Our Second Year (2010-11)

Acton Academy

2010 – 11

Week 1

We had a fabulous first week at Acton Academy! It was wonderful to have all the new faces with us this week – our new students and new teachers bring so much to an already incredible group.

We began on Tuesday with the question: Which is most important, to live in a way that uses your talents and gifts, to live in a way that brings you joy or to live in a way that serves others? The students struggled to choose one of these as most important and came to the conclusion that using their talents would bring them great joy and make it easier for them to serve others. This led us into a discussion about whether our talents are already within us, waiting to be discovered or whether they are developed purely through practice. At the end of this lively conversation, one of the students asked, “Is there a correct answer to these questions?” It was a wonderful beginning. The students spent the rest of the morning settling into their desks, exploring the classroom and playing games. Despite the rain, we even played outside.

We began our Writing Workshops this week with a discussion about our history as writers. What types of writing do we do? Why do we write? What do we enjoy about writing? What are our fears as writers? Later in the week, we scoured the library for examples of writing that we love and shared these with each other. We savored words and thought about why certain phrases affect us. We read a few stories together and then contemplated the authors’ purpose for writing them.

The classic tale of The Little Engine That Could introduced us to our first character trait of the year – perseverance. We discussed examples of perseverance from our lives and the lives of people we have read or heard stories about. Students then drew pictures of themselves during a time when they had to persevere. We put these on the wall and will add other stories and pictures of perseverance as we come across them in books, newspapers and other places in our lives.

Students enjoyed their first Art Class with Ms. Amy. After a short introduction to collages, students got right to work decorating the covers of their “Idea Books”, which they can write or sketch in any time and then use as a tool to inspire their artwork. Students also had their first P.E. class with Coach Johnson. They did Yoga and played several games outside before coming inside to discuss what they hope to gain from P.E. this year. Ms. Anna also taught the students several fun outdoor group games this week.

We continued with our study of Entrepreneurship (E-Ship) that we began last summer, with a new focus on behavioral economics and trying to understand how people make decisions about what they purchase. The students were asked a number of Would-You-Rather questions that led to interesting discussions. Some of the questions were ones that have been asked to large groups of adults and after discussing their own answers, the students looked at the data from the adults’ answers. As with most adult experiments that we have reproduced with our students, the results were surprising. It seems that children are somewhat more rational and more difficult to persuade in their decision making process than adults.

We celebrated Hayes’ 10th birthday with wonderful pictures and stories from his decade of life. He walked around a candle ten times to represent the ten revolutions the earth has made around the sun since his birth and then received birthday wishes from his classmates.

The students successfully rose to the challenge of creating a fabulous "Lip Dub". The Acton 16 organized themselves to choreograph movement and learn the lyrics to the song ABC by the Jackson 5. We filmed them singing and then dubbed the video over with the original song. It was a great bonding experience and set the stage for what this incredible group can do!

Week 2

With student anxious to “get to work”, things began to settle into a bit more of a routine this week. We had ninety uninterrupted minutes of individual core skills work time each morning, with students trying out different software programs like RosettaStone and Dreambox, writing in their Writer's Notebooks, sending mail to each other or getting lost in a great book. Each student selected a biography and is reading it looking for examples of perseverance. As a group, we read a magazine article about an athlete who has won multiple marathons and other long distance competitions – with only one leg. We added her story to our “Wall of Perseverance”.

History started this week. There was a buzz throughout the school when the students saw Mrs. Sandefer setting up beanbags and pillows in the Artichoke Room. “Are we having History?” “Do you think it will be as awesome as last year?” The excitement was tangible and Mrs. Sandefer did not disappoint. The students were once again captivated by the history of the world!

Writing Workshop continued with an introduction to what many writers say is their most important tool: the Writer's Notebook. Each student received a notebook where they will collect their individual thoughts and reactions to the world. This week we talked in particular about writing down the unforgettable stories we read, hear or experience. We read a few unforgettable stories as inspiration – Julius Lester's John Henry, Eloise Greenfield's For the Love of the Game and Robert Burleigh's Home Run.

In P.E., students played a variety of fun games, stretched out with some Yoga and built strength with Navy Seal inspired exercises. On Friday, they had so much fun with Coach Stewart that they begged him to stay for lunch. They all sat together in a large circle and engaged their guest in conversation, asking him about his favorite foods, restaurants and more.

In E-Ship, students were presented with a challenge that required them to divide into teams and interview the other members of the class to determine purchasing preferences for the made-up products they were selling. Based on the results of their research and the cost of production, they had to determine the greatest potential profit for their product in this particular market. The students were given this question to answer and all the information they needed, but little other instruction. They struggled as a group for two afternoons before coming up with the correct answers. The reward was huge – they felt so accomplished. Students also had a memorable introduction to the concept of “opportunity costs”. They were each given a dollar with which they could either buy three marshmallows, two cool pencils or a fun eraser. After they made their decision, they talked about what they would have bought with a second dollar. Almost all of them would have bought something different, not more of the same thing. This second choice was the opportunity cost of their purchase. They then turned to their ideas for the Children's Business Fair and rated them based on costs, potential customers, competition, and how well it fits with their calling to determine which business to pursue. They also identified their second best business idea as their opportunity cost.

We began an important conversation that we will continue next week about our Rules of Engagement for group discussions. We began this with the question: Which is more important in a discussion, listening to other peoples' ideas and thoughts or sharing your own ideas and thoughts? The discussion that followed helped us clarify the purpose of our group discussions, which the students concluded was to learn from each other. In order to do this, they realized that an exchange of ideas is necessary – so both listening and sharing are essential. We then watched some entertaining conversations on YouTube – some more successful than others – and discussed what worked and what did not work in these. We began thinking about what specifically makes for a great discussion and will create our Rules of Engagement based on this to help ensure all of our discussions reach their full potential.

Happy Birthday to Charlie who turned nine on Monday! We celebrated his birthday with stories and pictures of his first nine years as he revolved around the sun (a candle) nine times to represent this passage of time.

Week 3

We began our morning newspaper discussions this week with an article about a decision facing the city of Austin as to whether or not to begin charging fees to businesses when they use public spaces for their exercise classes. The students were asked to put themselves in the shoes of the city official in charge of making this decision. They were unanimously on the side of the business owner, saying that the fee would harm their likelihood of success since customers would not be happy with the resulting increase in price.

Later in the week, we read an article about an initiative to donate clean-burning stoves to people in developing nations and discussed whether they would rather invest in this program or a program to help local people start businesses producing and selling these stoves. In another article which really interested some of the students, we read about a local video game convention. This piece led to an animated debate among students on whether they would prefer to design, create or test video games for a living. For the dog lovers in the class, we read an article about Austin entrepreneurs who have started businesses such as dog workout facilities and homemade dog food to serve a growing population of out-of-shape canines.

In History, students snacked on dried apricots and pistachios, food they might have eaten had they lived several thousand years ago, as they listened to stories of Mesopotamia and King Sargon. Later in the week, they pondered the mystery of Mohenjo-Daro and whether the people there might have survived if they had been united or if they perished due to an unavoidable natural disaster.

With Coach Stewart, students built strength, balance and endurance by practicing Yoga and working in teams to carry planks of wood to and from the park. There were also fun games to round out their PE sessions. In Art, students took what they learned from painting the mural last week and applied it to a second piece. This second mural was a large collage Ms. Amy created using the students’ own drawings. It turned out beautifully.

Students developed customer surveys this week based on their concepts for the Children’s Business Fair. They role-played with each other in preparation for a field trip to the “Big Acton” campus on Friday where they had the chance to interview the MBA students. They described their envisioned product or service and asked the older entrepreneurs-in-training how much they would pay for it, what suggestions they had for improving the concept and other questions, such as: How important is the physical look of the booth in influencing your decision to buy something?

We had our first Town Meeting of the year to discuss the popular and controversial game that has taken over the Sport Court in the past two weeks – Dodgeball. With open, candid discussion about the issues some students were having with the current game, we came up with our own modified version of the game to fit the particular needs of our student body and our space. It was an intense, meaningful step in the growth of our new community.

Week 4

This week students returned to the Acton School of Business and tried to make some money. They brought a sampling of what they will be offering on a larger scale next weekend at the Children’s Business Fair. Having analyzed and made demand curves with the pricing information they gathered by doing customer surveys the week before, the students set their prices and went home to bake, collect or create their various products. On Thursday, we headed to Big Acton. From handed-dipped pretzels to homemade popsicles, baseball cards to hand-drawn glow-in-the-dark tee-shirts, doggy biscuits to build-your-own yogurt parfaits, the students spread out to set up their businesses. Along with all the creative products, there were several services to take advantage of: a café with freshly baked muffins, hot coffee and live violin music, a portrait artist and a pitching practice booth with coaching tips. The students were excited about each other’s offerings and eager to spend their own profits, but had not all come to school knowing they would be able to buy from each other. Since sales varied greatly from business to business and not everyone had money to spend, once the MBA students had made the rounds, the students decided to barter with each other, trading their leftovers.

Despite all the excitement preparing for our Field Trip, the students were able to focus on their individual work in the mornings. With new, heavy-duty headsets, they are really getting into RosettaStone. Their accents are remarkable and snippets of Spanish can be heard at other times of day, often in the form of mini-quizzes from one student to another. Students are also in various stages of reading or writing about a biography of their own choosing, looking in particular for instances of perseverance.

In P.E., students continued to work in pairs and small teams to accomplish tasks that involved strength, balance and agility. On Monday, they carried their boards to the park, practicing patience and communication while working up a sweat. Once in the large open field, they did a series of partner relays like the Wheelbarrow. On Thursday, Coach Stewart set up a 16-station circuit in the Sport Court with all different exercises. They did one complete circuit switching every minute and a second circuit switching every 30 seconds. At the end of class, the students were exhausted, but pleased with their experience and eager for more.

In Art, students began designing logos for their businesses and for themselves. After looking at examples of famous logos, they began brainstorming their own unique qualities with some help from their classmates. They attempted to come up with at least four different logos for their business and four for themselves to have more ideas for their final design.

Our morning newspaper articles led to a discussion of renewable energy sources, a look at what gorilla scat can reveal about infectious diseases and an introduction to a new program that will offer mountain biking as an alternative to traditional sports in Texas high schools. History inspired more interesting debates as we took a look at Ancient Greece this week and the differences between Sparta and Athens.

We finalized our Rules of Daily Life and then took a critical look at the Student Contract which these rules support. The students looked carefully at each word in the contract and made some small, but deeply significant changes to reflect their growing understanding of the Hero’s Journey and the commitment it requires. Below is the final version of this year’s Student Contract and the Rules of Daily Life that the students wrote.

Acton Academy Student Contract

2010 - 2011

I am on a hero’s journey.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Rules of Daily Life at Acton Academy

written by the Acton Eagles

1. Take personal responsibility for the decisions you make. Not every rule applies to every situation.

2. Match your behavior to what is appropriate in each situation.

3. Treat others how you want to be treated.

4. Respect our learning environment.

a. Be on time.

b. Try to be positive.

c. Use soft voices and soft feet inside.

d. When someone is working, let them work.

e. Take care with how you use and how you carry things.

f. Stay present and focused on personal work and during discussions.

5. Keep your body to yourself.

6. Come prepared each day.

a. Rested.

b. Hydrated.

c. With any necessary materials.

d. Having done any necessary preparation for projects or discussions.

e. Before group times, having used the bathroom and had a snack if needed.

7. Listen respectfully.

a. Avoid side conversations and interruptions.

b. Avoid raising your hand while some in speaking.

c. Avoid making distracting noises and movements.

d. Look at the person who is speaking when appropriate.

8. Contribute respectfully during discussions and group work.

a. Use care with your words and how they affect others.

b. Speak about the topic.

c. Add to what has already been said instead of just repeating.

d. Cut out unnecessary words.

e. Speak clearly and loudly enough (but not too loudly) to be heard.

Week 5

On Saturday, all sixteen Eagles will be participating in The Children’s Business Fair before having a week off. So much has happened in this first session of school. We have enjoyed the ever-evolving nature of our school, getting to know new students and new teachers and establishing new traditions and rituals. This week we reinstated an old tradition – writing in the daily group journal.

Over the first few weeks of school, we ended each day by each sharing either a personal highlight of the day or a “discovery” we have made. While everyone enjoyed this new ritual, several students have asked if we could start keeping a class journal as we did last year. A quick vote after the fourth week of school revealed a perfect split in preference on whether or not to reinstate the journal. This past week we wrote in the journal at the end of each day so that new students would be familiar with the process. The students were told that at the end of the week they would be tasked with making the decision of whether or not to continue.

All students had previously been introduced to our decision making framework which we refer to as “The Decision Chain”. This was our first opportunity to make a class decision using the framework. (There are six steps to the decision-making process and we have a phrase to help remember them: Problem? No Problem With Decision Chain. Each letter in the phrase stands for a step: 1. Problem: Restate the problem in your own words and figure out your options. 2. Need-to-know: List the information you’ll need to make a decision and the questions you need to answer in order to make a decision. Do research if necessary. 3. Pros/Cons: List the pros and cons of each of your options. 4. Weigh: Weigh the pros and cons. Think about what you value and which possible consequences matter to you more. 5. Decide: Make your own decision. 6. Commit: Commit to follow through with your decision, or go back to the start of the chain to make a new decision if you feel that you cannot commit.)

