to improve our school by noticing and sharing things that could be better, and working together to find potential solutions. We spent the first part of the meeting just discussing this idea and connecting it to the way we approach our work and the idea of consciously seeking out things to improve. We had one courageous student offer a topic for discussion. He said, “I feel we need to do more group activities where there are no teams because this will help our class be able to divide into teams.” During free play outside, the students often all choose to play a game together, like soccer, but sometimes have trouble making teams. The student who initiated this conversation explained that he thought by playing together as one large team, they would all get to know each other better and then it would not matter as much who was on which team. The class came up with a few solutions to try out – during outside time, they are going to play more large group games that do not involve teams; during other free time, like before group in the morning, on Friday afternoons and during Extended Day, they are going to make an effort to partner up with people they have not played with in a while for a one‐on‐one activity to get to know each other better. The conversation was respectful, with people expressing their opinions and responding to each other’s comments.

Week 12

Our week began with an unforgettable trip to the Paramount Theatre to see A Glow in the Dark Adventure – from the front row! As soon as the lights went down, the theater filled with the delighted screams of children and this screaming continued periodically throughout the performance. It is possible that there were only seven children in the theater who clapped instead of screaming. Before the show, we briefly discussed theater etiquette and though the show was incredibly exciting, the Acton Academy students resisted any temptation to shout out despite the fact that hundreds of other children were doing just that. We took the bus to the performance, but the students decided to walk one mile back to school in order to save $8, which they contributed to their Caritas sandwich fund.

After calculating the cost per sandwich using ingredients from Whole Foods and comparing this to the cost using ingredients from Costco, the children discovered that they could make 86 sandwiches using the $43 they have accumulated. Based on our previous speed of making sandwiches in the first month of school, we did not think we would be able to make all of those in one morning and decided to make half of them this week and half of them next week. Before making the sandwiches today, we thought back to our previous sandwich assembly line and discussed ways to become more efficient. Without knowing they were being timed, the students worked twice as quickly as they had before. Proud of the quality of their work and their improved speed, they discussed why they worked so well together. We then loaded up the sandwiches and hand-delivered them to Caritas where the students were given a quick tour of the kitchen. Next Friday we will set up to make the second half of our sandwiches and see if we can become even more efficient!

We learned a new form of poetry this week – the quatrain. The students wrote enthusiastically and really seemed to enjoy the challenge. We also continued enjoying the playfulness of language with more Hinky Pinks. The students have started to make up their own already! We even had to invent a new form – A Hink Pink Tink – three one-syllable rhyming words in a row. The clue: A rodent’s turn in baseball.

Singing Christmas carols has been a big hit. We continued preparing a few songs this week that students will share with our neighbors and their parents next week.

Week 13

Last week was an exciting one as we reflected upon all that has happened in the past trimester and celebrated the season by spreading Christmas cheer to each other and our neighbors.

First thing Monday morning, we had the pleasure of a special presentation from Becca Cody about a race she did in Colorado the previous weekend to raise awareness for organ transplantation. Her dedication to this cause led us to an interesting discussion about gratitude and the way we show this through our actions.

In addition to our regular work, we had several holiday activities this week, each one providing an opportunity to practice generosity. At the beginning of the week, each student became an “undercover eagle” and was assigned a classmate to write notes to all week. The students put lots of energy into making cards for their “secret eagle”. While they were excited to receive notes, they seemed even more excited to give them.

We also welcomed an “elf” to our school for the week.  We read the book Elf on a Shelf which explains that if you name an elf, it will begin appearing in a different spot of your home (or in this case school) each day until Christmas. The book tells you that while the elf does not move or talk during the day, it will relay your wishes each night to Santa Claus himself. For the students, naming the elf was an experience in negotiations and compromise, but after several discussions, they agreed upon “Noel”. Sure enough, a little elf did show up the following day and for the rest of the week. The students wrote notes and made useful things such as earmuffs, walkie‐talkies and airplanes to leave as offerings for their elf. What was remarkable to me, is that the only thing asked for in the notes was a response from the elf letting the students know if he liked the things there were making and if there was anything else he needed.

We went caroling in the neighborhood to five different neighbors. We had only planned to go to three, but it turns out we are very popular on our block and had requests from additional neighbors! We had fun singing and received a few gifts in return. Two doors down at the bank, the students were each given a piggybank. Two doors down the other direction, there is a potter and she gave us a brief tour of her studio. Across the alley at the recording studio, Mr. Murray had a microphone set up for the students and accompanied them on the guitar and drums. When we returned to the school, the students suggested writing thank you notes to the people at the bank for the piggy banks, to the potter for giving us a tour and to Mr. Murray for welcoming us into his studio. The students made no distinction between writing a thank you note for a physical gift received and for time or experiences shared.

Speaking of experiences and time shared, Carolyn Robinson shared her Thursday morning with us, giving the students a most fabulous cookie‐decorating experience. She brought in Christmas cookies in all different shapes, frosting of every color and a dazzling display of decorating candies. Ellie baked mini-cupcakes and brought them in to be decorated as well. The students took great care with each cookie and cupcake. They made a plate to bring to each neighbor when we caroled and a special gingerbread person to give to their “secret eagle”.

With all the holiday celebrations, the students did still have time to learn a new form of poetry – the Cinquain. They also practiced writing more Acrostics. Between the Hinky Pinks and the poetry over the past few weeks, the students are really enjoying the playfulness and beauty of our language.

At the end of the week, students took time to look through all the work they have done this trimester. We discussed their goals and their progress. They each came up with two specific weekly work goals for next trimester that they believe will help them achieve their larger goals. These are things that they will track so that they can evaluate their progress as the trimester unfolds.

Week 14

We had a great start to this new year, picking up our core work where we left off, but with increased energy. The work charts which the students use to guide them through their weekly work choices now have certain expectations built into them. While each student still devises an individual plan each day for accomplishing goals, there are certain weekly goals that they must work in

Each morning, we begin the day with a newspaper article from either the Austin American-Statesman or the New York Times. The students are becoming familiar with the format of a newspaper and the different types of articles. Each article sparks a conversation that lasts about 10 minutes. The article is then posted on the wall for the week. This week, we started a new practice on Fridays. Instead of a new article, the students discuss lessons they learned from the articles that week that they think could be used in their lives. They then voted on one article to post on the new student website as “article of the week”. They chose the article based on its power to teach other people an important lesson.

To start off the new year, we will be focusing on creativity as our character trait. We had the great fortune of welcoming Nat Miller, Education/Outreach Director for Austin Theatre Alliance, and one of his teaching partners, Seth Magill, back to our school. They came for a workshop in December to prepare us for seeing A Glow in the Dark Adventure at the Paramount Theatre. This year, they will be joining us on Tuesday mornings for a Process Drama experience that will lead the students through challenges that test their creativity, as well as the other character traits we have studied. Along the way, they will also increase their understanding of the parts of The Hero’s Journey, while developing greater acting and persuasion skills, public speaking skills, creative problem-solving skills, and having tons of fun with two inspirational, creativity role models. In this first session, students created a town, which they named “Acton Village” and characters who they will become each week during this special hour.

Albert Einstein is another of our role models who used his creativity to think of things in new and different ways, and to change the world. On Monday morning the students compared facts and observations from the Einstein biography they read over the winter break. They were then given another, longer biography of Einstein and split into groups of two or three to read and discuss the first chapter. They had a study guide to focus their small group discussions. On Thursday afternoon, we all came together and had a larger group discussion on the chapter – we are calling this our “Book Club”. The students discussed the chapter they had read and asked each other questions. We made a floating compass with a sewing needle, a piece of cork and a bowl of water, since receiving a compass as a gift was one of the early mysteries that feed young Einstein’s curiosity. We also did a “thought experiment” (something Einstein did many of) where we considered the effect of watching a live sporting event in Pasadena, CA from a television in Austin, TX if light traveled at 1 foot per second instead of 186,000 miles per second. Our quote for the week came from Einstein: “Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else has ever thought.” We also discussed another of Einstein’s quotes: “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

As a group, we read and discussed Once Upon A Company, a true story about three siblings who used their creativity to start and grow a profitable business – with profits going to their college funds.

We began practice with a new framework the students can use to help make decisions in their lives. In school we will be referring to this as “The Decision Chain” and we have a phrase to help remember the steps: Problem? No Problem With Decision Chain. Each letter in the phrase stands for a step in the decision- making process. 1. Problem: Restate the problem in your own words and figure out your options. 2. Need-to-know: List the information you’ll need to make a decision and the questions you need to answer in order to make a decision. Do research if necessary. 3. Pros/Cons: List the pros and cons of each of your options. 4. Weigh: Weigh the pros and cons. Think about what you value and which possible consequences matter to you more. 5. Decide: Make your own decision. 6. Commit: Commit to follow through with your decision, or go back to the start of the chain to make a new decision if you don’t feel like you commit. I read a scenario to the students and we went through the chain together. They then brainstormed and shared real decisions they have had to make and we went through the process with those. This is a tool we will use in the classroom and hopefully that the students will use on their own as well.

With student-driven Hinky Pink creation still going strong, I introduced a new type of riddle this week called a word ladder. You start with one word and then change one letter in the word to create a new word. You keep changing one letter at a time as you climb up or down the ladder until you have made the word at the other end of the ladder. After just two days of word ladders, the students were already making them up for each other to solve. The word ladders may not be as popular as Hinky Pinks for dinner conversation, but they are great for spelling and the students are enjoying them. Here is an example of a basic word ladder:

The students took so well to these, that we will be increasing the challenge next week as in the example below:

Week 15

We had an exciting week, celebrating the birth of Hania, Saskia’s new little sister, and the 7th anniversary of the births of Sam and Chris! We were so focused on the birthdays within our community that we did not yet talk about the very important birthday we are honoring on Monday, but will certainly do so when we come back from the three-day weekend.

This week we had several great opportunities to use the Decision Chain. At the end of our fabulous Tuesday Process Drama session with Mr. Nat and Mr. Seth, a ship was seen approaching “Acton Village” (the invented village where all of the students’ characters live). The students used the Decision Chain to decide how to react to this potential invasion. In a real-life scenario, while the children were at PE on Wednesday, Mrs. Sandefer headed outside to her car and noticed that the air smelled like natural gas. She called the fire department and they came and informed us that there was a gas leak, but that it was a safe distance away and what the wind was blowing our way was not harmful at all. After PE, I told the students what had happened while they were at the park. We played back through the scenario using the Decision Chain to help us see how Mrs. Sandefer came to her decision to call the fire department.

We also had the opportunity to discuss creativity in several different ways. Our TouchPebbles story and discussion focused around the idea that people accept advice in different ways. This lead the students to the conclusion that even if you have good advice, you often have to be creative about how you give this advice if you want it to have an impact. The newspaper article that the students selected to post as their “article of the week” was about two people in Austin who the students said used their creativity to create an inexpensive, environmentally respectful, really cool place to live. We also read a sweet story, The Dot, about a girl who needs a little encouragement to unleash her creativity.

At our weekly Book Club meeting, we discussed the next chapter in Who Was Albert Einstein?. We examined the differences between the schools he attended and compared them to our school, talked about what it would be like to publish a paper you worked hard on and then have no one agree with you and examined the choice he made to put his work as a scientist over his family. We also talked about light waves as they travel through our atmosphere and the impact that has on the colors we see. Before lunch each day, Ms. Anna reads a chapter from a biography about another creative genius, Thomas Edison, who they noted had some similar school experiences to Einstein.

