Our Fourth Year (2012-13)

2012-13 Weekly Updates 

Week 37

For the final week of school, students were given the option to rearrange their desks in any way they wanted which resulted in one long “banquet table” running the entire length of the classroom, with pairs of desk facing each other. In addition to their final efforts towards accomplishing their big rock goals for the summer, students challenged another school to a “fai-to” on Manga High – an on-line math-off where students work together to see if they can answer more correct math problems over the course of the week than the students in the other school.

They made the most of their limited work time before switching gears to reflect on the year and compile their portfolios. This process allowed them to look back over the work they have done this trimester and also compare it to their work from the rest of the year.

As we jumped into the final week of independent projects, eagles reminded themselves of their original SMART goals and made plans for the remaining three days of project time. They also asked themselves how they would know if their projects were successful. We watched a video depicting one man’s perspective that success means doing the best you possibly can. Eagles discussed whether or not they agreed with this idea. A few argued that just getting a project done could be considered a success. If you build a house, even if it isn’t the best house you could possibly build, you have still been successful at building a house. Others argued against that point, saying that the house wouldn’t really be a success unless it was your best work; doing the minimum to simply get something done doesn’t mean you’ve been truly successful. Some suggested that it depends on your original goal; if your goal is to tinker and figure things out, then a finished product that is not the best possible could still be considered a success because you learned a lot and got better at the process of creating whatever you were creating.

On Thursday we celebrated all the lessons these eagles taught themselves through their projects. Some presented projects they had built, including a homemade smoker, a table, yoga sticks, slingshots, and bows. Others demonstrated creative games they had designed, both online and offline. Still others shared books of drawings, hats they had knitted, computer programs they had written, or movies they had directed, filmed, and edited. As they presented their work, they also each shared their greatest lesson learned. Here are some of their words of wisdom:

• “It’s okay to make a mistake; I made a mistake on one level and the game actually turned out better.

• “Don’t rush; take your time.”

• “Pay attention to detail.”

•  “Keep working, even if a fun thing pops up that distracts you; otherwise you won’t get anything done.”

• “Be a finisher.”

• “Always check in with your teammates.”

• “If you get frustrated, just don’t worry about it and keep trying.”

The Eagles began their last week of the Music Quest demonstrating dedication and hard work. In preparation for their performances on Wednesday, each group participated in fifteen minutes of vocal warm-ups and thirty minutes of rehearsal. They repeated their songs until everyone knew the words and they focused on their instruments until everyone found the same rhythm. It was a wonderful display of team work and excitement as they were practicing and singing with joy.

As this summer’s Music Quest came to a grand finale with energetic performances (check out these links: https://vimeo.com/70053659,https://vimeo.com/70054015), the layers of complexity built into this twice-weekly activity were evident. The daily joy and community bonding alone would have been enough to justify this 20-some hours of curriculum, or even simply the increased exposure and appreciation for music. But this week, every student stood confidently in front of the class, singing clearly, projecting their voices, and drumming or shaking their instruments in rhythm. Both “Deep in the Heart of Texas” and “Yellow Submarine” were punctuated by crisp instrumental accompaniment (replacing the clapping or “the what?” respectively), in unison and at the just the right moments.

That each student stood in front of his or her peers, having memorized the words, tune, and rhythm to a song and sang loudly and clearly was a remarkable event. But, over the course of the Music Quest, so much more happened – students built and decorated the instruments they played, listened to many different kinds of music and created a rubric of what makes a song successful in order to choose one song to master and perform (this also led to interesting discussions about varying tastes in music), and did a variety of vocal exercises to increase their range and tone – all leading up to today’s performance.

The Music Quest also provided the opportunity for many rich discussions sparked by their shared experience and the following questions: Are you more afraid of performing in public or speaking in public? Why are we afraid? Where does this come from? Do you need instruments to make music?Which of these sounds (students listened to birds chirping, hands clapping, and classical violin) is music? What is music? In music, which is more important: talent or hard-work? Do you have to be able to hear in order to enjoy music? Are we born with our taste in music or is it influenced by our experiences? Which is more challenging: singing a cappella or signing along with musical instruments? In music, does the past determine the future? Is new music built upon previous generations or is it a rebellion against the past?

From the students’ perspective, the Music Quest was fun and meaningful – an experience that increased their community bond. After performing for their peers, they had the opportunity to reflect on what they learned and how they changed over the course of the Music Quest. Their take-aways included increasing the range of their voice, learning not to be shy, learning to project both in singing and speaking, an increased appreciation for different kinds of music, and an understanding that music is not just about notes and rhythms, but about the emotion you put into it.

Ms. Samantha created this rich and complex curriculum, combining her passion for music and experience studying it with a deep understanding gained this year of the Socratic method and the interests of our students. While the Music Quest had layers of intention woven together, it was executed elegantly such that it seemed simple, relaxed, joyful.

The Eagles celebrated their incredible performance with popcorn and a movie on Thursday- They watched and sang along to Mary Poppins. Echoing throughout the classroom up to Friday afternoon were remnants of "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!"

In more end of the year celebration, we took time to acknowledge the students who will have birthdays over the summer break. They will each have an individual celebration next year on their half-birthday, but this week, we enjoyed some birthday cake and honored our summer birthday boys and girls by each sharing one word that we would use to describe each of them.

Camping Day was a perfect send-off to summer break. After going through their work earlier in the week in order to compile their portfolios, and taking home their homemade musical instruments and independent summer projects, students focused on cleaning and organizing the classroom for the first half of the on Friday. They split up into groups to arrange the books in the library, go through supplies and decide what to keep, clean off yoga mats and cubby bins, and go through all the games making sure pieces were in the right boxes and all games complete. This process took almost two hours, with students focused and productive the entire time. There were no complaints and a serious sense of satisfaction at the end, in addition to a very clean and organized room. Borrowing a note from the Middle School, we made a fun/important graph afterwards with each student giving the activity a score from 1 – 5 on fun and from 1 – 5 on important. Almost every student gave the activity a 4 or 5 on the important scale, and while there were some 5 – 5s, there were also many students who gave it a 1, 2 or 3 for fun. Did they think we should do it again? Yes. Despite not all finding the experience to be fun, they did all feel a sense of responsibility and pride in taking care of their space.

After the room was clean, we entered the “Acton Time Machine” and took a trip back through Acton Academy’s past by watching slideshows of pictures and the student-made Lip Dubs from each year. Then students shared their favorite Acton moments and thought about their dreams for next year. Then it was time to play! Students donned their bathing suits and headed out into the Texas sun to play in a sprinkler or stayed inside to set up tents and build forts. They snacked on cold watermelon and warm toaster-made S'mores as they enjoyed their final afternoon together.

Having just looked into our past, we ended the day by returning to the overarching question for the year: Does the past determine the future? At 3:15, students were deep in this discussion and eager to continue. When they were told that it was the end of the day – time for summer break – they did not want to leave. One student said, “But I love this. I want to have this discussion.” In the middle of July, on the last Friday of the school year, at the end of the day, our Eagles wanted to stay and have a Socratic discussion.

Week 36

Next fall, in addition to the five new Eagles that have joined us this summer (all younger siblings of students that were part of the class this year), we will have eleven more new students joining.  Over the past few weeks, each of these students has spent a day at with us, getting to know their future classmates and experiencing the flow of a day at Acton Academy.  This eases the transition in September and allows new students to walk in more confidently on their first day.  The Eagles were an incredible group of hosts, making sure their soon-to-be peers were comfortable and understood what was going on throughout the day.

While important and exciting, having these visitors in the classroom created a little bit of disequilibrium.   It was settling this week, with no more visitors, to return to our regular rhythm for the last few days of the school year.  We acknowledge the joy, and also the added strain of having visitors, and reset as a class this week in order to take full advantage of our last few days together.

As the clock ticks down, students recommitted to their “big rocks”, choosing just one or two things to focus on during the remainder of their work time. 

In Project Time, they took a break from their independent projects to celebrate the 4th of July and honor our country's independence with an American Citizenship project.  The project kicked off with an Acton parent sharing his story about coming to the U.S from India and becoming a U.S. citizen – how he made the decision, what the process was like, challenges he faced, people who helped him along the way, and differences between the U.S. and India.

Students discussed what they thought would be the most challenging part of coming from another country and becoming a U.S. citizen: the uncertainty (perhaps not knowing the language, culture, or rules), the patience required (having to wait five or more years and going through all the paperwork, waiting in lines, etc.), or missing friends, family, and their previous home 

Next, they divided into groups to perform short skits on the Bill of Rights.  Each group was given one right and told to act out a scenario in which that right was being violated.  As groups presented their skits, members of the audience were invited to freeze the scene and become a part of the skit, “fixing” the scenario by explaining to the characters which right they were violating 

After the skits, students discussed which of these rights was most important to them.  They also considered whether rights are more valuable when they are earned, when they are given as a gift, or when they are taken away.

After this introduction to the project, students jumped into a mock citizenship application experience.  They filled out applications for citizenship and completed mini-challenges to earn enough points to take the citizenship test.  The classroom was filled with American flags in the making, the star spangled banner being sung, the Pledge of Allegiance being memorized and recited, geographic features being drawn on maps, and famous American landmarks being recreated out of Legos or clay.  Students studied practice citizenship tests, waited in line at the Immigration and Naturalization Office, had their photos and fingerprints taken, and finally, sat down to take the citizenship test.

Although this mock experience was just a taste of the actual process naturalized citizens go through, students shared their frustrations of having to do things multiple times, the tediousness of memorization and paperwork, and the patience required to stand in line waiting to get their points.  We asked them to consider: What this would have been like if the entire process had to be done in a language foreign to you?  Why is the citizenship process so long and difficult?  Why are people willing to go through such a process to become U.S. citizens?  We returned to the question of whether rights have more value when they are given to us, when we earn them, or when they are taken away, and several students changed their minds from the earlier discussion to say that rights are more valuable when you earn them.

We wrapped up the project with a celebration (singing the National Anthem, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, singing Happy Birthday to the U.S., and eating blueberries and strawberries with whipped cream) and a charge: where do we go from here?  We introduced students to the concept of grassroots movements and the power and voice each of them holds as a citizen to make change.  We shared a quote from Anne Frank: “How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment. We can start now, start slowly, changing the world. How lovely that everyone, great and small, can make a contribution toward introducing justice straightaway.  And you can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!”  Each student wrote down one act of kindness they pledged to do as their “contribution toward introducing justice” and the start of our own grassroots movement of kindness.

This week in Music the eagles took a break from mastering "The Yellow Submarine" and "Deep in the Heart of Texas" to celebrate the United States of America. As part of the American Citizenship project, the eagles used their time in Music to learn the song, "50 States That Rhyme" and "The Star-Spangled Banner." In order to begin memorizing "50 States That Rhyme," the eagles split into four groups and memorized each verse. They then came together to sing the whole song- It was a very catchy tune but a long song to memorize in 45 minutes. Still, some eagles took on the challenge and they were able to recite all 50 states during the American Citizenship project, using the song as a tool.

In Music on Wednesday, the eagles came back together as a whole group (younger and older) to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner." They first watched a video of the Smithsonian "O Say Can You Sing" contest winner singing a beautiful version of our National Anthem. Next, they watched a video of a classic approach to "The Star-Spangled Banner" that included a little guitar and all four verses of the song (over five minutes long!). The eagles participated in vocal exercises before beginning this beautiful, yet challenging, song. They began by singing the first line in a low key, and then they sang it in a higher key. Each eagle chose which key was most comfortable for their voice and divided the circle into two sides: lower and higher. Once this was all figured out, they sang the National Anthem in different keys, creating an interesting and beautiful sound. At the end of the day, the Middle School came to the Elementary School to celebrate and the entire school came together to sing our National Anthem- It was a wonderful, musically charged, community expression of patriotism!

Week 35

In project time, the Eagles continued working on their independent projects this week.  At the beginning of the week they brainstormed questions they could ask to take their projects further.  For example, in the group of the knitters: What type of yarn is best for hats?  Could we knit with something other than yarn?  What type of pattern looks the best?  For the stop motion animators: How many photos are needed per second?  Should all photos be played for the same number of seconds?  For the sling shot designers: Which is more important, the type of ammo used or the design of the slingshot?  Is our goal for the slingshot to shoot further, faster, or most accurately?

By the end of the week, several groups presented their projects to the class: one slingshot target game, one 3D angry birds-style game, one claymation short film, several knitted hats, and three different designs of slingshots.  As groups presented, they shared their lessons learned, which included:

• Sometimes your imagination can be helpful. (a game maker)

• A claymation film doesn't have to be realistic to still be really good. (a claymation film producer)

• Think before you act.  Don't just use the first material you find; test them out to find what works best. (a sling shot designer)

• If you make lots of mistakes, it doesn't really matter. (a knitter)

• Don't freak out if it gets really tangled. (a knitter)

• If you all work together and have a good brainstorming session, you can come up with a great idea. (a game maker)

• You might think something will be hard, but if you work together with your teammates, you can accomplish it a lot more easily than you thought. (a game maker)

We finished the week with a teambuilding challenge in which everyone had to silently get through an invisible path through a maze of squares.  Even though we are now working on independent projects and it's almost the end of the school year, working together, supporting one another, communicating, and acting with kindness are still important!

This week in the Music Quest, the Eagles continued working on the songs they will master this session. Both groups have shown impressive improvement; memorizing the lyrics and projecting their voices. In addition to singing, both groups have been working to incorporate their instruments in unique and wonderful ways! The Eagles also finished drawing to music this week, creating works of art while listening to hip-hop, Johnny Cash, violin dub-step, and music from the opera, La Bohème.

Students continued to stretch their bodies and their minds in yoga this week.  Each class begins with a walking meditation and ends with students lying down with their eyes closed.  During both these times, they are guided to focus on their breathing and allow their thoughts to pause.  The length of these mindful moments has gradually increased over the past three weeks, with students now able to relax their bodies and minds for several minutes at a time.  In between these brief periods of relaxation, is lots of activity.  Students are learning new yoga poses and playing games with them such as an adaptation of “Duck, Duck, Goose” called “Yoga, Yoga, Yoga, Pose” where the student has to call out the name of a specific yoga pose and then the chasing around the circle happens in an activation version of the pose.

Friday was “Author Day” where students dressed as their favorite character from a book.  We had a number of Harry Potters among others.  We also set aside time for students to talk about the books they have been reading and make recommendations to their classmates.  It was a lively half hour of talking excitedly about books with students chiming in with: “oh yeah” and “ooh, that’s a great one” as their peers reminded them of books they love.  We wrapped up the conversation with each student sharing at least one book they plan to read over the summer break.  After that, students curled up on pillows and beanbags and read for an hour.  Yes, on a Friday afternoon in late June, more than 30 children ages six to eleven happily spent an hour reading.  When the hour was over, one student who likes to read, but doesn’t typically prioritize reading in his work said, “That was really nice. Can we do that every Friday?”

The day ended with a student-funded, student-run ice cream float party.  With some of their profits from the building project, students decided to throw themselves a celebratory party.  They invited the Middle School students, too, and even served them first.

Designing & Building Project Update

• Week 6 video

• Week 7 video

• Auction link

Week 34

In Music this week, the Eagles hit the ground running and started learning their songs. The older group will master "Yellow Submarine" and the younger group will master "Deep in the Heart of Texas." Many Eagles are already familiar with these songs, which makes for a very energetic music session! They are now taking the next step by learning about sheet music, reading notes as they sing, and focusing on the details – even if they already know the song. Singing a cappella has its challenges, including singing to the same rhythm, but even after just a couple of days together, the Eagles began to truly sing together as a group. At the end of the summer session, the Eagles will perform their songs to one another.

At the end of the day on Thursday, the Eagles were treated to another student individual performance. It was a wonderful opportunity to listen to music and to honor the courage it takes to perform in front of peers. The power of music could be witnessed firsthand as a student who had struggled during the preceding core skills block and was not in a good mood changed his entire demeanor as he listened to his friend play the piano. The student listening, the pianist, and many of their peers left the classroom beaming.

Music is a different experience for everyone. This sentiment is one that has echoed throughout the music quest. To take this idea further, the Eagles began drawing to music this week. They watched part of the intermission from Fantasia, the piece with the soundtrack, and began to understand music as something that can be seen as well as heard. Students then got a piece of blank paper and sat in front of a pile of markers. When the music began, the Eagles grabbed the color that they felt represented the song, and they drew until the song was over. This week they drew to a song by the Ramones (re-recorded for kids) and Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 by Bach. By the end of the summer session, the Eagles will have a collage of pieces reflecting many different genres of music.

This week brought a close to the Designing and Building project and kicked off Independent Projects! At the beginning of the week, students put the final touches on their building projects, wrote their listings for the auction, and reflected on their lessons learned for their portfolios. Among their lessons learned:

• How to lead a team well so we are productive.

• How to problem-solve. We figured it out and we learned through challenges.

• Some things are harder than they look.

• Everything won't go your way.

• Every mistake will turn out to be a lesson learned.

• When working in a team, it is good to establish strict rules with consequences. It is good to assign roles so no one gets bored and wanders off.

• Focus.

On Monday afternoon each group stood up in front of the middle school students to present their projects (including the group of new 1st and 2nd graders, who showed off their homemade maracas and drums). On Thursday afternoon, parents had the opportunity to see the projects and speak with the designers and builders at a mini Open House to kick off the auction. The auction will be open until Sunday night at 10pm - check it out and place your bids here: http://www.32auctions.com/ActonEaglesDesignAndBuild.

As we launched the Independent Projects, students returned to the question of the year by considering which project this year has changed them the most (or made the most difference between their past and their present or future). Some of their comments:

• The probability/gaming quest taught me how to make something from scratch.

• The prediction tools quest taught me a lot about myself with the love languages and learning style tests.

• The detective quest changed me the most because I learned to pay more attention.

• The designing and building quest changed me most because it taught me teamwork. I'm better at pair work, but I learned that I can get a group to work together.

We also discussed which quest this year inspired them the most, as this could be a good starting point for an independent project. Independent Projects are projects that the students choose, plan, and execute. They decide their own goals, materials, and deadlines. They decide whether to work in a group or on their own. They figure out how to track their progress, measure the quality of their work, and how to present their work to the rest of the class. All of this freedom comes with just one catch: to gain access to the bins full of project materials and tools, they have to first demonstrate their ability to independently complete a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely) goal for their project.

By Friday, Independent Projects were in full swing with a group of knitters, several groups making various launching devices and games, a few groups working on new building projects (a birdhouse, a smoker, a reading nook), one computer programmer, and a few mystery screenwriters/movie-makers, to name a few. It will be an interesting and fun next few weeks!

With all of the excitement and energy during Music and Project Time, students remain focused on their individual core skills goals as well. At the beginning of each week, they look back at the “big rocks” they identified at the beginning of the summer session, evaluate their progress so far, and set a weekly goals to keep themselves on track to complete them by mid-July. With everything going on, some students have had trouble at the end of each day remembering to record their accomplishments so that they are able to evaluate the progress they are making towards their goals. We came together as a group to trouble-shoot this and one student shared his effective method which many students have adopted. All the students’ computers are stored on a charging cart. When this student removes his computer from the cart, he replaces it with his work binder which has his weekly goal sheet in it. Then, when he goes to return his computer, he sees his binder and is reminded to record his accomplishments for the day.

In addition to tracking their progress towards academic goals, we are taking time each week to reflect and be mindful in other ways. Three times each day, students pause to think about how much joy they are feeling and plot that on a chart which allows them to start to see patterns in their mood. Students also have time each week to stretch, play, and relax together during yoga and to write about their pasts during Writer’s Workshop. We are focusing on moments from students’ lives, so that more of their creative energy can go into how they write, as opposed to what they write. With the setting, characters, and plot already established, they are able to pay closer attention to structure, fluency, voice, and word choice.

The week end with a splash! The Carpenters hosted the students at their house for pool party to celebrate their achievements in P.E. this year. Students not only swam in the pool filled with inflatables and super soakers, but they also took turns sliding down a giant inflatable slide in the yard. It was the perfect way to celebrate the first day of summer. Thank you to the Carpenters for their generosity and spirit of fun!

Week 33

We came together this week – elementary and middle school students, siblings, parents, and even some grandparents – to celebrate the personal growth that has happened this year. Each student was honored for a particular trait that they have embodied this year and thanked for setting this example for our community. The graduating 5th graders delivered poignant speeches, sharing their greatest lessons learned while at Acton and thanking their fellow travelers and guides for being on this journey with them. A theme emerged as they spoke – while group work, which is such a big part of life at Acton can be challenging, the students talked about learning patience, perseverance, and problem-solving skills through these experiences. They also talked about the power of mistakes and how they have learned how to learn from them. They shared their excitement about entering Middle School and their eagerness to take on new challenges, make more mistakes, and grow. The students were given very little guidance with their speeches; they were simply told that they would have up to two minutes to share their greatest lessons learned at Acton. They practiced a few times in front of Ms. Kaylie who gave them no feedback other than reassuring them that they would be great. At some point they must have gotten together and agreed to not only share lessons, but also thank their guides. When they practiced for Ms. Kaylie, they withheld the thank you’s so that she and the other guides would be surprised. What an amazingly thoughtful group of people.

Students had an intense Town Meeting where they debated whether or not students should be allowed to play games on their computers during free time. On one side of the debate, students argued that it was important to get fresh air and exercise and that students would be able to focus better and get more accomplished if they ran around during free time. Other students said they wanted “no tech” free time because that meant more people would be outside playing and that would make the games more fun. Students on the other side argued that there are different ways to relax and reenergize and that playing computer games is how some people do this. Some students urged the group to let each person make their own decision. While no change was made, students had the opportunity to voice their opinions, which in itself is a powerful practice for our community.

On Thursday, Coach Carpenter announced the student-chosen Good Sports of the semester and presented students with certificates for individual records set or broken in the P.E. Olympics. He also revealed that as a class, they exceeded their goal of 50% improvement across the four categories of low plank hold, push-ups, 40-yard dash, and half-mile run, earning them a celebratory pool party at his house next week.

On Friday the Eagles donned their fanciest pajamas and had a formally comfortable day at school for this week’s Solidarity Day, which combined two themes in one: Red carpet day and pajama day! Some Eagles dressed for the red carpet, some dressed in their favorite pajamas and slippers, and many combined the two! The Eagles enjoyed this fun way to come together as a community.

Friday afternoon, three brave Eagles from the Speaker’s Club stood up in front of their classmates and delivered the incredible speeches they had been working on for a full month. Their speeches were inspiring and covered such topics as: the extinction of the African Elephant, Aquaponics, and the history of the World War II “Keep Calm and Carry On” posters. Each topic was well-researched and carefully delivered, providing the audience with a diverse and meaningful learning experience. At the end of each speech the audience was asked to provide warm and cool feedback on delivery and content. After the speeches and feedback, the audience was then invited to go on stage (one at a time) and practice public speaking with mini-speeches or jokes. There was a lot of laughter and celebration. Thank you to the Speakers Club for the amazing experience!

To celebrate their personal accomplishments this year, as well as their contributions as leaders in the classroom, the graduating 5th graders spent an afternoon taking advantage of our current proximity to the lake. They had a picnic lunch and explored the lake on stand-up paddleboards.

This week in Music the Eagles used the rubric they created last week to begin choosing a song to master as a class! They started off by watching an a cappella performance by the group Pentatonix. After the video, the group was asked, “Is it more challenging to sing with instruments or without?” Some students agreed that it would be more difficult to sing with instruments because it could be challenging to make music with another person and staying in tune with an instrument requires more focus. Others agreed that singing alone is more challenging because there is more pressure to stay in tune and that without the reference of an instrument, it would be difficult to know what notes to sing. After it was discussed, the Eagles were told that they would have the opportunity to learn to sing a cappella as a group. They then listened, with critical minds and open, fresh ears, to eight songs and rated each one. After the critiques, the Eagles circled up to share and discuss their top choices. On Monday they will begin the process of learning the song they chose to master.

In between critiques, the Eagles participated in many vocal warm-ups. As Music is now divided into two groups, each group practiced singing together in rounds to learn what they sound like together. They revisited solfège and sang beautifully with wonderful energy. On Wednesday, the group used their hand-made instruments and worked hard to create a rhythm to “Happy Birthday.” When Ms. Kaylie entered the room, the Eagles surprised her with a lovely song for her birthday 

We are taking advantage of the comparatively cool mornings by starting the day with yoga. Students stretch, strengthen, and relax together, taking this time to focus on their bodies and their breath. Students also continued to check in three times each day – after project time, writers’ workshop, and core skills – to notice their “joy” and rate it on a scale from 0 – 10. At the end of the day, one student remarked that while writing is one of his favorite things to do, he was at a 3 today because of a headache. That led us to question: Does your happiness have more to do with external factors such as what activity engaged in, who you are with, or what the weather is like or internal factors such as how you are feeling or what you ate for lunch?