On Friday morning, after having a week of experience ending the day by writing in a journal, students came together to brainstorm the pros and cons of writing in a daily class journal. The pros were that the journal (which is posted on-line every afternoon) lets others know about the school and is a great form of advertising; it allows us to staying in touch with students when they are sick or traveling; it helps trigger memories when your parents ask you what you did at school; it is like a time capsule that you can read over later in your life; what is written could teach others; it allows us to practice writing and creativity. The cons were that it takes times away from highlights and discoveries and that sometimes not everyone has something to say or we have too much to say. After listing these out, we used paperclips to weigh the pros and cons, giving each one, two or three paperclips and added these to two sides of a balance. Our balance clearly showed us that our pros outweighed our cons, so we decided to continue writing in the group journal. Even those people who did not initially vote for this option agreed to commit to this decision and participate fully in the daily entries.

At the end of each day, when we come together as a group, we will write a collaborative journal entry. The students typically go in chronological order of the day to give the entries a more unified sound, making suggestions for sentences. We edit as we write, inserting phrases and changing words to improve the meaning and sound. At the end of the week, after writing the final entry, the students close their eyes and listen to the entries from the week. Then they each share their "highlight" from the week. The journal entries from this week are below:

Monday, October 4, 2010: Today Ms. Anna was not sick. She was sick all last week, so we were very happy to have her back. Before we even came to Group, most of us played Dodgeball outside on this cool October morning. We went to the park and played several versions of tag and other running games for P.E. After a quick pizza lunch, we made business cards and got messy with Ms. Amy in Art. After Art, we read two Caldecott books by the same author for inspiration before writing in our own notebooks. We are hoping to share some of our writing with each other this week. Right now we are writing in our group journal for the first time this year -- with all sixteen of us!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010: We signed our Student Contract this morning. We learned about the Americas with Ms. Carly in History before heading outside where many of us competed in Foursquare. The competition was tough, but nobody won because we don't keep score. We came back inside with sixteen hungry stomachs and filled them up with tacos. During Writing Workshop we used all five senses to create "mind pictures" and some people went outside for inspiration. In E-Ship we split into groups to debate the answers to our Final Lemonade Stand survey. Then we made demand curves based on the data we collected at Big Acton. It was a joyful day at Acton Academy!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010: This morning some of us played football outside, while others hung out inside. After that Mrs. Sandefer shared about her life and some of the things she loves. Then we had a pleasant work time during which we gave Ms. Kaylie feedback on our seating arrangements. In History we taught the teachers about history facts we have learned so far this year and from the teachers' perspectives, we did a remarkable job. In Writing Workshop, we got to go outside and find our perfect rock and write about it. We had E-Ship and worked on our demand curves. Now we are writing our journal. It was a fabulous day at Acton Academy and we can't wait to get home and see our families.

Thursday, October 7, 2010: We had our final E-Ship time today. Some of us played football outside again this morning. We read a very interesting newspaper article in Morning Group and had a good discussion about it. During work time we got relaxing foot rubs from

Mrs. Sandefer and if you took off your socks, you got lotion on your feet. In P.E. we did our "second pancake" of the Outdoor Gym. We did a relay where we used magnifying glasses to pop balloons. At the end of P.E. we had a few minutes of free play. In writing workshop, we read The Great Kapok Tree and then had a peaceful time writing in our notebooks. During E-Ship the creators of the Lemonade Stand Game came to observe us playing it to help determine if they should turn it into a computer game. We also worked on finishing our demand curve work and watching YouTube video clips of entrepreneurs. There was challenging math and many of us are exhausted. See you tomorrow!

Friday, October 8, 2010: Today is the end of the first session of the second year at Acton Academy. We had a phenomenal work time this morning. We all did different works and no one interrupted or distracted anyone else. We had three more people add their perseverance stories to the wall. In History we watched a video about ancient Greece as an introduction to what we will be studying for the next two weeks. We went outside afterward to play 4-Square and shoot hoops. We had a yummy bagel bar for lunch. In Writing Workshop, we had a "notebook museum" where everyone picked a page of their notebook to display. We read everyone else's writing and then discussed how it might influence our own writing. We are going to have Friday Free time after we finish this journal entry.

Tomorrow's the day of the Business Fair.

We better go home to prepare.

We hope to see you there!

Week 6

We had a great week back at school after our October Break. The students were excited to share stories from their week away, not the least of which were highlights from the Children’s Business Fair. We celebrated all of the lessons learned and money earned after weeks of preparation. We enjoyed a video clip from a local news broadcast, as well as a longer video put together by Andrew Segovia, both featuring several of the students. Along with many accounts of having a great time and making more profit than forecasted, we were especially excited that The Violin Café, a joint venture between two of our students, was recognized with the award of “Best Presentation” in the 8-10 year old category.

The students settled right into their work with a new emphasis on linear measurements and proportions to prepare them for a map-making challenge in the coming weeks. They also began entering books they have read over the past month on to their “bookshelves” on the Acton Academy GoodReads site. With amazingly little guidance, the students are able to search a database for the book they have read, add it to their page and write a short synopsis or review. It is a process that not only allows them to reflect on what they have read, but also lets them practice website navigation skills.

Now that the CBF is over, we have begun a new project that will take us through the end of the calendar year. Students will be making two short films – a Public Service Announcement (PSA) and an animated piece that will be used on a holiday E-Card. To prepare for these, students learned how to storyboard in Art and practiced in small groups. In the afternoon project time, students were first reminded of the power of their five senses by using them in a series of challenges. For sight, they had to find the differences between two almost identical photographs; for sound they listened to a number of sounds clips and guess where they were from. For touch, they bravely reached into a cardboard box with a variety of objects and guess what they were. For smell, they categorized a number of different smelly samples as either “good” or “bad”. For taste, they tried to put five different batches of lemonade in order according to how much of the powder mix was used. With their senses awakened, the students were introduced to PSAs with several examples and then analyzed what senses the videos used to send their message. Senses activated and brains swimming with examples, students were split into pairs and given topics for “live” PSAs. They brainstormed, planned, practiced and finally performed for their classmates who had to guess the message. Next week, they will begin looking for their own topic.

We had our first student sharing this week. On Monday, Chris put two drawings, one of a piano and another of Super Mario Brothers on the Sharing Shelf. On Wednesday, he came to school with more drawings and a keyboard. Exposing us to three of his passions at once, Chris played us the theme song to Super Mario Brothers while we admired his Super Mario Brothers drawings. Chris loves to draw and he loves to play the piano, so he fuses these two activities with another great love – Super Mario.

In Writing Workshop, we began a unit on poetry. We took a special look at “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstein and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. With each, after listening to the poem read aloud several times, each student picked a favorite word or line and we “remixed” the poem by reading our favorite parts in no particular sequence. Students wrote stories, poems and thoughts in response to these poems, sometimes borrowing their favorite word or line as the start of their piece.

In History, the students listened to stories of Alexander the Great and learned how to tie the Gordian Knot that he legendarily sliced with his sword. In preparation for the Greek Forum next week, students also discussed establishing a specific consequence for violations of the rules they wrote at the beginning of the year. They each brainstormed a consequence and these will be presented, argued and voted upon next Friday.

We were fortunate to have two parents come in this week and serve as Reading Buddies. The students are always eager to share their love of reading with others and it is great to have the parents with us for this.

As the weather continues to cool, many of our days begin outside for at least half the students. With Morning Group beginning at 8:30 and the majority of students arriving by 8:05, there is time in the morning for settling into the day and catching up with friends. Recently this time has been spent in loosely structured games of football or Dodgeball for many students. From the Sport Court you can see into the “Hand Room” which has a large bay window overlooking the Sport Court. While half the class is running around, there might be two people working together on a puzzle in the Hand Room and two more snuggled into oversized beanbags reading. Walk through the school and you might find another student or two trying the day’s origami puzzle and still another playing a Sim game on the computer. It is always a lovely start to a wonderful day.

Week 7

We celebrated our History studies today which have brought us to Ancient Greece. With a nod to Halloween, the students and teachers all came dressed in costume – some wearing togas, some dressed as warriors – and we began the day with a short story followed by a Socratic discussion. The students then sipped pomegranate juice as they watched the movie Hercules. After that, it was outside for the Olympics – several relay races such as pass the lemon under your chin and an egg walk. Before enjoying a Greek feast for lunch, the students had a Greek Forum to decide the consequence for choosing not to follow the Rules of Engagement during History class. They wrote and signed the rules earlier this year, but did not have any specific consequences associated with them. Earlier this week, they individually brainstormed possible consequences and came up with three – being excused from History to read in the office, speaking to a teacher about their choice of behavior after class (and therefore missing the first part of the outdoor free time that follows History) and writing a letter of apology to the class. One student was selected to speak on behalf of each consequence. After they had each spoken for two minutes, the students voted anonymously by dropping a coin into one of three pots. The chosen consequence was writing a note of apology to the class. The afternoon began with the story of Pandora’s Box after which the students each wrote their own myth to explain a natural phenomenon. We finished the day by painting pots and listening to Greek music. Each student planted basil, dill or sorrel in their pot and took it home to nurture.

Another Halloween-inspired treat this week was a theatrical performance by our very own Coach Stewart and his wife. In a unique interpretation of the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, they came to school in full costume and face paint as Frankenstein the Monstague and Jezebel the Corpulet. They did the famous scene with a few word substitutions such as, “O Frankenstein, Frankenstein! Wherefore art thou Frankenstein? Deny thy maker and refuse thy name” and “Oh that I were a wart upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!” To prepare for this incredible performance, we learned a little about Shakespeare this week and enjoyed Sonnet #9, as well as the original version of the balcony scene. Despite not understanding all the words, the students loved the sound and rhythm of Shakespeare’s poetry and enjoyed “remixing” the sonnet so much that our rendition went on for several minutes, students repeating their favorite lines several times.

Moving forward with our study of animation, the students made Flipbooks in Art. Using Post-It Notes, they broke down movements into tiny snap-shots of time and drew them in sequence. This practice will help them understand the small changes necessary in each sequential photograph they take for their stop motion animations. Next week they will begin sculpting the characters for these short movies.

In Project Time, the students had a mapping challenge this week. To prepare for this, they have been practicing measurements and proportions by enlarging simple line drawings. This challenge began with a walk through our extended neighborhood. The students broke into two groups and set off in opposite directions. At each corner they stopped and observed using all of their senses (except taste). They noted what they saw, smelled, heard and felt on small maps they brought with them.

Back at school, they broke into smaller groups and transferred the maps, keeping them in proportion, to larger pieces of poster board where they could draw more elaborate representations of what they had observed. They used three different colors for their pictures – one color to represent things they consider negative, one to represent thing they consider to be positive and one to represent things they think are neutral. Trees, for example, were considered by many to be positive because they provide clean oxygen, while cigarette butts were seen as negative because they represent an unhealthy habit and litter the sidewalks.

After completing their maps, each child then drew their ideal neighborhood. Some were realistic, while others were more fantasy. They included elements such as: candy falling from the sky (and candy is good for you in this imaginary world), no pollution, no taxes (instead the government pays for everything, but they have to start a business and earn the money instead of collecting taxes), no drugs, invisible trees (for the oxygen, but so they don't take up space), chocolate fountains, a recycling factory, lots of flowers, only electric cars (everyone in this world gets one when they're born), everything is solar powered, well-trained police officers, firemen, and doctors, a wind farm, a parachute class company, an amusement park and a ToysRUs.

Some of these things may remain fantasy, but there is no doubt that these incredible children will, in their lifetimes, make some of these a reality.

Week 8

The Hinky-Pinks are back! Those families that were part of the school last fall will surely be excited to welcome these fun word riddles back to the dinner table conversation. And those that have not yet experienced the verbal playground of the Hinky-Pink are in for a treat. Not only are they loads of fun, but they will have you practicing synonyms, rhymes and syllabification!

We were fortunate to receive a small sculpture of a cat made from pages of an Austin telephone book. The name of the piece is “City Kitty” (the hinky-pinky clue for this was “urban feline”) and that got us turned back on to the riddles. We made up lots of them – even ones using our names. (Ms. Carly gets credit for this one: What is a Hinky-Pinky for “a dose of Mrs. Reed?)

In History, the students made their way to Rome. They heard the story of Romulus and Remus and began to think about the differences in the ways Ancient Greece and Rome were governed.

In Art, students moved forward with the animation project by beginning to sculpt their clay figures. In Project Time, they worked on their PSAs, focusing in on one issue and beginning to brainstorm images and taglines. With a visit to a creative agency here in Austin, the students were able to watch part of commercial shoot, talk to the prop designers and learn all about the lengthy creative process that produces a 30-second commercial. They will use some of the advice they received on their own short films.