We started doing “Hashi” or “Bridge” puzzles for our riddles this week and the students enjoyed the new challenge. This is a form of logic puzzle with simple rules and challenging solutions. They are solved by joining the islands (circles) with bridges (lines) going horizontally or vertically. You can have a maximum of two bridges between islands and the goal is to create a network of bridges that connect all the islands. The numbers on the islands indicate how many bridges can be connected to that island.

Week 16

We managed to fit a lot into this short week. We started the day on Tuesday with a discussion of why we were not at school on the day before. The students came up with a short list of people whose birthdays we honor in our country with a holiday and all agreed that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. belongs on that list. They admired the commitment and sacrifice he made for something he believed in. Our morning newspaper article the next day was about an 11-year old Olympic hopeful who has been skating since she could walk. The same language of commitment and sacrifice was brought up again in this context.

Another big word for the week was contemplation. This was our first official Word of the Week. Each Monday, there will be a new Word of the Week – and it will be a mystery. The teachers will use the word throughout the day, and at the end of the day, the students will have a chance to guess the word. We will then look the word up together and students will bring it home to use with their families. The families are all encouraged to talk about this word and use it in different ways through-out the week. There is a page on our student website for families to share how they have used the word or what conversations it has inspired. When we looked up the word contemplation, one student added her own definition – being in flow.

Flow ended up being another word that came up multiple times this week. There were several times when students shared that were in their flow – one student found himself in flow writing a story, another doing new math and this afternoon, the class spent two glorious hours outside working as a team to finish a group art project. When we came inside, the students could not believe it was already time to write in our journal and then head home for the weekend – they agreed that they had definitely been in flow.

On Tuesday morning, we had another wonderful session with Nat Miller. This week, a ship brought a treasure-seeking explorer to “Acton Village” who asked the villagers if they would accompany him on a quest to find a treasure that would make them all rich and benefit the rest of the world as well. They accepted his invitation and underwent an intense training where their patience, concentration, creativity, communication skills and listening skills were all tested. They were left with a challenge for the week: to create a ship that could hold all of them. With Ms. Kristi’s guidance, several large boxes and almost an entire roll of duct tape, they created a masterpiece! Complete with a control center, a communications center, a meditation board (also known as the “contemplation station”) and a towering mast, their ship will set sail next Tuesday.

The students worked well as a team to build their ship, respecting each other’s ideas and accepting compromises. Another creative activity this week that required accepting and building upon each other’s ideas was making “group stories”. Each student was given several cards with either a noun, adjective, verb or adverb on it. Someone volunteered to start the story using one of their words. We then went around the circle, each adding a sentence or two, using one of our words until all the words had been used. We then mixed up the cards, redistributed them and made a new story. It was a fun way to create something together, great practice with parts of speech and a chance to laugh until our stomachs hurt.

We read a beautiful tale, Swimmy by Leo Lionni about a creative little fish who helps his fellow fish work together to solve a problem. We also continued to read about and discuss the lives of Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison.

We did more Hashi or Bridge puzzles this week. No one was able to solve Thursday’s puzzle, but instead of asking for the answer, the students decided to give it one more day. Several people worked hard this morning and were able to solve it.

Week 17

What an amazing week. The end of the beginning. And a Happy Birthday to Ms. Anna!

In their process drama session on Tuesday, the students-turned-characters of “Acton Village” were informed that they had not passed all the training tests necessary to be hired for the treasure-seeking quest that they were hoping to go on. They had been told the week before that they were being recruited to go on an adventure to uncover a treasure that “would make them rich and benefit the world in a positive way”. However, they had to pass a series of tests proving they could work as a team, be patient, stay focused and use creativity and logic. This week, they were given a second chance on the teamwork tests that they did not pass last week and showed great improvements in their ability to communicate and act as team. At that point, there was only one more issue preventing them from setting sail on the journey. The previous week, the series of tests had been administered by a character named “Sergeant-Sergeant” who was a bit of bully and called the Acton Villagers “peanuts”. We have a strict policy at school of only using each other’s given names or approved nicknames (such as Chris for Christopher). While “peanut” may not seem that offensive, it was definitely surprising to the students to be called a name. Some of them laughed, but a couple were really put off, and one student said to the Sergeant, “You’re a peanut.”

This Tuesday, the incident was brought to their attention, which led to an interesting discussion about the balance between respecting authority and standing up for ones’ self. This was all in character as part of the process drama. Later that afternoon, I sat down with the students, as ourselves, and we debriefed the situation further. One student said that, “When someone is disrespectful to you it does not make sense to just do the same thing back because that just continues the disrespect.” We talked about ways that you can stand up for yourself without being disrespectful. I pretended to be Sergeant-Sergeant and let the students respond to being called a “peanut” in different ways that allowed them to confront me without being disrespectful. Instead, they asked me why I was calling them names or just let me know that it bothered them. The “peanut” incident was only a few minutes of an hour and a half Process Drama session full of challenges that called on the students to stretch their imaginations, their patience and their focus while having a great time. It did, however, provide an opportunity for a great discussion on authority and respect.

The Process Drama session also provided the students with an opportunity to use the Decision Chain. After setting sail on their adventure, they received a message in a bottle from two strangers asking if they could join the quest. I told the students that they needed to respond, but left them on their own to do so. Two students took charge and they organized the group for a meeting. They discussed the pros and cons of adding two more people to the team and then discussed the relative weight that they would give to each of these pros and cons. They decided that the pros outweighed the cons and wrote back inviting the strangers to join them. (This was a good thing, because we have two new students starting on Monday and we needed a way for them to enter the drama. I would have really had to get creative if they had said no.)

The drama session ended with the ship approaching an island. Away in the distance, they could see a man standing at the edge of the island, but they could not approach him because he was surrounded by lava. Instead, they received instructions that by the following Tuesday, they had to complete a bridge-building challenge in order to cross from their ship onto the island. They were left with a box of straws and straight pins and were told that they needed to create a bridge that could span a six inch gap and bear the weight of 100 pennies. They set to work individually and through trial-and-error came up with several successful designs. The next day, we talked about what would make this challenge more difficult. They came up with: making the gap that the bridge had to cover longer, increasing the weight it had to hold or limiting the materials they could use. They decided to challenge themselves to make a one-foot bridge that could hold 150 pennies. Due to a shortage in straight pins, they also had to creatively connect some of the straws without pins. Working together this time and combining some of the best ideas from their individual bridges, they created a longer, stronger bridge which held the pennies for over a minute – outdoing any of the previous bridges.

That afternoon, Jeff Sandefer came in as a guest teacher to talk about engineering and the forces involved in bridge-building. He drew the students in with pictures of different bridges from around the world and then led them through a dynamic discussion of compression and tension. He also guided them to think about more than just the functionality of a bridge, asking them, “What’s the most important thing in building a bridge – beauty, how well it works, or cost?” and “If you were in charge of building a bridge, would it be most important to hire an artist, a professor of math, or a worker with bridge-building experience?” These questions created an interesting debate and a wonderful extension to the experience.

In other challenges, our daily riddles this week were a variation on classic Sudoku done on a nine-by-nine grid. Starting with a four-by-four grid and quickly moving up to a six-by-six grid, we worked through the process of solving these puzzles, emphasizing the use of logic. After just one demonstration, the students were hooked and now aspire to solve larger and more complex grids.

Our word of the week, aspiration, came up consciously, but naturally throughout the week, not only in regards to Sudoku ambitions, but also in our discussions of the Hero’s Journey. With the unveiling of Ms. Kristi’s masterfully painted representation of the Hero’s Journey, we had several group conversations about the components of a Hero’s Journey. The enormous painting now hanging on the wall serves as the map for the process drama and portrays a series of islands in a sea between two larger masses of land. On each island are mountains, rivers and other land features, representing the Challenges and Accomplishments that we face on our journey in life. There are boats in the water to represent Fellow Travelers and Guides. There is a Compass to represent our internal guide – our Character – which keeps us turning back towards the right path when we might otherwise be blown off course. There is a menacing sea monster representing Fears and the implicit goal, the students tell me, of finding treasure which represent Aspirations.

On Thursday afternoon we had a very special family celebration to welcome a new family into the Acton Academy community! The two brothers had visited the school a few times, participating in a group discussion, a PE class and a chess lesson. At the family celebration on Thursday, they were so well acclimated that an observer would not have been able to tell you which two students did not already attend the school. Using the new painting as a visual, the students spoke eloquently about their own Hero’s Journeys here at Acton Academy, talking about their Call to Action (coming to school here), the development of their Compasses, their Fellow Travelers and Guides, Challenges and Achievements, Fears and Aspirations and future Return Home. It was a special evening for all of us and we look forward to fully integrating the new family into our community.

We ended our week with a special acknowledgement of the “stupendous seven” – the original Acton Academy students – and talked about what we think will change on Monday when they become the “fine nine” and welcome in two more students. They expressed only positive sentiments, including that we will have “more fellow travelers on our journey to help us when we need it” and “more people to teach when we do our Personal Presentations, which might motivate us to put in more effort.” “Things that we would have done with seven of us will be even better with nine. For example, a group art project would be even better with more ideas from more people.” “It will be more fun to play games with more people.” The only concern was that there would be more people to share the computers and Montessori materials with, however, one student quickly said, “That will just force us to be more creative in choosing our work.” Despite this mature suggestion, I announced to the students that to make sure they do not feel limited in their ability to work, that starting Monday, they would no longer share several computers, but instead, they would each have their own laptop. Needless to say, the smiles were wide.

Week 18

With two new Eagles, this week was at once a completely new experience for us and at the same time just another great week in the history of Acton Academy’s first year. With the goal of creating an unparalleled experience for our students, we have had a year of frequent new beginnings and adjustments. Our tight-knit group has come to adapt and adopt new experiences, curriculums and now students quite naturally. The students graciously welcomed our two new friends into their school, patiently explaining the logistical details of our daily order and including them in their work and play. It was clear that they felt comfortable in our community, chiming in from the start on the discussion of the daily newspaper article in our Monday morning meeting.

With new students, we had the opportunity to revisit our class Rules of Engagement which the students wrote back in September. They reviewed them carefully, concluding that a few were unnecessary – such as “Wash your hands when you come in from outside” – which they decided was important, but more of a necessary habit than a rule. After going through each rule, one of the new students said, “I can’t help but notice that the Golden Rule is missing. I think we should add ‘Treat other people how you want to be treated.’” This launched them into a discussion of some of the rules on the list that are implicit in this umbrella rule. They decided to keep them on the list, but under the heading of the Golden Rule. From the Acton Academy “Fine Nine”, here are the revised Rules of Engagement:

Acton Academy Rules of Engagement

February 2010

Treat others how you want to be treated.

When someone is working, let them work.

Listen when someone else is talking.

Include as many people as possible.

Keep your body to yourself.

Try to be positive.

Take care with how you move and how you carry things.

Use soft voices and soft feet inside.

Put activities back where you got them before starting another.

Tell a teacher before going outside.

After agreeing upon rules, the original students read and explained each phrase of the Student Contract they wrote at the beginning of the school year to their new classmates, making sure they understood and endorsed what was written before adding their names to the signatures at the bottom.