In project time this week students focused on being strong finishers. Monday launched with a reminder about the purpose of planning, going through multiple drafts, and getting critiqued. They looked at a photo of the hair on the top of the Statue of Liberty and considered the importance of details in creating quality products. As Henry Ford said, "Quality means doing it right when no one is looking."

On Tuesday, Eagles listened to a team relay version of "The Tortoise and the Hare" and reflected on the relevance of the story's various morals in their building projects: "Slow and steady wins the race," "It's not over till it's over - be a finisher," and "Stick with your team - you never know when they will need you." But most of project time was spent doing - problem-solving design issues, attaching final pieces, straightening lines, tightening screws, and cleaning up final products.

The Eagles have really blown us away by showing what they are capable of in this project. Visit the project links page on our website to check out photos of their projects and to see what they went through along the way - from teambuilding to planning, to hearing heroes' stories to attending tool certification workshops, to building and finishing. These Eagles are incredible!

Week 32

The final session of this school year is off to an active start with the building projects taking shape, rhythms emerging from homemade instruments, a revamped Writing Workshop, and students noticing joy throughout their day.

We started the day Monday with a few large rocks, a pile of small rocks, and a bowl of sand. Placing the sand in a jar first, followed by the small rocks, there was no room for any of the large rocks. With a goal of getting the most of everything in the jar, students suggested we start with the big rocks, then add small rocks, and then fill in the gaps with sand. By doing this, we were able to get all of the big rocks in, but we still could not fit all of the small rocks and sand. We used the space in the jar as a metaphor for our time each day with the rocks and sand representing how we use our time. It is often the case that there is not enough time to do everything you wish to do, but by doing the most important things first, you can guarantee times for these. Students took time to think about their “big rocks” for this last six weeks of school. What do they still want to accomplish? They set one “big rock” or goal for reading and one for math, and then students who felt like they had time, set one more goal in another area.

With the focus on “big rocks,” students are taking a break from Excellence Goals. Typically, each session they set one large goal and then track this goal each week. This emphasis on metrics is powerful, and students have a solid understanding of performance metrics. This session students are being exposed to a variation on this by measuring a different kind of metric: their joy. Three time each day – after Project Time, after Writing Workshop, and after Core Skills – students pause to reflect on their level of joy during the past couple of hours and graph this on a scale from 0 to 10. As they “measure their pleasure” over the course of the next six weeks, there will be opportunities for interesting discussions. Are you happiest at a certain time of day? Doing certain activities? What influences your level of joy? Does it have more to do with what is going on in the classroom or what is going on inside your head and body? What role do you play in all of this?

After a fabulous few months of students choosing their own topics and genres for their writing and forming great relationship with parent mentors as they worked, we have returned to Writing Workshop for this last session. We began with students pairing off to write great journaling prompts. After thinking of a topic – describe a time you had butterflies in your stomach or what is the most delicious bite of food you have ever taken – students brainstormed questions that they might have if they were reading someone’s story. Each day this week, we selected one of the student-written prompts as our inspiration for that day’s writing, using the questions to help us tell a more complete story. We will be using a method called the “Six Traits” to revise and edit our writing this session. Each day we have begun Writing Workshop with an introduction to one of the traits – idea development, organization, sentence fluency, word choice, and voice – and discussed the skills involved, debating which is most important. The sixth trait is conventions, which will come into play when we begin editing. We closed each day with students sharing words or phrases from their writing, reinforcing our community of writers 

Friday morning the eagles received an exciting opportunity: To enter a contest to send a haiku message to Mars! In order to prepare for this challenge, the eagles spent the morning in Writers' Workshop, learning about haiku. The group started off by listening to haiku in the book, If Not for the Cat and then brought out their instruments to count the syllables in the haiku from the book, Wabi Sabi. From there, the group wrote two haiku together before splitting up to work independently on their poems. Here is one of the group haiku:

Falling without air,

And with the greatest of ease,

Stranded in orbit.

Friday also marked the first Solidarity Day of the summer: Crazy Hair Day! What crazy hair we had! From Pippi Longstocking braids and purple hair, to mustaches and long beards- we had it all! Crazy Hair Day was the first of eight Solidarity Days this summer and we are looking forward to the fun community building ahead. In addition to Crazy Hair Day on Friday, the Middle School invited the Elementary School to an all-school ice cream social to celebrate the summer together. The elementary eagles were so grateful and enjoyed the cool snack on a hot day.

This week on their Music Quest, the eagles celebrated their last week as one large music group by meeting three days in a row. Next week they will shift into two separate groups to begin mastering a song of their choosing.

The eagles started off by sharing their favorite song/artist. They then discussed whether or not one needs the ability to hear in order to enjoy music. Many of the eagles had previously learned that deaf people enjoy the vibrations of music and agreed that one does not need to have the ability to hear in order to enjoy music. They listened to a brief article on the science regarding our brains and music, recognizing that music can be a different experience for everyone.

To embrace their time together as one large group, the eagles played their instruments together. First, they split into three large groups: the maracas, the snare drums, and the bass drums. Each group came up with a rhythm and after five minutes, all three groups joined together to see how the three different rhythms sounded when played all at once. The result was amazing! While it was very challenging for the eagles to focus on each beat, they continued to play and eventually, it all came together. At the end of the day on Monday, the eagles listened to "Ob-la-di Ob-la-da" by The Beatles and participated in a critique of the song. Using the feedback from the critique, the eagles created a rubric on “what makes a good song.” The discussion started with the hopes of coming to a consensus, however, it was quickly discovered that music is a personal experience based on individual tastes. With that in mind, the eagles decided to instead create a rubric that will be filled out by each individual.

On Tuesday the eagles started the day by editing the song rubric. Once the rubric was finalized, everyone stood up to sing together as one large group. The eagles participated in vocal exercises and then a round of "Row Your Boat." This was not easy! The eagles were split into four groups, which makes for a challenging round. With loads of energy and smiles, they focused on the song and held it for a couple minutes.

At the end of the day, everyone returned to group to listen to and critique four songs. The final rubric includes the following elements, rated on a 1-3 scale:

• Creates an image in my head

• Has a great/catchy tune

• Uses repetition to make it better

• Makes me feel something

•  After the individual rubrics were completed, the eagles discussed which songs received the highest ratings, for them personally, and why. 

For the last day of music this week, the eagles began by thinking about individual taste in music; are we born with our taste in music or does it come from our experience? After a brief discussion, the eagles broke into four groups, each with a mixture of maracas, snare drums, and bass drums. The groups were asked to create a 30 second piece as a group and perform it to the rest of the class. What a show! The performances were truly amazing. At the end of the day, the students participated in their second session of critiquing. They sat calmly and comfortably and listened to four different songs. They then filled out the individual rubrics and on Monday they will discuss the average score each song received.

This week also kicked off our individual student performances! On Tuesday and Thursday at the end of the day, brave eagles stood up in front of the community and demonstrated their passion for, and dedication to, music in their own lives with five-minute-long performances. This was a wonderful way to end the day and the performances will continue through the summer session.

Project time began this week with a return to the year's overarching question: Does the past determine the future? Eagles reflected on the lessons learned during each of the year's quests and considered which lesson from these past experiences would best help them determine their own success as they move into the future – specifically these last two weeks of the designing and building project. Some of their most useful lessons learned for determining successful futures were: problem solving, patience, collaboration, and persuasion.

Before getting back to work on their projects, each group reminded themselves of where they left off before break, did some problem-solving, made last-minute shopping lists for materials they hadn’t realized they would need before, and developed updated construction plans.

On Tuesday, we jumped back into team-building with a team duct-tape ski challenge in which each group successfully crossed a crocodile-ridden river by taking steps together at exactly the same time on magic duct-tape skis.

Wednesday and Thursday the focus was on building as much as possible and getting closer to 100% complete in order to meet next week’s deadline. After each team reported their percentage complete at the end of project time on Friday, the class average was 78% complete, so we are well on our way!

Designing and Building Project

Curious what the classroom looks like during project time?  Get an insider's perspective of the Designing and Building Project from these 2-minute videos of each week of the project so far.

• Week 1

• Week 2

• Week 3

• Week 4

• Week 5

Week 31

The week started off with great energy. As soon as all the students arrived on Monday, they headed to a park by the river for their final P.E. Olympics of the year. After a spirited, all-school warm-up with their beloved Coach Carpenter, students divided into four groups to rotate through the events: low-plank, 40-yard dash, push-ups, and half mile or mile run. The students pushed themselves hard, hoping to beat their times from earlier in the year – and then did – including a 26-minute low plank! After coming back to school, students voted for “good sport” of the semester and thanked Coach Carpenter for being the best coach ever! They will miss him next fall as he travels around the world with his family, but are excited to hear all his stories when he comes back to coach them in January. In Coach Carpenter’s absence, Coach Stephan, an NCAA tennis player and coach from France with a degree in exercise science, will keep the students in shape and teach them about how exercise plays a role in how both their bodies and their brains function.

Wow. What an amazing week in project time! The week started with some teamwork maintenance. Each Eagle, while blindfolded, successfully navigated an obstacle arena by being guided verbally by one of his or her teammates. Each Eagle also successfully guided one teammate through the course. The challenges faced and conquered on the obstacle course were similar to the challenges Eagles have been facing with their teams while building: coaching teammates, accepting and trusting a teammate’s coaching, waiting for a turn, seeing things from another’s perspective, communicating clearly, going slowly and double-checking, and following the rules for safety. At the end of the day, the Eagles reflected on the tools that helped them get through these challenges on the obstacle course and while building. Into their project toolbox they put patience, perseverance, courage, problem solving, joy, and having the attitude to keep trying.

Armed with all their tools, lots of building happened this week! The classroom and front yard were filled with Eagles in goggles busily getting safety certifications for tools, hammering, drilling, sawing, cleaning wood, sanding, applying finishing oil, painting, holding down and securing wood for partners as they sawed, problem solving when things didn’t turn out quite right, and celebrating accomplishments.

Inspired by the Forrest Gump quote, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get,” Eagles were challenged to come up with similes for building or teamwork based on lessons learned from this project. Here are some of their comparisons.

• Building is like going through hurdles. There are lots of ups and downs.

• Building is like running a marathon. It is long and hard.

• Building is like baking a cake. It’s a lot of trouble and messy to do, but it is satisfying to eat in the end, and it has many layers.

• Building is like a carcass. Sometimes it is messy and smelly, but it can also be satisfying (like if you’re a lion eating it).

• Teamwork is like a piece of music. You can put the notes together in different ways and sometimes it sounds good and sometimes it sounds bad, but if it sounds bad, you can rearrange the notes to make something beautiful.

• Teamwork is like gas prices. It goes up and down and is hard to predict.

• Teamwork is like growing a carrot. It takes work to tend to it, but if you do, it’s delicious.

By the end of project time on Friday, we had one “sitable” chair, an almost complete family board, lots of bamboo checkers pieces and a board cut and ready to paint, a solid box for the foosball table, the bottom of the glass-topped table, sanded and oiled pieces of wood ready for the Velcro chairs, the frame of a mailbox, and the handlebars of a scooter!

With extra time devoted to their building projects this week, there was not as much time for core skills. This did not stop the Eagles from working hard during the time they did have as they continued to push themselves to accomplish their for excellence goals. On Friday morning, several students gathered around the refrigerator where the weekly schedule is posted. “No core skills today? Awww. Ms. Kaylie, can I read during free time?” Though they have certainly earned some downtime, many students plan to set aside time during next week’s break to continue their work. On the weekly reflection, they were asked to identify their greatest accomplishment of the past six weeks and share how they will celebrate it. Many students said they will celebrate by working even harder next session.

The Elementary students weren’t the only ones working hard this session. On Thursday, they were invited to be audience members as the Middle school students delivered ten minute speeches they wrote and rehearsed over the past six weeks. Each Middle school student chose a historical figure at a pivotal point in history and wrote a world-changing speech as that person calling others to action. The Elementary students sat in awe as their older peers delivered powerful, inspiring speeches. After their incredible performances, the Middle school students came over graciously to thank them for being such a respectful, supportive audience. What an amazing bonding experience for the entire school!

The eagles had a successful and busy week in Music to wrap up this session. They started on Monday by watching a music video by violinist, Lindsey Stirling. This artist mixes many types of music together and the Eagles were asked to share one word they would use to describe their feelings about the song. The music was so different that their answers ranged from "inspired" to "weirded out”. This was a great opportunity to see how music affects people in different ways. The Eagles were then asked, "In music, which is more important: natural talent or hard work?" They participated in a lively discussion using examples from their own lives and experience – their answers varied, but nearly everyone agreed that hard work is key to success.

Now that most of the Eagles are finished building their instruments, they had the opportunity to see what they sound like as individuals and as a group. The students split up into three groups: maracas, snare drums and bass drums. In these groups they played musical follow-the-leader to better understand the sounds of their individual instruments. In these same groups, the students learned a new song that focuses more on rhythm than on voice. Once they mastered this song in smaller groups, the students came together as one large class to play, and boy was it loud! The booming sounds of the drums mixed with the soft shaking rhythms of the maracas was wonderful to hear.

After playing their instruments, the Eagles continued practicing their voices. They participated in vocal exercises and continued learning the sounds of solfège. At the end of the day on Monday, the eagles were introduced to the sign-up sheet for the individual student performances starting next session – everyone is excited to share their gifts!

On Thursday, the Eagles were treated to another incredible Hero's Journey presentation. Mr. Dan Barrett (founder of Rubicon Artist Development) came to Acton Academy to share his story as a music producer in Austin. As a passionate musician and music teacher himself, Mr. Barrett's story of finding his way to his calling was inspiring. He talked his experience obtaining a degree in music as well as the struggles he faced and the joy he found along the way. Mr. Barrett left the Eagles with these important lessons learned:

• Be a finisher.

• Keep your humor and be happy.

• Do the thing you like to do.

• Overcome your fear of math - or whatever fear gets in the way of what you're trying to do.

• When you have a good mentor, trust them. No one can do it alone. Get help from people you trust.

After the presentation, the Eagles finished this session in music with a large, loud, energetic dance party!

Only at Acton does the gift of a snack turn into an entirely student-initiated, student-direction mini-project. To celebrate the end of the session, one of the Eagles brought in a barrel of round cheese puffs to share with his classmates. Instead of just setting it out, however, a group of students decided to invite the class to guess just how many puffs were in the container. Students used various methods of estimation, including one student who measured the height of the container, divided that by the height of one puff, and then multiplied that by the number of puffs he thought were in a layer. As they were making their guesses, someone asked, “What do you get if you win?” “Pride!” answered another student. After everyone had submitted their guess, the contest organizer spent their free time counting the booty – over one thousand puffs – and then distributed them evenly into 33 piles, reserving a larger pile for the winner. These children really know how to make everything in life more fun!

After an exciting, productive morning of building on Friday, students took time in the afternoon to write thank you notes to all the heroes who have inspired us and shared their time with us this session. From the parents who spent a day with them at the Alamo and parents who have come in to help with P.E., music, and project time, to running coach and Gazelle Foundation founder Gilbert Tuhabonye, to musician Jimi Calhoun, to music producer Dan Barrett, to master builders Ross Henderson and Matt Elliot, to the Middle School speech writers, the students had so much gratitude to share. As always, they approached the afternoon of note writing with joy, taking time to make the notes both thoughtful and beautiful. After brainstorming a long list of notes to write – including one to their tour guide at the Alamo, “Mr. John” who we will have to track down – students each claimed a note to write. Writing a note was completely optional, but every student wrote one.

They also wrote notes to three of their classmates who had their last day at Acton Academy on Friday. To wish them off on their Heroes’ Journeys, Mrs. Sandefer read the class Dr. Seuss’s Oh, the Places You’ll Go! The three departing students each shared one of the valuable lessons they learned at Acton that they will take with them for the rest of their lives: perseverance, problem-solving, and courage. Their friends then went around and each shared one word to describe what they cherish about them and thanked them for all they have brought into our lives. We are so fortunate to have such difficult goodbyes.

Week 30 

Work on the designing and building project began this week with a hero’s journey story from carpenter Matt Elliott, who shared that one of his biggest challenges is not to be too much of a perfectionist, because when making things, there is always more you can do, and if you strive too much for perfection, you will never get anything done. After confiding that he was very nervous to come speak to the class, he also challenged the Eagles to be courageous and not to let fear stand in their way of doing anything. As he told his story, students passed around different grits of sandpaper, looked through photos of a few of his projects from start to finish, and felt the difference between an unfinished piece of wood, a sanded piece of wood, and an oiled piece of wood, inspiring many of the groups to include room in their budgets for sandpaper and finishing oil. 

After facing challenging questions and feedback sessions with the approval board, all eight groups successfully got through the pitching and approval process this week! The final items approved to be built: a family board (combination white board calendar and bulletin board), a scooter, a pair of chairs that Velcro together to become a bench, a mini foosball table, a chair with drawers under the seat, a glass-topped bookshelf coffee table, a handmade checkers board, and a mailbox.

Much time was spent on the Home Depot website creating final shopping lists, making sure the exact right materials were available in store and within budget. Several students went through the safety certification process for working with saws, electric screwdrivers, and drills. By the end of Friday, Eagles were busily sawing, sanding, and drilling!

This week in Music the Eagles continued to merge the visual arts and music by building their instruments. On Monday, they started the day practicing rhythm with "hambone" follow-the-leader. Inspired by last week's hero's journey presentation by Mr. Jimi Calhoun, who told us stories of "hambone" competitions, the Eagles tried something a bit different -- they expressed how they were feeling through rhythm, using their bodies as instruments, and the rest of the class followed. After the warm-up game, they got to work finishing their instruments. Those working on the maracas added a few more layers of wet newspaper, while the drummers started painting their drums.

On Thursday the Eagles started the day practicing voice. This time, the eagles played "vocal" follow-the-leader. Each eagle expressed how they were feeling that day using only sounds, no words. After making their sound (with or without movement) the rest of the class would follow. After the warm-up the Eagles entered the final stages of instrument building. Some students added final layers to their papier-mâché maracas, others painted their instruments, and many of the drummers began wrapping their drums with tape. The classroom was alive with excitement as the Eagles started hearing rhythm and music come from the instruments that they created.

With the end of the session near and new students coming to join our class in just a week, we took time on Friday to revisit the Student Contract and the boundaries that govern our community.

The Student Contract is written and signed by the students each fall. It is a commitment to being on a Hero’s Journey. Each line of the contract describes an important part of this commitment, reminding the students of ways they can strive to lead their lives, ways that make their lives more than just living day to day, but truly living a Hero’s Journey. The students all make the same commitment, but know that there are many different paths they can take. They know that sometimes they may stumble and need a hand, or stop to rest, or even get turned around and go the wrong way for a bit. The contract represents the way we aspire to lead our lives. Each year students recommit to this, and throughout the year, the contract is referenced and efforts to live by it are acknowledged and celebrated.

In addition to the contract which represents this path we aspire to travel, there are two, simple boundaries that ensure a safe and productive environment for everyone and a clear consequence for crossing them. One: If a student intentionally distracts another student in the learning environment, they are asked to leave the group. Two: If a student intentionally harms another student physically or emotionally, they are asked to leave the group. Separation from the group may be just a few minutes or it may be longer depending on the situation. If the behavior is repeated, the student will speak with a guide, and if it happens a third time, the student be asked to leave school for a day, or longer if they need it, and come back when they are ready to fully commit to the boundaries.

The goal of both the contract and the boundaries is to create an environment and community that supports each student on their Hero’s Journey. After reviewing these, Ms. Kaylie took the opportunity to share a little bit about her own Hero’s Journey in education and then told the students about the next step she will take on this journey once the school year ends this summer. Next year, she will not be a guide in the classroom, but will be working on helping other people start schools like Acton Academy. She will still be working at Acton, but Ms. Anna, Ms. Samantha, and Ms. Terri will be guiding the elementary students. She told the students that by taking control over their education and being part of an experimental program, they are changing the world. There are people all over the country that want to come watch them learn. Ms. Kaylie thanked her students for the incredible opportunity to share the amazing work they are doing with others who want to make it possible for more students to have a similar experience.

Week 29

It’s hard to believe we are already two-thirds of the way through this session! What a wonderful week at Acton Academy. This week presented the eagles with three unique opportunities to be members of an audience. In preparation for these learning experiences, the eagles participated in a discussion about what it means to be a respectful audience. They were asked to imagine themselves as performers and to imagine what a respectful audience looks like. They offered insightful guidelines that included: Sit up straight, listen actively, try not to fiddle, stay quiet and stay engaged. Since the eagles are often complimented on their stellar conduct as an audience, they used their experience and empathy to participate in an honest conversation on what we as a community can do to always ensure that our amazing guests feel welcome.

On Tuesday during Project Time and on Thursday during Music, the eagles listened to inspiring Hero’s Journey presentations. Following the presentation on Thursday, they ventured to the ZACH Theater where they watched a magical performance of The Little Mermaid, directed by their wonderful Process Drama Guide, Mr. Nat Miller.

The Acton Academy Art Show was certainly a highlight this week. After 12 weeks of hard work and dedicated, loving guidance from Ms. Zoey, the Eagles proudly (and bravely) displayed their works of art for the community, which included dragons, totems and masterpieces. On Wednesday the Elementary School was transformed into an art gallery- complete with hor d’oeuvres and classical music. The guests marveled at the exhibition of bright colors and the diverse artistic expression.

Project time this week kicked off with Ross Henderson sharing his hero’s journey to become a builder. After going to school to study theater and then working as a software and web application developer for years, Ross decided to change his life in a big way – to do what he wanted to do – what gave him joy – instead of what he thought he was supposed to do. After working unhappily for years, he took a month off from his job to do some renovations on his house and found he enjoyed building so much that he never went back to his old job. Ross shared his gratitude for the guidance he’s received from his building mentor, as well as photos of a few of his projects. As he explained the tools from his tool belt, he talked about personal injuries and demonstrated tool safety.

With a fresh perspective on the tools they might need to build their final products, the eagles got back to work on their models and preparing their pitches. By Friday, most teams were done or almost done with their models and two groups were ready to pitch for class approval!

Creative Conscience went first, pitching their portable fire pit and their family board. The Tinkerers followed by pitching their aqua garden, their earth table, and their two-person scooter. The family board and the scooter were both approved by the class. These teams now need to decide whether to go forward with their approved ideas or to attempt to re-pitch their other ideas after answering the questions posed and/or making changes to their models.

Great questions posed by the pitch approval committee (the class): How much will that cost to build? How big is that? There aren’t that many places in a house where a board that size could fit into a corner – have you considered making it flat instead of bent at a right angle? Do you think that table will be strong enough if you hold it together with superglue? How heavy is that much dirt? How do you steer that? Is that safe?

In our work to maintain a supportive community, we played an arm wrestling point game as a reminder of the win-win approach (ask your eagle to describe his or her strategy to get the most points) and we reflected on this quote by Charles Darwin: “In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” At the end of project time on Friday, eagles voted on which of these they used more during project time. The final vote tally? Collaboration: 19, Improvisation: 10.

The Eagles started this week in Music by discussing why humans create and listen to music. As music is such an integral part of the human experience, the students were asked, “Is music more of an individual experience and a form of self-expression, or, is it more of a community experience, created to bring people together?” After some thought and a brief discussion, the eagles moved on to their daily vocal exercises where they practiced solfege by singing together in rounds.

After their vocal exercises, the eagles began building their beautiful instruments. With the help of three wonderful parent volunteers, the classroom was alive with papier-mache, power drills, and woodwork. With the first phase complete, they will spend the next two music classes finalizing their drums and maracas.

During the Music Quest on Thursday, the community had the privilege of welcoming an inspiring hero, Mr. Jimi Calhoun, to present his hero’s journey. A cousin of Charlie Parker, Mr. Calhoun grew up in a musical family. He shared stories of his search for the instrument he would most like to play. After trying quite a few, he came to love the bass guitar. When he was just 15 years old he started practicing his bass guitar for eight hours per day- he approached it like a full-time job. Mr. Calhoun discussed the relationship between complexity and simplicity and how mastering an instrument involves the art of doing something difficult in a simple way. Mr. Calhoun then played music for the eagles who practiced keeping rhythm by clapping- we were captivated by the incredible sound coming from his bass guitar.

The Eagles finished the week by listening to a story about Miles Davis and Mr. Jimi Calhoun’s cousin, Charlie Parker, called Lookin’ for Bird in the Big City.

Week 28

It was another full, focused, fun week at Acton Academy with students working hard on individual goals, playing joyfully, brainstorming ideas together, starting a music quest, and hearing another incredible story from a local hero.