We continued our immersion in poetry, savoring the words of William Wordsworth’s “I Wondered Lonely As a Cloud” and Langston Hughes’ “Dreams”. We read “Dreams” aloud so many times, that almost every student memorized it. Many students even added their own versus. In addition to the fantasies, memoires, poetry and non-fiction written in their Writer’s Notebooks, the students wrote a number of thank you notes this week. As always, when told they owe someone a thank you note, the students come up with a whole list of people that think are owed thank you’s. (Here’s a clue for a hinkity-pinkity that one of the students made up today: thankful behavior.) After brainstorming their list and choosing who to write to, the students split up and got to work. They are wrote thoughtful notes. The card to the agency where we watched a commercial being filmed was signed: “Lights, camera, Acton”.

We had our second Town Meeting this week. Students had the opportunity to discuss any issues they thought needed to be addressed with the entire group with the idea that through this discussion, we can improve our community. We had a lengthy debate about how to minimize the time spent arguing about rules, teams and plays in order to maximize the time spent actually playing on the Sport Court. The ideas ranged from having an official referee for each game, to having a camera person to allow for instant replay (or more than one for multiple perspectives), to just redoing any play that is unclear. They decided on the later, but were not sure that this will work and may call another Town Meeting soon. Several students expressed interest in filming the games regardless and studying the footage in order to learn.

We are so lucky to have parents coming in as Reading Buddies during our morning work time. We had a Reading Buddy on Tuesday and Wednesday this week. When the students found out there was no one coming Thursday, they were disappointed. They love reading so much that they find great joy in sharing this passion with others!

Week 9

We continued to immerse ourselves in poetry with students reading poems to themselves and each other and copying favorites to take them home and share. We reveled in the surprising beauty of Lewis Carroll's made-up words in the “Jabberwocky” and used it as an excuse to study parts of speech. This led us to an old favorite -- MadLibs -- for more playful practice using nouns, verbs and adjectives. After doing a few from a book, students began writing their own MadLibs to try out on the class.

The PSA and animation projects continue to move forward with students finishing the last phases of pre-production. For their PSAs, they made storyboards, scripts, shot lists, costumes and props. To prepare for this, Andrew did a hands-on (or rather cameras-on) seminar on different filming techniques and types of shots. Filming and editing begin next week.

Our newspaper articles this week stimulated great conversations. An article about the New York City marathon led us to a discussion on mentorship. A young runner from Ethiopia came in first place when he took the lead over his mentor who was forced to quit the race at the 16-mile point because of an injury. An article about rebuilding after Katrina in Biloxi, Mississippi got us talking about the importance of art and culture. An article about new graphic warning labels on tobacco products led to a discussion about the dangers of smoking and the role of the government in trying to prevent adolescents from starting.

More great discussions were sparked in History. Deep in their study of Rome, the students learned about Roman roads, aqueducts and gladiators. They discussed the questions: What makes a city strong – luck or good planning? Which do you think is most important to build first in a city – roads or grocery stores? After learning about how Rome came to be named, students did some research at home to find out the history of their own names and shared that with each other.

We had the great pleasure of welcoming Ms. Carly’s husband, Max, to Acton Academy this week. He talked about his own Hero’s Journey as an opinion writer and how Aristotle has influenced him with lessons on persuasion. He read a published piece of his own work about government regulations in the food industry and the challenges faced by entrepreneurs in this field. His visit triggered more great conversations among students.

Week 10

Happy Birthday to Cash! We now have a second 9 year old in our class. Cash celebrated the culmination of his 9th revolution around the sun by giving us each a c.d. that chronicles his changing taste in music over the years.

The PSA project came to an incredible conclusion this week. With the shot lists complete and props assembled, students took to the cameras to film their public service announcements. With two groups focused on the effects of smoking and two groups trying to convince people not to litter, the students worked together to film all the necessary shots. They did several takes of each shot to give themselves more to work with when it came time to edit. The next day they watched all their footage, chose the best shots, pieced them together and added sound effects. The results were impressive. On Thursday the excitement was tangible as the students waited for the official screening of their final pieces. Matt Hovis, whose creative agency, Exopolis, we visited as a class earlier in this project, came for the screening and gave the students feedback on their work. He also talked about his Hero’s Journey in art and film and what has led him to the career he now enjoys. He showed students some of the commercials that he has worked on and talked to them about how they were produced.

Amid all the excitement and concentrated efforts invested in the PSA project, students still managed to spend time reading great books and solving challenging math problems. Our love affair with poetry continued with students scouring books of poems for their favorites to share with the class. They looked back to the eight poems we have studied as a class over the past month and in small groups searched for an answer to the question: What is a poem? We came back together as a group and discussed all of their ideas, coming to a few points of consensus. Poetry: makes you feel something; involves words used in a clever way that have rhythm, patterns or rhymes; has meaning and can tell a story; has an intentional form that tells the reader how to read it. We will use this definition to guide us as we write our own poetry.

With drizzly weather on Monday, the students practiced Yoga inside during P.E. On Thursday, we took advantage of the sun and went to the park for a great game of Soccer with Coach Carpenter as a fabulous referee. Many students continue to take advantage of their early arrival to play outside. Recently, the Sport Court has been an active football field each day, but some students have expressed interest in organizing themselves to play other games in the morning.

We had a productive Town Meeting this week to discuss the dilemma. Students came up with a rotating list of games that they will play outside in the mornings so that, while not everyone will be delighted every day, there will be more satisfaction overall with the shared use of that space.

After each taking a short, self-administered test to determine learning styles, we had a great conversation about auditory, visual and kinesthetic learners. Students are beginning to evaluate their own level of focus and ease of learning in different situations. This discussion prepared us for a wonderful play at the Paramount Theatre, The Incredible Speediness of Jamie Cavanaugh, about an elementary student who cannot seem to stay out of trouble at home or at school despite good intentions and a continual effort to improve. After processing the news that she has been diagnosed with ADHD, the troubled protagonist is actually relieved to know that she does not have a problem with learning, but simply needs some help figuring out how to use her differences.

We celebrated Thanksgiving this week with notes of gratitude to loved ones. In History, students studied the quote, “Standing on the shoulders of greatness” and thought back in time about people to whom they are grateful for the lasting contributions they have made to our world. After a busy week, we had several fun activities on Friday afternoon. We were lucky to have a crafty parent, Mrs. Robinson, come in with all sorts of fun beads to help the students make necklaces that tell the story of Thanksgiving. While some students were beading, others were decorating “kindness cookies” made by our resident baker, Ellie, with assistance from some of her trainees. At the same time the rest of the students were making dessert turkeys with Oreos, candy corn and various other edible ingredients – a project designed by Bodhi, a student who loves both building and sweets. The students rotated enthusiastically through these stations. They saved their cookies for later and snacked on freshly roasted seeds and the warm, gooey insides of a pumpkin they stuffed earlier in the day with raisins, walnuts, apple and brown sugar.

Week 11

We began the week by unpacking our jar of “kindness hearts” that had been collected over the past five weeks. Each one represents an observed act of kindness, given from one student to another in acknowledgment of such acts. We talked about how each heart represents not only kindness, but because the kindness is acknowledged, also gratitude. For the three weeks between Thanksgiving and Winter break, while continuing to be kind (of course), we are focusing on gratitude. We used the “kindness-gratitude” hearts to make a border around a piece of poster board and spent the week writing things we are grateful for on it.

As a class-wide act of gratitude, the Acton Eagles will be caroling for our wonderful neighbors in a couple weeks. Students split up into pairs and wrote notes to our neighbors letting them know that we will be stopping by to bring them some holiday cheer. They even included response cards with their notes that said, “Do you accept this offer? Please return to 1106 West Avenue.” There were two check boxes below with the words “yes” and “no”. Throughout the week, we received the response cards, with the “yes” boxes checked. Each time one came back, the students cheered.

We began practicing “Jingle Bells” and “Deck the Halls” the next day. Everyone will sing those two songs. We tried the first verse of “Deck the Halls” as a round and decided that it is not the best song for that. Then we tried “Jingle Bells” as a round and thought it sounded much better. Later in the week, we listened to several different versions of “Joy to the World” and “Little Drummer Boy” before students decided which of the two they would sing.

In Writing Workshop, we finalized our “Poetry Rubric” and used it to discuss some poems written by other children. Inspired, students set off to being drafting their own poems. As a class and individually, we practiced a few pre-writing techniques to generate ideas for our poetry and then some drafting strategies to get started. Students wrote, revised and edited, working at their own pace so that each student was in a different place in the process and the Writing Workshops took on a quiet hum.

Our History studies turned to the American Revolution, with the students learning about what led up to the Declaration of Independence and about the war that ensued. They watched several episodes from the Liberty’s Kids series and pondered the question, “Is it more important to follow the law or follow your heart?” One student who has made an in depth study of this time period in American history gave a mini-lecture on the major battles and turning points in the war. On Friday afternoon, students used their measuring skills to carefully make Colonial flags.

In Project Time, students began taking pictures of the sets and clay figures they made during Art last month, creating New Year’s themed stop-motion animations. Each day they looked at their progress and determined what additional photographs needed to be taken. Along with learning about animation, students are undergoing leadership training and learning how to work as a team. This week, they discussed “listening” as a leadership skill and defined what that looks like. They had a week-long contest to see which group displayed the most listening behaviors.

Students also worked together in P.E. this week, playing cooperative games and doing relay races. Coach Johnson led the students in several games where they had to work together in order to succeed. One game involved standing in a circle holding hands and making a human knot and then having to untangle the whole group without letting go. In another, the students paired up and locked arms while the lightest students crawled all the way across the line of linked arms. They also teamed up with a partner and had to pass a ball to another pair of students without touching the ball. On Thursday, P.E. was at the park. Students practiced several different exercises such as the "bear crawl" and the "grapevine" in two relay teams. They worked hard to use good technique, while going as fast as they could. They then got their heart rates up higher with a fast-paced game of "Hug Tag". They finished off the session with a relay challenge that involved working together to carry team members across the field.

In Art, students made Artist’s Trading Cards. Each is a tiny, unique piece of artwork with the artist’s contact information on the back. They are used as calling cards and a form of advertisement among artists and the students loved making and trading them.

As a special treat, Nat Miller, the director of Education and Outreach for the Paramount Theatre, came to our classroom for a wonderful workshop to prepare us for a play we will be seeing at the beginning of next week, Junie B. Jones in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells. The students did some role playing and improv related to the play.

Friday was an intense day at Acton Academy. We adapted Jane Elliot’s classic “blue-eyed/brown-eyed” exercise to fit our school. The students experienced discrimination first-hand in an emotional morning, before finding out that it was an experience designed to give them empathy for people who faced discrimination historically and who face it still today. The students will use this experience next week when they think about the phrase, “All men are created equal” and discuss what this means.

It was a very full week back from Thanksgiving, with the students fully engaged in everything they did and not overly focused on the holidays to come.

Week 12

We started off the week with a field trip to the Paramount Theatre to see Junie B. Jones in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells. The play was entertaining and fun, but also dealt with the themes of kindness and empathy, which have been a central part of our recent curriculum. At the end of the week, we had the special treat of having three of the cast members visit us at school. They were in their costumes and in character. The students told them their favorite moments from the play, asked them questions and participated in some role playing with the actors.

In preparation for our own performance next week, we continued to refine our carols, adding a few musical instruments to “Jingle Bells” and “Deck the Halls”. The students also split into two groups to work on “Joy to the World” and “Little Drummer Boy”, and excitedly performed for each other after each practice session.

Students finished taking the last round of pictures for their stop-motion clay-mation videos and began editing them. The leadership trait they focused on in their group work was “encouraging” each other through not only their words, but also their body language and expressions. They decided that for the week, they would try out any feasible suggestion from a group member before evaluating it. Students also began writing poems to accompany their animations. They will put these together next week in the form of an e-card to send to their friends and families.

Continuing with our exploration of the phrases, “all men are created equal” and “equal opportunity”, students participated in several more thought-provoking experiences this week. In one, they were given a multiple-choice general knowledge test and told that the students with the top six scores would receive a prize. After the test, they were asked if they thought it was fair that each student took the same test regardless of their age. The students decided it was unfair that the younger students, who have been in school for less time, were given the same test. To “even” things out, we added several points to the scores of the younger students, which resulted in them winning the prizes. This did not seem fair to the students either and led to a discussion of other solutions.

There were several more experiences throughout the week that had the students thinking about situations in life where all things are not “equal” and what role this plays in “fairness”. They played a game where they were each dealt a different card to represent their innate talent, mentoring, and effort in an imaginary game of life. They discussed the reality that people are born with and receive varying amounts of these, and other things in life, and talked about the relative effect of these factors on a person’s financial success.

In P.E., students went to the park and did several familiar relay races, but this week, faster, stronger students were given weights to slow them down. This frustrating experience had students thinking in yet another way about what it means to be equal. We had many engaging, honest conversations this week about concepts and ideas that will continue to come up in different areas of the curriculum and our lives.