The students were also able to teach our new students about the Decision Chain, using one of the morning newspaper articles. The article talked about a man’s decision to have his dog’s vocal cords cut after receiving complaints from his neighbors. The students used the Decision Chain to evaluate this particular decision and after careful consideration, concluded that they would have made a different decision. They came up with an alternate solution for the man’s problem by methodically going through his options and weighing the pros and cons of each. They did acknowledge that for him, the pros and cons may have weighed differently, leading him to his decision, however they thought that he also may not have been as thorough and logical with his decision.

For our first Touch Pebbles discussion with the new students, we read “The Eagle” by Alfred Lord Tennyson, along with two prose versions of the scene depicted in the poem, one with more descriptive language than the other. We discussed the impact of the word choice and structure on the images created and the feelings portrayed by the three different pieces.

In our process drama session with Nat and Seth, the Acton Village Adventurers returned to their ship and using the straw-and-pin bridge they made last week, crossed onto an island where they met a wizard. They were told that the island was a labyrinth with challenges at every turn. They had to solve each riddle/challenge in order to move forward and if they completed the labyrinth, they would get a clue that would lead them towards the treasure.

They went from challenge to challenge, working agreeably as a team, despite the time pressure. There were several riddles, such as: If a plane crashes between two nations, where do you bury the survivors? (After hearing this one a couple times, one students had an “aha moment” and gleefully explained to his classmates, “No where -- they are survivors!”), a challenging chess problem, a Sudoku puzzle, a math problem requiring the students to measure each other (How many inches tall are all the Acton Adventurers in total? How many feet is that?) and some challenging visual puzzles.

After answering the last riddle, the students were given their clue by the wizard – a mysteriously blank triangular piece of paper. They were told that their bridge had been destroyed and that they needed to make something else to get them off the island. They were left with an envelope containing their Weekly Challenge.

The students worked diligently, folding and testing different models of paper airplanes in order to create a superior plane to fly them off the island. They learned how to calculate the mean and median of multiple test flights for each plane and came to the consensus after a debate that the median would be a better deciding measure for this particular situation because it would not be as affected by outliers. After two days of individual and small group experimentation, the class had four airplane models that they wanted to test. We talked about the scientific method in the context of this experiment. Through this discussion, we discovered and attempted to correct for several confounding factors, such as the number of times a paper airplane has been thrown before the recorded test flights and the skill of the person throwing the plane (as well as the potential bias).

Jeff Sandefer came back to our class this week to talk with the students about the forces that affect flight, as well as the different disciplines related to flying. He showed them several interesting video clips related to flying and lead them in a discussion beginning with the question: “What interests you most about airplanes: why they fly, how to build them, or that you would like to fly one someday? In other words, would you rather be a scientist who studies how planes fly, a builder of airplanes, or a pilot?”

The students have been listening to a chapter each day of a biography of Thomas Edison, beginning with his childhood. We finished the book this week and the students wrote about their favorite parts. They talked about ways that they are alike and different from Edison and each came up with one question they would ask him if they could.

In preparation for a field trip next Thursday, the students learned the particulars of keeping score in bowling. We set up our water bottles in a proper ten pin formation and practiced bowling and scoring. It was a fun way to use mental math, though we did not have any spares or strikes to really make the math interesting. With the aid of bumpers at the bowling alley next week, we should have more opportunities to use our new scoring knowledge with some more complicated math.

Students continued to work diligently and logically through 6x6 Sudoku grids this week, and eagerly applied themselves to a 9x9 on Friday. Students worked in pairs or on their own to unlock the secret of what they will excitedly tell you is 81 squares!

Week 19

We had another fun chapter in our adventure with Nat and Seth, including a short visit to an island of games, an encounter with a pirate and some challenges aboard the ship. Our word of the week, predicament, came up a number of times and the students had to use creativity to problem solve. One such problem was that of an eagle, who laid an egg from the mast of their ship which landed in the boat and cracked.

The students were left with the challenge of creating a container using a limited number of popsicle sticks, plastic straws and tape that would prevent an egg from breaking when dropped from the height of 10 feet. They worked individually at first to test various ideas before coming together as a group to share what they had learned. As a group, they discussed the problems they had encountered with their first attempts. They then went through several design ideas and talked about whether or not these addressed the issues they had identified. After some group brainstorming, they broke into small groups to design and create improved containers.

As an extension of this project, Jeff Sandefer came in and talked to them about Newton and the Laws of Motion. He also connected the study of energy and physics to a discussion of what callings a person might find related to these concepts.

For our daily riddles this week, we practiced adding up bowling scores. Each day, the games got a little more difficult to calculate, and students worked together to figure out the scores. On Thursday afternoon, we celebrated this hard work with a trip to the bowling alley. The students had fun and were so supportive, cheering each other on and celebrating each other’s victories. They were also able to apply their new knowledge of the Laws of Motion to bowling.

We read a short novel, The Chalk Box Kid, about a boy who goes to a new school and is inspired by a presentation about gardening. While he does not have the space to plant a traditional garden, he finds a creative solution to his problem. After discovering the charred remains of a chalk factory behind his house, he creates a garden of his own, covering the blackened walls with an array of chalk plants.

The students did a great job preparing for and giving this round of Personal Presentations. Instead of having one or two presentations each week, we decided to devote an entire day to them and have everyone present this Friday. The students were so excited that more than one reported having trouble sleeping Thursday night and several parents said their children rose unusually early Friday morning in anticipation. We started off the day with a very special presentation from Laura Sandefer. Today is her birthday and she decided to use her celebration time to tell us about one of her heroes with whom she shares a birthday, Abraham Lincoln. She told his story to a captivated audience, talking about his Hero’s Journey and the perseverance with which he changed our country. For the next several hours, with breaks for snacks and fresh air, each student went before the class and talked about something they find fascinating. We had live chickens, a life-sized cardboard representation of a Terracotta Warrior, delicious homemade cookies, a baseball demonstration with insight into the physics involved in pitching and batting, a Russian alphabet riddle, a treasure hunt, an active exploration of the sense of touch and a fascinating exploration of history through the building of Pharaoh’s boat. It was an exciting day. The students were proud of themselves and each other and showed a true appreciation for what their classmates offered.

We ended the day and this session of school with a Valentine’s Day celebration. The students delivered thoughtful, homemade Valentine’s to each other. Mrs. Robinson came with supplies for a special Valentine’s Day craft project as well. We also had real origami paper for the first time! We have a page-a-day calendar with a new origami challenge each day and the students have been honing their folding skills over the past six weeks using regular printing paper, so this was a fun treat.

The first session of 2010 has been a blast! We have welcomed in a new family and two incredible students into our community. We have also gotten to know Nat and Seth and have had a great time with them. Engaging in process drama with them each week is leading us to a deeper understanding of the Hero’s Journey, which we now have beautifully represented on our wall. With daily discussions of newspaper articles, inspiring lessons with Jeff Sandefer and stories from literature and history, we are talking more and more about Heroes and Callings and these concepts are becoming a part of the way our students think.

Week 20

Congratulations to Anna who got engaged last week! Engage was our word of the week – a coincidence so great, that one student was convinced that the timing was not mere chance, but rather that Anna’s fiancé chose last weekend specifically because of our word of the week. In either case, we are all so happy for her. At the end of each week, the students close their eyes and listen to the group journal entries for the week. When they open their eyes, there is a ball in the center of the circle. Whoever is ready may take the ball and tell us their “highlight” for the week. They then roll the ball to someone else in the circle who is making eye contact with them and that person shares. Two of the students said “finding out Ms. Anna got engaged” was their highlight of the week.

It snowed this week! While it did not all stick, the fluffy flakes were quite a site. Students sat mesmerized in front of the windows watching the snow fall. We went outside to play and managed to scrape enough snow off the ground and the picnic tables to make a 2-foot tall snowman and have a decent snowball fight. This was another common highlight of the week.

After a week off, we started this session with a new schedule. Instead of beginning the day in group, at 8:30, the students transition from morning social time to their individual core work. They have charts to guide them and meet with me on a regular basis to discuss their work plans and accomplishments. However, beginning the day with work before sitting down to group with each other and a teacher gives them increased power over directing their own learning. After 90 minutes of focused work, we all go outside for some fresh air and unstructured playtime. This is also an important social time.

The students come back in for an exciting new part of the curriculum – a journey through time led by Laura Sandefer using Susan Wise Bauer’s series: The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child. While the students are outside, Laura transforms one of the rooms in the school into a cozy den with beanbag chairs, pillows and blankets. The students come inside, snuggle up and listen to her read stories from the beginning of human history. She engages them with questions and images, and they excitedly take home small projects to share with their families and continue the conversations started at school. We have extended the day by half an hour to allow for a second 90 minute work period in the afternoon.

Before the break, the students had been working hard to create containers from popsicle sticks and straws that would protect an egg from the impact of a 10-foot fall. They worked hard, but were not able to create a successful container. This week, during their process drama session with Nat and Seth, the Acton Adventurers came upon a merchant ship with other materials they could buy to make their containers – tissues, plastic bags, tape, newspaper, cardboard, cloth and more. They were each given a certain amount of store credit and had to keep track of how much they spent. The students worked busily to design and create new containers, using innovative ideas such as plastic bags for parachutes and suspended duct tape slings. Many students were successful with small drops and several of the new containers protected the egg from a 10-foot drop.

Jeff Sandefer came in the following afternoon and related their experience to the packaging industry. He led the students through a discussion of the history of packaging from gourds to container ships. He showed videos and talked about several heroes in the history of packaging including the inventors of the tin can and of bubble wrap. It was a fun discussion that brought added meaning to our experience.

Each afternoon, the last thing we do is write an entry as a class in the group journal, a record of our common experiences at school. We generally go in chronological order, reporting on the events of the day. A student will often say something like: “I want to add a sentence about ________, does anyone have anything to say that would come before that?” On Thursday, one student said, “I want to talk about when Nat and Seth came, does anyone have anything to say that came before that?” We all looked at the student curiously, because Nat and Seth had come that Tuesday. I asked him what he had been doing during the afternoon work period and he said, “Writing in my journal about the adventure with Nat and Seth.” We told him that it was not Tuesday, but Thursday and he said, “Cool! I can time travel. It really felt like it was Tuesday and we just had the adventure!”

We had the fortune to have another guest teacher this week. Andrew Segovia, a local filmmaker, is working with us to create a video diary of Acton Academy’s first year. Andrew talked to the students about his Hero’s Journey in film which sprang from an early passion for movies. He led them through an interactive lesson on the basics of filming with terminology for different types of shots. Each week the students will have the opportunity to apply this new knowledge using simple digital video cameras to capture moments throughout the day. They will also interview each other about experiences at school. They will be able to look at their raw footage and then compare that to the edited pieces that Andrew creates.

This week saw a surge in origami activity with the students devoting much of their free time to folding and refolding the new challenges presented this week in our page-a-day origami calendar, as well going back through the patterns from the past two months and finding old favorites.

Week 21

The engaging study of history continued this week, with the development of written language and a look at some of the earliest civilizations. We had the great fortune to have an archaeologist from our community, Mrs. Carpenter, come in and talk about her Calling. She brought pictures from different digs she has been part of, artifacts from ancient times and fascinating tools used for excavations. Several students were inspired to go home and begin archaeological research themselves – digging with purpose in their own backyards!

We send our best wishes to Coach Z. who is recovering from an Achilles injury. We were lucky to have Mr. Carpenter step in and introduce the students to Kickball. On Monday, the students learned the basics of the game and practiced pitching, kicking and fielding. On Wednesday, Coach Carpenter suggested that the game might be even more fun if the students all cheered for their teammates. They took his suggestion to heart and played with rousing team spirit, encouraging their fellow players with endless cheers. They all agreed afterward that it had indeed made the game more fun.