Before making the final touches on team covenants for project time, eagles participated in a teambuilding activity called "Ain't No Flies" to consider what it means to have a win-win mentality and how this type of perspective might help their group work together to achieve their goals (see a video of a group being led through this activity here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIg8zz0anYc). At the end of project time, students shared examples of when they noticed their classmates using a win-win mentality. Some of the examples that were brought up included: teammates making compromises, teammates sharing materials, and groups finding ways to include all members of their team in their task.

All groups successfully completed the brainstorming challenge this week and moved on to develop some of their ideas. By Thursday, the classroom had fully transformed into a workshop with the eagles busy building working models of their top two or three ideas. Some of the models in progress include: a globe table, a scooter, a fire pit, a "family" board (a calendar, announcement, calendar board), a closet-bed, an aqua garden, a birdhouse, a glass-topped photo/memento table, and a bookshelf-chair.

On Thursday, we also introduced the new system for safety certification for some of the tools we are using during the modeling phase of this project, specifically box cutters, glue guns, and hammers. Teams each selected one member to go through each certification process, which involved memorizing the "hard and fast" safety rules and successfully demonstrating the safe way to use the tools. Students must earn their safety certification for a specific tool before they may use that tool as they build.

While the certification workshops were in session, other team members began researching prices and availability of the materials needed for their final products to make sure their ideas will be realistic to build within budget. Once their models are complete, they will need to prepare pitches (including information on their budgets and materials and whether or not it will be realistic/possible to actually build their idea) in order to gain approval to begin building their final product.

On Monday the Eagles kicked off their first week of the Acton Academy Music Quest! The week began with a performance by Ms. Samantha, where she stunned the class with her beautiful, powerful operatic voice. After watching Ms. Samantha sing, the Eagles discussed fear and public performance. They were asked to imagine they were on stage ready to perform and then to imagine they were on stage ready to give a speech. The Eagles discussed which scenario would be scarier for them. The group brainstormed ideas as to why public performance is a great fear for many people. After the discussion, the Eagles were given a preview to the exciting plans for the next ten weeks where they will have the opportunity to explore music as a group and as an individual.

The Eagles then began learning about their voices. They felt their own diaphragms and participated in breathing exercises to familiarize themselves with the power of their voice. After the breathing exercises came the vocal exercises – something they will work on every other class to strengthen their voices and to express themselves. In addition to the breathing exercises, the students were introduced to solfège (do re mi fa so la ti do) with a brief explanation and a wonderful clip from the Sound of Music.

In this Music Quest, when the Eagles are not learning about voice, they will be learning about rhythm. They started this week with a movement activity where they stood in a circle and walked heel-to-toe, tip-toed, marched, or skipped to the beat, depending on the tone played on the piano. Ms. Samantha found the piano playing quite challenging, but the Eagles took to the movement very quickly! This will be part of the curriculum each week to help the Eagles learn about how they move as a group.

At the beginning of Music on Thursday, the students were shown a piece of sheet music, watched and listened as someone played a rhythm using only their hands, and listened to a clip of a bird singing. The group then discussed: "Which one of these things is music?" This prompted an interesting and important discussion amongst the Eagles as to what music means to each of us and how different it can be from one person to the next.

In the spirit of rhythm, the Eagles watched two clips from the music performance by the percussion group, Stomp. The clips showed the artists creating music using items such as match boxes and pipes. The Eagles then gathered into four groups to learn the "cup game" with Ms. Kaylie, Ms. Anna, Ms. Terri, and Ms. Samantha each facilitating a group. This game involves rhythm, patience and team work as cups are passed around the circle using a particular clapping rhythm.

At the end of the week the Eagles watched a clip from Landfill Harmonic – a movie that follows a group of young musicians living in the slums of Paraguay. Their instruments are all made of recycled garbage and they sound incredible (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/405192963/landfill-harmonic-inspiring-dreams-one-note-at-a-t). This movie inspired an idea to create our own instruments at Acton Academy.

This week, we had the great privilege to welcome Gilbert Tuhabonye to our campus to share his inspirational Hero’s Journey story with us. A life-long passion for running wove its way through his fascinating tale that started in the small African country of Burundi with Gilbert running two miles down and back up a mountain each morning for water and led him to Austin, Texas where he is head of Gilbert’s Gazelles, an elite running group, and co-founder of Run for the Water, an annual race that raises money and awareness for clean water systems in his home country and other areas of need.

The students were deeply moved by his story and its message to find joy in what you do, take full advantage of your opportunities, and have deep gratitude for your life. Later in the week, they came back together and mapped out Gilbert’s Hero’s Journey, talking about different people and events in his life using the language of call to action, challenges, achievements, fears, goals, guides, and returning home. Some of their individual reflections were:

• I think a challenge was running five miles to school and back every day. I don’t think I could do that. I learned from that experience to never give up and have courage every day.

• Gilbert’s coach was a big guide for him because he guided Gilbert to work really hard and to improve his running. I learned that guiding is something I want to do more.

• One of Gilbert’s challenges was growing up in Burundi. From Gilbert’s experiences in such a challenging place to live, I am going to take away that if I am ever struggling somewhere in my life, I will stay strong and help the community be happy.

• One of Gilbert’s achievements was co-founding the Gazelle Foundation and Run for the Water. From his experience, I learned that one idea can change the world and that you can use what you are good at to serve a good cause.

• One of Gilbert’s calls to action was the fire experience. From his experience, I learned that calls to action are not always positive.

• Gilbert got water for his family every morning and that makes me feel guilty of all the things I whine about; for example, if I don’t get the front seat when it’s my turn! They don’t even have cars! Now I understand and I can apply it to my life!!!

• One of Gilbert’s goals was to get a scholarship to a U.S. school. I learned that no matter how hard a goal is, it’s possible to achieve if you work hard enough.

• One of Gilbert’s achievements was winning a race without any shoes. I should be thankful for what I have.

• One of Gilbert’s achievements was getting a scholarship at Abilene Christian University. From his experience, I learned to follow my dreams.

• One of Gilbert’s fears was the 1993 war. I learned to carry on with life.

• One of Gilbert’s challenges was escaping from the fire. That makes me want to be more brave.

Week 27

It was a great week at Acton Academy.

Parents have reported unprecedented excitement from their children about the new project which began this week. Students went home full of ideas and stories, and many continued to brainstorm, design, tinker, and create at home. This is the kind of unofficial, self-assigned homework that we hope not having assigned homework allows.

The first week of the design and building project began by investing a lot of time in setting up several new systems for working together in teams and students taking over most of the responsibilities and choices during project time.

To help organize teams, we began a new system of individual roles within groups. In their teams, Eagles decided who would take on the responsibility of: facilitator (discussion leader and conflict negotiator), tick-tock doc (time-keeper and in charge of keeping the group focused and on task), CRO (Chief Resource Officer), Envoy (group messenger/representative), and Negativity Converter (energy monitor and in charge of keeping spirits high).

Groups also went through the process of writing team covenants - commitments they are making to each other in order to work together successfully towards a common goal and to hold each other accountable for their choices and actions.

Finally, to begin building team spirit, communication, and cooperation, we did several team building and problem-solving activities. Each team built a machine out of their bodies to deliver a roll of duct tape successfully from one point to another. In teams of 4, 8, and even 17, they figured out how to release the sticky positive energy from a positive energy releaser (a roll of duct tape) by all touching the releaser at the same exact time while simultaneously not touching anyone else in the group. And, as armless aliens, they figured out how to pass the secrets of the universe (a roll of duct tape) to everyone in their group by using only their feet.

While all of this teambuilding was happening, Eagles also began the first stage of the actual designing and building process: brainstorming. They tackled the great brainstorming challenge, with each group determined to come up with at least 25 ideas of items they could build that would help to build community at either a home or a school.

Part of this project is figuring out how to work within certain constraints (a limited budget, working on a team), so one question we addressed this week was whether creativity comes from constraints or freedom. Some responses:

• "I think creativity comes from freedom because during the first project time we were given two challenges. The first one, we had freedom; the second one, we had several constraints. I was able to be more creative when I was given freedom; constraints limited my creativity."

• "I think creativity comes from constraints except for time, because this week during project time, we had different constraints, and one of them was you had thirty seconds to do it, and that didn't allow our group to be creative."

• "I think creativity comes from constraints. My example is with my team at Project Time. We did cooler things with more rules."

• "Creativity comes with constraints. When we passed around the duct tape, our team got really creative even though we had to pass it with our feet."

• "I think that creativity comes from constraints because with freedom it's so easy to do anything because there are so many materials."

•  "I think creativity comes from freedom because if you have freedom, you are free to do anything. If you have constraints like a time limit, you think a lot more about how much time you have than what you are supposed to do."

• "Creativity comes from freedom. That happened in project time brainstorming."

• "Creativity comes from freedom because when you have constraints they might stop you from doing what you want to do."

Some of the highlights of project time this week were: writing the team's covenant and getting the team settled so that things will run smoothly from here on out; brainstorming ideas for what to build; and figuring out how to pass the roll of duct tape with no arms.

After last week's experimentation with guides not answering any questions, this week we put into place a new system for questions: 3B4G and the Question Board. Before asking a guide a question, students must consult at least three of the four Bs: Brain, Buddy, Board (whiteboard or question board), or Blink (book or link online). Eagles may write a question on the Question Board and any student who knows the answer can write their name next to the question so that everyone in the class knows they may use him or her as a resource.

With all of the excitement of the project, students also worked hard to finish their artwork which will be on display in the classroom the afternoon of May 8th. They have greatly enjoyed their time with Ms. Zoey this year, exploring their creative energy while drawing and painting to stories and music.

Students also got deeply into their individual work, with longer periods of Core Skills each day. A new format for Running Team meetings has them meeting just twice each week. On Mondays they meet to set goals for the entire week. They coach each other to set goals that are both challenging and balanced. At the end of the week, they reconvene to discuss their progress and share successes from the week. When setting weekly goals, students ask themselves: What would make this a successful week? It is a new challenge that requires thinking ahead and planning their time carefully.

In recognition of Earth Day on Monday, students discussed personal habits that affect the environment and some committed to changing a habit in order to reduce their environmental impact.

We also celebrated three of our Eagles completing another incredible revolution around the sun with stories, photographs, a year-by-year history of favorite books, and delicious treats including homemade orange-cinnamon-ginger popsicles and decadent chocolate pudding.

We were also treated to two vicarious international trips with students presenting on their Spring Break travel. Our youngest Eagle stood up in front of her classmates and shared images, stories, and beach-combing treasures from her family’s trip to Mexico. Another student took us on a tour of India and Dubai, sharing stories of her experiences, as well as some history from the areas she visited.

We finished the week with another trip of sorts – in cinematic history. The students earned an afternoon movie by filled up their “lessons learned” jar in History last trimester. Friday afternoon, students giggled in unison as they watched Charlie Chaplin star in the almost century-old silent film The Gold Rush.

Week 26

The third trimester is off to a fun, focused, energy-filled start. We started the session by introducing new language borrowed from Acton Academy Guatemala where they discuss the phases of a student’s progress towards independent learning with the terms: nesting, first flight, and soaring. We talked about the school year mimicking these phases with more structure at the beginning of the year and less student choice, gradually moving towards less structure and greater freedom. During this last third of the school year, students have shown that they are able to make responsible choices for themselves, and are now free to “soar”. We no longer have special times in the schedule designated as Writers’ Workshop or Math Power Hour. Instead students have a longer period of individual work time each day when they are responsible for their own time.

Instead of setting small daily goals, students began this week setting 3 – 5 goals that they will work on throughout the week. Each day, they have the freedom to choose which goal they work on, but the responsibility to make progress on these goals each week. Their Running Teams will continue to hold them accountable to their goals in weekly student-facilitated meetings. Students also set new Excellence Goals this week which they will work on for the next six weeks. Many students spent time over the break looking through their portfolios and reflecting on their year so far. They came in on Monday already having decided what their Excellence Goal was going to be.

As soaring Eagles this trimester, students are working on seeking out answers to their own questions and relying less on guides. We played a game this week to help train the guides not to answer unnecessary questions from students. Ms. Terri, Ms. Anna, Ms. Samantha, and Ms. Kaylie started the week with a punch card that had twelve question marks on it. Each time a student caught them answering a question, they punched out on of the question mark. At the end of the week, if the teachers were left with no question marks, the students would win the game. However, at the end of the day, after the classroom had been cleaned, the teachers had the opportunity to earn bonus question marks if they found things that the students had neglected to clean up. In the last minutes of the day, at the end of the week, the guides had one remaining question mark…until Ms. Kaylie answered a question. The students erupted in cheers, having won the game. 

We were treated to another incredible hero’s story – this time from Acton MBA’s Steve Tomlinson. He talked about growing up with three distinct passions and being conflicted about which to follow. Throughout his life, he would find happiness in a position that fulfilled one or two of his passions, but always felts an emptiness. Once he realized that he needed to be living all three of his passions, he began to open himself up to more opportunities and he was able to create a fulfilling life for himself that incorporated them all. 

The middle school students gave us two copies of the Mystery Anthology they worked on last trimester which went to print over the break. When they came in to present it to us, they each read a short passage to peak our interest. It worked! The two copies have been in constant use during work time, free time, and lunch.

This week the students celebrated a successful year of History by traveling all the way to San Antonio to see the Alamo. The younger group traveled first and braved wind, rain, and detours. The students arrived curious and ready to learn! Once they were given their audio sets and a map of the audio tour, the learning adventure began. They started outside of the mission, listening to the introduction and the history of the Alamo before the Texans arrived. The tour then took the students indoors where they saw the sanctuary and learned about the religious history of the mission. They wandered through the mission and saw where the women and children went into hiding during the siege. The Eagles explored the grounds, taking in the sights and sounds. They listened intently and asked important questions. They saw items used by the defenders of the Alamo including: dishes, the cat's eye ring given to Susanna Dickinson's daughter by William Travis, guns owned by David Crockett, and many Bowie knives. After the audio tour they went to the picnic area on the grounds where they enjoyed lunch, active playing, and a special cookie platter. On the ride back the Eagles facilitated a discussion about their experience. Despite the unfortunate weather, the Eagles were fantastic travelers with a wonderful sense of adventure. When they returned to campus, they discussed their experience in a large group and relaxed while they listened to their last History read-aloud of the year: Susanna of the Alamo. 

The older group traveled to the Alamo the next day in much friendlier weather. They started their day at the Alamo with a battlefield tour. This tour took them around the grounds and then across the street from the mission to where the walls once stood. As they wandered past shops and busy streets, the tour guide, Mr. John, asked the students to use their imagination to picture the large compound that once stood. The students came prepared with fascinating questions for the tour and they answered nearly all of the questions asked by Mr. John regarding Texas history. Following the battlefield tour, the students participated in the audio tour. Throughout the audio tour, museum volunteers commented on the curiosity and respect displayed by the Acton Eagles. They explored the mission and the grounds while listening intently to the audio tour. They observed the items on display and together they discussed the significance of each one. The Eagles also respectfully analyzed the wall that displays the names of all those who died during the siege and where they were from. For those less interested in listening to the commentary, there was plenty of detailed material to read. This group also had the opportunity to listen to a band playing the National Anthem, Deep in the Heart of Texas, and other patriotic tunes. Following the tour the students enjoyed observing the fish and wildlife at the Alamo as well as a Mexican picnic of tacos and a game of tag. On the ride back the older students participated in a discussion about their experience and how it changed them. Upon returning to Acton, Ms. Kaylie finished reading Susanna of the Alamo to wrap-up an adventurous week of learning!

This trip took our brave Eagles far away from home. With the help of our wonderful parent volunteers, we had a successful and joyful learning experience. Thank you to everyone who helped to make this trip possible!

While half the class was in San Antonio, the other half enjoyed a different day on campus. With the reduced class size, students spent a lot of time as one big group – playing large group games on the field, eating lunch all together, and listening to stories as a group. Coach Carpenter accommodated our schedule by doing P.E. on both Thursday and Friday with the students who were on campus. With the rain pouring down outside, students did an intense workout inside, enjoying the rare opportunity to scream indoors at the top of their lungs.

Week 25

With a focus this week on assessment and reflection, students carved time out of their busy week to write about their top three heroes from the trimester, the most important lessons they learned in History, and what they want to do differently to better reach their goals next trimester. A record number of students reached or exceeded their Excellence Goals this session. Was this a result of focused effort or less ambitious goals? Students debated this and decided that it was the result of hard work, but now that they know what they are capable of, they plan to set even higher goals next session.

Students worked hard this week, and they played hard, too! For her birthday celebration, one of our oldest Eagles shared one of her favorite traditions with the class – playing Holi. After a presentation on this Hindu festival of colors, students went outside to splash water and bright, powdered color on themselves and each other.

Project time on Tuesday was spent in a mad rush of final preparations for Wednesday's mock trial. We took a look at some movie clips of scenes in which witnesses were questioned. Students considered what strategies and types of questions worked well to make a witness come across as either reliable or untrustworthy. They then got to work, splitting up into groups to play their own participation in the trial.

Attorney and witness teams for the defense and prosecution met to decide which three witnesses should be put on the stand. They brainstormed questions to ask each witness and decided who would be responsible for giving the opening statements and closing arguments, and which team members would ask the questions for direct and cross examination of each witness. 

Supporter and protester teams looked at examples of slogans, posters, and songs for peaceful protest, then created their own to use while demonstrating outside of courtroom. One of the poems recited before the trial on Wednesday morning follows: "No witches, no twitches, no bibity-bops. We don't like this feeling, it's so unappealing. We're really not witches you must understand. We just want to stand here and just shake your hand."

All of the hard work and preparation paid off in the Modern-Day Salem Witch Trial on Wednesday. The prosecution presented their case that the defendants were witches whose witchcraft was causing the sickness in the town, while the defense insisted that their clients were not witches and that the sickness was being caused by a combination of poor hygiene and bad milk. After some serious deliberation, all three parent juries concluded that the "witches" should not be hung.

Major lessons learned included:

• Maybe I want to pursue being a lawyer.

• Never give up - even when you miss something important, you can catch up and things can end up going really well.

• Don't pay too much attention to gossip.

• The power of persuasion and how to get people to do what you want.

• How to be on a team - when I missed a day, everyone gave me bits and pieces to help me come back and know what was going on.

• How to listen carefully in a trial to use a witness's testimony and throw it back at them.

On Friday morning, the entire school came together for a heroic end to this trimester’s project work. Local psychologist Steve Hagey shared his incredible story with us, highlighting the unexpected twists and turns on his Hero’s Journey and reminding us all that there is not always a clear path to our destiny.

Students then took time to reflect back on this entire project and put together contributions for their portfolios. They took a trip back through time, all the way back to January and the beginning of the Detective Science Quest. From documenting a crime scene to analyzing fingerprints and footprints, to studying mold, microbes, and bite marks; through analyzing dreams, taking care of our shadows, and conducting social psychology experiments on persuasion and mob mentality; to preparing for a mock trial and considering whether an historical event such as the Salem Witch Trials could occur today, even with modern forensics and our modern court system. What a journey this has been!

Before going on an actual trip to the Alamo after Spring Break, Eagles took an imaginary trip there this week, learning about the dedication and bravery of those who stood their ground when faced with Santa Anna's military force. They studied Santa Anna and the events leading up to the siege at the Alamo including Mexico's strict laws, the garrisons all over Texas, and the cannon at Gonzales...Come and take it! The students learned about heroes at the Alamo such as William Travis, Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, and Susanna Dickinson. They read the letter from William Travis to Governor Henry Smith appealing for help where Travis is quoted for stating, "Victory or death." The Eagles then learned about Sam Houston and the inspiring call, "Remember the Alamo!" that was heard throughout Texas. They listened to stories of Sam Houston's victory over Santa Anna and the sale of Texas to the United States. They studied the events during the years following Texas independence up to Texas joining the Union and looked at maps of the United States, Mexico, and Texas during 1836 to get an idea of just how much our country (and state) has changed. The Eagles wrapped up the session by brain-storming questions they would like to address when they visit the Alamo in person.

History and P.E. were integrated this week with a creative game invented by Ms. Samantha: "Alamo dodge ball". In this twist on the traditional game, one team has to defend a small circle of cones (aka "The Alamo"). Neither team can cross the cones, and the players are out if they get hit by a ball. The object of the game is to have the most players standing and the end of the round occurs when one team is left with no players. The team inside the Alamo (led by William Travis) must defend their fort and the team outside of the Alamo (led by Santa Anna), must surround the fort to attack the fort from all angles. The defenders of the Alamo have less than half the players of the attackers in order to properly simulate the historical ratios. The elementary students were also happy to have middle school assistant coaches on the field to help support the new game. Thank you, MS!

Students ended the trimester with a town meeting to celebrate and discuss their community, followed by a game of all-school, all-campus, capture the flag. At the end of the day, they came back inside to share highlights from the trimester which included individual accomplishments as well as school events and holidays.

Week 24 

So far on the psychology quest, Eagles have explored the inner world of dreams, the subconscious, and the shadow self, then moved on to take a look at the world of human interactions, considering how psychology concepts may explain some aspects of social behavior. 

Our quest concludes by looking at a specific historical event through the lens of psychology: The Salem Witch Trials.  Could an event such as the Salem Witch Trials occur today, even with all of the modernization that has taken place within our society, specifically in forensic science and our court system?  Does the past determine the future?

Monday started out with a Salem Witch Trial role play game - a more complex version of the Prisoner’s Dilemma.  Students had to choose whether to accuse their neighbors of being witches or risk being accused themselves.  After the game, we conducted two more psychology experiments, raising the ideas of stereotypes, confirmation bias, and belief perseverance.  We discussed how these concepts could help us understand peoples' behavior in the Salem Witch Trials.

On Wednesday, through the magic of process drama, Eagles were transported to Modern-Day Salem.  Students developed their characters and the town came to life.  Before long, people started getting sick and accusations were made.  The town square filled with announcements:

• From Tweedle De: "Everyone is sick!  I am getting worried.  If you have visited the medicine woman, be careful, you are cursed!"

• From Mallory: "I am having hallucinations, coughing, and fever."

• From Hope: "Adjimp is acting weird.  Tweedle De has been selling colored milk.  I think it's very suspicious."

• Isaac posted a drawing of his dream, portraying a witch stirring a potion and saying, "I'm a chicken.  Walmart.  Walmart."

A town meeting was held to determine what was going on.  The townspeople created a list of all the afflicted and all the suspected witches.  Attorney teams were formed to defend and prosecute.  The process drama session ended to chants of "Witch!  Witch!  Witch!" 

On Friday, after learning a bit about the court system and trial process, citizens of Salem chose sides and developed forensic evidence to help prove their side of the case in court.  A recipe list for a potion was submitted for handwriting analysis, fingerprints on a bottle of potion were dusted and tested, and eyewitness accounts of suspicious events were recorded.  Once the evidence was collected, attorneys began writing opening statements for their cases, while townspeople - sick, afflicted, and supporters of one side or the other - began writing their witness statements.

Next Wednesday, each team will present their case before a jury of their parents.  Are the afflicted really sick or are they pretending?  Are the witches guilty of causing the sickness or is there another reason they are sick?  Are the witches actually the victims in this case - innocently charged with a crime they have not committed?  We'll have to wait and see how it all plays out in court!

This week in History the students spent one final day in England before moving on to Mexico where they began preparing for their Alamo adventure. In England, they studied James Watt and the steam engine. First, they learned about what life was like in an English village before the steam engine was invented, including the processes of welding, sheep shearing, and spinning wool.  They then learned how a steam engine works and how life changed once it was introduced to the market. The students also studied an important part of the steam engine: Coal. They heard stories of life in the coal mine and how coal was transported all over England and then eventually to North America. After learning about the steam engine, Eagles studied another inventor and his invention: Eli Whitney and the cotton gin. As with their studies of the steam engine, the students learned about what life was like before this invention. They learned about the long process of picking and cleaning cotton as well as how the cotton gin advanced when the steam engine was incorporated to make the invention even more efficient. While studying Eli Whitney, the students learned about his problem-solving ways and how he introduced the idea of standardization to America through the standardization of guns. At the end of this class the students were asked: As you look to the future, where do you see your place in history? Do you see yourself as an explorer like Lewis or Clark? Or do you see yourself as an inventor like Eli Whitney or James Watt? Why?

The students finished History this week by traveling to Mexico to study Mexican Independence and the revolt against Spain. While eating a treat of warm corn tortillas with agave nectar and cinnamon, the students listened to stories of Don Miguel of Dolores and to the "The Cry of Dolores." They learned about Don Miguel's fight against the Spanish, how he started as a priest and then officially became Captain General Miguel Hidalgo of the New Spain Army. The students learned about the city Guanajuato and Don Miguel Hidalgo's retreat at Mexico City. They also studied Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon, Agustin de Iturbide, and learned about the Mexican Constitution. The younger students wrapped-up the class by listening to the Mexican tale, The Signing Toad. The older students wrapped-up the week by discussing the retreat at Mexico City and were asked: If you were Don Miguel, would you have continued on to Mexico City, knowing that your men would kill innocent people? Or, would you have retreated, knowing that you would be putting your men at risk?"