Week 13

The students showed their gratitude this week by writing thank you notes from the class to people who have helped us learn and grow this year. Among those people are two cherished guides – Ms. Amy and Mr. Andrew – who will not be in the classroom with us in 2011.

Our Art program is undergoing a major change, with local teacher and artist, Zoey Upshaw, taking over beginning in January. Ms. Amy is following her heart to South Carolina. We will miss her dearly, but are all excited for the adventure she has ahead. We celebrated the time we have been so fortunate to have had with her on our final art class Monday. The students heard the wonderful, but often complicated, truth that unexpected opportunities in life arise and can lead us to situations where we have to give one thing up in order to pursue another. The students sang, “Happy Hero’s Journey to You”, and acknowledged the courage it takes to leave what you know and love behind to venture out.

On Thursday, students watched their hard work over the past weeks come together at a screening of their stop-motion clay animations. They worked this week on editing and sequencing all of the photographs they had taken and adding sound effects to their pieces before sending them out to friends and family in the form of an e-card. The theme for the mini-movies was New Year’s and each student wrote a poem to appear on the inside of the card. This was the culmination of a series of film projects that Ms. Anna and Mr. Andrew have co-taught. After watching and celebrating their final products, Andrew talked about his life and what has led him to where he is today. He showed the students samples of film work he has done at various points, telling them about his influences. While we will see Andrew again, the students also decided to sing him, “Happy Hero’s Journey to You”, as he will no longer be in the classroom with us on a regular basis.

We continued to practice our carols all week leading up to performances for our parents and neighbors on Thursday morning. The parents all gathered outside in the Sport Court for the “dress rehearsal” and then we headed out, going door-to-door, singing and jingling our bells. When we got back to school, we warmed up with some homemade hot chocolate and a few of the cookies we received from neighbors in exchange for our songs.

The poems that the students have been writing over the past three weeks were compiled into an anthology which was “published” this week. We had a publishing party to celebrate which included a “poetry limbo” where you say a line of poetry as you go under the limbo stick. The students were proud of their work and eagerly read each other’s poems. Within an hour, the question of when we would publish our next anthology was already being discussed.

Students continued to learn about the American Revolution this week, ending with a Colonial Christmas celebration on Friday. Dressed in costume, the students made corn chowder and apple crisp from scratch to enjoy with ham and baked beans for lunch. They even made homemade whipped cream without an electric mixer! While some students were in the kitchen cooking, others strung garlands of popcorn or played card games. The lights and computers stayed off all day (though we did use the heater and the oven). In the afternoon, each student wrote a story using a penname and then we all tried to guess the real author. This was followed up by many rounds of “Blind Man’s Bluff” and “Hide the Slipper”, two fun, colonial favorites.

This week was an action-packed end to a wonderful trimester. So much has happened in the past few months. At the end of the week, students cleaned out their desks, literately and symbolically making room for the new year. We discussed the fact that many people take the opportunity at the beginning of a new calendar year to set some intentions for the year to come. Students shared some ideas they had for changes they might like to make in their lives this coming year. We will each make commitments when we return to school in two weeks to one or more of these changes.

Week 14

We had a full, exciting first week of 2011 at Acton Academy.

Students are taking on many roles over the next few months. They began a study this week of robotics and electricity that they will continue for the next few months. They will build and program robots, explore various concepts in electricity through hands-on experimentation and also ponder the difference between humans and robots. Students watched the movie Iron Giants as a celebratory introduction to their new study. Throughout the week, in addition to reading great books, working through math problems and practicing their Spanish on RosettaStone, they spent time playing Lightbot, a computer game that teaches the basics of programming with a series of increasingly complex challenges.

As part of their new project, several afternoons each week students will become lab assistants in Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park Laboratory. Here they will be innovators, working to solve challenges involving different principles of electricity and robotics. They will work in small teams and there will be a patent available to the first team to solve each challenge, with points awarded for these patents. There will also be a smaller number of points awarded to any team that tests the patent. The points have a monetary value and can be turned into actual dollars. However, some of this money will have to be used to cover the cost of running the lab – both the time spent and the materials used.

Before the patent challenges begin, the group spent some time working together as a whole. The first group lab experience was to write a storyboard to “program” a human. One student left the room while the other students developed a series of commands to produce a desired action or actions. Then, they tested their commands on the student-turned-robot to see if they worked. The next experience was a little “shocking”. After discussing the role that nerves play in transmitting signals to our brains, brave students bared their arms to actually feel the flow of electricity through their bodies by participating in a nerve conductivity test.

Students explored questions comparing humans to robots such as: How is your brain like a computer? How are your nerves like wires? How is the power source for a robot like the power source for a human? Students constructed a simple clock using potatoes as the energy source. By inserting a zinc electrode into one potato and a copper electrode into another, a reaction is caused that generates enough electricity to power the clock. Students also worked one-on-one with a teacher to solder electronic components to a circuit board to create a simple electronic game. Each student saw how the solder works to fill in the gaps, creating a conductive bond between the electronic components and the metal paths on the circuit board so that electricity can flow between them.

Once a week, students will spend the afternoon in a very different role, or roles. Nat Miller and Stacey Volland from the Paramount Theatre are leading the students through another great Process Drama this year, which will be thematically linked to the robotics and electricity unit. This week, after doing some acting warm-ups, the students created a setting (Eagleville City) and individual characters for this year’s adventure. They then found out that a citizen of Eagleville City, Herbert Wellfield, had gone missing and that they had been selected by two detectives (played by Nat and Stacey) to find out where he went. At the end of the session, they came to the conclusion that Wellfield had been turned into a robot.

In Writing Workshop, students will be taking on yet another role, that of reporters for the Eagleville City newspaper. They began the week by breaking into small groups to read several different newspaper articles. The headlines had been separated from the articles and they had to match them up. Then, they went through each article and attempted to locate where the reported answered the classic questions: Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? After sharing their answers with the group, they each set off to write their own articles about the events that occurred in Eagleville City during Tuesday’s Process Drama session.

As Artists this week, students welcomed a new teacher, Zoey Upshaw. We had received a paper-mache cat from Ms. Zoey in December, so the students were already familiar with her work. She brought dozens more for the students to examine and then quickly supplied them with the basic materials and instructions to begin making their own cats. With Art now three days a week, the students made great progress on their sculptures this week. Ms. Zoey also introduced the students to new vocabulary about the elements of art: line, color, value, text, shape, form and space. She gave each student a booklet with examples of each concept and asked them to study the words. The next class, students impressed her by chanting the elements of Art in order.

In P.E., the students walked to the park on Monday to play a fun, active game of Soccer. The following class on Thursday was an exercise circuit in the Sport Court where students worked on strength, balance and flexibility with stations including tree pose, jumping rope, boxing and push-ups.

As Historians, students were excited to get back to their studies of ancient Rome. They learned about Hannibal and the Punic Wars, Julius Caesar and Cincinnatus and discussed what type of leader and government they would choose to make decisions in their lives.

Students were introduced to the concept of S.M.A.R.T. goals – ones that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely. They will be making goals for this new year next week and working to turn them into “smart” goals that they can track.

Each week the students will be introduced to a new manner that they can practice during lunch. To celebrate our manners, we will have a fancy waffle eating party at the end of the session, just before Valentine's Day. Here is the first manner, delivered to the students in verse:

Nutritious food is tasty

and gives you energy,

But meals are also a time

to spend with friends and family.

There are just a few simple rules

that you need to use,

A logical list

of eating don'ts and dos.

We'll practice on each week

to make sure you are able,

To show proper manners

when seated a table.

Number 1: Chewing

Take small bites and chew slowly,

there's no need to hurry.

We've added 15 minutes to lunch time,

so you don't have to worry.

Keep your mouth closed as you chew

you can talk after you swallow.

It's a simple rule,

now let's see if you can follow.

A Description of the Hero’s Journey Project:

This year’s Hero’s Journey Project is composed of three parts: Process Drama, robotics, and electricity. It will span the next thirteen weeks of school.

Process Drama:

Nat Miller, Education and Outreach Coordinator for the Austin Theatre Alliance, will join us every Tuesday to lead the students through a Process Drama experience. Process Drama is a method of teaching in which students, as a group, work through a problem or situation using improvisation. Students each create a character and must make decisions on the spot. The decisions they make then determine the direction of the plot. Process Drama lends itself to improving decision-making skills, listening, control, mental agility, spontaneity, and cooperating with others.

The plot of this year’s drama is that a crook is on the loose stealing peoples’ humanity and turning people into robots. Upon finding one of these de-humanized robots, a detective hires the class to find the villain and figure out what they need to do in order to make the robot human again. The class must decide what the elements of being human are, and set off on a journey to find these “human” elements in order to return them to the robot. In addition to being detectives, each member of the class will also be a character who lives in the town and is a suspect.

When the Process Drama is complete, the final storyline will be written up in script form by Nat. Students will rehearse and practice the play in order to perform it in May.

Electricity:

Students will act as assistants in Thomas Edison’s Menlo Park lab, working in teams to go through a series of electricity challenges and create innovations for the American marketplace. They will be rewarded with patents (positive points), but must also keep track of the costs for materials and time (negative points).

Robotics:

As part of their work in the "lab," students will build and program LEGO Mindstorms robots. They will go through a series of programming challenges, first using storyboards to plan and organize the actions they want their robots to perform, then transferring these plans into the Mindstorms software on their laptops, and finally downloading their programs to their robots to see if they work.

Throughout this project, students will continue to explore and pursue their own hero's journeys. We will be asking the question of what it means to be human and discussing how the answers to this question impact our lives and the discovery of callings. The play will be another depiction of the classic hero's journey.

Week 15

We had two birthday celebrations this week. Garrett turned 9 and Chris turned 8! We celebrated with the Acton tradition of “revolving” around the sun however many years the student has lived and notes of appreciation from each student.

At the beginning of the week, we read an interesting article about the hormone oxytocin. The belief has been held in the scientific community for some time that oxytocin plays a major role in feelings of trust among humans. This article suggested that it may even be responsible for ethnocentrism. We read parts of the article as a class about the oxytocin's role in feelings of trust and then discussed the potential power of spray-able oxytocin. Students were asked if they would object to having oxytocin sprayed on their snacks at school. Some students said they would rather starve than be manipulated that way, while others felt it would be great for bringing our community together. On their own, students discussed the potential danger of such a spray if it got into the hands of someone like Hitler who might use it to bring people together to do harm. They also questioned what role oxytocin might have played in the formation of different religions and other bonded groups of people.

Later in the week, as part of her 5th grade leadership training, our oldest student, Ellie, presented her first newspaper article to the class. She chose an article about two sisters who had been sentenced to life in jail for a small armed robbery committed when they were in their teens. Almost two decades later, one of the sisters is receiving a $200,000 per year treatment for kidney failure – paid for by the government with tax money. With the promise that the healthy sister will donate one kidney to the other sister, the two have been released from jail. Ellie read the article, stopping to explain the issue clearly and then launch the class on a lively discussion with the question, “If you were the governor and it was up to you, what would you do in this situation and why?” Later in the discussion, she raised the stakes by adding, “What if they two sisters had killed the people they had robbed? Would that change your decision?”

In a thoughtful and creative twist on the weekly sharing, Hayes brought in a game for the class to play during his time. He split that class into four teams and then led them through several rounds of “Apples to Apples”, a game where an adjective is given and each teams chooses from their dealt cards, each with a noun on it, the “thing” that they think is the best match for the adjective. A neutral “referee” then chooses the word he thinks is the best match from the cards submitted by the teams and that team wins the round. It was a fun game that got the whole class laughing.

The mornings this week were filled with the pleasant hum of productivity. Students continued to work on their SMART Goals, taking each of their goals and refining them to be more specific and beginning to think about how they will measure their progress. They also began using a new chart system for tracking their daily work. In order to become more aware of how they are using their time, students are breaking their 90 minutes work period into half hour increments and recording what they accomplish in each. They might spend an hour or even an hour and a half on one activity, but the goal is for them to develop a greater understanding of the time they have and begin to take a more conscious approach to planning its use. On Friday afternoon, they looked over their “time cards” and reflected on the week by answered questions about their accomplishments for the week and noting some of the important things they learned.

The afternoons were filled with active project work. During the Process Drama this week, Detective Dooright and Detective Buster tested the class to determine if they were worthy of being detectives. Among the numerous tests, students had to work together as a team to solve riddles, cross over one string and under another, and act out emotions for their teammates to guess. One of their greatest challenges was to come up with a list of differences between humans and robots. They anticipate that during the investigation they will meet either a robot pretending to be a human or a human pretending to be a robot and have to come up with a way to test whether or not someone is a human.

Students also tackled their first challenges as lab assistants. Working in groups of two or three, some students built robots and developed and tested their first programs. Others experimented with the power of water and the effect of different widths and lengths of hoses transferring it from one tank to another. Their goal was to build a contraption to hold a water wheel in place as it spun. Once they figured that out, they wrote patents for their inventions.