During their free time outside in the Sport Court at school, the students got into dodge ball this week. They have had increasing success dividing themselves into teams, though they look forward to next week when another new student joins our class and they have an even number of students for the first time.

As an extension of our drama project, the students were challenged to create a mail delivery system this week. They were introduced to the world of zeppelins and provided with giant, helium-filled balloons, old computer fans and battery packs for motors and a variety of other materials such as cardboard, straws, toilet paper rolls and tape to make the cabins. The goal was to create zeppelins that could actually transport mail. We used pennies to represent the mail and the students worked to balance out the forces of buoyancy and gravity, as they designed and built their weight-bearing zeppelins. With the help of Mr. Solotko, this was an unforgettable experience, rich with lessons on physics, teamwork and the perseverance.

The newspaper articles this week included a celebration of Texas Independence Day, the opportunity to use a Decision Chain to determine whether the enhanced flavor and texture to certain foods that contain raw egg (cookie dough being the main interest in our group) is worth the associated health risk, and a discussion about an accomplished major league baseball player from Austin who searches for other Callings during the off-seasons by taking on different internships.

One of our students invented a new activity to help him and his fellow students become better spellers. Named “Chris’s Spelling Surprise”, the work involves writing down any word you can think of that you want to be able to spell, but are not sure if you are spelling correctly. You then give this to a teacher who corrects the words. You rewrite the words and then take the sheet home to study. Chris presented the activity to the class and the students eagerly wrote down words to be corrected. Some chose common words that they were unsure how to spell, while others went for the longest words they had ever heard. This all came about because we have a suggestion box here at school. It is such a simple way to empower the students to really take ownership of their own learning.

A Note from Ms. Kristi:

Here is an update on what we've been working on in art lately. Last week, we chose to seize the day and make snow pictures and sculptures. The children observed how the snow was falling on nature objects and chose a perspective: extreme close-up, medium view or bird's eye view, to document the day. Some were struck with the greenness of the leaves and the cold of the snow; others wanted to do a quick sketch of their snow sculptures.

Cultivating Creativity

Many adults think that creativity is innate, that some people have it and some don't. While some may have a predisposition to creativity, there are habits and techniques that we can refine to practice creative thinking in any area of our lives. As we work on our movement and art projects, these are some of the strategies I'm teaching the children.

·         Incubation Time: we assign our brains a task as a question, then leave some time for the ideas to "cook".

·         Brainstorming Techniques, both Group & Individual: we are learning how to accept some of the wildness and silliness of brainstorming, while being respectful and non-judgmental of others' ideas in the early stages of brainstorming. We're using oral, written and sketched contributions to idea mailboxes for individual student's ideas, and then holding group discussions. I'll continue to show them more brainstorming techniques as the year progresses.

·         Visualization and Rehearsal: As many athletes and others at the top of their game in many fields know, seeing an outcome, exploring an idea visually or mentally rehearsing what we'd like to have happen, truly works. I'm giving the children time to develop this tool to apply to art class, and asking them to apply to their interests like baseball, dance, music, etc.

·         Listening Skills: We are consciously working on becoming excellent listeners and allowing ideas to come to the surface, asking clarification questions and summarizing what we heard.

Practicing Patience and Stillness

Beginning this fall, we've been sitting or resting in silence for short periods of time starting with 30 seconds. Now some of the children can sit or rest for 8 minutes. Some of the benefits of practicing this are:

·         Time to relax and de-stress

·         Time to let ideas come to them with minimal effort

·         Time to let the mind rest from the labor of speaking which sets in motion other actions

·         Time to practice being patient with oneself as we increase the time we are still

Exploring Leadership and Teamwork

We're making a book about heroes. In the process, each child has pulled a "job" out of a bag, such as Design Director, Photo Editor, etc. They each have a specific role to play in making the book, plus they can choose to "work" for someone else if they've finished their tasks for the day. They are all having experiences being leaders and team members. They are also able to practice technical skills such as typing and editing.

They are learning many transferrable skills such as: Conflict Resolution, How to be a good boss,

Mentoring others, Time Management, and How to Lead a Discussion.

Week 22

It was another wonderful week at Acton Academy. With oxymoron as our word of the week, we discussed the quote from French sculpture Rodin, “Patience is also a form of action.” While it was not easy to use the word oxymoron in our conversations, “jumbo shrimp” were a topic of conversation during lunch one day and “clean dirt” came up after the students were caught in a surprise rainstorm at P.E.

To bring the history of early civilization to life, Mrs. Sandefer created a Mesopotamian Feast for lunch one day this week. With dried meat, fish, pistachios, pine nuts, grape leaves, dates, hummus, fresh bread and wheat grass juice, the children felt a connection to their early ancestors who liked some of the very same foods the students discovered that they like. No Mesopotamian Feast would have been complete without sunflowers adorning the table and wooden plates to eat off – there was no plastic back then!

On their drama adventure, the Acton Adventurers visited the Island of Fear. They each recorded an eerie sound, and using a loop, created their own soundtrack for the island. The week before, they had drawn their characters’ greatest fears on transparencies which were projected on the walls during the Process Drama session on Tuesday. With each fear, there was a challenge that the group faced, calling on their courage, patience, logical reasoning and communication skills.

The sail on their ship broke just as they arrived at the Island of Fears. A few weeks back, they ran into a merchant ship on the water which had much to offer, including a sail, but they did not have enough money to buy it. Another character on their journey they have run into a few times is Johnny, the proprietor of a floating arcade. This week, he commissioned the adventurers to design “baseball launchers” to add to his assortment of games. On Tuesday afternoon, the students worked to create catapults using blocks, rubber bands and spoons that could successful launch a mini-marshmallow into a cup to represent the “baseball launchers.” They are hopeful that Johnny will be impressed and purchase them next week so that they can buy a new sail.

Over the past two months, in addition to the catapults, the students have constructed bridges out of straws and pins, tested different models of paper airplanes, designed containers to protect raw eggs from a 10-foot drop and created functioning zeppelins. With each of these experiences, we have discussed the principles of physics involved, as well as the practical uses of these principles. This week, we had the fortune to have one our parents, Simon Solotko, who has helped us with some of these experiences, come for an afternoon of physics fun. After a brief and logical introduction to vectors, we all went outside. We had croquet, tennis, darts, basketball, baseball and more! The students experimented with the familiar equipment and thought about the different motions in a new light. They hypothesized and discussed what forces were behind the various motions and even compared the reaction of mud versus a baseball when thrown at a fence.

We are also fortunate to have a gardener among our parent group, Carolyn Robinson, who has offered to kick start an Acton garden. With patience as our character trait right now, there is no better practice of this than waiting for a strawberry to ripen! The students kept a close eye on the changes in sunlight in various places on the property this week to determine what would be the best spot for our plants.

Another wonderful contributor to our week was 13-year old Audrey who is home-schooling herself until she enters high school in the fall. She will be with us one or two mornings each week until then, serving as a Reading Buddy and role model to our students. She shared a couple articles from a teen magazine she reads about young people who are making a difference in the world, be it bake sales to raise money for building a school in Africa or collecting used shoes to send to Latin America. The students seem to admire, but also relate to this impressive young woman in what promises to be a powerful relationship.

To celebrate our last week as the “Fine Nine” before welcoming a new student to our group on Monday, we took another afternoon trip to Dart Bowl. In preparation, the students used their math skills once again to calculate bowling scores. At the bowling alley, the students supported each other with cheers of encouragement and had a great time. The students cannot wait for the next bowling trip with our new student – we will have an even number of students for the first time!

Week 23

After a fun Sunday afternoon at one of the Acton family’s ranch in Fredericksburg and the hour time change, we all showed up early Monday morning to welcome our new student, Laszlo. Unfortunately, this turned out not to be the week for the “Fine Nine” to become the “Tremendous Ten” – with the tenth student unable to come this week due to a fever.

The weather Monday was glorious and we took full advantage of it by spending the afternoon outside. Carolyn Robinson came with a carful of soil, seedlings and pots to start the Acton Garden. She helped the students plant tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries and watermelons in pots. After careful observation and consideration last week, the students determined that the area along the side of the house would be best for the plants as it seems to receive enough direct sunlight and is unlikely to be disturbed by passing soccer balls. On Tuesday morning, we had fresh strawberries for snack. One student excitedly asked if those were our strawberries – from the seedlings we had planted the day before. We have a lot to learn from this garden and it will be a great way to practice patience! Our quote for the week was from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who said, “Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.” We will work hard in the coming months to internalize this idea.

On Tuesday, the adventure continued with Nat and Seth. The students faced several challenges this week, including making a sales pitch to the owner of an amusement park and bargaining with a merchant for a new sail. The Process Drama session ended on the Island of Sadness where the students were challenged to write and perform a play that would make sad Queen Isabelle laugh. In exchange, she has offered them the final piece of the clue that will lead them to the treasure they have been seeking. The students applied themselves to the task, working through differences in opinions and rehearsing their plays. During some free time on Friday afternoon, they creatively combined their newly developed playwriting skills with their love of origami by writing and performing plays for each other using origami pieces as characters and props.

Wednesday evening, we all enjoyed ourselves at a celebration in honor of Nat and Seth hosted by Mrs. Sandefer. The students had worked hard all week to perfect the “Diction Dance”, an acting warm-up they do each week with Nat and Seth. They performed it beautifully on their own at the party as a surprise for their wonderful theater coaches. They also made a “thank you” banner and books to show their gratitude.

Another exercise in gratitude this week was writing thank you notes to several of the wonderful parents who have spent time with us in the past couple weeks, sharing about their passions and inspiring us in many ways. The students split into small groups to write the notes and then shared them with the rest of the class.

Our word of the week was palate and at lunch on Friday we discussed the health benefits of chewing and also how this relates to the breakdown of starches into sugars which can affect how palatable we find a particular food. We all chewed on pieces of bread as many times as we could and discovered that it really did get sweeter the more we chewed!

Coach Carpenter and Coach Anna worked hard to fill Coach Z.’s shoes in P.E. this week, helping the students refine their Kickball skills and practice good sportsmanship. In Art, after practicing their Sun Salutations and meditation, the students continued work on mobiles, each injecting their individuality into the project. Ms. Kristi led them in a discussion on the idea of balance in their mobiles and related that to balance in their lives.

When we started the year, there were seven students and they decided that because there are seven rooms in our school, they would each be responsible for keeping one room in order. With ten students, our job system no longer makes sense, so we brainstormed a new job system this week. We discussed what needs we actually have and developed ten jobs to cover these needs. Each student then read over and edited the ten job descriptions on their own and provided feedback, which we incorporated into a final version. We will begin testing this new job system next week.

Week 24

We were delighted to officially have Laszlo as part of our class this week! What a wonderful addition he makes to this superb group of young heroes – the “tremendous ten”. The students made sure this week that their new companion felt welcome and comfortable in the classroom and on the playground. A visitor early in the week could not tell watching the group which student had just joined us.