With excitement building as the project moves towards its courtroom culmination and history sessions prepare students for a day-long field trip to the Alamo, students continued to work hard on their individual academic goals.  Several students completed levels in ALEKS this week, many finished ambitious reading goals, and all worked on drafting, revising, or editing their current writing pieces with the help of their parent writing mentor.  We also made time for Socratic discussions surrounding shared readings.  After finishing The Little Prince, each student drew their own planet that the little prince would have visited next and shared their images with each other.  As with all the planets in the book, the characters they invented were locked in ironic, unfulfilling cycles.  The articles in this week’s student-facilitated discussions had students debating the moral and environmental implications of hunting, as well as the economic and efficiency trade-offs of airport security measures.

In a rare instance of homework, students were asked to answer the following questions:  What are your gifts and passions?  What is one important lesson you have learned about yourself this year?  How do you want to change the world?  The answers to these questions will be assembled into a year book for students and families to enjoy.

Week 23

This week in history the Eagles traveled first to Haiti, and then across the western United States. While in Haiti, the students learned about the Haitian revolution. They studied the geography of Haiti as well as the history of the slaves and the aristocrats on the island, Hispaniola (then called St. Domingue). They learned about the life and leadership of Toussaint L'Ouverture, the power struggle with Napoleon Bonaparte, as well as the necessity and the brutality of the revolt. The students then listened to a modern story of life in Haiti titled, Selavi, a Haitian Story of Hope. The older students studied the state of modern-day Haiti including the devastation caused by the earthquake in 2010. They heard statistics on items such as life expectancy, homelessness, and population. This allowed them to gain a better understanding of how Haiti has developed over the past 200 years. The students were asked, "Are the French obligated to provide aide to Haiti given their history?" Following this discussion, the group then talked about rebuilding Haiti and what it would take. To prompt this discussion, the students were asked, "When a weak country is destroyed by a natural disaster, which is the most important task in rebuilding: job creation, education development, or rebuilding infrastructure?"

The next stop on their historic journey this week took the students west of The Mississippi River on an expedition with Lewis and Clark. The students learned about the individual histories of these explorers and how they were chosen for this important task by Thomas Jefferson. They listened to tales of cold winters, hunger, fear, new friends, reunions, and bravery. Following the story of Lewis and Clark, the students learned about what happened after the expansion west and about a Shawnee named Tecumseh who built up a resistance against the new white settlers. Students were asked, "Would you rather be an explorer by sea like Captain Cook, or by land like Lewis or Clark?" To help the students imagine they were explorers themselves, they then went on a small-scale expedition around the Acton Academy campus. With fresh eyes, they explored their familiar space, each looking for one thing they had never noticed before. After the exploration, the students returned to the yurt and shared what they had found. To wrap-up this class and to begin moving into the final weeks of history, the class addressed the overarching question of the Acton Academy History curriculum: Why do some civilizations rise, while others fall? They discussed this question by looking at leadership and discussing, "Does the success of a civilization depend more on the population or on the leaders?"

This week the psychology focus shifted from individual exploration to social psychology. In teams of four, Eagles conducted a series of experiments on their classmates. They recreated one of Solomon Asch’s conformity experiments and tested the power of the foot in the door and the door in the face methods of persuasion, as well as the primacy effect. After all the results were in, Eagles watched videos and read articles about the original experiment results. This was followed by a discussion of which concepts were most important for their life and the upcoming Salem Witch Trial.

On Tuesday, Eagles were given, at random, a red or orange bandana with no explanation except to wear them all week. Immediately teams formed. Groups who often played together during free time formed separate teams. Sports games became red vs. orange. Red and orange lunch tables were formed. Color chanting began.

On Friday the Eagles were asked to complete a simple task of allotting $10 between ten random people that had either red or orange by their name. 41% chose to give more money to people who shared their bandana color. To wrap up the red/orange experiment, Eagles discussed how quickly they formed groups for no real reason and the differences they noticed since getting bandanas. Why did their behavior change? What are positive aspects of group identity? How can it be negative? How can groups of friends exclude others? What makes good people do bad things?

To bring everyone back together, Eagles wrote their greatest lesson learned on their bandana and, one at time, read it aloud as they tied their bandana onto a rope. The bandanas resemble prayer flags and are now proudly displayed outside the class symbolizing their unity as one group of Acton Eagles.

Greatest lessons learned included:

• No matter what team you are on, don’t exclude anyone.

• One small thing can turn into a big thing.

• People can form a very strong sense of identity in only two days.

• People will discriminate against others over very little things.

• It doesn’t matter what you wear or what you look like, we’re all one big community.

Despite the segregation initiated by the red and orange bandanas, students had a strong week community-wise. A productive and respectful Town Meeting had students finding solutions to some of the tensions and conflicts that arise when people live and work together. The 5th graders held several lunch meetings this week on their own to plan a special event as they move towards their final trimester of Elementary school. Throughout the year, they take on more and more responsibility as leaders within the classroom, and with this comes the privilege to plan special events and activities. They are taking the planning part of this seriously, and we will all soon see what they come up with. It is not just the oldest students that enrich the class. This week, students were treated to a violin serenade by one of their youngest peers which they met with standing ovation. And the week ended with a joyous birthday celebration celebrating eight years of life for another of our fabulous Eagles.

The newspaper articles selected by students this week had them making difficult decisions. With whales trapped under thickening ice competing for limited resources with commercial boats, the student facilitator asked students if they were the person in charge of dispatching the only ice breakers in the area, would they send them to save the ships or the whales. After students came up with creative solutions to make both possible and rationalized the best order, she turned up the heat. What if you could only save one or the other? What if there were 20 whales and 6,000 people on the boats? What if it was the last 20 whales in the world? What if your family was on the boat? Her next question put students in the shoes of a villager where the whales were trapped. Would you risk your life to try and save the whales yourself? (The article had mentioned this happening successfully in the past in other places.) What if there was a 90% chance you would die in the process? What if there was only a 10% chance of saving the whales?

In an article about the influence of technology on the job market, the student facilitator led the group through a decision chain weighing the pros and cons of allowing robots to replace humans. After a powerful debate, he left his peers with the question: What does it mean to be human? In the younger group, The Little Prince had us asking similar philosophical questions as the pint-sized protagonist traveled from planet to planet meeting strange characters such as a king with no subjects and geographer with no explorers to inform him.

No tech free time continues to be a big hit despite the initial opposition. Even those students who continue to choose computer activities when those are an option admit being happy that they are not during most free times, as this gets them outside which they enjoy. With the sun shining this week, students played large games of tag across the entire campus. Creativity with the wood blocks continued as well, with see-saws, balance beams, huts, and slides constructed and destructed each daily.

Week 22

Our new writing mentorship program is off to a great start after this first success week. Each of the twelve parent volunteers spent an hour and half in the classroom this week working one-on-one with two or three students. Some will return next week for in-person meetings, while others will communicate with their mentees via email. Students will be building their email writing skills while receiving feedback on their writing before meeting again in person the following week. In addition to the work with their mentors, students have the opportunity each day to sign up to share works in progress with a small group of peers to get feedback as they continue to write and revise. They all experienced this process in the first half of year, with groups facilitated by a guide, and are now able to give and receive feedback in this way without a facilitator.

Motivated by their meetings, students spent lots of their core skills time writing this week. They also continued to learn and practice math skills, read great books, and work on their Excellence Goals. At the end of the week, in addition to reflecting on when they felt in their comfort zone, their challenge zone, and their panic zone throughout the week, students also choose one thing they want to start, one thing they want to stop, and one thing they want to continue doing in order to reach their goals. They do this about once a month, and this week, in particular, they were asked to contemplate: Is there anything you are doing that you do not need to be doing?

In Project Time this week our psychologists started out diving deep into their minds by practicing Active Imagination, a technique developed by Carl Jung. They began by debating a moral dilemma: If you find a wallet with $100 in it, should you keep it for yourself, turn it all in, or keep half and turn in the other half? This debate led to a discussion of the voices in our heads and all the characters inside of us. With Active Imagination, students had the opportunity to go into their minds and record conversations with themselves during 30 minutes of quiet time. Talking with the characters inside of us can illuminate inner struggles and help clarify thoughts. This was introduced as yet another tool for their Hero’s Journey. 

Eagles also learned about the shadow self, the place where we hide character traits, emotions, and talents. We all hide positive and negative qualities in our shadows, and as psychologists, it is important to understand our whole selves. We took the negative – dark – character traits hidden in our shadows and thought of their positive – light – counterparts. For example, lazy became relaxed. Stubborn became perseverant. Eagles then went outside to trace their real shadows and add in the dark and light traits with words or images.

To wrap up dreams and imagination work, Eagles learned about Salvador Dali and Surrealism through Exquisite Corpse, a popular creative game created by the surrealists. On a paper folded into quarters Eagles took turns drawing dream like symbols and images for five minutes. They then folded back their quarter of the page leaving an inch of their drawing showing for the next person to continue. Without looking at the previous work, the art evolved into a very surreal final piece. The Eagles then chose which aspect of their psychology they would like to explore further. They chose between dream analysis, active imagination, shadow self, dream expression through drawing or sculpture, or reading psychology books from the Project shelf.

In addition to exploring their inner worlds, students continued to explore the globe from the comfort of their yurt in History. They started the week exploring with Captain Cook, learning about his many adventures. They studied his travels to Tahiti to observe the transit of Venus and then learned about his voyage south to find the Great Southern Continent. The students heard stories of how he first found New Zealand and then landed upon Australia at Botany Bay. The students then learned about Captain Cook's final voyage to find the Northwest Passage where he ended up in Hawaii – his final stop. Following Captain Cooks adventures, the students listened to stories of Australia, England's jail. They studied Arthur Philip, the first governor of the Australian Prison colony, the English squatters, and the Aborigines. In the spirit of exploring, the students participated in a mindful eating exercise with pineapple. They pretended to be explorers who had never seen a pineapple. They took their time examining the food, smelling it, feeling it, and then tasting it. They then discussed the character traits of an explorer and were asked, "For an explorer, which is more important, curiosity, courage, or perseverance?"

The students finished this week in History by traveling once again to France to study the French Revolution. They learned about the lavish lifestyle and habits of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. They learned about the three Estates of France, the Tennis Court Oath, and the state of the country's treasury in the days leading up to the revolution. The students learned about the storming of the Bastille and Bastille Day in France. They then took their studies further by listening to stories of the years following the revolution called The Reign of Terror and the drafting of The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen.

In their Socratic discussion groups this week, the older half of the class talked about the decisions parents make when considering the balance between their careers and the families. The article that spurred this conversation was about a woman who tried out for the NFL; the question posed by the student-facilitator was: If she joined the team and then had a baby, should she be allowed back on the team? In another discussion, an article about the health risks of cellphones has students debating whether children should be allowed to use them.

The younger half of the class was treated to a performance at the ZACH theatre on the very stage they performed on in December. This time, the theatre was transformed into the famous green room from Margaret Wise Brown’s Good Night Moon and the well-loved bedtime classic was brought to life with song and dance. Students could relate to the bunny who struggled to fall asleep, distracted by everything in his room, and even the moon shining through his window. Nat Miller directed the show and will be coming to do a post-show workshop with the students in the next weeks.

The Spanish club also went on a field trip to a local retirement home with predominately Spanish-speaking residents. They sang and danced to Spanish songs for their appreciative audience. Coach Craig is also back this month for after-school Chess club.

With so much going on during the school day, we were reminded this week of some of the amazing things students do outside of school. One student brought in a functioning motor boat that he built himself and has used on Town Lake. He recapped the many steps of his process to a captive audience –from finding a design, to building, to troubleshooting. Another student took us on a magic carpet ride to India with pictures and stories from her recent trip abroad.

One of the many things that make Acton Academy such a powerful place to learn and grow is that the students feel real ownership and responsibility for their school and are constantly seeking to protect and improve how they function as a class. Recently, they have become increasingly interested in discussing and correcting each others’ personal hygiene habits. In the past few town meetings, topics such as biting nails and runny noses have come up. In a relatively gentle way, students voice their discomfort with certain habits they find unsanitary or distracting. While it is essential that students have a voice in the community and a certain level of hygiene expectations seems reasonable, I wrote a poem this week to acknowledge the concerns, but also bring some perspective to this sensitive topic, and hopefully curtail the hygiene policing.

Would you rather someone be kind or clean?

Courageous or neat? Dirty or mean?

Is it more important to clip you nails and wipe your nose,

To brush your hair and wear clean clothes;

Or to lead a journey heroic and true,

Discover your passion and how the world needs you?

The Acton Eagles, with stark certainty,

Choose strong character over surface beauty.

But in the spirit of being the best we’s we can be,

A few personal hygiene notes for you and me.

                                ***

When the weather is cold, on a runny nose day,

Use a tissue to wipe your nose drippings away.

The back of your hand is not a good substitute,

For going the soft, facial tissue route.

Once you have wiped, you can fold over the tissue

And use it again if you have not yet resolved your issue.

Then dispose of the rag and wash off your hands

Or get a small pump of sanitizer if that’s more in your plans.

Wiping works well for a nose that is runny,

Though blowing may be required if what you find is thicker – like honey.

A crusty nostril treasure or one that’s wet and gooey

Is a situation a tad bit more eww-ey.

Picking your nose is best done where no one can see you,

That way no one will even know what you do.

The same applies for scratching deep in your hear holes,

Find a nice, private place for your wax removal goals.

Cough into your elbow, cover your sneeze,

And turn your head away from others when you do, pretty please.

After eating, wipe the excess food off your face,

For leftovers in your teeth, excavate in a private place.

Biting your nails can be a hard habit to break,

A major effort is what it will take.

Pretty hands await if you can make the change,

Though caring about that, you might think is strange.

With the hot Texas sun increasing the heat,

A quick, soapy rinse before bed will keep your feet smelling sweet.

Regular trimmings to keep your toenails short and neat,

Will have you winning awards for great sandal feet.

                                ***

Just a few thoughts you might have some use for,

Though you might think this whole matter’s a bore.

Regardless of what you decide to do with these tips,

Keep empathy in mind when you open your lips.

Personal hygiene is indeed a personal matter,

And we needn’t create unnecessary chatter

About other peoples’ habits and how clean they are.

What’s on the inside, we agree, is more important by far.

Week 21

At the end of last session, students were asked to reflect on how time and space impact their productivity and happiness. They gave feedback on our daily schedule, thoughtfully considering the need for physical and mental breaks, as well as unbroken periods of time to get into flow. They also thought about what desk arrangement would be best for them. Do they work better with several peers around them or on their own? Where in the room are they most productive?

New desk arrangements and the schedule reflect their feedback. This session’s schedule includes a return to Math Power Hour followed by some free time, and then an unbroken hour and a half of Core Skills time each afternoon. The mornings are filled with either Project Time or Art and P.E., along with History and Socratic discussion groups.

Students spent much of their Core Skills time this week writing, in anticipation of the first meetings with their new writing mentors week. Each student has been paired with a parent mentor who will work with them one-on-one to help refine their writing. Students all spent time working on their new Excellence Goals as well, many of which are ambitious reading goals.

At the end of the week, they reflected in their Running Groups on the source of their motivation. What motivated you to set and accomplish stretch goals last session? Do you think your past will predict your future? In other words, do you think the same things will motivate you this session? We ended the week by each sharing one way in which we stretched ourselves this week, passing around a rubber band to represent the impact on our brains.

With Detective Training complete the Eagles were ready to launch into the next phase of training – Psychology!

In preparation for the Modern Day Salem Witch Trial, a strong background in field and lab forensics will not be enough; an understanding of the criminal mind will be crucial. As Forensic Psychologists in Training they will learn to answer tough questions. Is it really the person’s fault if he or she committed a crime? Why did they commit the crime? Was it because they were never loved as they grew up? Was it because they didn’t have access to a good school?

Before our Psychologists can understand the criminal mind, they first must explore their personal psychology. In this quest will they will explore:

• Dreams

• The Shadow Self

• Mob Mentality

Ultimately the students will drive this quest, hence our message, ‘Welcome to a study of yourself!’

This week, a foundation in Freud’s levels of the mind was introduced along with three methods of free association. Students worked in small groups, rotating through several stations. In Station 1, each student took turns responding to the previous word by saying the first word that came to mind. Station 2 followed the same concept with drawing. Each student took turns drawing for 30 seconds on a large sheet of paper. The other group members did not watch. The marker was immediately passed to the next person who responded to the drawing for another 30 seconds. Station 3 followed the same format using clay. At the end of the day, students shared which medium was best to dive into their subconscious, with clay and drawing as favorites. 

On the second day of training, the Psychologists analyzed inkblots. Students saw everything from a cow with headphones to fairies on unicycles in the inkblots. Each student recorded the images they saw. These images were described as symbols and from those they drew out possible meanings using free association. An important lesson learned was ‘how you are feeling can determine what you see’ when a student saw the Pringles Man and realized it was because she was hungry.

At the beginning of the week, each student was given a journal to keep by their beds to record dreams for later interpretation. On Friday, the Psychologists used their hard work with dream journals to start interpreting and exploring dreams. Each partner role-played being a Dream Analyst as they listened carefully and created a mind map of their partner’s dream. As a Dream Analyst, no opinions on symbols were to be shared. Only reflective questions could be asked so as to not take away the magic for the dreamer to interpret his or her own symbols. The students did an excellent job and demonstrated wonderful listening skills. After the symbols were unpacked the dream’s message was written in one sentence. Some messages were: ‘Don’t be jealous.’ ‘Trust your family members’ reactions.’ ‘Be thankful for what you have.’ “I’m ready for an adventure!’ Students then sculpted or drew images and characters from their dreams to put in the classroom Dream Gallery.

In Art, the magic continued as the mythical dragons, as diverse as their creators, continued to come to life with dreamy watercolors.

The students started History this week with a brief jump back to the 17th century to learn about the Salem Witch Trials in preparation for this session's project. They learned about the events leading up to the Trials and listened to stories about the accused women and men from the book Who Were the Accused Witches of Salem?. As both groups tried to process these tragic events, they were asked, "Who was more responsible for the atrocities that occurred: The girls who claimed they were bewitched or the jury and judges who believed them?" Many students agreed that if the girls never lied, then this would not have happened. However, using their detective backgrounds, there were quite a few Eagles who said that it was the responsibility of the court to demand real evidence. The older students listened to a description of the memorial in Salem and were read three Dr. King quotes:

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

"History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people."

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter."

After hearing the quotes they were asked, "What about those who stayed silent during the trials, were they more responsible for the atrocities than the accusers?"

The next stop on the Eagles' historic adventure brought them back on track to the 18th century where they learned about what happened after the Revolutionary War. The students heard stories of the Constitutional Convention and of the many heroes who helped to unite the original states. They learned about the basic structure of The United States Government including the Executive Branch, the Legislative Branch, and the Judicial Branch. They listened to selections from Articles I, II, III, and IV, as well as The Bill of Rights. The younger students were asked, "Imagine you are in Virginia in the year 1787. George Washington needs your help drafting and upholding the new Constitution of the United States. Would you rather write the constitution or would you rather uphold and protect it? Which is more important?" The older students dived into understanding the structure of the U.S. government by discussing this question, “Suppose the government was passing massive budget cuts and it was decided that The United States needed to get rid of an entire branch of government. Which could we afford to lose: Legislative, Executive, or Judicial?" 

To wrap-up the week, students were presented with Challenge #9: To describe 1-3 (the number depends on age) amendments in The Bill of Rights. They will continue their journey next week to Australia and Hawaii where they will study the travels of Captain Cook!

In their Socratic discussion groups, the older half of the class had lively debates about the relative merits and risks of searching for other inhabitable planets and the role of gender divisions in sports. This second discussion led to the girls challenging the boys to a soccer game during free time. The younger half of the class read and discussed Where the Wild Things Are and then shared some of their own dreams. They also talked about perspective, laughing together over the book Duck! Rabbit! and then starting a longer read aloud, The Little Prince.

With “no tech free time” on the schedule each afternoon, students spent more time outside this week. New jump ropes and chalk expanded the options, as did a pile of wood blocks – a gift from architect Tom Hatch. As a child, he first explored his calling by stacking wood scraps from a nearby construction site and creating endless structures. Students followed in his footsteps this week, building a hut and a seesaw among other things.

After doing a mini-Olympics on Monday, with the popular events of long-distance running, relay running, wiffle ball toss, and bowling, students started a new sport in P.E. – Capture the Flag. Having earned extra free time on Friday afternoon by cleaning up completely after Project Time each day this week, students took to the field to practice their new game. Despite the allowance of computers during this free time, only a couple students stayed inside. It was a fun way to end a great week.

Week 20

On Tuesday, DiTs gathered for Project Time only to discover that Detective Anna was missing! The classroom immediately became a crime scene and DiTs spread out to find and document clues: scattered berry containers, a shoe print, a discarded grocery list, a dictionary of acronyms, an empty lunch container, and some used printer toner cartridges, among other things. The suspects: the other Acton guides! Once the scene was documented and evidence cards were placed, Detective Anna's cousin Doris, a forensic lab technician, showed up to assist with the investigation. Teams divided up to interrogate the guides and determine potential motives and alibis.

On Wednesday, the investigation continued with teams of detective analyzing the fingerprint, footprint, and handwriting evidence from the crime scene. Once this evidence was analyzed, detectives checked out files for each of the suspects to compare their fingerprints, heights, and handwriting to the evidence from the scene of the crime. In no time, the teams realized all the evidence pointed toward one suspect: Ms. Kaylie! They gathered together to get a warrant for her arrest, and then proceeded to interrogate her. Under their tough questions, she finally broke down and admitted she was guilty, letting them know where (a grateful) Detective Anna was being held.

On Friday, DiTs had the option to plan out their own crime scene scenarios for each other to solve or to work independently on several interactive detective sites (check out these cool links on the Heroes and Callings page). Before they split up to work on these two options, they completed one final Official Detective Report about the crime simulation experience, reflecting on their major lessons learned. Here are a few of their lessons:

• Double-check your work - otherwise you could miss something important.

• Have an open mind when finding the culprit/suspect the unsuspected - because I thought it was Mr. Jeff, but when I analyzed the evidence, I realized it was Ms. Kaylie.

• Be mindful and consider everything at the crime scene - because a lot of things I thought were regular were actually not, and contained lots of evidence.

• If you try something new, it can help you. I learned this by trying new things to see how they work out.

• Look carefully at everything and don't rush - otherwise you may pick the wrong person and an innocent person may end up in jail.

• Have patience.

• Focus and don't mess around, stay true to yourself, and include every one of your partners.

• You should never give up on people, you should always look twice, and you can always do more.

• To get a subject to take, you need to ask good and meaningful questions.

• Pay attention to detail!

• Find the evidence before you think about who is guilty.

After three days of working hard to rescue Detective Anna and to reach their Excellence Goals, students took a break on Thursday to celebrate Valentine’s Day and the culmination of Manners Mondays, a six-week focus on basic dining etiquette that we do each year. The day started off with students seated around tables in the kitchen, which had been transformed into a fancy waffle restaurant. Chef Sam (Ms. Kaylie’s husband) returned for the fourth year in a row to make them fresh Belgian waffles. Students chose from a bounty of toppings including berries, bananas, kiwi, coconut, chocolate chips, and plenty of whipped cream. They practiced their manners while they savored their decadent breakfasts.

The sugary celebrations continued with the valentines exchange. Students sat around in a large circle and passed out their thoughtful valentines, many of which were homemade and personalized. Having indulged fully in waffles, students practiced self-discipline and delayed gratification, reading through all their valentines, but saving the sweets for after school.

This week in History, student studied important events in American history. They started off by learning about King William’s War, Queen Anne’s War, The War of Jenkins’ Ear, and The Seven Years’ War. They also learned about the early years of George Washington leading up to The Revolutionary War. Since the 17th century saw so much turmoil and many wars, the students began asking very important questions on why we fight wars, why they escalate, and many other difficult questions. To help the process of evaluating these important questions, the older students listened to an article by a Marine about the immorality of killing and the moral impacts of war. The students were then asked, "Do wars begin mainly because of fear or revenge?" Using examples from the session, the students participated in this important discussion, providing real evidence. Based on the information from the article, the students were then asked, "Can something be immoral and necessary?"