In Art, students continued to work on their “City Kitties", covering the base structures in “slime” and newspaper. When students rushed to get to the next step, Ms. Zoey stressed the role of patience and perseverance in art, reminding them that being done first should not be the goal.

In Writing Workshop, students worked on articles for the Eagleville City Press. Each week, there is new material to write about from the Process Drama session. In addition, students have begun experimenting with interviewing each other for their articles and writing opinion pieces.

In History, students continued their study of Ancient Rome. They were introduced to the origins of mathematics with a story of how people first discovered math patterns. They learned how to convert the Arabic numerals they are familiar with to Roman numerals. They also heard the story of Caesar crossing the Rubicon. They reread the student contract they made earlier this year and then stepped over a blue ribbon representing the Rubicon. They discussed the significance of the decision to come to Acton Academy and their commitment to the learning community. They also listened to the story of Caesar and Cleopatra and were asked to put themselves in the shoes of a member of the Roman Senate and think about whether they would have raised an army and gone down to Egypt to attack Caesar or stayed in Rome and waited for Caesar to return. After hearing the story of Caesar's death, they discussed whether it is better to be loyal to a friend or to do what is best for your country.

Students also welcomed a mathematics hero, Monique, to one of their History discussions this week. She is an accountant and talked to the students about her love of math and numbers and how she found a career that let her explore these daily.

In PE this week, students worked to refine their Yoga sun salutations, did relay races emphasizing different locomotive skills and took a field trip to Town Lake where they walked, skipped and jogged along the lake.

Students practiced another manner during lunch this week:

Sit up straight while you eat,

Not slouched against your seat.

Though it's perfectly alright

To lean over for a bite.

In fact, it is best to lean

If that keeps your lap clean.

Week 16

We had two more birthdays this week. Sam turned 8 and showed us a movie of clips from his first year of life. He brought in fun Lego games that the class enjoyed constructing and playing this week. Ms. Carly also celebrated her birthday this week and brought in homemade banana-avocado muffins for the class.

Kirby had his sharing time this week and brought in a treasure chest of rocks, badges and other things he has collected on different trips. He also showed us his impressive quarter collection, with every state represented. Our leader-in-training, Ellie, shared another newspaper article with the class this week. This one was about the possibility of cloning a wooly mammoth. She asked the class if they thought it would be a good idea to clone a wooly mammoth and then pushed the discussion further, asking them what they thought of the idea of cloning a human.

During this week's Process Drama, students finished all of the tests for becoming detectives, and everyone received their official detective badge! The new detectives interviewed their first suspect, Dude, the quarterback of the EC Eagles and owner of Doggie Texas Breeders. Then, all of a sudden, there was a city-wide power outage. The detectives traveled in their large flying shoe to the Electric Company, where they met the manager Elle Lectric. She sent them off on the task of reconnecting the places in the circuit where a suspicious person (they think it was the human snatcher responsible for Herbert Wellfield’s disappearance several weeks ago) had cut the wires. Unfortunately, the detectives were caught in a trap during this task and ended up having to pass each other over an electric fence in order to escape. They added perseverance to their toolbox, and also talked about how listening is an important part of communication (which was in the toolbox from last week).

During project time on Wednesday and Thursday, students continued their challenges as lab assistants. The patents for holding the water wheels in place were finished, pulley systems that could make water wheels pick up binder clips were built and a couple patterns were discovered: the wider the hose, the faster the water wheel spins; the higher the drop of the water, the faster the water wheel spins. Two teams started to work on making their water wheels light a light bulb. In the robotics department, two new robots were built and the new robot team successfully wrote a program to make their robot walk a dog into a cage. The robotics teams from last week put their new-found programming skills into action by writing and testing out new programs on their own.

In Art, work continued on the "City Kitties", with people finishing the paper-mache step and painting their cats white. Some people began the final step of painting their cats with colors. In between stages, while paint and glue dried, students worked on black and white "zygotes" – round drawings on white paper about the size of a dinner plate with patterns in black ink.

In PE, students worked more on their Yoga this week, concentrating on the three warrior poses. They also played a Yoga-inspired version of "Red-light, Green-light" called “Bird and Tree”.

In History, Students left Rome for the week to study other ancient civilizations. They learned about the Aryans coming down into India and heard the story of Shiva and Ganga. They also heard the creation story from the Rig Veda of the four castes created out of Purusha, the story of Siddharta and a story from the Jakarta Tales. They learned about the origins of China and heard the story of the evil Qin Zheng. They talked about the Qin Dynasty, the Great Wall of China and the legacy of censorship and control that remains today in China. They admired examples of Chinese calligraphy and tried their own hand at making some of the characters. They also learned about Confucius and snacked on fortune cookies, reading their fortunes to each other to symbolize his wise sayings.

With noted cultural exceptions to this rule, students practiced another manner during lunch this week:

If a polite meal is your intention,

Utensils are a great invention.

Wooden, metal or made of plastic,

Forks, knives and spoons are simply fantastic.

Use them to pick food up off your plate,

Whether eating at home or out on a date.

There are exceptions to this rule known at finger food,

Which can be eaten with fingers without being rude.

Examples:

Nuts and pretzels, carrot sticks,

Granola bars and dry snack mix,

Orange slices and whole fruit too,

But certainly not hippopotamus stew.

Please note:

If there is anything that lingers,

Do not lick it off your fingers.

Napkins are the right solution

To your finger food pollution.

For all other foods, you should be able to find

An appropriate utensil, just the right kind.

And one last reminder, though I think everyone knows

That nothing is meant to be eaten with toes.

Week 17

Another full week at Acton Academy had students asking great questions, making discoveries, working hard and having fun! Students began the week by rereading the Contract and Rules of Engagement that they wrote at the beginning of the year, recommitting to them at what is almost our halfway point in the school year.

Taking advantage of the beautiful weather, students power-walked or jogged to Pease Park and did chin-ups, jumping jacks and other exercises there on Monday. On Thursday, with the sun still shining, they enjoyed a big game of Soccer at the park down the block. Coach Youngblood joined us as a referee, helping to keep the game fast-paced and fun.

The “City Kitties” came to life this week with people adding color to their sculptures. A couple students chose not to paint them and instead made careful choices with their final coat of newsprint, searching for just the right pieces. While waiting for paint or “slime” to dry, students continued work on their black-and-white zygotes.

The study of Rome continued this week with students hearing about how the Republic of Rome became the Empire of Rome when Octavian came to power, about the life and death of Jesus and the beginning of Christianity and about the rule of Constantine and the threat of the Barbarians. They also learned about the ancient Jewish nation including Abraham's calling from God to become the father of a new nation, the wandering of the Jews and the destruction of the temple. Students discussed the questions "Would you rather have the leader of our country be someone who is a warrior, or someone who is kind?" and "What if you had been forced out of Austin unfairly? Would you work hard to return to Austin, or make the best of wherever you were?"

During Process Drama, the students-turned-detectives successfully made it through all of the challenges at the Electric Company and were able to reconnect the broken circuits to bring power back to Eagleville City. As a reward, Elle Lectric gave them their first clue to help them solve the mystery of Herbert Wellfield’s disappearance: a picture of an eye. They continued their detective work by interviewing two more suspects, Oliver (a scientist) and Moe (a car salesman). They also got through the laser security system at Dude's dog store so that they will be able to look around for clues there next week. At the end of the session, students added "focus" to their toolbox.

Students continued to work on articles for the Eagleville City Press, beginning to branch out from news reports about the events of the Process Drama sessions to write articles for other sections of the paper such as Arts, Food & Entertainment and Sports. We also read and discussed a couple interesting newspaper articles from other papers this week. One was about research that shows smiling can improve not only your mood, but that of people around you. Our fifth grade leader-in-training, Ellie, shared an article about a joint venture between Greenpeace and a creative agency addressing the waste created by disposable chopsticks. Artists collected close to 100,000 used chopsticks, only a small fraction of those discarded each year, and turned them “back into trees” by creating sculptures of trees to display in public places in China and raise awareness of the environmental harm being caused by this waste.

The excitement during project time continued with new groups taking on the challenge of building and programming robots and working with the water wheels. Major accomplishments included: programming a robot to draw a line and a circle; programming a robot to pick up a die, turn around, move across the table and drop the die off the table; and generating electricity by connecting a motor to a water wheel (even if it wasn't quite enough to make a buzzer buzz).

For each new process discovered in the “water lab” or program perfected in the “robotics studio”, students were invited to submit patents or program details for points. The patents, which were daunting at first, became easier to write, and several were accepted this week. With diagrams to draw, description to write and costs to calculate, students came together outside of the lab during their work time to complete their patents, celebrating their devotion to the process by dubbing these work sessions “patent parties”.

One of our amazing parents, Henley Sims, came in to talk to us about her Hero’s Journey and the path that has led her to work with children and biofeedback. She told us the amazing story of how the field of neuro-feedback came to exist through an accidental discovery. She also discussed the role that electricity plays in the body, a topic very interesting and relevant to the students. Ms. Anna volunteered to have her brainwaves monitored and we all watched as her brain worked to produce more of a particular type of wave in response to simple visual and auditory rewards. The students also learned how to use deep breathing to calm themselves and slow their heart-rates. Mrs. Sims left a software program that monitors and trains the body to do this with the school so that students can experiment more with this process.

We had another birthday this week! We celebrated Ms. Anna’s birthday on Friday with homemade lemon squares and heartfelt birthday wishes to our wonderful guide.

Students practiced a new manner at lunch each day:

"Keep your elbows off the table"

Is a rule I think you know of;

But what about your hands?

Do they go below the table or above?

Well, you can rest them in your lap

When not using them to eat,

Or place them gently on the table,

As long as they look neat.

Weeks 18 & 19

Rolling blackouts and icy roads made for a short first week of February, though students still managed to work hard, see a production at the Paramount, workout in Pease Park and have lots of fun. This past week was also productive and fun, right up to the last moment, with students showing no signs of being anxious to start their week off.

The Super Scientific Circus at the Paramount Theatre was a huge hit. Students were captivated as a mime and a clown used principles of gravity, sound, air pressure and more to perform seemingly magical feats. Each “trick” was exposed and explained with scientific principles.

Each student had the opportunity over the past two weeks to us the heart-rate monitor software Mrs. Sims gave the school after her presentation. Students experimented with how steady breathing increased their level of calmness and worked to achieve greater coherence.

In morning group, we all got to know Henry better when he shared his incredible nature collection, pictures of his pets and drawings he did when he was younger.

We also read several articles these past two weeks which led to interesting discussions. One was an opinion piece about parenting styles that had students thinking about their own parents and the parenting choices they make. We also read about a group of Russian scientists who have been drilling through a glacier in Antarctica, hoping to access a pristine sub-glacial lake that they believe has remained unchanged for 15 million years and may contain new life forms. Students debated if they thought it was worth the risk of contamination to continue the drilling. Ellie shared an article about a Chinese painter who camouflages himself with paint and melts into different backdrops for photographs. She asked the class to think about what message the artist is trying to send with his work.

A visit from a parent was delayed this week by jury duty. This led to another interesting discussion in class. Students asked questions and shared their knowledge of juries, judges and lawyers. After coming to understand the purpose of jury duty, they discussed why this system exists in our country and whether or not they think it is a good one.

We had a special visit this week from an Apache helicopter pilot with the US Army, George Sammur, who is about to leave for a mission in Iraq. He spent some time with us talking about his military career. He brought a model Apache helicopter with him and described how they work. He also wore his uniform and brought his flying helmet, jacket and vest. He showed the students all of the survival gear in his vest and then let them each try on the equipment.

During Process Drama last week, the detectives finally succeeded in breaking through the security system at Oliver's Scientifics store by crossing a lava river infested by fire-breathing frogs. (In addition to being a detective, each student is a citizen of Eagleville City. They chose their own names, personalities and businesses to run. Each business has a security system designed by the student who owns the business and these serve as challenges for the detectives.) They had attempted this challenge the week before, but had not been able to complete it.

At the end of each session, students discuss what skills helped them most in that day’s challenges. They then choose one to put in their “toolbox” for future use. After not succeeding in the challenge, instead of putting a new “tool” in the “toolbox”, students decided to really focus on the tools they had collected so far on this adventure – communication, focus, and perseverance. In between Process Drama sessions, they discussed and wrote down specific examples of what it looks and sounds like to use these “tools”. At the beginning of the next week’s session, students were given a bonus “tool”, the "magic circle" – essentially forming a huddle to discuss a plan of action before starting something as a group.

All of this added up to a success this week. As a result of their efforts, the detectives found a new clue: a picture of a brain. They added this to the picture of the nose they picked up last week at Dude's Dog Shop (after correctly guessing random ingredients using only their sense of smell while blindfolded) and the picture of the angry face from Cash's Cars (after talking down the giant slapping hands by encouraging them to empathize with the people they were slapping).