On Monday morning during our first group time with Laszlo, we examined several different kinds of apples. We described the apples’ appearance and texture. Then, we cut them lengthwise and examined the insides of the apples. Each one had a star and seeds. As we did in September and then again when Garrett and Hayes joined us in February, we related the apples to people – we are all different in appearance and personality and abilities, but on the inside we are all special and we all have seeds of potential. Just like with the seeds we planted last week in our garden, which require nutrients, sunlight and water, our seeds need nurturing if they are to flourish. This activity reminded the students that they are here at Acton Academy to try to find their seeds and begin nourishing them so that they can grow. It is by finding and caring for their “seeds” that they will find a Calling and change the world.

On Tuesday, we had another chapter in our exciting drama with Nat and Seth. The students performed silly plays for a sad queen in hopes of making her laugh. It worked and she gave them the final pieces of the clue that they believed would lead them to a treasure. The problem now was that this clue was in seven pieces. They worked to arrange these seven pieces into a perfect square. Now they had a blank square. At the beginning of the adventure, they were each given a special tool to carry with them. One such tool was a small black-light. Someone had the idea to shine this light on the square and it revealed a code! Using another one of the tools, a decoder, they were able to read the clue. It said, “To make the Sphinx appear, you must speak your tools.” Another riddle! They began naming off the special tools they had been given. Nothing happened. Someone suggested that perhaps the clue referred to the imaginary tools that they had gathered along the way on the journey. At the end of each Process Drama session, we have talked about what went well and what could have gone better. We discuss what “tools” (life skills or character traits) they used during the session and then choose one new “tool” to add to our imaginary toolbox. In their toolbox, students have collected: patience, effort, teamwork, trust, discipline, thoughtfulness, perseverance and awareness. They wrote these all down and then counted to three and said them in unison. This caused the Sphinx to appear (projected on the wall). They ran over to it and found an envelope with three final riddles inside. They spent time throughout the rest of the week working on these riddles and will be ready to face the Sphinx next Tuesday.

This week we learned how to mind-map by having a group brainstorming session to see how many professions we could come up with that require patience. Each student then chose a “patience hero” – someone who has changed the world and could not have done so without using their patience. They made a mind-map of their ideas on how this person used patience in their life and then worked to turn this into a rough-draft of an essay, which they will edit and rewrite next week.

In Art, the students continued a study of balance with their mobiles. With Ms. Kristi, they are also increasing the length of their meditations and learning to harmonize with their voices. With Coach Carpenter’s help and Anna’s guidance, Kickball continues to be a great way to practice winning and losing with grace, strategy, and basic skills such as catching and kicking. The students also had the chance to do their first “group juggle”, a complicated teambuilding exercise, with Laszlo.

The study of history took the students to ancient China this week. On Thursday, they had a lesson in using chopsticks and then practiced picking up popcorn while they listened to a story about a duck that lived along the Yangtze River. On Thursday, we concluded our study of Albert Einstein by discussing his hero’s journey and how he used different character traits to help guide him.

In mid-February, we began dedicating half an hour of class time each day to history using Susan Wise Bauer’s Story of the World curriculum as a base. Laura Sandefer has been the guide on this journey back in time. It has been four weeks and already the students have learned so much. They look forward to their time with Mrs. Sandefer each day, when they stretch out with blankets and pillows to listen to stories and have rich discussions.

A Note from Laura Sandefer:

We have been examining the development of villages, city-states, citadels, nations and empires. As we learn about the daily life in the empires of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and India, we have discussed why some empires succeed and why others fail. (Turns out sibling bickering was a major weakening factor in ancient empires!)

We began this discussion by examining our own community and why it is strong. I asked the question, “Why is Acton Academy a strong community?” Without any further prompting and with no editing of their words, the students quickly answered with the following:

Because we have a contract. Because we are trustworthy. (I asked, “What do you mean by this?” and the answer was: “We trust each other.”) Because we believe in each other. Because we have rules that we all agree on. (I asked if the rules are different from the contract and they answered, “Yes! The contract is how we are and the rules are what we do.” Because we talk through our problems.

I was satisfied with these responses, to say the least. We then expanded this question out to teams, cities and nations. “What makes some strong and some weak?”

How could one empire fall to another? Some of the responses they gave were: “hurricanes, floods, natural disasters, illnesses, no armies, not enough weapons, bad leadership, people who weren’t good at building their empires or armies, no laws.”

When is power evil and when is it good? We read about the King of Babylon (southern Mesopotamia), Hammurabi, and the King of Assyria (northern Mesopotamia), Kim Shamshi-Adad. One wanted fair laws (the first written record of laws was from Hammurabi) and one wanted obedience without question (Shamshi-Adad, the dictator, beheaded anyone who didn’t obey him.) As you can imagine, these discussions are rich and the students are highly engaged when discussing these fascinating historical figures!

They brought up the Civil War and we talked about whether or not the United States of America would be strong as two countries – the North and the South. We read Aesop’s Fable, The Bundle of Sticks, and physically tried to break a group of sticks (we couldn’t) and individual sticks (we could.) It was fun for them to discover that the often-used phrase in American history, “United we stand, divided we fall,” actually comes from ancient Greece.

We talked about how the conquered people we have studied still carried in their hearts the desire to be free again. This began an “aha” moment of discovering that the roots of the ideals that founded America began in Ancient Times.

Today we begin our journey east from ancient India to ancient China. We are enjoying this time together and learning so much. In addition to studying the leadership and rise and fall of empires, we have read myths, tasted food, analyzed maps, looked at the games played in ancient times and even found out where the first toilets were - now this will capture a child’s attention! We will end this year at ancient Greece and pick back up there next fall.

Week 25

We started off the week with a trip to the Paramount Theatre to see Let’s Go Science, an entertaining production about physics in our daily lives. It was a great way to revisit concepts that we have worked with during our hands-on science experiences over the past few months. After the show, we walked across the street to the Acton School of Business office. We were escorted into the conference room where lunch was waiting. We discussed our favorite parts of the performance while enjoying our meal. We took advantage of the floor-to-ceiling whiteboards to do a Decision Chain in order to determine the schedule we will use for the rest of school year. Over the past six weeks, we tested out two different schedules and the students worked through our decision-making framework to choose the one that would be most productive for us. It was exciting to use the Decision Chain to make an important class decision and the formality of the conference room made the whole process seem even more significant to the students.

After eating, we were lead on a tour by Jeff Sandefer. The goal was for the students to use their observational skills to determine what type of work was being done at the office. As a final treat, we sat back down with one of the people who works at the office – Randall Macon. He told us about his Hero’s Journey and answered questions from the students. They were particularly fascinated by his involvement in the LiveStrong marketing campaign.

In the culmination of our Process Drama sessions, the Acton Villagers found their treasure this week. After solving several challenging riddles and proving to the Sphinx that they had grown personally on their adventure, the treasure was revealed. It consisted of a bound copy of each students’ journal entries which they have written after each Process Drama session and an invitation to perform a play based on their Process Drama experience at the State Theatre. The students eloquently explained why this was a treasure. They believe that the written record will trigger memories that bring them joy and remind them of what they have learned. The opportunity to perform was also seen as a great treasure because they would learn how to act, get to experience being “real stars” and be able to teach other people about what it means to be on a Hero’s Journey. After we return from our Spring Break, the students will begin more formal drama class to prepare for this performance.

History continued to be a multi-sensory experience this week with a special lunch featuring foods from West Africa, the region of the world the students are currently studying. They feasted on sweet potato fries, plantains, pomegranate seeds and more while listening to African rhythms. The table was adored with colorful fabrics and African artifacts such as a porcupine quill and a handmade instrument.

The students have been collecting dried beans and rice from their neighbors for a Food Drive in conjunction with Caritas. On Thursday, we spent the morning measuring out two-cup bags of each with cooking instructions. The students worked well in pairs to make almost two hundred bags of each. We enjoyed our own beans and rice for lunch that day.

Thursday afternoon, each student took time to prepare their personal space for an Open House that evening. They practiced giving tours of the school and picked out a few specific activities that they wanted to show their families. The students were so proud of their school and their work. The Open House was a great event. The highlight was an amazing video edited by Andrew Segovia with footage that the students have shot over the past six weeks. It was a wonderful way to wrap up the session and a good send-off to our Spring Break.

Week 26

After two weeks away, the students were excited to see each other on Monday morning. Students begin arriving each day at 8am and we gather as a group in the “Artichoke Room” (named for the large, round, green rug around which we sit for class discussions) at 8:30 to begin our day together. Until 8:30, students are free to work, socialize, play inside or out, and prepare themselves personally for the day. Popular morning activities typically including examining the garden for signs of new fruit, attempting to fold the day's origami challenge, playing computer games, doing puzzles, talking about what they did the night before and working on the daily riddle. This Monday at 8:07, eight out of ten students were sitting in a circle on the “Artichoke Rug” ready to officially start the day. Just two weeks apart from each other and it had the feel of a long-anticipated family reunion.

After a few enthusiastic rounds of sharing our highlights from Spring Break, the students readily applied themselves to their individual work and a quiet hum settled over the classroom. In the afternoon, we met again as a group and talked about the fact that two-thirds of our school year had passed. Students were asked them to reflect on what they had each accomplished. With one-third of the year still remaining, they spent some time thinking and writing about what they still hope to achieve. Our word of the week was strategy and we also talked about developing a strategy to guide us as we work towards our goals.

With the new character trait of self-control, the students were each challenged to a “marshmallow test”. One marshmallow was placed on each of their desks during their work time. They were told that they could eat the marshmallow then, or wait until snack time. If they waited, they would get a second marshmallow to enjoy. After the challenge, they watched a video of the classic version of this test, where a child is left alone in a room for 15 minutes with a marshmallow in front of them and similar directions. They acknowledged that while they had to wait longer, the children in the video had no distractions during their shorter period of waiting which greatly increases the difficulty of the challenge. In thinking about and planning their work for this trimester of school, the students also thought about how self-control might help them accomplish their goals.

We began the next phase of our drama experience on Tuesday with a field trip to the historic downtown State Theatre where the students will be performing in six weeks. They were given the script for their play which is based on the twelve-week process drama that they began with Nat and Seth in January. Sitting on folding chairs in a circle on the giant stage, the students listened and laughed as Nat and Seth read through the script for the first time. Then they all talked about the script, the set, costumes and rehearsals. The students were excited and ready to take it all on. They played a game to learn the stage directions before heading back to school. Back at school, students highlighted their lines on two scripts so that they could take a copy home to practice for Friday's rehearsal. For the first five weeks, rehearsals will be at school. During the week of the performance, we will return to the State Theatre every morning for dress rehearsals on the real stage.

In addition to being actors, the students will be costume and set designers, producers and the marketing team. They learned about these and other professions involved in theater, watching clips from several professional productions. After learning about costume design from a well-known costume designer via YouTube, they sketched out their costumes, which they will construct at home.

In Art, the students recognized Earth Day by making paper and designing buildings with “green” features. They will continue to work on their designs over the next few weeks, visiting a local architecture firm and building models from their sketches.

In PE, Coach Carpenter came on Monday for Kickball and on Wednesday, the students learned a new game, Nukum, which involves a volleyball net, rotating teams and quick reaction skills.

Happy Birthday, Laszlo! We celebrated our newest Eagle's seventh birthday this week. Laszlo's parents and little brother joined us for the festivities, recounting stories about each year of Laszlo's life as he took his symbolic revolutions around the sun (his birthday candle).