Next students studied The Revolutionary War. They learned about The Boston Massacre, The Boston Tea Party, The First Continental Congress, Paul Revere, Patrick Henry, William Dawes, Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, the crossing of the Delaware River, and everything in between! The students then listened to famous quotes on freedom and participated in a discussion about the responsibilities that come with war. They were asked, "Does freedom come with the responsibility to do no harm to others or does it come with the responsibility to actively help others?" The students wrapped-up the session by sharing their greatest lessons learned related to the question of the year and many completed Challenge #3 of the session: To map Iran, Turkey, Poland, Russia, and India.

With the totem poles complete, students started a new project in Art. Taking the drawing skills they gained in the last project, they are each creating their own mythical dragon. After doing many sketches, once they have their beast to their liking, they are using a projector to magnify the image and tracing that onto a larger piece of watercolor paper. Scales and other details are then added to the drawing before it is brought to life with watercolors. Students work at their own pace, some still doing sketches, while others are adding color.

Friday morning we started the day with Tom Hatch. Going back to his early days building structures in the backyard with large blocks of scrap wood from a nearby construction site to designing the new Acton Academy campus, “Grandpa Tom” (as the students call him) delighted us with stories of his history as an architect.

Earlier in the week, we heard from another hero within our community, Robert Watson-Hemphill, who told us about his recent trip to India. Each year, Robert and his wife leave behind the comforts of life in Austin to spend time in an impoverished community in India. They help organize medical clinics and enrichment activities for the people there. He talked to students about the work he does there, as well as some of the cultural differences. Having just visited India in History, students were able to compare stories of India several hundred years ago to India today.

We were treated to another presentation this week from the LEGO Club, a group of elementary and middle school students who have been meeting each week after school to learn how to build and program LEGO MINDSTORMS robots. Over the course of the year, they have each programmed their robots to do many tasks and they showed us some of the highlights this week. 

We ended this wonderful session by taking some time to write thank you notes to those who have done special things for us these past six weeks. Students took time brainstorming a list of people to write – including Tom Hatch, Robert Watson-Hemphill, the LEGO club, Anna’s alias Lab Technician Doris, Ms. Terri, the Kozusko Family, and the Butts Family for starting their Journeys with Acton Academy, and Ms. Samantha for taking on the challenge of leading History – and then set about writing and decorating their thoughtful notes.

Week 19

After a wonderful first month with our three new Eagles, it was time this week to formally introduce them to the Student Contract. Students were randomly divided into nine groups and each given a line of the contract to portray in a short skit. The following day, they performed for their peers. The audience members tried to guess which line of the contract they were representing, which had everyone in the class actively thinking about the entire contract and shouting out lines. It was a fun and effective way for the new students to learn about the contract and a great way for returning students to go deeper in their understanding.

This was the last week of detective training before the detective "test" simulation next week in Project Time. In preparation for the simulation, DiTs came up with cheat sheets listing the steps to take when they first get to the scene of the crime and the most important questions to ask people who might be involved in a crime. Some key steps they came up with included:

• Don't touch ANYTHING!

• Be mindful.

• Look carefully for details or anything unusual or suspicious.

• Draw a sketch of the crime scene.

• Document evidence.

• Analyze the evidence.

• Find and interview suspects and witnesses.

• Hypothesize/put together evidence and tie it together into a story.

• Double-check.

• Catch the suspect.

They spent the rest of project time working on final DiTAs: continuing to track bread mold and microbe colonies from last week; learning about teeth and bones by gathering classmates' bite marks on styrofoam plates and comparing the widths and depths of boys' bite marks vs. girls', piecing together virtual skeletons, and reconstructing the faces of skeletons with clay; and learning about DNA and genetics by watching videos and reading books before extracting their own DNA and creating DNA fingerprints in an online lab simulation. Find all the cool links we used on the Hero's and Calling's page of the Elementary class website.

DiTs also continued their experiment on their own cleaning behavior. Taking up the suggestion of one Eagle, we borrowed the Middle School's clean-up game in which the class divides into two teams to each clean one half of the classroom. One Eagle is randomly chosen to be the ref who decides the winning team, and members of the winning team are rewarded with extra outdoor free time during lunch. The improvement in project time clean-up was astounding and the classroom looked amazing! The competition factor obviously motivated the Eagles to clean like never before. The experiment continues, however, as we continue to seek improvements in the game, specifically regarding the reward for the winning team. A couple ideas we may try out: if you are on the winning team two out of three times during the week, you get extra free time on Friday afternoon; each time you are on the winning team, you get a Superstar sticker for your detective badge (or another small reward) and if both sides pass the guide inspection all three project times during the week, everyone gets extra free time on Friday afternoons.

The 5th graders were given an exciting new responsibility this week. Each will have the opportunity to attend one Middle School History class and serve as a scribe. They will not contribute their own thoughts to the discussion, but instead listen deeply for great questions and statements from the other students. This listening practice itself is invaluable, but the comments they collect will also be added to the Middle School students’ portfolios.

During their own time in the yurt this week as they continue to travel through the 17th century, the students visited Russia this week, learning about Peter the Great! Through stories of his reign and his travels, students learned about the creation of what would become modern-day Russia. They studied the traditional Russian customs and how they changed from being influenced by the East to being influenced by the West. They also learned all about Peter the Great's travels through Europe to study naval architecture, dress, education, and carpentry. Peter the Great was very determined to transform Russia prompting students to discuss which character trait is more important for leader of a country: empathy or determination? The students then took the discussion further by talking about which of the two character traits is more important for a leader at Acton Academy.

After visiting Russia, the students traveled to India, listening to stories as they sipped on chai tea. In the younger group they learned about The East India Company and listened to the mathematical tale of One Grain of Rice. The students discussed the impressive mathematics behind the tale as well as their lessons learned from the week. The older group studied the Moghul emperor, Aurangzeb, the Persian invasion led by Nadir Shah, and The East India Company. They learned about how this company armed itself and behaved more like a nation than a large company. This information led to an interesting discussion regarding the rights of corporations and a brief introduction to the concept of Corporate Person-hood in the United States. After a great week in the 17th century, we are ready to begin our travels to the 18th century next week!

The student-facilitated article discussions this week had students debating whether cats should be treated more like dogs by their owners and watched carefully in order to prevent them from hunting birds and other small animals, or allowed to roam free, as well as the ethical issues involved in cyber warfare. Fables had the younger students thinking about difficult moral questions. They pondered whether they would rather be a free, and sometimes hungry, cold and scared wolf, or a captive, well-fed, entertained dog. This led to the question: Would you rather go to a school where you felt comfortable, were never confused, and always succeeded because you were told exactly what to do, or a school where you had lots of freedom to decided what to do, but were sometimes uncomfortable, confused, and allowed to fail. 

In addition to all the rich conversations in Project Time, History, and their Socratic discussion groups, students also discussed important community issues in their weekly Town Meeting. They came up with solutions to several current problems, bravely shared concerns and stories about feeling excluded in certain situations, and voted on new pizza venues for their Friday deliveries. As always, they were respectful, well-spoken, and empathetic.

Week 18

This week in History, students traveled back to the original thirteen colonies where they studied wars between Native Americans and colonists in New France and New England. The students specifically learned about King Philip's War including the Wampanoags, Metacom, and John Sassamon. They then traveled up north to New France where they learned more about Louis XIV, The Sun King, and the “filles du roi.” They heard stories of the Hurons, the Iroquois, and a young girl named Marie-Madeleine who held her fort against the Iroquois while it was under attack. The younger group identified character traits of John Sassamon and Marie-Madeleine, while the older group discussed an article regarding UN recommendations that the US give land back to the Native Americans. The students then shared lessons learned and were presented with their second challenge of the session: To map out New France, France, New England, and England. The older students will be asked to identify Native American territories as well.

The students then traveled back to England to study the lives of two great thinkers: John Locke and Isaac Newton. They learned about The Laws of Motion, The Laws of Gravity, and touched on John Locke's philosophy as expressed in An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Using soccer balls, clementines, and their imaginations, the students explored these great ideas. They learned not just what these heroes did or how they thought, but through stories, the students gained an understanding of their life experiences.

The student-facilitated newspaper article discussions were a success this week. With two hot topics – gun control and Lance Armstrong – students had fun practicing their Socratic discussion skills. They debated questions such as: How much of a role should the government play in controlling what their citizens can and cannot own? Should teachers be trained to shoot guns and schools be armed? Should competitive athletes be allowed to do whatever they want to their bodies, including taking performance-enhancement drugs, or should they all be required to treat their bodies in the same way, including a specific diet and workout regime? Is Lance Armstrong a hero for starting the Live Strong Foundation despite having been dishonest as an athlete?

With the older students discussing current events, the younger students have been reading and discussing Greek myths and Aesop fables. They have been focusing on the morals and life lessons that can be extrapolated from these classic stories, as well as the specific character traits that are relevant.  Applying their strong senses of kindness and gratitude, the students surprised their beloved Ms. Anna by decorating her desk with sweet birthday cards.

Each afternoon before beginning their individual Core Skills work time, students meet in groups of four to set goals for the day and troubleshoot any anticipated roadblocks. The “running teams” are multi-aged, but each has a 5th grader who has been trained to facilitate these brief daily huddles. Students share successes from the previous day and celebrate together before discussing any problems they are currently facing in their work and brainstorming possible solutions as a group. The meetings are quick and any unresolved issues are escalated to a guide in a quick check-in with the facilitators. This week, several younger students had the opportunity to facilitate for their team because the 5th grade member was absent. This led to students in all the groups asking if they could facilitate for a day. In an organic, student-driven way, this responsibility is now being shared among team members.

With students exploring a variety of languages through Rosetta Stone, including Spanish, French, Korean, Mandarin, Hindi, and Portuguese, there is always an interesting mix of languages being spoken during Core Skills. On Friday afternoons, a third of the class participates in a special Spanish class taught by Ann Benson. Recently, a small group of students began joining Ms. Samantha once a week for a special lunch all in French. Ms. Samantha is a true Francophile and has spent years studying French language and culture. The French lunch group has been practicing common phrases, learning new vocabulary, singing songs, and even tasting traditional French pastries such as macaroons and eclairs.

In Project Time last week students discovered that all the evidence at the crime scene pointed to Commissioner Toppings, but this week DiTs encountered a new twist. The Commissioner was out of town when the crime was said to have occurred! The time of the crime was estimated based on a moldy piece of bread left at the scene. This week, students moved into experimenting with how biology can be used to solve crimes, starting with some experiments with bread, mold, decomposers, and preservatives. DiTs also set up fruit fly traps (bananas in jars) so they'll be able to study the life cycle of flies - another way detectives determine the time of a crime.

Heroes students met this week include:

• Forensic entomologists:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dntO3YANo18

• Forensic botanist David Hall: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/crime-scene-creatures/video-counting-rings-to-catch-a-murderer/5207

• Microbiologist Noah Fierer: “Bug” prints can put you at crime scene: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18656-bug-prints-can-put-you-at-crime-scene.html?full=true&print=true

After listing out qualities of detectives and qualities of scientists, DiTs discussed whether it is more important to think like a detective or like a scientist when attempting to solve a crime. It was noted that scientists and detectives share some of the same qualities, like mindfulness and careful attention to detail.

While experimenting with biology, students also began experimenting with their own behavior. What variables could they change in an attempt to make cleaning after project time more efficient? The first experiment on Friday was to try cleaning up as they worked, with a cleaning reminder every fifteen minutes during project time. The hypothesis was that this would cut down on the time to clean up at the end, because most of the work would already be done and they wouldn't forget about and have to look for things that they needed to clean up.

However, they found that this experiment only cut about one minute from end-of-class clean-up. Some students pointed out that another variable was the number of students who actually participated in clean-up. One Eagle suggested that they try a new experiment next week using the Middle Schooler's clean-up game as a motivator: divide the classroom in two and have a competition to see which side cleans up better. As a reward, the members of the cleaner side will have the privilege of going down to the field to play during extra lunch time. Stay tuned for the results from this second experiment. 

Inspired by the two-minute mysteries they have been reading at the being of Project Time, several students began writing their own this week. They supported each other through the writing process, sharing ideas, giving feedback for enhancements, and helping each other with editing. Next week, their peers will get to hear these new two-minute mysteries during Project Time.

With four weeks of P.E. under their belts, the three newest Eagles were ready for a mini-Olympics to bet their baseline measurements in the low plank, half mile run, 40 yard dash, and push-ups. They all worked hard and one of them tied the school record for low plank with a solid 15 minute hold!

Week 17

Throughout each week, students take on so many roles – both at school and at home. Each week, we begin with students spending an hour as an athlete and an hour as an artist. With two weeks of wiffle ball now under their belts in P.E., students are beginning to play a competitive game, getting on base frequently with solid hits and getting players out frequently with skillful fielding. In Art, the totem poles continue to come to life with vibrant colors and careful shading.

Each day, students engage in meaningful Socratic discussions, asked to take on multiple perspectives as they craft their arguments. Having practiced five specific Socratic skills (listen with an open mind, provide support or reasoning, link to previous points, don’t repeat points already made, and be concise) over the past three weeks in discussions based on newspaper articles, students in the older discussion group are now being given the opportunity to step into the role of the facilitator. Each student will choose an article, brainstorm Socratic questions, and guide their peers in a Socratic discussion. We had our first such discussion this week with the courageous students facilitator choosing a difficult and thought-provoking article that had her classmates debating the pros and cons of Texas public schools’ Talented and Gifted program. In the younger discussion group, students will continue to practice their Socratic skills in response to short stories, myths, and fables that ask them to place themselves in the shoes of another or make a difficult moral decision.

Several times each week, students have the chance to travel through time as historians. In History this week, students celebrated and learned about the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. They studied his biography and the impact he had on our world today. They learned about the complicated history of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and what it took for this holiday to become nationally recognized. The students also heard clips from his speech, "I Have a Dream" and discussed the different philosophies of the Civil Rights Movement. One of the main discussion topics was Dr. King's philosophy of non-violence and how it differed from that of Malcom X. The students also heard stories of the brave young heroes involved in the Civil Rights Movement.

After learning about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the class returned to their journey through the 17th century where they learned about King Frederick and the rise of Prussia. They studied geography and the roots of what is now modern-day Germany. The younger group of Historians heard two classic stories by The Brothers Grimm: Hansel and Gretel and the Pied Piper. From these stories, they discussed the concept of "an eye for an eye" and what it means to overreact to an event. In the older group they learned about King Frederick of Prussia and how he created the Kingdom of Prussia. This led the class to discuss the idea identity and secession. The class then participated in a discussion on an article regarding a recent petition calling on the Obama administration to allow Texas to secede from the United States.

In another role, as detectives in Project Time, DiTs wrapped up The Case of the Missing Files, discovering that all of the evidence at the crime scene pointed to Commissioner Toppings - fingerprints, footprints, and handwriting! In addition to completing their analyses of evidence from this case, some DiTs moved forward, beginning work on new cases. Learning how biology can be used to establish the time of a crime, these DiTs set up experiments to test how long it takes different types of bread to mold and how long it takes fruit flies to move through their life cycle. A few DiTs also began to explore how biology can be used to place a suspect at the crime scene by recreating an experiment by microbiologist Noah Fierer (check it out here: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18656-bug-prints-can-put-you-at-crime-scene.html?full=true&print=true).

Along with the hands-on work, Eagles discussed which character trait is most important for a detective or a DiT: mindfulness, kindness, empathy, or honesty. Students made the following points: Mindfulness is important to use all your senses and notice small details that can help solve a crime. Empathy and kindness are important to use when you are deep in your work but your supporting pair needs help. Empathy is also important to help solve a case, because you need to think from the perspective of the person who committed the crime. Honesty is important because you need to follow the evidence, even if it leads you to a conclusion you don't like (like if your mom or friend stole something).

After reading one two-minute mystery without focusing on mindfulness and another after taking a "mindfulness minute" to pay extra attention to all of our senses, Eagles also considered whether taking the mindfulness minute made any difference to their ability to solve the mystery. Lastly, this week DiTs considered whether, as a detective, it is better to do things quickly and get more done, or if it is better to do things slowly and get them just right. The point was made that some cases are time sensitive and you need to work quickly to solve them, but many of the lessons learned from project time on Friday also led to conclusions that as a detective, it is important to be careful and work slowly because otherwise you could make a mistake.

Here are links to the two minute mysteries we read this week:

• http://www.mysterydigest.com/detective-nose/the-case-of-the-convenience-store-robbery-two-minute-mystery/#more-35

• http://kids.mysterynet.com/solveit/

• http://kids.mysterynet.com/solveit/solveit026/

To inspire their Core Skills practice, students were presented last week with a list of long-term reading, writing, and math goals that comprise the core academic requirements a student must achieve in order to receive their Independent Learner binder. This binder is a series of activities and challenges designed to allow a student to prove that they are an Independent Learner, the first level in a progression that goes through Running Partner, Socratic Group Guide, Project Guide, and eventually Organization Leader. Acton Eagles who have gone through this progression during the Elementary, Middle and High School years will be equipped with a skill set relevant to running families, businesses, and many other kinds of groups and organizations. The first part of this training is establishing a solid foundation of basic reading, writing, and math skills that will ensure that each student has the tools necessary to be able to seek out, curate, and interpret information and ideas relevant to their individual interests.

As way of introducing this first step, which we are calling “Building the Foundation”, students were shown two three-minute time lapse movies of construction sites. As they watched the building go up, students speculated what was being built, the excitement rising as the time passed. While the end results were vastly different buildings – an elaborate, whimsically shaped museum with glass and metal finishes and a highly functional looking, redbrick apartment building – it wasn’t until well into the third minute in each movie that the differences began to appear. For over two-thirds of the construction time, work was being done on the foundation and core structure of the buildings. After watching the clips, students discussed which is more important: The foundation and internal structure or the exterior? Arguments were made that without the foundation there could be no exterior and countered with arguments about the importance of the buildings uniqueness, that without the vision of what would make the building special, no one would have bothered building it.

Over the course of the past two weeks, students have had some time to explore the academic goals set forth in their new guide. With the understanding that this is a first draft which will be revised based on their input, students debated some of its components this week. Is it better to have a school book list with required readings to build community and ensure all students have exposure to great literature or allow each person total freedom to choose what they want to read? Is it better to have students choose between different math programs depending on their style of learning or have them all use more than one to ensure multiple practice with each concept in an effort to obtain mastery of the material? Should there be defined writing skills that students work on or does that limit the creativity and individual genius of each author? Students presented powerful arguments for each of these questions, listened to each other respectfully, and made recommendations for a first round of revisions to the “Building the Foundation” guide.

While being artists, athletes, historians, detectives, innovators, experimenters, and scholars, students are also wonderful friends. They showed that this week as we celebrated two more birthdays, taking time as a community to honor the special traits and talents these two Eagles share with us each day and thanking them for being exactly who there are.

Week 16

The birthday celebrations continued this week with two our original Eagles entering double-digits. They revolved around our candle-sun ten times and shared pictures and stories from their incredible decades. Their peers shared sincere words of appreciation and admiration for these two stellar guys.

Students made the best of this week’s Core Skills focus – standardized testing – by focusing hard and maintaining positive attitudes. We were delighted with the crisp, sunny afternoons and balanced out the testing with lots of time outside. Students gathered books, paper, pencils, and blankets and spread out on the grassy hill behind our building to read and write, enjoying the view of Town Lake and the Austin skyline. We even had a Town Meeting outside, though we decided that for that particular activity, our indoor space is a better venue because it offers fewer distractions.

In history this week, the students traveled to England (where they were treated to a "High Tea" of tea and scones) and to France where they made Masquerade Ball masks and listened to Edith-Piaf. They also experienced a virtual tour of Versailles and learned a few French phrases. In England they heard somber stories of Charles I, Charles II, Cromwell's Protectorate, the plague in the 1660s, and The Great Fire of London. While in France they learned about Louis XIII, Louis XIV (The Sun King), and all about the cost of their lavish lifestyle at Versailles. Students also participated in a student-led Socratic discussion addressing our freedoms in the United States – which were not as prevalent in 17th century France. Some students also decided to attempt the challenge presented last week – to map the triangular trade. This challenge included countries, directions, products, and people. It was a bit cold to be in the yurt on Monday and Tuesday, so we recreated our cozy space in the kitchen, and we were back out to the yurt by Wednesday.

P.E. and Art also offered great enrichment this week. In P.E., students are beginning to develop their wiffle ball skills, while continuing to work hard on their personal fitness. On Tuesday and Friday mornings (the days after P.E.), students are always talking about how sore they are from the workouts – something they are happy about since they know that means they are getting stronger. In Art, the totem poles are coming to life as students add color to their animal faces. Before beginning, they each assessed their internal state and then conjured up the image of an animal whose qualities they wanted to take on that day – a monkey for energy, an elephant to help with a stuffy nose, a hawk for speed to catch up.

This week in Project Time, detectives got deeply involved in their analysis of the evidence left at the crime scene last week. In addition to continuing with their study of fingerprints, the DiTs (Detectives in Training) began work on a couple of new Detective in Training Assignments (DiTAs): footprint analysis and handwriting analysis. In a chilly outdoor project time on Wednesday, DiTs learned how to make casts of footprints left in soil by using plaster of paris. Later, after measuring each others' feet and height, they figured out how to approximate someone's height based on their footprint. With the thief's height established, some DiTs moved on to analyze the suspicious note found at the scene of the crime, while others chose to become footprint analysis super stars by studying pace length and determining whether our culprit was running or walking.

We also took time to discuss the importance of being mindful as detectives. We spent a few mindfulness minutes to become more aware of our surroundings and ourselves after reading the following article on how to think like Sherlock Holmes: http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/11/living/books-mastermind/index.html?hpt=hp_bn11.

Tying the idea of mindfulness and its role in being a detective to another part of our week, students discussed how this applied to their testing. By focusing in on their test and tuning out other thoughts and distractions, they could be more precise in their work. Before beginning their test each day, they did breathing exercises to relax and become more focused.

Week 15

The second trimester began with us welcoming three new Eagles into the nest. Throughout the week, the returning students made sure their new peers felt welcome, saving them places to sit during group discussions, inviting them to join them for lunch, and spending time getting to know them during free time. With each new activity – whether setting S.M.A.R.T. goals during Core Skills, logging onto a math program on the computer, writing a birthday note, or ordering pizza for Friday’s lunch – the new students had self-appointed mentors to carefully explain the process. The few times at the beginning of the week a guide approached one of the new students to explain something, they were met with an, “I know”. “Well, you see, we do this a little differently here than what you might be used to.” “No, really, I know. My friend just taught me.”

There were a few other new beginnings this week, but also many returns to established routines, allowing students to get focus intensely on their work from the first day back. Before their Core Skills time on Monday, students gathered in a circle to examine all different kinds of apples. They commented on differences in size, shape, color, texture, smell, and imagined taste. Some apples had bruises or other interesting markings. Some were wrinkled, some dirty. After discussing their attributes, each apple was sliced in half revealing a similar inside of a star filled with seeds. Using the apples as a metaphor for themselves, students shared what makes them each special – their stars – and what “seeds of potential” they have within themselves. Just as the apple seeds need nutrient-rich soil, water, sunlight, and time to develop into their full potential, the students talked about needing challenges, discipline, love, and practice to reach their full potential. With that in mind, students set goals for their individual work that day – worked to develop some of the seeds in their core – and got to work.

Students also each chose one area in which they want to remain focused throughout this six-week session, and set an Excellence Goal designed to challenge themselves extra hard. In order to set this goal, they considered their current ability, and then projected what they would be able to accomplish in six weeks, coming up with a daily plan to implement.

The new session of P.E. started off with an awards ceremony to celebrate the hard work done last trimester. The students who showed the most personal improvement in each of the four areas testing at the beginning and end of last trimester – low plank, push-ups, 40-yard dash, half-mile run – were recognized with a certificate. The team whose members showed the most overall improvement was also acknowledged by having their names added to the large trophy which already had the names of the team members who won this competition each trimester last year. Finally, four students were honored as “Best Sports of the Trimester” – voted on by their peers – with individual trophies. New teams were then announced for this trimester and they enjoyed games of wiffle ball as they adjusted to the new dynamics with their groups.

Ms. Zoey is back with us for this trimester, bringing her loving spirit and contagious energy with her. Students began work on two-dimensional totem poles. Students began by drawing animal portraits with ebony pencil. Once they have six or seven portraits that they are happy with, they will begin transferring these on to matboard and tracing their lines with black ink before filling them in with bright colors.

Out in the yurt, Ms. Samantha has stepped into the role as lead Historian. With her, students traveled back in time this week to the eastern coast of the United States, to the Thirteen Colonies. The weather was appropriate as they snuggled under blankets and around candles, experiencing the same wet cold as Virginia in January. They learned about the beginning of tobacco farming in the United States and then ultimately the spread of slavery in the Thirteen Colonies. They studied the culture behind tobacco smoking in England and what a nasty habit it is, and looked at trade routes, mapping out the triangular trade as a class. From the Thirteen Colonies, they traveled to Africa and learned fun facts about Queen Nzinga of Ndomba, including her human throne and her life-long battle against the Portuguese.