The list of suspects that have been interviewed now also includes Anna, a Texas native who owns Eagleville's gas station and a plant trailer; MBA star Alex; Bubba Watson, who owns one of Eagleville City's army bases; and Israel, who owns the city's other army base. The detectives also interviewed Miss Julia Caesar, Herbert's neighbor who saw an eerie green light and a dark figure pass by her window on the night of Herbert's disappearance and now fears she is being watched. At the end of this week’s session, students added patience to their “toolbox”.

Due to the weather, students missed a couple days in the lab last week, but this week, experimenting continued with several groups attempting to get their water wheels to produce enough electricity to buzz a buzzer. Mr. Sandefer came by the lab to deliver a question directly from Mr. Edison: How is the work they have been doing with water related to electricity? In the coming weeks, students will think about whether the height of the drop, the width of the hose, and the obstacles in the hose in the water wheel experiments are related to volts, resistance, and amps in electricity; and if so, how? The robotics groups continued programming, creating increasingly complex programs including one that had their robot catch a falling marble in order to deliver it across the table. With all this work, students also continued to develop and practice their leadership skills, focusing on being good “direction guiders” within their groups.

Students worked diligently on patents to document all of these efforts and at the end of the week, they received their first cash payment for the points they earned over the past six weeks in the Electricity and Robotics Lab. The money was divided between class earnings and individual earnings – with each student earning individual money and contributing to the class fund in proportion to the number of successful patents and programs they wrote in the past two months. Students were asked to think about what they wanted to do with their individual money and write down their intentions, so that they money did not end up being spent randomly. They also brainstormed what to do with the class money. One student asked if she could donate her individual money to the class fund. Students discussed this idea and many decided to do this, almost tripling the size of the class fund. Some students decided to keep their individual earnings and everyone agreed that this was fine – each person made their own choice, irrespective of what others were doing.

The two-potato clock finally stopped working after almost a month running off the initial potatoes. Students dissected the potatoes to find dark, hardened areas where the zinc and copper electrodes had been inserted. They made conjectures as to what caused these areas to form and then decided to try two cans of Dr. Pepper in place of the potatoes and hypothesized as to which would last longer. The Dr. Pepper only lasted a few days. One student suggested pouring the soda into glasses to stir it up, which rejuvenated the clock for a few more days.

In Art, students received their first drawing lesson, learning how to draw simple shapes in 2-D and 3-D and how to use shading to create dimension. They then began a new project making large, pastel flower drawings in the style of Georgia O'Keeffe. They are focusing on the different elements of art, particularly using highlights and shadows to create depth. They each chose a flower to look at as they work with bold, vibrant colors to create their pieces.

Students spent one P.E. session in the last two weeks inside on a particularly chilly day, refining their Yoga poses and working to integrate the mind-body connection as they moved. Other than that, however, the weather did not stop them from being outside. One morning in each of the past two weeks, they power-walked to Pease Park where they jogged and did various strengthening exercises, including chin-ups and pull-ups. Last week, they also took a longer walk one day along Shoal Creek to Town Lake.

In History, students faced the fall of the Western Roman Empire. They learned how a divided Rome resulted in two very different empires - the eastern empire in Constantinople was rich and thriving, while the western empire was weak and poor. The western Roman army became exhausted from the continued attacks of the Barbarians and the eastern army did not want to help them or they would be left more vulnerable. Students met the fierce Visigoths and Vandals (and learned that the words "vandals" and "vandalism" come from this tribe). The Barbarians began adopting some of the cultural habits of the Romans as they started settling in Roman villages. They even began marrying Romans. What was once a united empire became a divided land with small barbarian villages each ruled by their own kings. The Eastern Empire continued to thrive and became the Byzantine Empire. The people in the Eastern Empire mourned the loss of the strength and power of Rome. For 700 years, they could not be defeated. Yet the end did come. The power of this empire is still felt today, though, in our language, government, arts and sciences.

After the break, students will celebrate the gifts of Rome as they continue to analyze how some civilizations thrive and others fail. They will also make a scrapbook of the amazing journey they have taken through the ancient world so that it can be shared with others and cherished in their memories.

Valentine’s Day was not overlooked at Acton Academy. The Acton Parents got together to coordinate a sweet present for the teachers. They brought in all the materials to help the students make beautiful, handmade valentines for the teachers in secrecy. To accompany the cards, each student also brought in fresh flowers, which they mixed together to create beautiful bouquets. As a treat for the students, the teachers (with the help of Chef Sam – Ms. Kaylie’s husband) set up a Valentine’s Café and served up fresh Belgium waffles, with all sorts of toppings, including pink whipped cream. This was the culmination of the past month’s “Manners Mondays”, giving students a formal chance to practice all their new table manners. It was a great send-off into a week of rest and recharge.

The final two manners practiced over the past two weeks were:

Manner #5:

If you are seated at a formal table

And need something, but are not able

To reach it with just a gentle extension,

Then there is something you should mention.

In a kind and undemanding tone,

Without a whine or grunt or moan,

Ask a fellow diner if she might behave

And pass you the item that you crave.

If it is truly close at hand,

Then everyone will understand

If you reach it yourself. That isn’t rude,

Just don’t reach over someone else’s food.

Manner #6: Dining Out

When invited out to a restaurant or into a home

In Arkansas, Texas, the North Pole or Rome,

Use all the manners you now know

And any more you learn as you grow.

If the meal is served buffet style,

Help yourself, but try not to pile

The food so high that it makes a hill

Or threatens to cause a messy spill.

In this case it’s usually fine to eat

As soon as you’re settled in your seat.

If, however, a meal is served to you,

Then the polite thing to do

Even if you have a big appetite

Is delay that first, delicious bite

Until everyone has received their food.

Otherwise, they may think you are rude.

Out on the town, in a house or at school,

In somebody’s garden or out by their pool,

Remember to always thank your host

And tell them what you liked the most.

Week 20

With all the activity, excitement and learning, this hardly felt like a short week. On Tuesday morning the students warmly welcomed a new eagle into their flock. Bella comes to Acton Academy mid-year from California and has already become an important part of the community.

To welcome Bella, students told her about the Hero's Journey framework and how it applies to their lives. They discussed the different parts of the journey: Call to Action, Fellow Travelers (of which Bella is now one), Guides, Heroes, Challenges, Achievements, Fears, Aspirations and the Return Home. They also talked about a special tool that helps travelers find their way -- their Compass. The students explained the different character traits we have focused on and how with each one, they build up their compasses. When unsure what to do in their own lives, they will be able to rely on these character-rich compasses to make decisions and move forward along a path that honors their Hero’s Journey. We focus on one character trait each session and really look for examples of it in our own lives, as well as the lives of real and fictional people we read and hear about. By practicing them now, when it is relatively easy to use them, we will make them habits that we can rely on when they are not as easy to use.

Students were then told that we would be focusing on a new character trait this week, but that it would remain a mystery until Friday. They were given a clue: In order to figure out what the character trait is, you must use it. After noticing question marks sprinkled around the school and other more subtle hints, students correctly guessed on Friday that our new character trait is Curiosity. Students agreed that this will be a particularly easy trait to practice since they use it all the time at school. They discussed the idea that curiosity can help you seek out new opportunities to find your Calling, but that you can have too much curiosity and be distracted from your Calling as well.

Students spent a lot of their work time at school and free time at home engaged in a new on-line math program called MangaHigh. There are multi-leveled challenges and games. The students receive points for progress and can compare their score to other classmates and other schools around the country. Individual points increase your Hero status within the class, but the collective points for the entire school are matched against other schools. Two parts math skills, one part school spirit, the students have been motivated this week by watching their national ranking climb from 115th on Tuesday all the way to 38th on Friday. They encouraged each other to play at home over the weekend to continue this progress.

During Process Drama students found out that Julia Caesar has disappeared! Detective Hayes had been on duty watching her at the time - he saw a green light, but then he was knocked out from behind, and that's all he remembers. The detectives were able to get past the security camera and force fields at the basketball stadium, and they defeated Bubba's army and a sword-wielding soldier at Bubba's Army Base. They also interviewed Larry, owner of Plant Fant. At the end of the drama session, after some debate, they added "careful speed" to their toolbox.

The excitement also continued in Menlo Park Laboratory. Teams working on electricity moved on from experimenting with the water wheels to building homemade batteries from pennies, washers, and salt-water soaked coffee filter paper. They tested their batteries by making 1.5 volt buzzers buzz! Robotics groups began building the humanoid robot and continued with programming challenges, which now include making the robot talk and use a semi-sonic sensor.

Experimentation with the "two-potato clock" also continues, as does our curiosity about how it works. It is now running on one potato and one Dr. Pepper, proving that the two items running the clock do not have to be the same, nor do they have to both be solid or both be liquid.

With the sun shining high, the students enjoyed their time on the Sport Court and at the park. Foursquare resurfaced this week, as did Dodgeball. In P.E., Coach Stewart taught the students four different versions of Dodgeball. After experiencing each, they discussed which one they enjoyed the most and why. We took full advantage of Friday’s weather with a barbeque lunch outside.

MadLibs also had a revival this week. A student brought in a new book of MadLibs to share with the class and giggling over these goofy, grammar-filled stories inspired several students to create their own MadLib stories for the class to fill-in.

Students received the first volume of The Eagleville City Press on Tuesday and were thrilled to see their writing in print. After reading it cover to cover, they eagerly set off writing more articles for the next volume which they will layout themselves. They are differentiating between news reports and feature articles, consciously deciding which they want to write.

The Georgia O’Keefe inspired flower drawings are coming to life during Art, with bold colors and careful highlights and shadows. Each student had the chance to stand in front of the class with their work-in-progress and receive constructive feedback about their piece.

In History, students began a scrapbook of their journey this year from Mesopotamia to Ancient Rome. Over the next couple of weeks they will each make several pages to contribute to the class scrapbook which will become a permanent part of our library. The finished scrapbook will also take a trip to a school in San Diego where other students will be able to learn from our Eagles.

Week 21

We began the week with a trip to the Paramount Theatre to see our first musical – If You Give a Mouse a Cookie and Other Story Books. It was based on several popular children’s books, with original songs to tell each story. The students loved seeing the creative interpretations of stories they have enjoyed for years and enjoyed the song and dance that went with each. In Writing Workshop this week, students took a break from the newspaper to write their own versions of If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, such as If You Give a Peregrine Falcon a Pigeon or If You Give a Rat an Artichoke.

We experienced a great sense of school spirit this week as we “battled” another school on the new math program, MangaHigh. At the beginning of the week, a school challenged us to a “fai-to”. Over the course of the week, both schools received points for solving various problem sets and doing well in different math games. Each day was a new round. Acton Academy won the first round and the excitement from this victory fueled fierce competition throughout the week. Students were cheering each other on, congratulating classmates for success on the challenges and encouraging each other to continue playing at home in the evenings. After a week of excitement, the other school won the “fai-to”, though the students said they felt like they won because they had fun and learned so much. (They do think it would have been even more fun if they had won and are already strategizing for their next “fai-to”.)

In History, students continued to work on their scrapbook, making beautiful pages to represent their voyage through time this year to Greece, Egypt and Rome. Each page is different and highlights the thoughts and stories that students were most captivated by. After reading a newspaper article about what has been going on in Egypt this year, and hearing about the influence of Tunisia on Egypt, students talked about the influence of the American Revolution on the French. Connections like this are made every day in conversations at school and the richness of the history curriculum, brought to life with stories and discussions, contributes greatly to this.

With beautiful, sunny days, students enjoyed time on the Sport Court and a trip to Pease Park this week. They had a special treat on Friday afternoon. Laszlo’s mom, Mrs. King, brought all the materials needed for each student to make and decorate their own hula-hoop. With more than ten bright colors of electrical tape, students took their time carefully wrapping their hoops in colorful patterns. Then the Sport Court was alive with hula-hooping!

In Art, students finished their giant flowers. All working at different paces, some students were done before others and had the opportunity to make more zygotes. They also each used a computer program to turn their names into hieroglyphics which they will use in a project next week.

Back at Edison's Lab, students continued building and experimenting with homemade batteries. They tried running the potato clock on glasses of water from the sink, and to their surprise, it worked! From this, they determined that there are electrolytes in our water supply. When the water from the sink stopped making the clock work, they added salt, and it came back on! In addition to more successful homemade batteries being built, some teams also created "conductivity testing devices" to test different materials founds in classroom objects to see if they are insulators or conductors. The building of the humanoid robot also continued, as did program-writing for the Shooterbot.

During Process Drama, the detectives received a mysterious note from a "friend," warning them that one of them cannot be trusted! They then visited Israel's base and got past sleeping guards and dogs to get another clue: a torn piece of a picture of... they are not sure what. They interviewed Surfin' Dude, a surfer who lives in a giant wooden wave and whose best friend is an ATM, and Jow, who builds and flies airplanes and whose airplane radar picked up an eerie green light the night of Herbert's disappearance. Later, during a visit to Plant Fant, the group got through the plant mist and dropping cages before a rhyming scavenger hunt led them to the discovery of a new clue: some strands of human hair. During the scavenger hunt, Detective Laszlo went missing! He was found outside by the ping pong table, where he had been knocked out from behind. At the end of the session, students added self-discipline to their “toolbox”.