Week 27

With spring in full bloom, the students are becoming keen observers of nature. They celebrate each new blossom on the plants in our garden and rejoiced this week in three quickly-growing tomatoes. We had fresh, local wild flowers at school all week which the students sketched and worked to identify using field guides

This week, in addition to several intense rehearsals with Nat and Seth, the students took on the role of producers and worked to set the budget for their play, determine an appropriate ticket price, and forecast their profit or loss. They first determined all the costs associated with the production. Then they did some independent research to find out how much people were willing to pay for tickets and compiled this information to determine their ticket price of $11. At this price, if they sell most of the tickets and some concessions, they will make a profit. If they are not successful in selling the tickets, they will have to come up with a way to earn additional money to cover their costs. They have already decided that they want to have the play filmed and sell DVDs to friends and family members who are unable to attend.

With such a focus on the play, this really week zoomed by! The students are working hard at home to memorize their lines for the play and we are working on expression and blocking every day here at school. It is an exciting time and we look forward to performing for our friends and families in a few weeks!

The students have ample opportunities to practice self-control during their play rehearsals. This week, we also examined habits and talked about the role self-control plays in replacing undesirable habits with new ones. To start the discussion we played the “No Game” where each person has a necklace and the goal is to get as many other people's necklaces as possible by getting them to say the word “no” or “know”. We set the timer for fifteen minutes and began engaging each other in conversation. We were all surprised to catch ourselves saying “no” or “know” despite actively trying not to do just this. After the game, we talked about how we are often not even aware of our habits and that to develop good habits, we have to first become aware of our own behavior. The quote of the week, from Charles C. Noble, spoke to the importance of habits: “First we make our habits, then they make us.”

Week 28

With the budget established and the ticket price set, the students switched roles again to focus on advertising their play. They watched several TV ads and discussed how the ads related to the product. They also compared various print ads and talked about what techniques made them more or less successful. Then it was time to take what they had learned and apply it to their own poster designs for the play. We also continued to work through the play, blocking out the remaining scenes.

For Mother’s Day, the students decorated picture frames in Art and made more paper to serve as mats. They went through pictures taken throughout the year and chose one to put inside their frame. To complete the gift, they wrote letters of gratitude to their mothers.

We had an interesting conversation about what makes something “art” stimulated by a newspaper article about an artist who uses dead cockroaches to create sculptures. The students had different opinions and debated the role of beauty, intentionality and audience in art.

The students observed and drew fresh, local wildflowers again this week, focusing on the similarities and differences between the flowers. At the end of the week, they learned the names and functions of the different parts of the flower. Using tootsie roll pops, pipe cleaners and tissue paper to represent these parts, they made flowers to take home.

Students continued developing their Nukum skills in PE. The game requires speed and accuracy, as well as teamwork, to get the volleyball over the net and out of the hands of the other team. If successful, the scoring team takes a player from the other team over to their side. In this way, no one ever sits out and the teams constantly rotate players so that students have the opportunity to work with many different combinations of teammates. Finally able to move around a bit, Coach Z. came for a visit this week. He told us about his injury and recovery process and gave the students an opportunity to ask him questions. It was meaningful for the students to talk to their beloved coach and see that he is recovering well.

Prompted by a suggestion in the Suggestion Box, the students formed a “book group” this week. While they do not all read the same book, they have decided to have dedicated reading time several times a week where they all gather in the same room and read. To celebrate this special time, we ordered a number of new biographies and historical fiction novels. There has been a real surge in the reading energy in the classroom since the first “book group”.

Our history journey has taken the students to ancient Greece and introduced them to the concept of “philosophy”. Mrs. Sandefer explained to them that because they contemplate challenging topics, think before they speak, engage in discussions with respect and ask great questions instead of just waiting to be told things, they could call themselves scholars. They took immediately to this title. No longer simply students, they now are the Acton Academy Scholars.

Week 29

With all of the scenes in the play blocked, this week we went back and began reworking individual scenes. It is an intense process for the students and one that gives them a glimpse into what professionals do when they are striving for mastery. The repetition this week was the greatest challenge many of the students have faced during this project. At home, they are listening to a recording of the play and working on their lines as well. Many of the our students’ younger siblings can recite the entire play because they listen to it constantly in the car (even when their older siblings are at school!). Each student was filmed delivering their opening monologues and then got to watch their footage several times. The first time they watched the film, they looked for things they were doing well. The second time, they looked for ways they could improve.

The students took on two more roles for the production this week. As set designers, they drew images for each scene in the play. They also found photographs on the internet to compliment their hand-drawn representations. At the end of the week, they also became the box office, and tickets officially went on sale.

The study of ancient Greece connected to their theater work when they found out that the Greeks were the original stage actors. With a large audience and no microphones, the students learned that it was more challenging to show emotions and the Greek actors compensated with exaggerated masks to make clear the feelings of their characters. The class brainstormed what emotions they might have tried to represent. One student added “bittersweet” to the list which she aptly defined as “mostly happy, but also a little bit sad”. Students then made masks of their own depicting the extreme emotion of their choice.

On Monday at P.E., the students enjoyed teaching Coach Carpenter to play Nukum. He helped them work on strategies to improve their game. For Wednesday’s P.E., Ms. Anna presented the students with a challenge that required planning, teamwork and self-control. They students worked hard to complete the challenge and celebrated with a round of Octopus Tag.

We had several special guests this week who brought us new insight into the world around us. Abigail King, Laszlo’s mom, delighted our taste buds with a Norwegian Smorgasbord in honor of Norwegian Liberation Day or as the students learned, Frigjoringsdagen. She brought a bounty of bagels, cream cheeses and homemade gravlax. Our adventurous eaters indulged heartily! Mrs. King taught the students about the Norwegian alphabet and recounted the story of their liberation from Nazi Germany while the students munched away. They took turns attempting to pronounce the official name of the holiday they were celebrating.

Divit Tripathi, Bodhi’s father, came for a special Art class. After working on paper structures and their building plans earlier in the week, the students learned more about “green” architecture from an expert. He brought blueprints, a 3-D model and pictures of one house he built using several environmentally-friendly techniques. He talked about sod roofs, LED light bulbs, solar panels, double-paned windows and other approaches to reducing a building’s consumption of energy. Inspired, the students added green features to their building plans.

On Thursday, the students discovered a tiny opossum hiding in the carport on the Sport Court. It was barely moving and was gone by the end of the day. Friday morning, it was back. We called Austin Wildlife Rescue and they gave us the contact information for a local animal rehabilitator. Kathleen Shives came to the school and rescued the opossum. She taught the students about these tiny marsupials, dispelling the commonly held notion that they often carry rabies. In fact, as we learned, they eat roaches, dead animals and poisonous snakes – all things we are happy to have removed from our environment. Ms. Shives assured us that our little opossum, Acton, would be fine. He was cold, hungry and anemic by her diagnosis, but she was confident that she could nurse him quickly back to health. He went to join over three dozen other rescued opossums at her house. For more on Ms. Shives, see the article on her in the Statesman from last May: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/05/20/0520possum.html.

We had many interesting discussions this week. After both Mr. Tripathi and Ms. Shives visited we talked about their Hero’s Journeys, including their Calls to Action, the Challenges and Achievements they have faced, their Fellow Travelers and Guides and their Returns Home.

Initiated by a newspaper article, we also had an interesting discussion about the removal of a ban on allowing women to serve aboard military submarines. The students were shocked that women are only now going to be allowed to serve on submarines and discussed what it would be like to enter a field dominated by the other gender. They talked about the fact that in addition to wanting to serve on a submarine for all the same reasons as men, the women also have something to prove to the world. The level of thought, reasoning, questioning and considerate disagreement in these discussions befits their new title of “scholars”.

Week 30

This week’s play practices took on a new twist – video game style. Each page of the script was a level. The students had to make it through one level without any mistakes in order to move on to the next level. If they made a mistake on the current level, they went back to the beginning of that level. Once they made it through a level, they did not return to that level. It took two long rehearsals, but they made it through all 18 levels (pages of the script). With the confidence that they were capable of doing each part of the play without errors, they put it all together and made it through the entire play on Friday.

The students also reflected on what they have learned about theater and about themselves through this process of creating and putting on a play and turned this into short bios for the Playbill. One of their final tasks for the production was related to the concession stand they will have. They had to decide if they would just leave a jar out to collect money and let people take concessions using the honor system or hire an older sibling to work at the booth. They used the Decision Chain, our decision framework that requires us to first define the problem, then find out any additional information necessary and finally list and weigh the pros and cons of the various options before making a decision. They decided that while they would have to give up some of their revenue to pay an employee, it was worth it. They were not too concerned about theft, as the play attendees will all be friends and family. They were more concerned about the lack of professionalism with an unmanned booth – Would people know it was open? What if they needed change? During their free time on Friday afternoon, several students worked on signs for the concession stand.

We had a great discussion on mastery stimulated by a newspaper article about a Yankees pitcher who had an unusual, bad game. When asked if Rivera had mastered pitching, one student said, “No. You can never master anything. You can only work towards mastery and get really, really close.” Others agreed, citing Rivera’s bad game as evidence that even people at the top of their field still need to practice and still make mistakes. We related this to the play, acknowledging that while we are doing well in practices, we need to keep up our energy through this next week. Also, just as Rivera will continue to play baseball and have success despite last week’s game, if someone makes a mistake during the performance, life will go on.

On Thursday we took a break from play preparation to enjoy a day at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Our knowledgeable guide, Carolyn Long, took us on a two-hour stroll around the grounds leading to discoveries about pollinators, seed dispersal and fascinating flower adaptations such as shape, color, scent and even movement. It was a memorable day. To prepare for our trip, we read a biography of Lady Bird Johnson and discussed her life using the framework of the Hero’s Journey.

For the final history class of this school year, the Acton scholars dressed in togas and ate grapes while they listened to Greek myths and found out why a 26.2 mile run is called a marathon. Mrs. Sandefer gave them each a “passport” with stamps from the ancient civilizations they have visited this year. The students were sad to have their formal history classes end, but will continue to study history independently this summer, reading from our extensive collection in the library.

In Art, the students enthusiastically began the 3-D models for the buildings they had designed. Using a myriad of materials from straws to paper towel rolls to clay, they creatively applied what they have learned about structure, design and environmentally-conscious building to their models.

In PE, students enjoyed another game of Nukum with Coach Carpenter on Monday. On Wednesday, Ms. Anna introduced them to a new game – SPUD. They had a blast running and yelling in the wide-open field suited well for the purpose. During arrival time before group and play time in the morning, Foursquare reemerged. The students had not played since early in the year, but during a break in rehearsal on Monday, Nat demonstrated the proper way to play Foursquare. More challenging and faster-paced, the students are in love with the new version.

Week 31

We had an intense week of rehearsals at the State Theatre culminating in a successful performance of the original play, A Hero’s Journey. While not in rehearsals, we managed to have lots of good work time despite the building excitement. With so much going on, the students took advantage of the time not spent in rehearsal to write in their journals, read and do other quiet, focused work. They continued to work on their building models in Art and played Foursquare in the early morning before the afternoon heat took over. We also enjoyed our first tomato from the garden!

After four mornings of rehearsals and a final dress rehearsal on Thursday morning, the students headed home early to rest up before the big performance. At 5:30 in the afternoon, the actors arrived at the State Theatre in costume and went backstage to do warm-ups. The audience members slowly filled the lobby, buying concessions and looking at the advertising posters and character sketches on display. One of the students, Saskia started off the show with several songs on her violin as the audience was seated. Then the rest of the students joined her on stage to create the soundtrack for the performance using a loop machine. Each student contributed a sound and soon the audience was transported to Acton Island. The Acton actors came forward one at a time and beautifully delivered an opening monologue to introduce their character. From there, the story they had practiced so much over the past six weeks, unfolded in front of a rapt audience. A few minutes into the play, one of the students whispered backstage, “It’s going too fast. I don’t want it to end.”