Next, they traveled across the pond to Europe during the Thirty Years' War, learning about The Holy Roman Empire, the Defenestration of Prague (including the definition of "defenestration"), and the many conflicts between the Catholic and Protestant princes throughout the war. They discussed and shared about times in their own lives when conflicts escalated, turning something insignificant into something seeming more important. The younger students also listened to "The Battle of the Beasts: A Tale of Epic Proportions from The Brothers Grimm." Coming back to the idea of slavery from the beginning of the week, the older students ended the week with a discussion surrounding the question: "Are morals influenced by culture, or are humans born with a sense of right and wrong?"

This week Ms. Samantha also introduced the "lessons learned jar" in History which will be a fun tool for sharing important lessons learned at the end of each class. She also presented the first individual student challenge of the trimester: To map the triangular trade.

Students are in two groups for History during the one time in the day we divide by age. Each group has History twice a week. When they are not in History, the group comes together for a different type of story-telling and discussion – one that focuses on more recent history. Using newspaper and magazine articles as the readings, students first listen to a story and then practice their Socratic Discussion skills as they share their thoughts and ideas. This week, we listed out five Socratic Discussion skills that students used throughout the fall:

• Listen with an open-mind and consider new evidence.

• Link to previous comments with words like: “I agree” or “I disagree”.

• Provide evidence or reasoning.

• Do not repeat points previously made.

• Be concise.

Students choose one of these skills to focus on with each discussion. This week, we discussed a New York Times story about plans for a copper mine in Peru that requires the relocation of a small mountain town, and an NPR story about the controversy over yoga being offered in the public schools of a small coastal town in Southern California. In both discussions, after hearing different perspectives for their peers, students were asked to make an argument as if they were actually members of the groups on one side of the controversy – the CEO of Chinalco, the company hoping to build a mine in Peru or a resident of Morococha, the small town that would be destroyed – or placed in a position to make a decision – on the Encinitas County school board, which must decide whether or not to have its schools continue offering yoga as part of the curriculum.

The new project is off to an exciting start with students asked to take on another role – Detectives in Training – three mornings each week. Detective Training is the first step in the Detective Science quest, which will continue through the end of March. Students began by learning a little about forensic science and discussing whether they thought they would be most interested in a career in field, lab, or medical forensics – each of which they will experience during their training. They then headed out to investigate their first simulated crime scene, specifically, Commissioner Toppings' office from which a couple files had been stolen. After placing evidence markers, taking notes in their evidence logs, and sketching the crime scene, the DiTs (Detectives in Training) came up with their initial thoughts on what happened and how the crime took place. Later in the week, the investigation continued by analyzing a few of the pieces of evidence left at the crime scene for fingerprints. DiTs learned how to dust for fingerprints, how to lift fingerprints from tricky surfaces using superglue, and how to classify fingerprints into several categories (whorls, loops, and arches). Up next: analyzing shoeprints.

As the detective science quest continues, students will work through a series of challenges and crime simulations each with a different emphasis:

Investigating the scene of the crime (observation, comparison, and deduction)

Using biology to estimate the time of a crime (decomposition and life cycles)

Using biology to place a suspect at the scene of a crime (microbes, DNA, and genetics)

Psychology (criminal and eyewitness behavior in crimes)

All of this will lead up to a Modern-Day Salem Witch Trial at the end of March.

Week 14

The last week of the trimester started strong – with the second P.E. Olympics of the school year.  After twelve fun, but grueling weeks of Coach Carpenter workouts, the students were fired up to find out how their current ability compared to their September numbers.  After a short walk to a nearby park, the Elementary and Middle School students all participated in an abridged version of Coach Carpenter’s infamous workout.  Then they split into four groups to rotate through the testing stations.  Students ran a half mile, did as many push-ups as they could in one minute, raced in the 40-dashed, and held a low plank for as long as they could (which was 15 minutes for five of the students, who had to be stopped at that point lest they rupture something).

After each event, students were eager to know how their new metrics compared to their previous ones.  Overall, the improvement was staggering.  The total percentage of improvement of members of the Blue Team will be compared with that of members of the Yellow Team to determine whose names will be added to the giant P.E. trophy.  The Olympics ended with a friendly competition between the Elementary and Middle School students to see who could cheer the loudest.  Back at school, students took a moment to cast the votes for the best sports of the trimester, who will be honored at the beginning of the next trimester.

In the final week to finish their Excellence Goals, students were focused and determined, mastering math fact tables and spelling words, learning new languages, becoming touch-typists, and accomplishing other goals.  On Friday, students updated the graph of the progress towards their goal for the last time and then paused to consider the shape of the line.  Did they have steady, continuous progress?  Did they experience a plateau?  Were there any dips?  A few students decided to extend their deadline and work over the holiday break in order to reach their goal.

The Gaming Project came to a successful end this week.  Students worked to put the final touches on their on and off-line games early in the week.  Then they switched gears to focus on writing and delivering pitches for their games.  They were asked to imagine that they were on an elevator with the CEO of Hasbro who happened to mention that he was looking for a new product.  They had one minute before the elevator stopped and Mr. Hasbro got out to get him interesting in their game.  What would they say?

On Wednesday afternoon, students had a “pitch-off” to determine which students would have the opportunity to give their pitches to a captive audience of students and parents at that afternoon’s Game Expo.  In small groups of three or four, students delivered their pitch.  Each group came to a consensus as to who would move on to the next round.  The remaining eight students gave their pitch again to the entire class, and four were selected to give their pitch one final time that afternoon.  An animated tone of voice, starting with an intriguing question, humor, and a punchy ending were all factors that contributed to the success of the final four.

From there, the excitement continued to ramp, as Elementary and Middle School students set their games up in the lobby of the MBA building.  Once parents began arriving, the energy was electric.  They listened to pitches from eager game-makers, tested out games, and voted for which ones they thought were most likely to succeed in the marketplace, most addictive, and more beneficial to the player.  At the end of the event, the winners were announced: the offline game most likely to succeed in the marketplace was Henry’s “High Ground”, the online game most likely to succeed in the marketplace went to Libby’s “Up in the Clouds”, the most addictive game was a tie between Bella’s Think Quick and Garrett’s “Luck Shot”, and the most beneficial to the player was Anaya’s “Math Mania”.  There was also one student who, while he did not win in any one category, received the most combined votes in the school – Chris. But as one sage eight year old told the class the next day, “I don’t really think there were winners.  We all won because we all learned and we all had fun.”

After reflecting on the experience at the Game Expo, Ms. Anna took students on a trip back in time, recalling details from the nine week project.  Students then thought about their greatest challenge, their greatest accomplishment, and their greatest lesson learned from the project and culled through their work to select pieces to add to their portfolios.

In History, students celebrated the winter solstice and studied what is happening to the earth in space to make it colder and darker at this time of year. They learned about the ancient tradition of decorating with evergreens which were believed to be magical since they stayed green all year and the focus on the color red which comes from dawn and the coming of light. They read the book Snowflake Bentley and shared funny poems to honor the tradition of staying warm with laughter. They learned all about different celebrations that take place this time of year including Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights and Hanukkah, the Jewish festival of light, including the lighting of the eight candles and the story of the Maccabees. They also learned some new Christmas trivia, wrapping up History this trimester with a special treat...candy canes! Students heard the story of where the tradition of candy canes comes from (ask your Eagle to retell it to you) and listened to A Christmas Story. Special time was taken to travel back to the very first History class of the trimester and spend time remembering and sharing lessons learned and retelling favorite stories. What an amazing journey it has been thus far!

The second year of our holiday book exchange tradition was an even bigger success than the first year.  On Monday, each student received a quick gift wrapping tutorial as they wrapped the book they had secretly selected for one of their peers.  The pretty packages were set out on a table for all to admire, and the anticipation built steadily over the next few days.  After the successful Game Expo on Wednesday afternoon, opening the books on Thursday morning seemed like the perfect way to celebrate.  Instead of all grabbing their book from the pile they had been eyeing all week, students decided to sit in a circle and open the books one by one.  They “ohhed” and “ahhed” as their fellow Eagles carefully unwrapped the packages and cheered after the name of person who had selected the book was received.  This ceremonious book exchange lasted over half an hour!  Then students flopped down around the classroom and enjoyed their new treasures, reading the morning away.

After a fabulous week and a fabulous session, students took time to write thank you notes to parents, guides, and other fellow travelers who shared their time and stories with them.  Between the P.E. Olympics, an amazing session of History, the Gaming Project, and the culmination of the Process Drama, students were clamoring to thank Coach Carpenter, Mrs. Sandefer, Ms. Anna, and Mr. Nat for everything they have done.  They were also eager to thank Ms. Samantha for her guidance and congratulate her on completing her first trimester at Acton Academy.

We wished the Foltz-Smith family well on their journey to Los Angeles where they will be experimenting with being long-distance Eagles.  Ms. Dani’s experience as a guide in our classroom will help her homeschool Bella and Reese, while they stay connected to the community through Skype, email, and frequent visits back to campus.  We are excited to experiment with them in this new phase of their journeys.

Week 13

This week was the last full week to work on games before the Game Expo.  Having completed all of the focused mini-lessons on game design (how to use the five elements of game design, creating balanced games, developing an appealing game space and paying attention to aesthetics, creating goals and tying them together with story lines, and writing clear instructions), this week was full of large group critiques and adding finishing touches to games.  As courageous students presented their games in front of their peers, valuable comments and suggestions were shared.  "I really like how you added a time limit - it ups the energy of the game."  "I like the pyramid decoration you included.  Have you thought about making the decoration have something to do with the trivia questions or maybe adding a question about pyramids so it makes more sense?"  "Another idea would be to create a storyline that has to do with the decorations – all the scientists studying the pyramids have to answer the trivia questions to get back to the pyramid."  "Your game is fun to play and I like the combination of luck and skill.  One suggestion is to add some color to make it more appealing."  "I really like how your game is different every time based on the luck of where the beads fall."  "Your game is so addictive!  You could tell because everyone wanted to play during the demonstration.  It has really good balance."  When the eagles were not involved in these productive critiques, they were busy building, painting, gluing, sticking, writing instructions, play-testing, and iterating.  Next week they will write elevator pitches for their games as they conclude their prep for the Expo on Wednesday!

We had a memorable birthday celebration this week.   The birthday girl asked her mother to make her favorite treat to share with her friends – kale chips.  Everyone tried them, and almost everyone was begging for seconds – a vast majority of the class said they would choose kale chips over cupcakes.  We were also treated to a visit from the five new students who will be joining our class in January.  The new Eagles were warmly welcomed into the community by the students who went to great efforts to make sure they felt included.

In History this week, students were presented with another challenge – to identify the 13 original colonies.  They met Henry Hudson as he unsuccessfully searched for a passage to India, watched Samuel de Champlain found the French colony in present-day Quebec, and witnessed Peter Stuyvesant surrender New Amsterdam to the Duke of York who renamed it New York.  The younger group also heard the story of The Three Questions and asked themselves: What should I do? When should I do it? Who is the important one?

While the older group of students is in History, the younger group has been reading short stories or excerpts from longer ones and having fabulous discussions.  Through the stories, they have met Odysseus and the Cyclops, Narcissus, Robinson Crusoe, and other famous characters.  The discussions always begin with a thoughtful question that relates to the day’s story, but the students decide where the discussion goes.  Several times, they have gone the route of group therapy, sharing their feelings and reactions to a common part of life, like having siblings.  The discussion after reading about Odysseus and the Cyclops began with the question of how someone (Odysseus) could be so clever (in his escape plans) and so silly (in calling out to the Cyclops once he had escaped and revealing his true identity).  Students began talking about themselves and how they often make good decisions, but then sometimes they make bad ones.  From there, it went to how most of the time they are kind, but sometimes they are mean.  One student explained this phenomenon with a very powerful metaphor.  He described how he processes frustration saying, “It’s like there is a balloon in my tummy and when something happens that frustrates me, the balloon starts to fill up.  At school, you don’t want to get upset in front of your friends, so your balloon can get fuller and fuller.  Then when you get home, one little thing happens and it just bursts.”  Students began to chime in about what makes their “balloon” fill up – and what causes it to deflate.  They identified sleep, food, being outside, running around, and deep breathing as deflation aids.

On the days when the younger group of students is in History, the older group has been participating in a national competition called Math Olympiad.  The actual contest is a series of five tests, each with five challenging word problems.  Students take one test each month.  For the past couple months, we have been doing practice tests as a group.  We look at the problems together and then discuss possible methods for solving them, identifying different strategies.  This week students took their second test, and for the second time, we had at least one perfect score.

Students celebrated the culmination of this year’s Process Drama with a Live Portfolio at the ZACH Theatre where our Mr. Nat serves as the Education Director.  The class headed over to the theater in the early afternoon to run through the presentation before the families joined them.  The students led their parents through the format of a Process Drama class starting with a typical warm-up, and going through highlights from the twelve weeks.  It was a successful sharing, with students enjoying their time on stage and impressing their parents with their improvisation skills.

Process Drama is a type of theatre education where participants are given a problem, create their own characters, and guide the development of the plot through their ideas and actions.  With each new situation that arises in the Process Drama session, students practice acting and persuasion skills, public speaking skills and collaborative creative problem-solving skills.  Exploring an imaginary situation allows students to make themselves vulnerable and experiment with different ideas and techniques, pushing the boundaries of their creativity and self-expression.  They work together and take risks in an attempt to achieve a common goal, learning about their own strengths within the group.

We are so grateful to Nat Miller for sharing his time, energy, enthusiasm, and creative genius with us over the past three months.  Process Drama has been one of the highlights of our week.  In addition to all the laughter and joy, we have all learned so much by working and playing with Mr. Nat.  The students thank him for a wonderful Process Drama adventure and for helping us develop important life skills that will serve them on their Hero’s Journeys including:  imagination, persuasion, problem solving, creativity, flexibility, emotional regulation, persistence, perseverance, patience, improvisation, innovation, and courage.

Week 12

Eagle game designers made a lot of progress on their games for the Expo this week!  We discussed whether or not a game can change the world and learned about a couple heroes who believe games can indeed make a difference.  Most students agreed that games can change the world, but also raised the point that they can change the world in both positive ways (by working peoples' brains, teaching things, or encouraging creativity, for example) and negative ways (like addiction and gambling). 

We also discussed the importance of setting standards and using checklists, learning about the amazing difference using a checklist can make in a hospital surgery room.  (You can watch the videos of all the heroes we discussed here: https://sites.google.com/site/actonacademystudents/heroes-and-callings-video-links.)  In the process of striving for excellence with their games, students gathered together all the critique cards they have written about games they played in Play Lab and used these as a starting point to create a list of goals for game designers who want to create great games.  We compiled everyone's list of goals to create the following rubric to evaluate their games for the Expo. 

Rubric for Excellent Games

Rate the following goals on a scale from 1 to 3 (1 means the game’s design is working against this goal, 2 means neutral, and 3 means working successfully towards this goal).

Rules

• It has a clear objective or goal.

• It has specific, clear, and fair rules.

Appearance/Aesthetics

• It looks good, is neat, and is tempting and attracts players.

Challenge/Balance

• It is balanced – it’s easy to play and challenging (but not impossible) to win.

• Even after you beat the game, you can still play again.

• There are lots of choices (for example, different paths players can take) and the game changes as the player plays it, based on what the player does.

Audience

• It appeals to everyone (all ages and genders).  Everyone can understand, play, and have fun playing it.

• It has different levels so if you are not as good you can still play.

Length

• It is short enough so people don’t get bored, but long enough so it’s not over too quickly.

Overall

• It is creative, fun, exciting, and interesting.

• It is unique.

• It includes skill, luck, and strategy, but not too much of any of these.

• It is addicting, but not too addicting that it becomes a problem.

Purpose

• It changes the world in a positive way, for example, one of the following:

       It fills a need.

       It is educational and people can learn from it.

       It works the players’ brains and requires problem solving.

       It requires the players to physically move around and exercise.

       It requires the players to use creativity.

       It allows players to use their hands or build something.

       It requires practicing patience.

With the rubric complete, a few courageous students presented their games to the whole class to receive feedback and ideas from their peers.

Finally, Friday's focus was on how to make a game more interesting by including both short- and long-term goals tied together with a storyline.  Ask your eagle to explain how a simple game of rock, paper, scissors transforms into Evolution when a storyline and additional goals are added!  Building, play-testing, critique, and iteration will continue next week.

This week in Writers’ Workshop, Math Power Hour, and Scholars’ Choice, students were extremely focused.  They set and worked towards daily goals, as well as their month-long Excellence Goal.  On Friday afternoon, students excitedly shared their progress with friends as they updated their Excellence Goal graphs.  Shouts of “my dot went way up this week” and “I’m on such a steep learning curve right now” could be heard, along with lots of “congratulations” and “give me five”.  We ended the week with some game time, with some students opting to play games they have created in the quest instead of the store-bought options.

In History this week, Mrs. Sandefer introduced the third optional challenge: Memorize the location and point on a map to Spain, France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany. We started our travels in Spain collecting gold for King Phillip and then traveled with Christopher Columbus and the conquistadors to South America where we learned about the Aztecs, the Mayans, the Incas, and the tale of Eldorado. We discussed the history of seeking gold in the Americas and the reoccurring theme of searching for treasure. The students facilitated and participated in Socratic discussions on an article prompting the question, "If you buy something at the Goodwill and it turns out to be a treasure, would you donate some of the profit back to the Goodwill?" 

From South America we traveled using our imaginations to Scotland and England where we learnt of the conflict between Protestants and Catholics, Mary, Queen of Scots, Guy Fox, and King James. We then made the trip across the Atlantic and ended up in North America in search of more gold, this time for King James. We visited Jamestown where we learned about Chief Powhatan, John Smith, John Rolfe, and Pocahontas.

The lunchtime read aloud of The Hobbit came to a dramatic end this week.  We have been fortunate to have Jess Mann, one of our parents, come in twice weekly to read to students while they ate.  Lunchtime in our classroom is about far more than just refueling your body.  Some students choose to eat out on the porch, laugh with friends and getting fresh air.  Some choose to sit in small clusters in the classroom and have intimate conversations.  There are usually several chess games going on around the classroom, and some people choose to have some quiet time to themselves, reading a book or daydreaming while they eat. 

In P.E. this week the students continued to improve upon their skills in dodge ball and, more importantly, good sportsmanship.  Coach Carpenter held the Acton mini Olympics once again in preparation for the Acton Olympics in just over a week! The team to win will have their names printed on the trophy so the Eagles are hard at work practicing their running, push-ups, low plank, and other exercises to build strength and stamina.

Last week in Process Drama, students finally caught the Naysayer who they had been chasing through time for the past two months.  Before meeting him for the last time this week, students took to create and practice scenes designed to persuade him to begin leading a Hero’s Journey instead of trying to destroy other people’s Journeys.  They performed their skits for him this week, and succeeded in convincing him to change his ways.  They gave him words of encouragement to help send him off on his Journey.  With trepidation, he took off his mask, thanked them for their support, and headed off into the world.  After coming out of character, we had a little time this week to share highlights from the past three months and then began planning for the Live Portfolio next week when families will join us ZACH Theater to get a glimpse at what the Process Drama experience has been this fall.

In addition to all the incredible learning that takes place during school hours, each Eagle spends time outside of school reading, creating, discussing, and developing an incredible array of skills and talents. While we work hard to make every moment of their day at school meaningful, there are so many topics and activities that we cannot cover due to time or space. We are fortunate to have parents who have taken the initiative to start a chess club, a Spanish club, and a robotics club. There are even plans now for a Junior Toast Masters club! We welcome your ideas and your energy for more after-school activities to enrich the lives of our Eagles even more.

Week 11

Students came back from Thanksgiving break refreshed, recharged, and ready to work. After discussing the highlights from their week on Monday morning, they set new Excellence Goals. Many students choose spelling, tackling some, or all, of the 1,000 most commonly used words. Most others choose to focus on math facts or touch typing, though a few branched out to a foreign language or a distinct reading, writing, or math goal. Students worked hard all week to make progress towards their goal and on Friday, they paused to evaluate and record this progress on their graphs. In addition to focusing on their Excellence Goal, which they have four weeks to accomplish, students set daily reading, writing, and math goals to guide their independent work time.

In the gaming quest, Acton eagles have moved from exploration mode (exploring probability through games of chance, skill, and strategy) to design mode. To unlock the final challenge of designing their games for the Game Expo at the end of the session, this week students worked through a series of mini game creation challenges. Offline, they designed simple, single-player games of luck and then manipulated the rules to make their games easier or harder to win. Following this up, they designed simple games of skill, then added an element of luck to these games to see which version playtesters enjoyed more. The idea was to brainstorm and quickly build prototypes, testing out as many ideas as possible in a short amount of time before choosing a game to stick with, playtest, revise and iterate, and eventually, make excellent for the Expo. Online, in Gamestar Mechanic, the focus was on game space. What type of game space is most appealing to gamers? How much "stuff" is too much to include and how much is too little? What type of perspective - top-down or platformer - best supports your game's goal? Does it make more sense for to design a bounded, unbounded, or wrap-around space?

Check out some of successful kid and teen game designer heroes we've looked at for some inspiration: https://sites.google.com/site/actonacademystudents/heroes-and-callings-video-link 

This year’s Process Drama came to an exciting conclusion this week with students finally catching the Naysayer. After chasing him through time for two months, undoing the harm he attempted to cause by dissuading important historical figures from continuing their Hero’s Journeys, they finally found him – in King Tut’s tomb. Before finding him, they got the got the last piece of a quote that the Naysayer has been dropping pieces of wherever he goes. After rearranging the words several times, they figure out that it said: Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. When they asked the Naysayer why he was dropping pieces of the quote everywhere he went, he told them that he didn’t mean to drop the pieces. He was trying to keep other people from reading the quote because he did not want them to continue with their dreams. As a child, he wanted to be an engineer, but his parents and a teacher told him that he would never succeed. Since he could not live out his dreams, he wanted to stop other people from living out their dreams.

In History, students learned stories of the Mayans, Aztecs and Incas, including the discovery of chocolate. Thank you, Aztecs. They sampled dark chocolate, letting it melt on their tongues and coming up with adjectives to describe it. Later in the week, they traveled to Africa where they learned about the gold and salt trade, and did some map work. They went through Ghana, Mali, and North Africa learning about the trade routes, royalty in the region, and the roll religion and money played in trade relations. The older students had an energetic Socratic discussion launched by the question: Which has more power in people’s daily decision-making: money or religion? Towards the end of the class students unscrambled a word puzzle containing a message that revealed the destination for this year’s history celebration trip: the Alamo and River Walk in San Antonio.

Coach Carpenter changed things up a bit in P.E. this week. In preparation for the Acton Olympics at the end of the trimester, he held a mini Acton Olympics where each team broke up into smaller teams and competed in such challenges as: a 10 minute run, a running relay, a wheelbarrow relay, and a bowling competition. The Eagles practiced their skills for Acton Olympics and had a blast competing for this week's prize.

This year we are continuing with a holiday tradition we started last year – Secret Eagles. Each student draws the name of a classmate and makes a book recommendation for that person. In order to do this, they combine empathy with detective skills to think about what book that person might like based on what they usually read and on their interests and personality. They then check to make sure we do not already have that book in our library and secretly tell Ms. Kaylie what book they have chosen. The school then purchases all the books and the students wrap them to give to their Secret Eagle on the last day of school before our holiday break. Once the books have been read, they come back to school, adding to the permanent collection here. Students were very enthusiastic about repeating this celebration of literature and friendship, and spent time throughout the week researching their options and making thoughtful recommendations.

Week 10 

This week in History, the students warmed up with apple cider and traveled with Mrs. Sandefer back in time to the first Thanksgiving.  The students learned about the evolution of the holiday, why we celebrate the way we do in America, and about different cultural celebrations all over the world that are similar to Thanksgiving. They shared our own traditions of how they celebrate with their families. Each group also discussed the meaning of gratitude. Following this discussion, the students wrote thank you notes to their parents, and later in the week, to all the people who have done something special for our class this past session.

Coach Carpenter changed it up a bit in P.E. and reintroduced an Acton favorite – Acton Jeopardy! The students picked teams and were asked a series of questions including, "From what school did Ms. Anna graduate?" and "How many calories are in a large chocolate shake from McDonalds?" If answered correctly, the winning team would sit out the first 30 seconds of the Coach-selected exercise. If answered incorrectly, the losing team would have to do the exercise for a full 60 seconds. A friendly competition, this game included fun questions and a great workout.