Week 22

Students hula-hooped all week, during outdoor free time, in the mornings before Group and any other spare moments they could find. By Friday afternoon, almost everyone had the hang of it and the group was ready for some new moves. Kim Patty, a local “fitness hoop-dance” teacher came at the end of the week to give the students some formal hula hopping instruction. She showed them how to move and spin in their hoops and also how to start doing tricks with the hoop – moving it from their waists to their hands, necks, hips and knees. She brought energetic music with her and the students hooped to the rhythm. Before leaving, she put on an impressive show for us that left the students inspired to keep up their hula-hooping practice. In P.E. this week, students went to the park one morning for a big game of Soccer and did some Yoga and relays at school another day.

In History, students welcomed a guest historian, Dr. Jeffrey Kerr, who told them about his Hero’s Journey. From a young age, History had been a passion for him, but one he had pursued only as a hobby, choosing pediatric neuroscience as a career. After nearly 50 years traveling to interesting places and reading about interesting times, he published his first book about the history of Texas. He has since published a second book full of photographs comparing today’s Austin to the Austin of almost a century ago. In addition to sharing his unique story, Dr. Kerr shared his passion by reading the students one of his published stories about Austin.

Having finished their beautiful History scrapbook, students were asked to reflect on a few major questions from their journey through time this year. They answered these questions in an interview for a mock television program. We celebrated the culmination of this school year’s History classes with a Roman Day at the end of the week. In the morning as they arrived, students made simple togas and then gathered to hear a Roman Myth. After a brief discussion, they set off in small groups and rotated between different stations where they learned how to use an abacus, made catapults and slingshots (using mini-marshmallows for ammunition in their target practice), created scented bath oils and beaded earrings and wove baskets. They enjoyed a Roman feast for lunch, lounging on mats while they ate and listening to the story of Romulus and Remus. They even had their feet washed before they ate – an ancient Roman tradition.

In Process Drama, three more suspects were interviewed this week: Billy, a fish-man who can breathe under water and owns a toy store; Sara Sue, the super nice town baker; and Blossom, a paranoid fairy and violin-shop owner who refuses to leave her tiny house for fear of seeing a robot. The detectives also visited Surfin' Dude's wave house, where they narrowly escaped a sea monster, and Jow's Air Force Base, where they hit targets with bows and arrows and identified the slight differences between pairs of photos of the same thing taken by Jow's crazy security camera. They found another clue that is part of the torn picture they found last week. At the end of the session, they added concentration to their “toolbox”.

In the Lab, electricity work has moved on to experimenting with setting up different-sized batteries and wires in multiple ways to create full circuits and make devices of varying voltages work. A huge discovery was made this week: electricity makes heat – so watch out when holding onto a wire (or any conductor) that is part of a full circuit! The lab assistants also discovered that taking the insulation off of wire requires patience and perseverance. After two more days of building, the humanoid robot now has two legs and the beginnings of a body.

Deep in the process of innovation in their own lab, students learned about another group’s innovative work this week. They watched a feature story on a company called IDEO that is known for its successful process of innovation. The video showed the company working for one week on an assignment to improve the traditional shopping cart. After watching their collaborative work, students discussed what particular behaviors contribute to their own successful innovation, creating an Acton Academy “recipe for innovation” to try and define this.

We had two students share special interests with us this week. Cash brought in a remote-control helicopter and impressed us all by flying it around the Sport Court. Bodhi brought in his homemade snowshoes and showed us pictures of each step in the process of making them. We were also treated to Bodhi’s favorite meal, delicious chicken fajitas, which his mother made fresh for us on the grill.

Week 23

We welcomed another new Eagle into our nest this week, Deuce! Now we are seventeen. We started the day by passing around all different kinds of apples and discussing their similarities and differences – color, size, shape, and texture. Then we cut them all open to reveal a star inside of each and seeds. These seeds are a symbol of our own “seeds of potential” and the star a reminder that we are all special. The students talked about what “seeds of potential” they have discovered in themselves and what they do to nurture them so that they will grow. This introduction to Acton Academy and our purpose is one that the other students are familiar with and they did a remarkable job explaining it to their new classmate. Afterwards, as is part of the tradition, the students put all the apples to good use by making apple sauce.

Monday was National Pi Day (3/14), which we celebrated by learning about circumferences of circles and of course, eating pie. Students have continued to dedicate themselves to the challenges on MangaHigh, earning a spot in the Top 10 (nationally!) for our school so far this month. Some students also began building their “web of math knowledge” on another site, Khan Academy, that offers students the opportunity to watch videos explaining various concepts when they determine they need some additional information.

In honor of St. Patrick’s Day, Ellie, chose to read an article about the history of the holiday. After enlightening the class, she led them in a craft project to make festive shamrock headbands to wear that day.

Along with National Pi Day and St. Patrick’s Day, Austin celebrated its love of music this week with South by Southwest. Our neighbor across the alley, David Murray, invited the class to come over to his recording studio to watch a group of musicians from Kenya, Sauti Sol, record a few songs. They came to Austin all the way from Nairobi to play at South by Southwest and were able to record a few songs with Mr. Murray. The students not only got to dance and clap along with the spirited music, but they also witnessed an unscripted creative meeting between the band members between practicing and recording one of the songs.

In Art, students took symbols they had created and refined the previous week for concepts such as love, strength and kindness and applied these to the clear material used to make “water loops”. Invented by a local couple, water loops are basically long, sealed, plastic bags that have hand loops on either end. The bag can be filled with water, which provides a malleable weight to move back and forth and round and round in an exercise called “flowing”. Victor and Barbara, the creators of the “water loops”, took the material that the students had decorated and turned it into a set of “water loops” for the school. They came on Friday to teach the students how to “flow” with them, allowing the force of gravity on the water to guide their movements and strengthen their bodies while teaching them balance, grace and rhythm. This is another great form of movement, like hula hooping and Yoga, that students can use to change their mood or energy level. Students also got outside for P.E. with a circuit training session in Pease Park one morning and a walk to Town Lake another morning.

During Process Drama, the detectives visited another local business, Anna's “Insect Zoo for You”, and were each able to make it through a complicated maze without touching the lines or going backwards. Their success led to them to another clue: a picture of a black figure holding up his/her arms. They also got around the hula hoop security system at Billy's Toy Store, after which they found a picture of a scared face. Finally, the group visited Sara Sue's bakery, where they figured out the tricky code to pass through huge buttons and then completed a taste test in which they had to guess which cookies were homemade and which were store bought. The detectives also had the opportunity to interview Barry, the super strong running back for the Eagleville City football team.

In project time, experimenting with connecting batteries in series and parallel has begun as lab assistants attempt to determine the most cost-efficient way to make a 1.5 volt or 12 volt device work from two feet away. They have also finally figured out what makes the potato clock work: the chemical reaction between the zinc and copper that takes place in the electrolyte (the salt water/potato/soda) and the full circuit created by the wires, the rods, the electrolyte and the clock. Next week students will have a potato clock contest, with different groups competing for the longest running clock. Students have started to brainstorm what they want to use as an electrolyte for their team's clock.

The students have been working hard on articles for the second installment of the Eagleville City Press, but they took a break from that this week to learn more about the world of print advertising. One of our parents, Danny Esposito, works with the advertising departments of several local papers. He led an interactive workshop on print advertising, showing the students many examples of ads and discussing their strengths and weaknesses. He talked about the importance of identifying the target audience for an ad and consciously attempting to reach that audience with just one or two main points. After his visit, the students created a rubric based on his advice and then set about making their own print ads for a favorite company. They made several versions of the ad and then evaluated each with their new rubric in order to choose one concept to refine.

At the end of the week, State Representative Bill Zedler stopped by to see the school and shared a little about his Hero’s Journey. The students recognized great perseverance in his story and were delighted to have met him.

Week 24

With so many special guests and events last week, students started off this week by writing thank you notes. Once these were signed and sealed, they moved on to a journalism assignment in preparation for a workshop with a local journalist the following week. For the first time, they were asked to write an article of a particular length. While they had complete freedom in choosing the topic, it was a significant challenge to have a limited number of words to use.

In Art, students began making sketches for their next large format piece, Egyptian portraits. They had a drawing lesson on bodies and faces last week in preparation of this project. This week, they began by looking through images from Egyptian artwork and taking ideas from these to create their own design. As they finished their sketches, they began transferring them to larger paper.

In P.E., students hula-hooped, flowed and did Yoga, as well as working in teams to compete in relays. With a large chalk maze drawn for the Process Drama covering the Sport Court, students challenged themselves to move through the maze while hula-hooping.

With the humanoid needed in the Lab on Wednesday, students dedicated free time in the morning before school and after lunch to building the rest of the body and the arms of this incredible robot. They succeeded and were rewarded with the opportunity to write their own program for it. In the electricity part of the lab, experimentation continued, as students tried to complete as many challenges and write as many patents as possible in their last few sessions.

Split into four groups, students also received their own “potato clocks”. Each group had time to brainstorm ideas for what to use instead of potatoes. There were some great ideas, but at the end of the week, only one clock was running – the “lemon clock”. This group decided to use a lemon because the thick rind seals in the juice, preventing evaporation, and making it more likely for the clock to work longer.

In Process Drama, the story of the human snatcher began to fall into place. The session started with a clue delivered to the door by our "friend" - it was a recording between two people talking about us and how we are finding senses all around town. The recording also revealed that one of the human snatchers is an insider - a detective - because the voices said that they have to make sure they do not blow their cover. We had a serious meeting in which we listed our ideas for who the three mysterious people are: the human snatcher, the human snatcher helper (the detective who is a spy), and the friend who is helping us by giving us clues. We then made visits to the Music Shop and the Toy Store, and interviewed three suspects: Kibby, a half-bird who owns the abandoned Reese's Puffs Mall; Merlia, a mermaid who runs a market; and Zane, a crazy guy who likes robots and runs a hot dog shack.

We began reading The Invention of Hugo Cabret as a class. This magnificent story is told as much with pictures as with words. There are 158 full-page, beautiful black and white drawings in the book. As the students listen to the story, they each have a copy of the book in their hands so that they can really look at the pictures.

For her group time this week, our student leader Ellie read an article about a group of people inspired by the movie Up who attached 300 helium-filled balloons to a house, successfully lifting up the house with two people inside. Each balloon contained an entire tank of helium. Ellie brought in a helium tank and filled up one balloon with helium and another with her breath. The helium balloon floated, while the balloon full of air sank. Ellie reminded students about the concept of buoyancy and the weight of the air displaced by the balloon compared to the weight of what was inside the balloon. Then, remembering a trick from the Scientific Circus they saw at the Paramount earlier this year, students put an x of tape on a full balloon and poked a pin through it. Just as we saw in the performance, it didn't pop!

On Friday, we celebrated Anaya’s ninth birthday. She narrated the story of Holi, an Indian Spring festival for the class. As a gift to her peers, Anaya wanted them to experience the tradition first hand. After her birthday celebration, everyone went outside and “played Holi”. This involved playfully sprinkling and smearing brightly colored powder and splashing water on each other.

Week 25

This week was the last week in the Lab during project time, and a lot took place! Some lab assistants took advantage of this time to come up with their own experiments in an attempt to answer some of their questions about electricity. Others worked hard to finish up challenges and write patents, as this was the last chance to earn points. More groups had the opportunity to play around with programming the humanoid robot, and were successful in making it walk and even knock over objects in its way. Students also finished watching the videos on “Heroes and Callings” in electricity and robotics, and they did some serious critical thinking to understand the metaphor between the way water flows and the way electricity flows.

With so much experience innovating in the lab, students revisited the recipe for innovation that they wrote earlier this month and individually brainstormed the proper quantity for each ingredient and any special “cooking instructions”. Then they came back together as a group and discussed why they felt more of one ingredient or less of another was necessary. For character traits, such as honesty, perseverance, courage and empathy, they agreed that too much of these can actually be counter-productive and compared it to vanilla – delicious in the right dose. They also decided that equal parts of certain ingredients were necessary to balance the “flavor” such as “going crazy with ideas” and “having deadlines”. On Friday we made “Innovation Stew” with students chopping and measuring all the ingredients – each representing an item on their recipe. At lunch, “this tastes exactly like innovation” and “Yum. Innovation is delicious” could be heard throughout the school.

The Egyptian paintings continued to come alive in Art this week, with some students still working on transferring their ideas to a larger format and others already adding color. Students also used their artistic skills to continue work on their advertisements, finishing them by the end of the week so that they could receive feedback from Mr. Esposito who was kind enough to come back to the classroom for a critique. He went through each ad, commenting on what was successful and making some gentle suggestions for improvement. The students showed incredible maturity in being able to hear his comments and incorporate them in order to improve their work.

Students were also fortunate to spend time with another professional from the field – local journalist Dane Anderson, senior reporter for the Westlake Picayune Newspaper. Ms. Anderson talked to the students about why people read newspaper articles and the importance, as a writer, of considering your audience. She shared examples of great headlines, subheads and lead paragraphs with them and then worked with them to add these to their own work. This worked continued throughout the week, as students also revised the bodies of their articles to get them ready for publication.