The next morning, the students counted the revenue, calculated the actual costs as compared to the projected costs from the budget they had created over a month before and celebrated in over $500 of profit from ticket and concession sales. We reflected on the experience of putting on this play and all the work that went into it. We brainstormed appropriate and responsible ways to spend this hard-earned money. The students discussed the idea of using the money to have a party at school, but eventually decided to split it up and spend it individually. They each received an envelope with just over $50 and on the back wrote what they planned to do with it. The ideas ranged from a donation to the school library, to investing in stock, to buying souvenirs on a summer trip. They took the money home to discuss its intended use with their parents.

In the afternoon, we made popcorn and relaxed while we watched a DVD of the performance. We were fortunate to have two videographers (thanks, Andrew!) at the performance filming from different angles. The footage from each will be edited, along with footage from the Process Drama that preceded the actual play, interviews with the students and even some bloopers from rehearsals. On Friday, we thoroughly enjoyed watching a “rough cut” version of the previous evening’s performance. We laughed together and celebrated the final outcome of five months of learning and working together. Afterwards, we went through the audience evaluation forms and enjoyed more positive feedback from the audience. Students will take some time to reflect on the experience over this next week off school and fill out a personal evaluation form. We had an amazing week and an amazing session. We are so grateful to have had this dramatic experience with Nat and Seth!

Week 32

Our summer session is off to a great start! We welcomed Lillian, our newest eagle, on Monday morning. She arrived just after 8am with her mother, father and two younger siblings in tow. Within minutes, she was playing Foursquare with her classmates and an outside observer would have had a hard time telling you which student was new. We have all had a wonderful time getting to know Lillian this week and are so happy to have her in our community. At the end of the week, we each shared two highlights of the week and Lillian joining us was on everyone’s list!

After everyone arrived on Monday morning, we came together as a group and introduced Lillian to our framework of the Hero's Journey. The students each explained a different part of the Hero's Journey and shared examples from their own journeys here at Acton Academy. We also recalled the six character traits we have focused on this year: courage, honesty, gratitude, creativity, patience and self-control. The students talked about each of these traits and how they have helped guide them on their journeys. After this inspirational conversation, the students separated and thought about what they want to achieve this summer. They wrote down their goals and from there worked to figure out what work they will need to do to accomplish these goals. They designed their own work charts to track their progress. Reading seems to have emerged as a major activity this summer, with many students choosing to read not only during their work time, but also during their free time this week.

We had a Town Meeting this week to discuss our Rules of Engagement. We do this periodically (and always when a new student starts) to make sure that everyone still agrees with them and is prepared to follow them. We made a few changes, as we always do. We also explained the Student Contract to Lillian and asked her to think about it this week, come to us with any questions and let us know at the end of the week if she is ready to sign it. On Friday afternoon, she said she was ready, but one of the student’s had gone home early and Lillian wanted to wait until Monday to sign it with everyone present.

At the beginning of the week, Saskia's mother, came in to share about one of her passions - language. She posed a question to the students: Where did the Greeks come from? Were they indigenous to Greece or were they nomads that came from somewhere else originally? She took the students on a linguistic adventure that lead them to a theory based on similarities and differences in languages spoken today in different regions of the world. We used the excitement of her presentation as a catalyst to begin daily word research in place of our usual riddles. Each day, we will have a different word to investigate. We look at the root word and connect that to the meaning of the word. Then we brainstorm other words that come from the same root. This week’s words were vacation, biography, botany and festival.

Instead of reading a newspaper article first thing each morning, the students get to come in this summer and relax on pillows and beanbags for story time. Right now we are reading a biography of Abraham Lincoln that begins with his childhood. We have some other special activities for the summer, including a weekly trip to the park to play group games -- we played SPUD this week -- and some time each day to play board games -- the students played at lot of Connect Four, Blokus, Chess, Uno and Set this week. Both of these activities are fun and build community, while challenging the students to practice patience, kindness and honesty.

Another new adventure this summer is learning yoga. A wonderful children's yoga teacher, Ms. Corinne, joined us at school on Wednesday for our first yoga class. We began with some breath work, before learning some classic yoga poses. The students described the experience as: fun, hard, tiring and refreshing. Weather permitting, we will walk four blocks to a yoga studio each Wednesday to meet Ms. Corinne. If it rains, as it did this week, we will again transform our school into a yoga studio.

Another exceptional guide, Coach Craig, came on Friday for chess class. The students paired off to play and Craig circulated, offering tips and support. When something really interesting was happening in a particular game, he would call all the students over to observe. We had the good fortune to have a new, young mentor, William, join us for chess. William is twelve years old and is being homeschooled. He has varied interests, including reading, baseball, astronomy, entrepreneurship and chess that make him a great fit as a mentor for these students. He has also helped raise four younger siblings and loves working with children. He will be coming to Acton Academy for chess class this summer to serve as a friend and guide to our students.

Using the buildings they constructed during the last session of school as settings, the students are writing science fiction stories with Ms. Kristi this summer. We are also continuing our exploration of botany that began last session with our trip to the Wildflower Center. Each week, there will be a mysterious fruit that the students can sketch. As the fruit ripens, we will cut it open and see what is inside. And of course, taste it! We enjoyed sketching and sampling a cherimoya this week. We also talked about the different parts of the plant this week and figured out what special function each part plays in the plant’s survival. The discussion about parts of the plant evolved into one about the purpose of plants. After some discussion, the students decided everything in a plant’s life leads up to making a seed and getting it dispersed so that a new plant can grow. This conclusion was followed by one student saying, "I have a question I've been thinking about pretty much my whole life, but I don't have an answer. What is our purpose? Why are we here?"

While we had no definitive answer for why we exist, we do know that we love to celebrate! This week, we celebrated our youngest eagle's birthday. Saskia is six! Her father led the class on an energetic trip to the park for sack races, while her mother put the finishing touches on a delicious Tres Leches cake for the students to enjoy after lunch. We heard stories about Saskia at all ages, as she revolved around the sun (walked around a candle) six times to represent her first six years of life. We then went around and each gave her a wish as she enters her seventh year. It was a wonderful celebration for a wonderful six year old!

The students have been discussing their costumes for the Greek Festival all week -- the question of the week has been: Are you going to be an Athenian or a Spartan? We listened to the story of Archimedes and the Golden Crown during lunch on Friday to get us even more excited. We will see each other on Saturday for a fun morning of science, art, Olympics, philosophy and food in honor of Ancient Greece and our history studies this year.

Week 33

We have our first student in the double-digits! Congratulations to Ellie who is ten!!!!!!!!!! (The students requested that ten exclamation points follow this announcement.)

We began discussions this week to prepare for the much-anticipated Children’s Business Fair (CBF) in October. With a twist on the classic story of The Tortoise and the Hare, and several fun games, the students were introduced to three different types of entrepreneurs – the “bootstrap tortoise”, the “asset fox” and the “MBA hare”. They learned about real life examples of these – Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Donald Trump – and spent time debating the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. They were also introduced to the “idea funnel”, a tool that will help them ask key questions in a logical order as they brainstorm ideas for the CBF and determine which ones to pursue. There is a large piece of paper hanging on one of the walls at school with two columns: idea and entrepreneur. The students have already been busy adding ideas to list and crossing them off when they do not make it all the way through the funnel. Looking ahead to a time when they will have profits from a business endeavor, they were introduced to and discussed the differences between gambling, investing and falling prey to fraud.

We continued the biography of Abraham Lincoln, learning about how his family grew to include three new siblings after his widowed father remarried. Our quote of the week came from Lincoln: “A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key…to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.” We looked at the origin and roots of one word from the quote each day – capacity, access, relish, facility and pursue – to help us better understand its meaning.

In our TouchPebbles curriculum, we read a tale from Latvia about two farmers who work together for a crop, each thinking they will take home all of produce. The first farmer suggests they split the crop such that he gets everything that grows above ground and the other farmer gets everything that grows below ground. The second farmer agrees to this and plants a crop of potatoes. We discussed the meaning of honesty and how sometimes words can be honest, but the actions that accompany them are not.

Clearly the first farmer would have benefited from our botany studies this week. Having talked about the purpose of each part of the plant last week, this week we investigated the different ways plants store food. We had a "parts of the plant" feast and sampled roots (radishes, beets, carrots, crystallized ginger and licorice), stems (bamboo shoots, asparagus, celery, cinnamon and syrup), leaves (kale, spinach and cilantro), flowers (cauliflower, broccoli, artichoke and hibiscus), fruits (tomatoes, zucchini and raisins) and seeds (peas, carrots, coconut and soy beans). The students were hesitant when they first found out they would be eating all parts of the plant, but they tried everything and discovered new foods they like!

We also sketched Rambutans, our fruit of the week. These are small, dark red, hairy fruits related to the Lychee. The students described the outside of the fruit as a cross between a kiwi and a strawberry. When we peeled them on Friday and discovered that they have a sweet, gummy, translucent inside that the students theorized may have been the inspiration for gummy bears.

In Art, the students continued to work together on their creative stories. We enjoyed silly games at the park, including “Sprinkle, Sprinkle, Splash”, a version of “Duck, Duck, Goose”, where instead of light pats on the head, it is a sprinkle of water and eventually a larger splash! This was the perfect way to cool off after running around. We also took our first trip to a nearby yoga studio for an hour of relaxing and invigorating yoga with the wonderful Ms. Corinne.

With all the great discussions and fun activities going on this week, we also managed to complete our end-of-year standardized testing. It is an unusual experience for these students to be asked to sit at their desks, do the same thing as everyone else and not ask each other or a teacher for help when they do not know how to do something. They did a wonderful job adapting successfully to this activity. They even said it was sort of fun, though they were glad to be done.

Week 34

This week, we were happy to welcome back two students who had been at camp for two weeks. We also had to say goodbye to another student who has headed off on a summer-long adventure with his family.

Before he left, we had our end of the year party – a Heroes’ Banquet – on Monday night to celebrate the accomplishments of this first group of Acton Academy students. After school on Monday, we all went home, dressed up and met back at the Acton MBA School campus for a special dinner and awards ceremony. The students each received a rock engraved with a character trait that they have embodied this year. It was a wonderful evening and marked a temporary “coming home” for the students who each embarked on a Hero’s Journey at the beginning of the school year. They will continue on this journey, but we took time to acknowledge their accomplishments this year.

We finished the biography of Abraham Lincoln. The students said after hearing about his childhood, they learned that you should not underestimate someone because of where they come from. Our quote of the week was on from Lincoln, “I shall study and get ready and perhaps my chance will come.”

The Children’s Business Fair lessons this week focused on “why customers buy”. Students choose spots along a “value continuum” spanning the length of our classroom to indicate how much or little they personally valued various things: pizza, ice cream, pizza when there is also ice cream available, pizza when the only other food option is brussel sprouts, an umbrella on a clear day, an umbrella on a rainy day, etc. They shared their reason for being where they stood on the line and observed that each person made different choices.