This week in Process Drama, after a few vocal and focus warm-ups, each group visited different times and places in history.  Students had been told the previous week that they would choose the next places to go based on where they think they might catch the Naysayer.  The groups discussed the Naysayer’s motives and seemed to agree that it was not to destroy the world by preventing important things from happening, but rather to control the world by stopping others from doing world-changing things so that he could do them instead and get the credit.  Some students also though he might go certain places and stop people from making money so that he could become rich as well.

During the week, students brainstormed times and places where the Naysayer might have traveled in his quest for power through fortune and fame.  They did research to find out exactly when and where to go and came to the Process Drama session this week armed with facts to feed the time machine.  All three groups went to the beaches of Normandy during World War II and two groups visited the Wright Brothers just before their famous flight.  Martin Luther King, Jr., Sojourner Truth, Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi, and Thomas Edison also received visits.  In each instance, the Naysayer had already come and gone, so the students were not able to catch him.  However, they were able to make sure that he did not change history with his discouraging remarks by re-inspiring the heroes they encountered.  They will continue to travel through time next week in search of the Naysayer.

Later in the week, students had the chance to reflect on all the heroes they have met in Process Drama this fall, as well as ones they have learned about in Project Time, History, and their personal experiences.  Whether someone they read about in a book or article, learned about from a YouTube video or a movie, met in Process Drama or in their real live, students each choose three heroes who have inspired them this fall to write about for their portfolios.

This was one of the last things they added to their portfolios, which they built over the course of the week, transferring work from their work binders, including tracking sheets for their progress on Khan Academy and Spelling City, a log of the all the books they have read this fall, their weekly agendas and reflections, and selected pieces of writing.  Their parents will have a chance to look through these portfolios with them after our Thanksgiving break and gain a better understanding of the work they have been doing at school.

Students were also able to add their first completed Excellence Goal form to their portfolios.  On Friday, they marked their progress graphs for the last time and then reflected on their performance.  Did they reach their goal? Why or why not? We discussed possible reasons someone might not have reached a goal: Maybe it was unrealistic.  Maybe they did not practice enough.  Maybe it was not the right kind of practice.  Maybe they just needed more time. Maybe something else became more important and they chose to focus on that instead. Will they continue with this goal or choose a new one? What about if they did reach the goal? Was the goal challenging enough? What will they choose as their next goal?

The focus in Gamestar Mechanic this week was on rules.  Students broke into four groups to modify the rules of the game Red Light, Green Light by taking on one of the following rule modification challenges: modify two rules such that the game becomes harder to play, add two new rules such that the game becomes faster, modify the rules such that the game becomes unwinnable, or modify one rule that would allow players to cheat.  We played all four new versions of the game and saw what a difference the rules of a game make and how changing rules can make games more or less fun to play.  Students logged on to Gamestar Mechanic and made modifications to the rules of the games they designed last week.

Casino Day on Friday was an exciting way to wrap up the probability portion of our game quest.  Students each started out with twenty game tokens and tested their luck at blackjack, craps, roulette, the lucky wheel, pitching pennies, and the ring toss.  Which games were gambles and which were investments (if any)?  In which game did the player have the best odds of winning - and did that affect how fun it was to play the game?  At the end of the day, only eight students out of thirty-three did not go completely bust, with just five of those eight ending up with more tokens than they started.  The house ended up winning 402 tokens.  Lessons learned?  When you go to a casino, you're more likely to lose than win, a game that includes some strategy and skill (and which you can get better at) is better than a game of pure luck, and it's better to spread your risk than to bet it all at one time.

It has been another great session with lots of work and lots of play.  Now it is time for a week of rest, reflection, rejuvenation, gratitude, and turkey.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Week 9

This week began once again with students looking back at their goals, achievements, and reflections from the previous week and discussing plans for the coming week. With their intentions in place, they set to work.

Having all made great progress in their respective math programs this fall, many students took a break from their regular math work to join in on a “fai-to” this week. Through a website called MangaHigh, students are able to compete with other schools around the globe, earning points by solving math problems. In a “fai-to", two schools agree to a five-day competition, with the winner taking possession of the other school’s virtual trophy. For some students, this is a fun way to practice some of the math skills they have learned on DreamBox, ALEKS, or KHAN Academy. Despite the excitement of the “fai-to”, students continued to work hard on their Excellence Goals, as well as their other core skills.

During History this week, Marcy Carpenter, Acton parent and professional archaeologist, shared her Hero's Journey with students. Students learned about the process of digs as well as the tools and knowledge necessary to unearth artifacts from human civilizations. Marcy shared that her running partners and guides helped her follow her dream to be an archaeologist and that the character traits of focus and patience are necessary. Thank you, Marcy Carpenter, for sharing your passion and story with us!

Process Drama brought students into space this week. After promising a disheartened Neil Armstrong that they would prove space travel was possible and worthwhile, students donned imaginary space attire and counted down from ten to blast off. On their adventures, students used improvisational skills to serve as translators for agitated aliens, dodged ateriod showers and black holes, played “Red Star, Green Star”, invented new constellations, and sang a star back to light. When they returned back to earth, they showed Neil Armstrong pictures of what they had encountered, recreating the scenes, and his enthusiasm for space travel was restored.

Students used their imaginations to travel back in time twice more this week – once to November 3, 2004 and once to November 7, 2002 to celebrate the birthdays of two of their classmates. As they made their revolutions around the sun to represent each year on earth, we heard stories and saw pictures of their pasts. Thoughtful wishes and tasty treats finished off both celebrations sweetly.

As the Acton Academy Olympics draw near, the students have been working hard and training to be the next champions! We’ve seen more lap running, more push-ups, and longer “planks” taking place. Overall sportsmanship has improved and dodge ball seems to remain an Acton Academy favorite.

In honor of Election Day, project time this week kicked off with a discussion about voting in our country. Americans are fortunate to have the opportunity to give feedback to our government about what is going well and what we want changed, and along with that opportunity comes responsibility - as voters, we are responsible for doing research to know about the issues at stake in an election. We try to incorporate this idea of opportunity, voice, and responsibility into our way of life at Acton Academy, as well. As one example of this concept at work, we did a critique of our class to see if there was anything we could do to improve as a community. Work on 3D GameLab then continued, including a few games of Boojum Basketball as an example of a group game that incorporates skill and strategy. On Wednesday, dad Allan Staker came in and shared his hero's journey about the entrepreneurial ups and downs of starting a video-game company, putting the students in his shoes as he considered the risks and rewards of pursuing his idea and allowing students to test out one of the prototypes of his game. This week's focus on Gamestar Mechanic was balance - creating games that are easy to play but difficult to win. Students each designed a game, then playtested and critiqued each others' work.

This week we were given the opportunity to travel to Peru (using our imaginations) with Sophia and her family. Sophia put together a beautiful presentation for the class and shared pictures of her family’s adventures to Lima, Machu Picchu, Sacsayhuaman, Pisac, and many more amazing places. After the slideshow, the Singh’s shared their favorite aspects of their trip and answered questions from the students. Thank you, Sophia for bringing beautiful Peru to Acton and thank you to the Singh family for the stories!

Week 8

At the end of last week, students reflected on their productivity, and indicated a “start”, a “stop”, and a “continue” for this week – one thing they want to start doing, one thing they want to stop doing, and one thing they want to continue doing in an effort to reach their goals. They shared these with a group of peers at the beginning of the week and gave each other suggestions for implementing these intentions. Each Monday, students begin the day by meeting with a group of peers to reflect on the previous week and set intentions for the current week. They share these with peers so that they can help hold each other accountable. They are also able to brainstorm solutions to problems together and give each other feedback on goals. These meetings combined with the daily S.M.A.R.T. goal setting seem to be working. Students are extremely focused during their work time, reading great books, practicing new math skills, memorizing spelling words, increasing their typing speed, and learning foreign languages.

In Writers’ Workshop, students continue to draft stories and share them with peers to get feedback in order to start the revision process. This week, as students decided they were done with revisions, some began editing. Each student works on three or four editing skills at a time, based on what their work needs, until those skills become habit and they are ready to take on new skills. With each skill – such as using proper end punctuation or using strong verbs – students read through their piece focusing on changes related just to that skill.

Tuesday's probability/game quest kicked off with students using probability to decode a message written in code. As a class, students figured out which letters are most often used in English by splitting into groups and counting the number of each letter in sentences from different books. Once they knew which letters were most common, they looked at the coded message to see which numbers appeared most often, figuring that these numbers must match up with those common letters. They also looked at words with just one letter and determined that these words needed to be either "a" or "I." Armed with this knowledge, they took on the challenge of decoding the message on their own, with much success! Can you do it?

23-18-9-20-5 1 13-5-19-19-1-7-5 15-6 6-9-22-5 23-15-18-4-19 15-18 13-15-18-5 9-14 3-15-4-5.

On Wednesday, students practiced critiquing games with a group critique of Connect 4. They started by giving warm feedback (things that they like about the game that they want to keep in mind while they design their own game) and then cool feedback (ideas for how to make the game even better). Some of their thoughts: Connect 4 is great because it is simple enough for people of all ages and skill levels to play and because it involves thinking and strategy. It could be made even better by adding to the level of challenge - perhaps by adding a third player with a different color or by adding levels in which players need to connect more than 4 pieces or must create certain shapes instead of a row.

On both Tuesday and Wednesday, students also continued working through the sequence of probability challenges and games on 3D GameLab and playing and critiquing games in Play Lab.

On Friday, we watched interviews with the creators of two popular computer games, Tetris and Minecraft, and discussed what makes a game addictive. Students then jumped back into their work on Gamestar Mechanic, focusing on the five elements of a game (space, mechanics, components, goals, and rules) and how to edit a game to make it more addictive by changing these elements. Students all took the same exact game (a template game) and each edited it by changing various elements to create their own version. Finally, they played and critiqued each others' versions of the games.

Wednesday’s Process Drama session began with a few acting and vocal warm-ups to get students ready to reenter the story. Each week begins this way and as part of this, they have been working on one of Dr. Seuss’s most challenging tongue twisters, “Grip Top Sock”. This week they learned the last line of the second verse, and successfully recited the entire thing.

Give me the gift of the grip top sock.

A drip drape, ship shape, tip top sock.

Not your spin slick, slap stick, slip slop stock;

But, a plastic elastic, grip top sock.

None of your fantastic slack swap slop

From a slap-dash, flash-cash, haberdash shop;

Not a knick knack, kit-lock,

Knock-kneed knickerboxers sock

With a mock-shot, blob-mottled tricktickertock clock.

 After the warm-up, students count down from ten and find themselves wherever they left off the previous week. This week, that was back in jail with Alice Paul. After successfully getting the keys from a sleeping guard and locking him in jail, the students started talking about heading back to the White House lawn for another protest. The guard overheard and told them that if they let him out, he would take them directly to Woodrow Wilson. After asking him a number of questions to determine if they could trust him, the students decided to let him out. 

The guard brought them to President Wilson who was busy and had no time for them. After some negotiation, Wilson agreed to give them five minutes of his time. To help them prepare, Aristotle was summoned for a quick lesson on persuasion. They split into three groups to form arguments – one group using ethos (getting the audience to trust and respect you because of your character or because you are an authority on the subject), one using pathos (getting the audience to agree with you because they feel emotion – compassion, sympathy for your cause and/or contempt for your opponent), and one using logos (getting the audience to believe you because your argument makes sense and is based on facts) to convince him to sign the 19th amendment. There were successful.

With their work done, students were eager to follow the Naysayer to Houston in 1969 where they believed he was trying to discourage Neil Armstrong from going to the moon. They started up their time machine and took it to the NASA headquarters in Houston, 1969, where Neil Armstrong was indeed just about to give up on the idea of space travel. After trying unsuccessfully to reason with Armstrong, the students asked if they could use his space shuttle to go to space themselves. He agreed and they promised to take pictures and bring them back in hopes that this would inspire him to continue his mission. 

Before blasting off, students drew a map of where they were headed and the obstacles they might encounter along the way. The session ended just as they had formed their bodies into a space shuttle and were about to take off. The ideas from their drawings will be the basis for the adventures they face next week in space.

In History, another part of their week filled with imagination and time travel, students have been visiting the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome. They have sampled food from these regions, explored the Nile, and the Tigeres and Euphrates rivers, and met important characters like King Narmer. They have also received their first challenge. As a new part of History this year, students will periodically receive optional challenges that will enhance their exploration. This week, they had the opportunity to research and share some of their personal and family history by creating timelines of their lives or learning stories about their ancestors.

Students traveled many places in their imaginations this week. We also received a visit from some special friends who actually had to board a plane to make the trip. We were delighted to welcome two of the Acton Academy Guatemala City guides to our classroom this week. They came to observe our guides and students in action. It is exciting to know that our students and our school are impacting students in another country.

Week 7 

After coming together in small groups last week to discuss the interviews they conducted over the October break, students made predictions about what it takes to achieve excellence. In each group, students selected one person to facilitate the discussion, another to be the scribe, and a third to be the reporter. On Monday, after a brief class discussion about what makes for a successful presentation, each group met one last time to help their reporter prepare. Each reporter had five minutes to present their group’s conclusions to the class, which were then summarized into one statement on the path to excellence.

When Striving for Excellence…

by the Acton Academy Elementary School Eagles, October 2012 

You need motivation.  You need a passion.  The desire to learn new things, get better, or help others can serve as your motivation or passion.

It takes both skill and practice.  You have to practice and practice.  You have to work hard and show you care by focusing and persevering through hard times.

Hard times will come.  Believe in yourself.  Don’t let yourself down.  Try not to lose self-confidence.  You can trust your family and friends when you are in need of support or a motivational boost.

Be patient.  It takes a while before people consider you a master.  It helps to start young because then you have more time.  It can take a while to find work in your field.  You can get physically and mentally hurt in your pursuit.

You need guides to help you learn and improve, but you must take responsibility for your work.

If you like what you are doing, keep on doing it even if nobody else thinks it’s valuable.  You have to work hard to make a mark in the world.

Armed with the experiences of the people they had interviewed, students went on to set their first Excellence Goals. At the beginning of each session of school, they will set a new Excellence Goal and graph their progress each week as they work towards it. For this first set of goals, they chose from three simple to measure categories: percentage of math facts known, typing speed, or the number of words spelled correctly out of the 1,000 most commonly used words in the English language. After selecting which area they wanted to work on, students assessed their current ability, set at S.M.A.R.T. goal (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely), and then set off to work. On Friday, they reassessed their ability and marked this on a graph, allowing them to visually see their progress and predict whether or not they will be able to reach their goal if they continue with their current level of effort. 

There were other exciting new beginnings this week. Students had their first History sessions this week, traveling back in time to share stories of the world inside their purpose-built yurt. As a special space for students to come together and grow stronger as a community through story-telling, the yurt also served as a perfect place for small groups to meet during Writers’ Workshop to share their work and give each other feedback.

While half the class is in History, the other half of the class meets for another kind of discussion. The younger students are working with the Touchpebbles program, practicing Socratic Discussion skills by discussing excerpts from classic literature and fables. The older students are also having interesting debates – about how to best solve challenging math problems. In preparation for their monthly Math Olympiad contests, they are working through past years’ tests as a group, discussing different ways to figure out the answers and focusing more on the process than the outcome.

In Process Drama, students headed back to the 1850s and met a dejected Susan B. Anthony. She had just spoken to the Naysayer and decided not to continue holding meetings and trying to convince people that women should have the right to vote. The students broke into groups of three or four and quickly put together skits to show her what life could be like in the future if she did continue her work, and what it would like if she did not. She was moved by the performances and told the travelers that she would continue her fight on matter what, keeping the scenes they had shown her in her mind as inspiration. She then urged them to follow the Naysayer who had disappeared into his time machine after talking to her earlier that day.

The students rebuilt their time machine, using their bodies as the different parts, and headed about 70 years forward to meet another essential figure in the women’s rights movement, Alice Paul. She too had just been visited by the Naysayer and was rethinking her involvement in the movement. The Naysayer had convinced her that it was not worth the risk to continue protesting. To inspire her, the students wrote a protest song and convinced her to join them in singing it on the White House lawn. This seemed to reignite her passion, but unfortunately, all the protesters were arrested and thrown in jail. The session ended with Alice Paul and the students in the jail cell plotting an escape.

Students also continued to move forward in their Gaming Quest, learning more about probability and chance through experimentation, playing and analyzing games, and learning basic programming skills to create computer games.

At the end of the week, we celebrated the birthdays of our younger twins, who are onto their ninth revolutions around the sun. Going in birth order, we celebrated one sister first thing in the morning, and the other at the end of day.

Week 6

The gaming quest kicked off on Tuesday.  This quest involves three parts: a series of challenges on 3D GameLab to explore games of chance, games of skill, and games of strategy; the PLAY Lab, in which students use tokens earned by completing challenges in 3D GameLab to play and critique a variety of board games, card games, dice games, and other offline games in the lab; and Gamestar Mechanic (gamestarmechanic.com), a game-based digital learning platform that teaches students how to design their own games online.  After the exploration stage of this quest, students will move on to game design, building their own games to share at the Game Expo on December 19th. (Mark your calendars!)

The 3D GameLab challenges began with an exploration of probability, with students considering the odds of winning or losing different games and how to increase their odds of success.  For example, so far students have attempted to win M&Ms by using probability to guess where they will land on a target, and they have tested out their abilities in card-counting to increase their odds in a card game called Smoke or Fire.  In their game critiquing sessions, some of the things students have discussed liking about games are when they are challenging (not too easy to win so it feels really good if and when you finally do), when they include enemies or things to avoid in addition to goals to meet, and when they involve collecting items (points, tokens, etc.) along the way.  Some things students would change about games they have played so far include making them a little more complicated, for example adding levels or additional goals, or adjusting the level of challenge to make it harder or easier (depending on the game).

Students enjoyed the milder temperatures out on the field during PE this week.  They started a new sport – dodge ball – which was a highlight for many because it was action packed and full of non-stop movement.  Teams were split into two groups to play on different dodge ball "courts" which allowed for a more fast-paced game.  There were many first-time dodge ball players who embraced the new experience, tried their hardest, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy it.  During free time, students played more dodge ball, as well as soccer, capture the flag, and tetherball.

In Process Drama, students started the session with some vocal exercises, including two new lines of the tongue twister they are learning – Grip Top Sock.  They then counted down from ten and found themselves back in 1805 at the campground where Lewis & Clark left them the previous week to continue their journey back home alone.  During the week, students had found pictures of the Naysayer in books about Henry Ford, so they knew where they had to go next.  They rebuilt their time machine, feed it facts they had learned through their research to activate it, and traveled back to the early 1900s.

Students were put into the role of factory workers for a discouraged Henry Ford.  He had already met the Naysayer and was convinced that he would not be able to produce an affordable car and had decided to shut down the factory.  His workers (the students) asked for one more chance to show him they could help him succeed.  He agreed, showed them the engine they needed to build and gave them their parts.  They began building the engines (out of Legos), but the process was very inefficient and there was lots of confusion.  He announced that he was going to work on the paperwork necessary to close down the factory and told them all they were laid off.  In all three Process Drama groups, the students came up with the idea to form an assembly line to make the process more efficient.  They asked Ford for one more chance and he conceded.

The assembly line was significantly more efficient and Ford began to get some of his excitement and hope back.  He went to get more parts so that they could continue with this more efficient method, leaving his assistant in charge.  His assistant was mean to the workers, yelling at them to work even faster and threatening to fire them.  During a lunch break, the workers began talking about how unfair the assistant was and how bad the working conditions were, especially considering the meager salaries on which they were barely able survive.  The unrest continued to build, and by the time Ford returned, the workers were ready to stand up for themselves, arguing that they had improved efficiencies and were working hard, but not being treated fairly.  Ford agreed with them, fired his assistant, and gave them each a raise.  With his motivation and curiosity restored, he thanked them and gave them a piece of paper that the Naysayer had dropped.  It said: “to continue”.  The Process Drama session ended there.  The following day, students began searching the library for clues as to where the Naysayer is headed next.

With the new session, the schedule has changed a little.  Writers’ Workshop is now just twice a week.  During these two hours, everyone will be writing, revising, and editing work.  There are no assignments, and students are free to write in whatever genre and style they choose.  They brainstorm ideas together and share drafts of their work with peers to get feedback as they revise.  Each student has an individualized editing checklist that allows them to focus on a few specific skills at a time.  When a piece is finished, students can choose to add to a class collection of work, read it aloud to the class at the end of the day, or find another method of publication that satisfies their goals.  Students are encouraged to continue their writing outside of the workshops – at school and at home – but know that these times have been set aside each week for them to collaborate with their peers on writing.

We have also added Math Power Hour to the schedule three times each week.  As with writing, students are encouraged to do math outside of these hours.  During these times, however, all of the students are focused completely on math, generating a quiet hum in the classroom and providing the opportunity for peer mentoring and small group lessons when appropriate.

Students continue to set and evaluate daily goals during the rest of their core skills work time, when they are responsible for deciding what to do.  This part of the day has been renamed Scholar’s Choice, signifying the commitment that they students have all made to being scholars.  While they worked this week, they peered out the window as a round, wooden, gazebo-like structure was built before their eyes.  This yurt will be where students meet twice a week for History beginning next week.

Week 5

In this last week of our first sessions, students worked hard on and off the field. They continued to challenge themselves in Project Time, working towards unlocking the final quest – and many of them did. What was it? The privilege to design their own quest, something the students were very excited to do.

Core Skills was focused as students spent time reading, solving problems, and learning new languages. Writing Workshop was spent editing writing, focusing on spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure in preparation for the Exhibition of Learning on Friday.

In Process Drama, students reentered their adventure with Lewis & Clark in the morning at the campsite. As they continued their journey to the ocean, there were more challenges to face – they captured a bandit, negotiated with a Native American Chief, foraged for berries, climbed mountains, and avoided poisonous snakes. When they finally reached the water (a large piece of blue silk), they dove in, transforming into wise fish who offered Lewis & Clark advice for their journey home. While making camp to get a good night’s sleep before starting back east, they caught a glimpse of the Naysayer in the window. When Lewis, who had been collecting more wood for the fire, returned, he said he had run into the Naysayer who jumped into a large machine and disappeared. Process Drama ended for the day with the students understanding that they would have to leave Lewis & Clark to follow the Naysayer back to another time in history in order to stop him. To figure out where he went, they will need to look for books in the school library with the Naysayer’s picture and be prepared with facts to feed their time machine next week.

We celebrated the birthdays of our two oldest students this week, born just one minute apart. Both are compassionate, fun-loving, courageous leaders in our community and it was a joy to shower them with birthday wishes.

Friday was a wonderful celebration of what has been created over the past five weeks – a purposeful community of friends and learners who support and encourage each other academically and emotionally. Parents were invited into the classroom for an Exhibition of Learning, where their children were their guides, showing them how they learn at school. Before entering, parents were instructed to observe for a few minutes before going over to their child. The students had prepared for this the previous day, and decided that they wanted to really show their parents what Core Skills time was like. So, they spread out, some working on their computers, some off, and pretended like nothing unusual was happening. They were focused and serious.

Parents entered the classroom through the kitchen, where they were greeted by the smiling faces of the students, hanging at different heights on fishing line from the ceiling. On the other side of each picture was an autobiographical piece of writing that student worked on during this first session on the other side of the page.

After observing the classroom, parents spent time learning about the way we do things at Acton Academy from their children. They were given some guiding questions to ask, ones that we hope they will continue to ask throughout the year.

• How do you know what to do during this time?

• How do you keep track of your progress?

• What do you do if you have a question?

• What is your favorite thing to do during Core Skills?

• When are you most challenged during Core Skills?

• What else are you excited to show me?

It was a very special morning and the students felt much deserved pride when it was over. They took time to write thank you notes to their parents for

When we return from our week away, students will continue the work they have started and add to it a particular focus on striving for excellence. This past week, they were presented with the question: By looking at our past experiences and those of people who have achieved mastery in various fields, can we predict what it takes to get really good at something?

They began the investigation with students interviewing each other about something they have worked hard to become really good at. By examining their collective experiences, they came up with a number of things in common in their experiences: setting goals, having guides they trust, practicing, working hard, and looking up to heroes.

To continue their research, students will now take their question out of the classroom. They brainstormed people in their lives who they consider to be masters in a particular field or discipline. Over the break, they will choose one of these people to interview. They will then come back together and see if there are commonalities between the different experiences they learn about that they can apply to their own efforts in working towards excellence.

At home, too, there is a lot parents can do to promote this idea of striving for excellence. In addition to sharing stories of perseverance and admiring excellence in our midst, there is specific language that can be used to encourage the pursuit of excellence.

Here are some examples of great language to use:

1. Asking: "Is this your best work?" and “Tell me how you figured that out” at every chance.

2. Praising effort and process with phrases like: "You must have worked really hard" or "I noticed you keep trying, even when it's hard."

3. With both successes and failures, asking: "How would you do this differently next time?"

Here are some things to avoid:

1. Praising intelligence or quality with phrases like: “Wow, good job”, “You are good at math", “You are so smart”.

2. Comparing your child's work or progress to that of another child.

3. Using humor or sarcasm in regards to their work or their efforts.

A great article to learn more about why Acton Academy is so committed to process over products/answers is this one by Po Bronson, author of Nurture Shock: http://nymag.com/news/features/27840/, and Opening Minds by Peter Johnston is a wonderful resource for more great language to use.

Friday ended with happy students from both the Elementary and Middle schools all dancing, playing, and hula hooping together on the field with the sun shining and Coach Carpenter’s PE music mix blaring. It was the perfect send off to a week of relaxation and rejuvenation.

Week 4

Students continued to choose their own paths through the different quests presented on 3-D game lab, including ones that had them designing experiments, building sand timers and pendulums, and studying probability through the roll of a die and the toss of a coin. By the end of the week, several groups had succeeded in unlocking the final challenge for which they had had to complete at least 17 quests and earn a minimum of 1200 points.

Students were able to put their new knowledge of the Decision Chain (introduced last week as part of a debate) when a real problem arose in Project Time. With absences and individual preferences, some groups were becoming frustrated with having to work together on challenges. As a class, we came together for students to brainstorm the various pros and cons of working in a team. Then, individually, they weighed the significance of each of these to them personally in order to make a decision about who to proceed. The groups then came back together and decided whether to continue working as a group or to finish the projects as individuals. There were a number of groups that decided to stay together. These groups recommitted to working together and working through any issues that might result from this choice. Other groups decided to split up and work individually, without any hard feelings. There were two individuals from different groups that split up who really wanted to work on a team, so they decided to pair up.

Students used our new decision-making method to make another significant decision about their time at school. After complaints of the room being too loud during Core Skills, we experimented several days last week with having one silent hour and one noise-permitted hour of Core Skills time. This Friday, we held an “election”. In order to decide how to cast their ballot, each student worked through a Decision Chain, brainstorming and the weighing the pros and cons of having a silent hour of Core Skills each day. There was a significant majority in favor of silence, so after the October break, there will be one silent hour and one noise-permitted hour of Core Skills each day.

Acton Academy Decision Chain

Problem? No problem with decision chain!

1. P - Problem: Restate the problem in your own words and figure out your options.

2. N - 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. P - Pros/Cons: Brainstorm the pros and cons of your options.

4. W - Weigh: Weigh the pros and cons. Think about what you value and which possible consequences matter to you more.

5. D - Decide: Make your decision.

6. C - Commit: Commit to follow through with your decision, or go back to the start of the chain to make a new decision. 

On Thursday, students took a break from the hands-on activities to focus on the concept of a paradigm and consider the value of paradigms in making predictions. After watching a video about Thomas Kuhn’s idea of a scientific paradigm shift, they watched a few other videos that showed examples of heroes that were part of some historical paradigm shifts including Aristotle, Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. They consider questions such as: Are you still a hero even if someone else disproves your theory? (Galileo and Copernicus disproved theories by Aristotle, and Einstein disproved Newton’s theory. Are Aristotle and Newton still heroes?) Are you more of a thinker/philosopher or a doer/experimenter? Would you rather do experiments to come up with your own brand new theory or would you rather do experiments to try to prove or disprove a theory that already exists? Which is more important: spreading the truth or protecting yourself? If you were Copernicus, would you have published your work, going against what everyone else believed and knowing you would be rejected and even punished, or would you let people continue to believe something you knew was not true? The next day, students came together to share some of their reflections and see what they rest of the class thought. The sum of their opinions were presented on pie graphs so that they could visually see the distribution of thought.

In Town Meeting students discussed their frustration over the misuse of classroom materials. In a respectful, but candid conversation, students referenced the Student Contract (signed by all 35 Eagles as of this Tuesday) and the promise to take care of the things around me that help me learn and live. When one student suggested that classroom materials be put away and students required to ask to use them, another student spoke to the value of freedom and the responsibility that comes with that. Students agreed to take no specific action at this point in hopes that the conversation itself will have an impact.

The eight fifth graders took a CPR & First Aide certification course this week as the first part of the leadership training they will undergo before graduating to Middle School. As a school, we also launched a student-led Reading and Writing Buddy program this week that is giving many students in the class new leadership opportunities. Twice each week a student who can benefit from some guidance with reading spends about half an hour reading with another student who is more experienced reader. Each Monday and Wednesday, they will have this special time in the same pairs. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, there is a similar time set aside for students who would benefit from some focused penmanship practice paired with students who are more experienced in the art. So far, both members of the partnerships have been enthusiastic, and the program is off to a great start.

With many students ready to begin revising the story they were working on in Writers’ Workshop, there was another great opportunity for students to support each other academically. In small groups of four or five, students shared their pieces and then received feedback from their peers. They then followed a format which we will use in small groups and peer-to-peer conferences throughout the year. Students first answered: What did you notice this writer did well in this piece? Then they had an opportunity to ask the writer questions and tell them what else they are curious about having heard the piece. Finally, the writer shares what they plan to do next based on the feedback.

In Process Drama this week, students transformed into their characters and picked up the story where it left off the previous week. They had just discovered blue prints to a time machine left behind by a mysterious man called the Naysayer who had been roaming their town and robbing people of their curiosity and motivation. Their first task was to build a time machine – with their bodies – and transport themselves to St. Louis in 1804 where Louis and Clark began their expedition. How did they know where and when to go? They found books about Lewis and Clark in the classroom during the week and learned about their adventures in order to prepare for the time travel. Once back in the 1800s, they came face to face with the despondent explorers who no longer wanted to go on their expedition. After convincing them to continue on and agreeing to accompany them, the students set off. They hiked up mountains, edged along cliffs, escaped grizzly bears and poisonous snakes, fished for food, and sang songs around the campfire before it was time to get some rest. They will pick up their adventure next week at the campsite.

In PE, both teams worked hard during the warm-up and showed great sportsmanship during their games of kickball. For a fun wager on Thursday, students were presented with a choice: the whole team had to start from home base and run around all the kickball bases in under 35 seconds. If they lost, they would have to do 20 push-ups each, and if they won, Coach Samantha and Coach Carpenter would have to do 20 push-ups each. Should they take the risk? Ask Ms. Samantha. She was still sore on Friday afternoon.

We end each week with students each sharing a highlight from the week. These are always varied and delightful to hear and this week was no exception. What was unusual was the number of personal academic achievements cited. From certificates earn of DreamBox, to unlocking challenges on 3-D Game Lab, to finishing a fabulous book, to mastering an impressive number of spelling words, students were so proud of their hard work and resulting successes this week.

The return of Ella Reese & Lillian’s Talk Show was another major highlight of the week. What started last year during lunch as a simple, smart variety show to entertain their classmates has become a more elaborate event that the pair hope to continue once a month. Several weeks prior to the date, they began planning their inaugural “talk show” for the 2012-13 school year. With an extensive beverage menu and a brief performance from a few of their peers, it has become less talk show and more open mike café. However, they insist the name “Ella Reese & Lillian’s Talk Show” is still necessary for branding. And from the crowd and their response, Ella Reese and Lillian seem to know what they are doing.

Another popular part of the week was the addition of an optional read aloud during lunch. For those who are interested, blankets are put out and a group gathers around to listen to The Hobbit while they lunch. Mrs. Mann volunteered to come in twice a week to read, but the students have begged for the story to continue each day, so we make sure someone is available to read to them each day.

Week 3

With fewer “firsts” this week, students really had the opportunity to go deeper in their work. Monday morning they each received a one-page planner for the week. At the beginning of their core skills work time each day, they set two or three goals to help them guide themselves for that day. At the end of the work period, they reflected briefly on the progress they made towards these goals and used this information the following day to help set new goals. After a few weeks of setting daily goals and beginning to get a sense of what they are able to accomplish in a set amount of time, students will set more long-term goals and use their daily goal setting as a way to break these long-term goals into smaller pieces.

Students also continued exploring the different learning tools they have available to them with the goal of being able to teach their parents how each works at the end of this first five-week session. On the Friday before the October break, students will invite their parents to school for an Exhibition of Learning. During this time, they will show their parents how they spend their core work time – how they choose their work and how they monitor and reflect on their progress, as well as how to use the various software programs they have available as tools.

After lots of time to write during the week, students went through the stories they have written these past two weeks and selected one that they want to begin to revise next week. They will meet in small groups with peers to get feedback as they rework their stories.

A rhythm has been established in Project Time as well, with students now working on all different quests to gather tools that can make the world more predictable. Many of the popular quests this week have been related to various strategy tools. In one quest, students played different games to practice using either trial and error or a question funnel strategy. In another, students practiced using the scientific method to design their own experiments to test hypotheses. Students also became familiar with the Decision Chain as a method for choosing between options. On Thursday, we read an article on AISD’s current debate on whether or not to create single-sex schools in the district. Students were told that Acton Academy is trying to make the same decision: should we split into an all-girl’s Acton Academy and an all-boy’s Acton Academy? Students met in small groups to go through the steps of the Decision Chain (restating the problem, researching the need-to-knows, listing the pros and cons, weighing the pros and cons, and then making and committing to a decision). Upon returning to the full group, they participated in a mock board meeting, presenting their arguments for or against single-sex Acton Academies. The board was convinced to keep our school as is! Later, students used the Decision Chain independently to make a decision about whether or not the first hour of Core Skills time every day should be silent. An election on this issue will be held next Friday.

Before the second Process Drama session this week, students developed their characters, complete with a calling, strengths, personal obstacles, and fears. They joined Mr. Nat for another exciting adventure in their respective invented towns of Sunset City, Gold Rush, and Zuzu Mana. Each group faced challenges that required creativity, focus, and teamwork, including getting past sleeping guards, crossing over creaky bridges, making grumpy trolls laugh, charming snakes, cleaning up a polluted lake, and creating new acts for a failing circus. Each successful completion of a challenge led students closer to finding the masked man who seems to be robbing people of their curiosity and motivation. As they chased after him, they found gears he had dropped, and eventually blue prints to a time machine. The day ended with students discovering the words “Lewis & Clark” written on the blue prints. They talked about what would happen if this villain went back in time and robbed people of their curiosity and motivation – no inventions, no innovation, no discoveries – and decided that they would have to build a time machine and try to stop him.

P.E. was a highlight this week with two fun days of kickball. Due to scheduling changes, P.E. was a bit different for everyone this Thursday. The first class was larger than usual with 22 Eagles from both the blue and yellow teams mixed together. Ms. Anna and Ms. Samantha joined Coach Carpenter and the energy was outstanding! During the warm-up the Eagles had a friendly competition and worked very, very hard. Afterwards they played a large game of kickball and the majority opinion was that the larger group was really fun! The other Eagles had a particularly small group on Thursday of only 11 students. They also worked very hard and were extremely supportive of one another. The consensus from the smaller group? "The smaller group was really fun!"

After another couple discussions about the Student Contract, with returning students giving examples to help new students understand the different lines, the class was ready to sign it. With a few minor revisions, and the addition of the line: I will win with honor and lose with grace, the 2012-13 Student Contract is official.

Student Contract, 2012 - 2013

I am on a hero’s journey.

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

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

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

I will be kind and respect my fellow travelers. I will win with honor and lose with grace.

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

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

I will encourage other people on their journeys and support their dreams, but make sure they want and need my help when I give it.

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 take responsibility for my education and seek out help when I truly need it.

I will never give up on myself.

Week 2

The week started off with the middle school and elementary students all heading to a nearby park for the first PE Olympics of the year. After a high-energy warm up with loud music and Coach Carpenter keeping the excitement high, students broke into four groups to begin their rotations. They were timed running a half mile, holding a low plank, running the 40-yard dash, and doing push-ups. These times will be used as a baseline so that students can monitor their improvements in strength, flexibility, and stamina over the course of the year.

After cooling down with popsicles and heading back to school, Coach Carpenter announced the members of the Blue and Yellow Teams, giving each student the appropriate colored sweatband to wear to PE. On Thursday, students came decked out in their team’s color (and one student came in both yellow and blue to show her support for all of her classmates) for their first PE class, where they are divided by team. Kickball is the first sport they will focus on this year and they loved it.

Later that day, we began talking about the Student Contract. We have four students in the class this year who have been at Acton Academy since it opened. These students wrote the original Student Contract, which has been revised each year. They broke the class into four groups and facilitated discussions about the contract, helping new students understand what it means and encouraging both new and returning students to think about what changes or additions they would like to make to it this year. When explaining one of the lines of the contract: I will try new things I have never done before, even things I might not be good at, to discover new talents and things that bring me joy, students referred to earlier in the day when several of their classmates had tried kickball for the first time. At the end of the week, students each reflected individually on what parts of the contract they feel are most important, what parts they find confusing, and whether or not they feel ready to sign in. They will continue to discuss this next week and work on any revisions they find necessary.

Students also looked at the promises that Acton Academy makes to its students.

We promise you will:

Begin a Hero's Journey

Learn to be curious, become an independent learner and love life-long learning

Discover your most precious gifts, along with the dedication it takes to develop real talent

Understand the importance of a strong character

Cherish the arts, the wonders of the physical world and the mystery of life

Treasure economic, political and religious freedom.

Using a framework called “Start, Stop, Continue”, students talked about things that as a school we should either starting doing, stop doing, or continue doing in order to keep these promises. Students had lots of exciting ideas for new things we can start, including more peer-to-peer teaching, and many things they would like to continue. There were not many “stops”, which may be because throughout the year, there are Town Meetings where students discuss ideas for how to improve our community and things that are not working generally come up in that context and are adjusted.

There were many other firsts this week. Students had their first Writers’ Workshops of the year. This fall they are working on writing stories from their own lives – creating written snapshots from their memories and using descriptive language to bring the reader into their own histories. For some students, the first few weeks can be particularly challenging as they are asked to spend 30 – 40 minutes at a time as a “writer” – not always physically writing words, but becoming comfortable reflecting on their experiences and searching for their own stories. But they do find their stories; we all have stories. For others, the lack of assigned topic is immediately freeing and they look forward each day for the time when the classroom becomes quiet and they can get lost in their memories.

This week also brought Nat Miller to us for the year’s first Process Drama session. Process drama is a method of teaching in which students work through a problem or situation using improvisation. Each student creates his or her own character and must make decisions on the spot regarding how to handle various challenges presented to them within a given storyline. The decisions students make then determine the direction of the plot. The goal of process drama is to improve decision-making skills, teamwork, listening, control, spontaneity, and confidence. It also creates a safe place to explore character and philosophical questions. The class has been split into three groups this year that each started off the same way this week, but will develop differently based on the ideas of the students in those groups. They were summoned to a meeting with a mysterious note that told them people were in danger and needed their help. When they arrived, they found out that people in their town were losing their curiosity and motivation. It was unclear why. Each group made a map of their town and spent time this week “visiting” different places in their towns. In the different places they went, they would learn about more people who were no longer excited about their lives or their work. At the end of the day, they discovered the picture of a mysterious man who seemed to be involved. The mystery will continue next week as students decide how to proceed.

This year’s adventure is off to a great start with students beginning to develop their individual characters and their societies. The details of the day, however, must be kept a secret because the class has been divided into two groups who do not know what the other group is up to.

Project Time began this week. The first quest of the year which will go for four weeks is designed to help students begin thinking about the overarching question of the year: Does the past predict the future? Using an on-line platform called 3-D Game Lab to deliver as series of challenges, students will learn to use a variety of “tools” that may help them predict their own personal success this year. They began by becoming familiar with 3-D Game Lab and creating an avatar which required them to read through a fairly complex set of instructions, and use the “print screen”, “copy”, “paste”, and “crop” functions on their computers. Once they had done that, new challenges were unlocked, some which they needed to do individually, some in small groups, and some in large groups. As they complete more challenges, more are unlocked, and students will begin to take different paths through the quest. There are certain challenges each student must complete – such as taking a test to determine their learning style and their primary “love language”, and many that they will choose based on individual interest. There are a variety of self-knowledge tools, teamwork tools, strategy tools, measurement tools, and analysis tools that they will have the opportunity to learn about over the next month.

There were several times this week that the class came together during Project Time for a discussion or a challenge. To launch the project, students were asked if they believed more in fate or in self-determination. After some interesting debate, they heard two stories. One was about a man who was stuck on a rooftop in a rising flood. He was offered a chance to escape by several people, but refused, saying, “God will save me.” He drowned and went to heaven where he asked, “God, why didn’t you save me?” to which God replied, “I sent two boats and a helicopter, what more did you want?” (For a more complete version: http://epistle.us/inspiration/godwillsaveme.html.) The other story was a legend about a poor farmer who saved a nobleman’s son. In return, the nobleman paid to educate the farmer’s son who ended up going to medical school and discovering Penicillin. Years later, the nobleman’s son became ill with pneumonia and was saved by Penicillin. (For a more complete version: http://www.opey.com/goesaround.html.)

Later in the week, students heard the story of Sarah Edmonds, a woman disguised herself as a man to serve as a soldier, nurse, and eventually spy in the Union Army during the Civil War. We discussed her story within the framework of the Hero’s Journey, mapping out the events of her life. Students identified her calls to action, challenges, achievements, fellow travelers, heroes, guides, fears, accomplishments, and personal change. Throughout this quest, they will reflect by writing about these same elements of the Hero’s Journey as they experience them.

At the end of the week, students split into three groups for a difficult challenge. Each group had a long rope with overhand knots in it, spaced two feet apart. There was one knot for each student and they grabbed onto the rope near a knot with one hand. That hand was “glued” to the rope and could not move or be used. With their free hands and their bodies, they had to untie all the knots in the rope. This required an incredible amount of teamwork and patience. One group worked for an hour and a half without once considering giving up – even when they were told they could do so – until they successfully unknotted the entire rope. At one point, they were all thirsty and as a group, still holding onto the rope, carefully walked over to the water fountain and helped each other get a drink of water. At the end of the day on Friday, when each student shared their “highlight” from the week, almost every student in this group said that it was their highlight. Earlier in the week, students had discussed how they define success and whether you could be having fun and working hard at the same time. It seems that for these students, it is possible.

Friday also brought the first Spanish class with Ann Benson and chess class with Craig LaSalle. These are optional classes that not everyone in the class is taking, though their influence will be felt throughout the class as students bring those learning experiences back into the classroom with them.

Week 1

Thirty-five Acton Academy Eagles came together this week for the first time and after a brief icebreaker, were presented with the challenge of creating a successful Lip Dub. (Lip Dubs are do-it-yourself music videos featuring a group of people lip syncing different parts of a song. The videos are later dubbed with the original track.) The students were given two requirements: that the Lip Dub be filmed in one shot and that each of the thirty-five students have a role in front of the camera. After watching the previous two years’ Lip Dubs to make sure everyone knew what they were being asked to do, the students began a memorization challenge. They listened to the cast of the television show Glee covering Bill Wither’s “Lean On Me” several times and then set off to memorize the lyrics. With the song broken down into five parts, they had to recite each part to a different guide in order to make it to the next “level”. Once they memorized the entire song, they got to choose which part of the song they wanted to be in during the Lip Dub. After an hour, any students who were not finished memorizing the song choose their parts, and the groups were formed.

With the requirements clear, the next task was to determine as a group what qualifies as a “successful Lip Dub”. As a group, students watched several Lip Dubs that were posted on YouTube and critiqued them, listing out things the group did successfully that they wanted to incorporate into their Lip Dubs and things the group did that were not successful that they would want to avoid. From this list of ideas, they developed a rubric that they could use to evaluated drafts of their Lip Dub.

                                                                                 Lip Dub Rubric

Rate the following goals on a scale from 1 to 3.

 (1 means working against this goal, 2 means neutral, and 3 means working successfully towards this goal.)

• Mouth movements match the music:

  • People singing are turned towards the camera.

  • Mouth movements are exaggerated, but not too much.

  • People are close to the camera so you can see their mouths.

• Peoples’ actions match the words of the song; actions are repeated when words repeat.

• When the camera goes into a new room, everyone is ready.

• It is obvious whom to watch.

  • (Waving in the background after you are done takes away attention from new singers.)

• The group all comes together at the end and it is well planned.

• The ending of the song is nailed perfectly and people don’t stop singing too soon.

Students then divided into their individual groups and began planning their section of the song. They brainstormed props, costumes, and choreography. After taking a break for lunch, students decided we needed to come back together as a group to discuss the flow of the Lip Dub because they were unable to really plan their part until they knew where they would be. They decided to begin the Lip Dub where they begin each day at Acton, walking up the sidewalk, and have the camera follow them through the schoolhouse and out to the hill so that they final part would be filmed with downtown Austin as the backdrop. From there, they assigned each group a starting and ending space and broke up to continue planning and practicing their parts. 

During the memorization challenge earlier in the day, a student who was struggling wanted to give up. He had memorized the chorus of the song, and while there were thirty minutes left in the challenge, he argued that he knew enough of the song to participate in the Lip Dub and therefore did not see any purpose in continuing to try to learn more of the song. At the end of the day, we talked about this. Using a rubber band to represent the portion of the brain involved in memorizing, we talked about how by challenging different parts of the brain, we can grow these parts. Much like a rubber band can stretch when you apply some force to it. With a rubber band in their hand, each student shared one part of their brain that they would like to “stretch” this year. When a student’s rubber band snapped during this discussion, it gave us the opportunity to think about what happens when you stretch yourself too much. While the rubber band broke, we acknowledged that your brain would not break from overuse, but you might get a headache and need to take a break. 

The next day, after a fun name game, students broke into their groups again to finish putting together any props and costumes and continue practicing their parts. Before breaking for lunch, we filmed a few run-throughs. After lunch, we watched the run-throughs, and each student evaluated their individual performance using the rubric, before continuing to film.

We ended the day by forming a web of yarn, getting to know each other better and creating a visual representation of the fact that the students are each connected to one another by being part of this community. They sat in a giant circle on the floor and rolled a ball of yarn across the floor to another person, holding onto their piece of the yarn until each person had a piece in their hand. The next day, they broke into three smaller groups and welcomed the Middle School students into their classroom. They explained the process of forming the web and then created one with the older Eagles, each sharing their name and one of their heroes as they rolled the yarn to each other.

Thursday morning, instead of continuing the film as planned, students gathered to discuss their first major dilemma as a class – one student was out sick. The students quickly came to the unanimous decision that they were not willing to fail to fulfill either of the requirements by filming the Lip Dub without their classmate or by editing together more than one take. Instead, they focused on potential solutions. With just one suggestion from a guide that the person speaking call on the next person, the conversation became entirely student-driven. They came up with a three-tiered solution: their first choice was to get the sick student on Skype during the filming; their second choice was to wait until she returned to school to resume filming; and their back-up plan was to use one of the takes from the previous day. Further discussion about the Skype solution had one student voice the concern that a sick person should be left to rest. The class agreed, and decided to just wait until the next day in hopes that the sick student would be back.

And she was! The following morning, students practiced their parts and then filmed two extremely successful takes with all thirty-five Eagles present. They evaluated them using the rubric and agreed that they had reached their goal of a successful Lip Dub. To see their final product, go to: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISlQySMt53o.

To process this first group challenge, we introduced the framework of the “Challenge Donut”, which students will refer to throughout the year. In the center of the “Challenge Donut” is the Comfort Zone. When you are in this zone, you are relaxed. It is a wonderful place to be, but it is not where you grow. On the outside of the donut is the Panic Zone. This is where you are when you have pushed yourself too hard and again, it is difficult to grow. The Challenge Zone is between these two places, and it is where the most growth and learning occur. You have to work to be in this zone and it is usually tiring. When you spend time in your Challenge Zone, it expands, pushing your Panic Zone out, and what used to be Challenge Zone, becomes part of you Comfort Zone. One student referred to the place just beyond your Challenge Zone as your “breaking point”, connecting this metaphor to Tuesday’s discussion about rubber bands. Students shared times during the Lip Dub challenge where they were in the various zones, describing exactly where within the zone they were.

Along with the ambitious challenge of creating their Lip Dub, students also had time this week to begin exploring the work they will do during Core Skills time. They tried out various computer programs designed to help them learn and practice mathematical concepts, spelling, typing, and foreign language. They also spent time reading books from our library and updating their Shelfari accounts with books read over the summer break.

In the mornings as students were arriving and before lunch, they had free time each day to play outside or inside, and each day there was time set aside to play board games and card games. Students were encouraged to pair up with classmates that they do not know very well during this time and get to know them better.

The week ended with our first birthday celebration. One of our new students circled the “sun” (a candle) eight times to represent the eight years he has been alive. We gave him birthday wishes and enjoyed homemade cupcakes. We also said goodbye to Ms. Aubrie, wishing her well on her Hero’s Journey and thanking her for a wonderful year.