Students also spent time this week playing a computer sim game, Roborush. They start the game going door-to-door selling and building robots. Eventually, they have the option to open a store (and pay rent), hire assistants (who have to be trained and get paid) and build a factory. Door-to-door and at the store, there are many possible robots to make. Customers choose from three different colors, three different shapes and three different functions for their robot, each combination with a different cost for materials. Each customer is willing to pay different amounts for the different robots. When it comes time to start a factory, the player must chose one combination of features in order to specialize in just one type of robot. They can look back at the data showing which features have been most popular and which have earned them the most money. Once they choose which robot their factory will build, they get to see the data from the next five years of sales. The game has been incredibly popular this week.

Using the example of customers at a lemonade stand, the students discussed different reasons customers might buy – because they love the taste of lemonade, because they are thirsty and in a hurry, because there is a cute kids selling it and they want to make her smile or because it is a healthy alternative to sodas and packaged juices.

The students listened to and discussed two stories about market day – one set in the Congo and the other in Tanzania. In both stories, the main character is a child who works hard for a particular purchase – one trades and bargains in order to buy a wild monkey just so she can set it free, while the other saves for over a year to buy a bicycle in order to help his parents carry goods to the market. Both were great examples of reasons people buy.

In Botany, we continued to work on our parts of the plant collages. We also began looking inside different fruits and examining seeds of all shapes and sizes. We soaked a variety of seeds overnight and then split them open to discover the tiny beginnings of a new plant inside. The students were impressed by the amount of protection around each tiny new plant – especially in the case of the mango seed.

Our third yoga class was wonderful, with lots of sun salutations, handstands against the wall and new poses using blocks. The students are developing a greater sense of their own bodies and breath. They enjoy the intensity of the active poses and the total relaxation of the restorative poses. After a particularly difficult pose, one student said, “My hands are wet. Am I sweating?” We were all sweating by the end of the class.

In Art, students finished work on their creative stories and on their group book in preparation for their final art class next Tuesday when they will present their stories to each other.

Friday’s theme was camping! We began the day at Pease Park. We hiked along the trail there, stopping to sketch a tall, old oak tree and walk along the riverbank looking for fossils. We learned that General Custer and his men had once camped along that path. Before heading back to school, we cooled off in a little water park there. Back at school, we sang songs and read stories around an imaginary campfire before having hot dogs and hamburgers for lunch. We roasted marshmallows to make s’mores for dessert. In the afternoon, the students crawled into tents to tell ghost stories and play games.

Another popular activity on Friday was the trading of Silly Bandz. One of the students brought in several of these silicone bracelets for each student and they then had a fun afternoon trading and experiencing firsthand the power of the market to create value. We ended the day by reading a recent article from a business magazine about the entrepreneur who brought this craze to the United States.

Week 35

Two more eagles flew the nest at the end of this week and will return in the fall. The remaining eight students continued to work hard this week, at the same time enjoying the extra social time that our summer schedule allows.

We were fortunate to have a young mentor – Taite – a high-school bound older sister of two of our students, with us for a couple days this week. She read aloud to the students in the morning from our new book, My Side of the Mountain, and followed Ms. Anna's lead in asking questions to engage the students more. During work time, she was a great Reading Buddy, listening with patience and encouraging students to sound out new words. Later in the week, we had another wonderful mentor – Becca Cody– the mother of one of our students. She volunteered to be the greeter at arrival time and ended up staying all morning! Students were eager to read with her (including her son), and she graciously stayed until they were all satisfied.

In our economics studies, we began learning about the cash flow in a business and what happens to the money that customers pay to a business. Through modeling, the students saw how this can help you determine whether or not to enter into a particular business. The students did simulations to forecast the relative success of three different types of businesses – an artist working on his own, a job shop and an assembly line – on a poor day of sales, a medium day of sales and a good day of sales. The students were presented with real examples of each of these and then using poker chips to show revenue and cost, they saw that while the assembly line has the most potential upside, it will go out of business if sales are poor and though an artist never stands to make as much money, his costs are lower and so he can stay in business even if sales are not good. Each business required an initial investment and the students were put in the position of investors. On a poor day of sales, an investor in the job shop or assembly line would lose their entire investment. However, on a good day of sales, they stood to make much more than an investor in the artist's business. They were told that we would roll a die to decide how the sales were – 1 or 2 would mean poor sales, 3 or 4 medium sales and 5 or 6 good sales. They each chose a business to invest in and gave their reasoning before we rolled the die to determine the outcome of their investments.

In our study of Botany, we moved from structure and function to what plants do for us. We had a wonderful discussion about all the foods that come from plants and all the things we use that are made of plants materials such as wood, paper, other plant fibers, rubber and oxygen! The students decided that anything that comes from an animal – meat and skins – is actually from a plant because animals eat plants to survive. They pored over magazines for pictures of things we get from plants and each made a collage, carefully arranging and rearranging the images. In an effort to put appealing images on their collages, they came up with very creative explanations of how particular items came from plants.

The students have been working this summer on “silly science-fiction stories” as an extension of an art project. We celebrated their creativity this week with a reading of the stories, followed by a book signing. We had another great session of yoga at the local studio. The students were given the opportunity to request poses and it was amazing to see how many they knew after just four weeks of practice.

In another celebration of writing, the students once again displayed the depth of their gratitude. There were two obvious thank you notes we needed to write, and when asked to write them, the students came up with four additional people to thank. This has become a standard pattern – students are asked to write a thank you note to someone, they brainstorm a list of other people to write to as well, then they eagerly split into pairs to write heartfelt notes.

We finished out the week with “Crazy Hat Day”. The variety and quantity of hats was impressive. With only ten heads (including the teachers) there were enough hats for several costume changes throughout the day.

A special thank you goes out to the students and parents for the beautiful gifts they presented the teachers and school with this week. In an impressive feat of organization and secrecy, Marcy Carpenter and Becca Cody managed to get each student over to the Tripathi's house to work on beautiful flower pots for Ms. Anna and Ms. Kaylie and a mirror rimmed with hand-painted tiles for the school.

Week 36

This short week flew by! We received emails and pictures from our traveling eagles. Last week, from New England, Laszlo participated in Crazy Hat Day and this week, from Colorado, Sam sent us a picture for Silly Hair Day. We wrote emails and letters back, but the letter-writing did not end there. Students wrote to friends, parents, grandparents and each other.

We had our last chess class of the year with Coach Craig on Friday. We are so grateful for his guidance in this wonderful game. Our young chess mentor, William, also came for his last afternoon with us this year. He has been a wonderful influence for the students.

Continuing our study of cash and valuation, students simulated several businesses to determine the revenue, variable, fixed and sunk costs, number of units sold per period to breakeven and periods to payout. To reinforce these terms, students drew images that represented each and shared these with each other. Among other businesses, they modeled out that of an independent pie-maker. They determined the revenue from a pie – the price which a customer is willing to pay, the variable costs – those of the ingredients, the fixed period costs – in this scenario the amount the baker pays per day for the use of an oven and the sunk costs – the price paid for a mixing bowl and spoon, measuring cups and a pie dish. They figured out how many pies the baker would need to sell each day to breakeven and how long it would take to pay back the initial investment of the sunk costs. They thought about how many pies they would need to sell each day as a baker for the endeavor to be worth it to them.

On Silly Hair Day, they went through a similar process, but with a hair-dying business, this time adding the cost of posters for advertising to their calculations.

Food is an important part of life to all of us. With the school year coming to a close, the students were very interested in taking a survey about school lunches. They rated the different lunches we have on a scale of one to five and then eagerly examined the data. We graphed the results and also calculated the mean response for each lunch to determine popularity.

With only six students on Friday, we played 3-on-3 soccer in the park. The students displayed not only good footwork and stamina, but excellent sportsmanship.

The SillyBandz craze continues with trading in the mornings before school starts and during free time after lunch. If a student comes to school with no bands, but wants to trade, a thoughtful friend will give them a few so that they can participate. They will often then trade some of their remaining bands for ones they have just given away – it is the trading, and not the bands themselves, that continues to hold their interest.

Week 37

SillyBandz enthusiasm did not wane this week either. With the introduction of some rare white ghosts into the market, unheard of trades to the tune 220 assorted bands for one, glowing ghost were made. These active traders continued their formal study of entrepreneurship as well, addressing the final questions on their “Business Idea Funnel”. With each new business idea, as the students learned this summer, you must think about customers, costs and competition. If your idea still sounds good after considering all these, then the last thing you must ask yourself is: Is this the right business for me? Students learned about a few entrepreneurial heroes such as the founders of EBay, Patagonia and Mary Kay, who asked this last question. Then they reflected on their own special talents, what brings them joy and what people they wish to serve to begin to understand what ideas might work with their Callings.

Students also practiced using a new creative brainstorming technique that asked them to list assumptions about a particular product or service. They then systematically challenged each of these assumptions and looked at this second list to inspire innovative ideas. The following day we had “Opposite Day” where we had to challenge our assumptions of what is “normal” in order to do the opposite. The students had fun calling each other their siblings’ names and saying what a terrible day they were having.

At the request of several students, we had an optional presentation time this week. Students were invited to share something from their personal life with us. We saw sports trophies and homerun balls, heard an original poem and learned about new passions such as robots, kayaking and bird watching.

We also had a presentation from a special visitor this week who came all the way from Barrow, Alaska, the northernmost point in Alaska. Driven by an interest in the indigenous culture in Barrow, Andrea moved from a small town in South Dakota to teach in this slightly larger (7000 people) town in Alaska. She showed us a slide show of the area, including pictures of polar bears in the football field looking for left-over hot dogs, lunchtime with the stars out during their annual three months of total darkness and a family outing – whaling. The children were fascinated about how different life appears in Barrow, but how similar some of her stories from the classroom are at the same time. Once again, our concept of “normal” was challenged.

Inspired by Andrea’s sense of curiosity and adventure, we decided to do some traveling as a class. Each student spent some time thinking about a place in the world that they would like to visit. We all met and set off on a Google Earth adventure. Beginning at 1106 West Avenue, we flew all around the globe, comparing each place and talking about what assumptions we could make from the different aerial views. At the end of the trip, we dropped each student off at their home here in Austin.

As a little preview to an animation project we have in mind for next fall, the students received small flipbooks this week. We timed how long it took to flip through the book – three seconds. We then talked about how these books are similar to the stop-motion animation used in movies like Fantastic Mr. Fox which is approximately 90 minutes long. With that information, the students were challenged to determine, assuming the same rate as the book, how many frames it took to create Fantastic Mr. Fox. Once they figured out the number, we did a little research on-line and discovered that in fact, the movie took more than six times that many frames. Along with solving an interesting math problem, the students are now slightly more prepared for the amount of patience that will be required when they create their own animations in the fall.

With seven weeks off coming up, we celebrated one of our summer birthdays a little early this week. For his birthday, Bodhi wanted to treat his friends to one of his favorite meals – homemade pizza and ice cream. While the rest of us stretched and strengthened at our final yoga class, Bodhi and his mother prepared pizza dough back at school. When we came back, each student made a personal pizza and followed it with a cone of fresh cardamom ice cream.

We began our last day of this first year with a trip to Pease Park to play in the water feature there. Then we headed back to school just in time to receive a summer treat delivered to our door! The children feasted on fresh melon and berries from an edible arrangement of flower-shaped fruits. We finished our day with grilled hot dogs and hamburgers out on the Sport Court. After we ate, we got in one last circle and talked about our highlights from the year and one significant way in which we have changed. Happily, we are all returning, with a few wonderful new additions, in seven weeks to start another great year at Acton Academy!