Process Drama this week started by reviewing all of our clues before heading out to the hot dog shack, where we had to defeat the robots in a dancing contest. We then interviewed Roberta Elise, Herbert's wife, and she gave us a top secret notebook she found in Herbert's office which reveals his ideas about how to turn a robot back into a human: give him or her back everything that has been taken away (the senses, emotions, free will, etc.) and convince him or her what it means to be human. We think Herbert was turned into a robot because he knew all of this information. At Reese's Puffs mall, we successfully passed through the motion detectors and found a note that said, "Not everyone who makes weapons is bad." With this information, we decided to revisit all of the people in Eagleville City who make weapons, and discovered Israel was missing! Meanwhile, Detective Ellie went missing, and when she showed up again, she told us she had been talking with Elle Lectric, which seemed very suspicious, but when we interviewed Elle Lectric, she confirmed Ellie's story. Process Drama ended with a visit to Merlia's Market and an attempt to find the key to the jail.

In a thoughtful twist for his personal sharing, Garrett brought in a massage chair this week. Instead of telling or showing us something about himself, he wanted us to experience something that he loves. Garrett explained to the class how to use the machine and then had everyone sign up for a five minute slot during the day to relax and get a massage. The extra Morning Group time left after his brief sharing was used to have a productive Town Meeting to discuss competing uses for our outdoor play space, as well as a few other community concerns. As always, the students did a remarkable job listening to each other and voicing their concerns with courage and respect.

Week 26

It was a celebratory week at Acton Academy, with the culmination of an incredible thirteen week project and look towards the future for Acton’s beloved project teacher, Ms. Anna.

The week began with an announcement of the final points earned by each student for experimenting and writing patents in the lab, verifying other students’ patents and asking great “guiding questions” to help fellow lab assistants move forward when they were stuck. The points awarded were translated into actual dollars which were divvied up between the students individually and a school fund. After discussing how to responsibly use their hard-earned funds, students began work on a final project to demonstrate their learning over the past few months.

Each student thought about what they considered to be the greatest lesson they learned from working in the Lab, and then they got to work building something to help them teach others this same lesson. Along with recreating an experiment or writing a new robotics program, each student created a tri-fold poster to accompany their display. Students thought about ways to involve their audience in the learning experience, asking questions, creating worksheets for visitors to complete or involving them in an actual demonstration. On Friday afternoon, students donned their lab coats one last time to teach these lessons to parents and siblings. Exhibitions ranged from programs written for the humanoid or shooter-bot to a water wheel powering a pulley, short circuits, a potato clock, circuits powering devices of different voltages, electromagnets and conductivity testing devices. The afternoon was a huge success, with students thrilled to have been able to share their new knowledge.

Along with all the preparations for their Exhibition of Learning, students also continued to read, write and solve mathematical problems throughout the week. They also enjoyed the springtime sun by getting outside to shoot hoops, hula-hoop, play Foursquare, throw darts and more. They continued working on their life-size Egyptian paintings, did final edits to newspaper articles and ads, and wrote touching thank you notes to a variety of people who have served them in one way or another over the past couple weeks, including Mr. Nat and Ms. Stacey who have brought them joy, excitement and great challenges with each Tuesday’s Process Drama session.

The excitement during the final day of Process Drama was palpable. The day began by revisiting Merlia's Market and finding the key to unlock the prison. When the detectives returned to their headquarters, Detective Dooright told them that Oliver had called and said he needed to talk. It turned out that Oliver had been doing research with Herbert about robots when Herbert was kidnapped and had been hiding out ever since, worried he too would be snatched! He gave the detectives a map that he found on his doorstep from "Israel, a friend." The detectives went out in search of this mysterious "house on the hill," and when they found it, they could see the green light coming from the window! Inside they successfully passed through challenges in each room on the way to the dungeon, where they found Israel tied up and a robot in the closet! The detectives decided to give the robot all of the different senses and emotions they had been gathering as clues, and they each told him what they thought was the most important thing about being human. When they finished, the robot transformed into Herbert Wellfield! They went back inside house and found Julia Caesar laughing crazily with her Human Snatching Machine! They were able to turn the machine off and arrest her, and in her pocket they found a picture of her with Detective Sam - the spy! After arresting Sam, the detectives returned to the detective headquarters, successful, happy and exhausted.

With one adventure ending, another begins. Nat and Stacey will continue to work with the students after Spring Break, as they prepare to put on a play at the State Theatre based on the events of the Process Drama.

With Nat and Stacey coaching the students in their roles as actors, Ms. Anna will be guiding them in the production portion of the play, including marketing, finance, and costume, prop and set design. At the same time, she will be making the final preparations for her wedding at the end of May! In honor of this exciting step on her journey, students enjoyed a special luncheon on the lawn of Pease Mansion this week. They showered her with sweet wishes for her new life and practiced their manners at a formal table, while two of their classmates serenaded Ms. Anna on their violins.

It was a wonderful week and a great send-off to our two-week Spring Break. When we return, we will be eighteen, as once again, our nest expands to welcome in another Eagle!

Week 27

What an exciting week for Acton Academy! We welcomed Grayson, our eighteenth eagle, into the flock. He joined us with enthusiasm and by Friday could already recite the names of his new classmates. After having a few days to settle in, Grayson learned about the Student Contract. Students elegantly explained the difference between the Contract – which is a personal commitment to be on a Hero’s Journey – and the Rules of Engagement – which were designed to ensure a safe and loving environment to nurture someone on a Hero’s Journey. With integrity as our new character trait, we all agreed to be conscious over the next month about matching our words and actions. Each student received a copy of the Student Contract to keep with them as a reminder of the commitment they have made.

It was a week of many new beginnings. We celebrated three birthdays this week with stories, pictures and delicious treats. The students gave heartfelt wishes to Laszlo, Lillian and Henry as they begin their next revolution around the sun.

With the Process Drama portion of their Hero’s Journey project complete, the students began the production phase of this project. In addition to being actors in The Human Snatcher, a play based on the Process Drama, each student will be on team that oversees one aspect of the production of the play. On Monday, they attended a “job fair” where they found out about the different roles they will choose from – finance, marketing, graphic design, costume design and set design. They went from booth to booth, hearing a description of the jobs and the required skills. They then received applications and had the rest of the week to think about which job they most wanted and why they were qualified for that job. As the producer, Ms. Anna will review the applications and then offer each student a job that they will carry out over the next month.

On Tuesday, students met Nat, Stacey and Pierce, a local actor who will be coaching the actors and playing a leading role in the play, at the State Theatre for a read-through of the script. It was exciting for everyone to see how their ideas and the characters they had developed for the Process Drama were woven together and condensed into a play. On Thursday, students had their first rehearsal back at school. They ran their lines and began blocking out the scenes. Rehearsals will continue at school for the next three weeks, before the students head back to the State for the final week of rehearsal to practice on the actual stage.

With beautiful weather this week, students spent as much time as they could outside – playing Foursquare and Dodgeball in the Sport Court and going to the park for a game of Soccer. Our talented portrait photographer, Cheryl Muhr, was also able to take advantage of the beautiful sunshine to capture great smiles from the Eagles. In addition to being the subject of portraits this week, students also continued creating portraits in Art. They spread out all over the school to continue work on their large Egyptian paintings which are getting close to completion.

Having been to Paris last month with his family, Henry took us all on a little trip to France with a fabulous slideshow focused on the beautiful things he saw and the delicious things he ate. With excellent pronunciation, he told us the names of museums and pastries in French, which the other students were repeating all afternoon and into the next day.

Ellie led the group discussion on Thursday morning with another interesting news article and a nod to Earth Day. The class was inspired by the innovation and resourcefulness of a Guatemalan community that built a “bottle school” – reusing plastic bottles filled with inorganic trash in place of more expensive cinderblocks. Covered in cement and as strong as cinderblocks, the bottles did not show once the school was complete. Students were inspired by the story and had a great discussion about whether or not it would make sense for Acton Academy to build a “bottle school” in its future, permanent location.

We had the great privilege this week of welcoming Rhett Robinson, father to one of our students, to the classroom to talk about his Hero’s Journey as a lawyer. In addition to telling us about his personal journey, he talked about the American legal system and what makes in unique.

It was another wonderful week in the ever-evolving world of Acton Academy.

Week 28

Serious work began on the production side of the play this week. On Monday morning, each student received a written job offer from Ms. Anna, the producer of this year’s original play, The Human Snatcher: The Mysterious Disappearance of Herbert Wellfield. The letter explained to each student what skills they have that made them the right person for the job. There are four teams of students, each with specific tasks to accomplish and deadlines to meet over the next four weeks.

The Finance Team’s first tasks were to set a budget for the entire production and to set a ticket price. Since they could not set a budget without hearing proposals of funds needed from the other teams, they set off to conduct costumer interviews in order to determine how much people would be willing to pay for tickets. They went to several local businesses and randomly surveyed people. They also sent home survey forms with each student asking that they find out from friends and family members how much they would be willing to make. Later in the week, after creating a demand curve with their data, they decided to set the ticket price at $10 for children over 5 and adults and $5 for children 5 and under. Having given the costume, set and Marketing Teams time to submit budget proposals, they created the budget. The pressure is now on for the Marketing Team to get the word out so that they sell enough tickets to cover their costs.

The Costume and Set/Sound Teams met with the play’s director, Mr. Nat before getting to work sketching out designs.

The Marketing Team met with Mr. Esposito, who works in advertising, to discuss plans for a newspaper ad they are going to place in one of the local papers that he represents. On Friday, the four teams had a meeting where they updated each other on their progress and made commitments for the following week.

In addition to each having a role in the production side of the play, students continued to work as actors, rehearsing their lines and blocking out their scenes with the help of Nat, Pierce and Stacey. The work carried over to home, with the extra practice helping get students “off book” quickly.

Despite all the excitement surrounding the play, students were still able to focus during their individual work time. They received the first in a series of language and math “bubble packets” designed to prepare them for taking a standardized test in a couple weeks. Students so infrequently do worksheets that it is important for them to get a little practice before being asked to take a “bubble test”. While the authentic assessments that come naturally through the “real world” component of our projects are more telling than a pencil and paper test could ever be, the SAT10 test is a good checkpoint each year to ensure that students are also progressing along the nationally recognized trajectory in language and math. Their stated take-aways from doing the packets were: read the directions carefully, read each question and answer more than once, and be wary of answers designed to trick you.

In a belated recognition of Earth Day, students made elegant paper beads using pages from old magazines. They strung them together and brought them home at the end of the week as a Mother’s Day present. They wrote gratitude notes to their mothers to accompany the necklaces.

We started reading Carl Hiaasen’s Hoot aloud and the students love it. With our character trait of integrity, the story should stimulate interesting discussions when the protagonist is forced to make a choice between risking punishment and doing what he believes is right.

Week 29

With only a few weeks to get ready for the play, students were busy this week rehearsing their scenes and working on the production side of things. After sketching out a concept for each character and receiving their budget from the Finance Team, the Costume Team took a trip to Goodwill to do some shopping. They also asked their classmates which of the needed items they already owned and would be willing to use for the play.

The Set/Sound Team finished gathering images for the backdrop, which will be two large screens on which images are projected. They also went through the script and marked all the sound cues and then searched on YouTube for good sound clips.

The Marketing Team finished creating their digital ad for the newspaper and also created a hand-drawn ad (which they took to OfficeMax to make color-copies). They gave each of their classmates a few posters to hang up in their neighborhoods.

The Finance Team created and distributed tickets to their classmates and by the end of the week, several sales had already been made.

As busy as they were with the play, students also devoted themselves to a second “fai-to” on MangaHigh, one of the on-line math programs they use. This program allows you to interact and compete with other schools. Points are earned based on completing problems sets, each focused on a different topic. The harder the problems you solve, the more points you get. When you enter a “fai-to” with another school, you compete against them until one school has won 5 rounds. Each round is 24 hours. Whichever school has the most points at the end of 24 hours wins the round and the points are reset. Acton Academy won the first 5 rounds, ending the “fai-to” in just one week.

Ellie presented her final article to the class this week. She has done an incredible job since January choosing articles that interest the students and guiding wonderful discussions in a Socratic style. After her article this week, we read the titles of each of the articles she has presented and then the other students each told her which had been their favorite and why. They thanked for all the hard work she has done.

Due to a huge storm on Thursday, we only had P.E. once this week. While the rain poured down, we took the opportunity to play board games inside. The rest of the week was beautiful, however, and the students took full advantage of the weather, playing Dodgeball and Foursquare in the early mornings before school and in the late mornings after their individual work time. We also got to spend a sunny Friday afternoon outside dancing and making music. We had a square dancing workshop that had us do-si-do-ing, forming a band and doing the Chicken Dance. It was a joyful afternoon and a great way to end our week.

Week 30

The week before the performance was spent focused on the final production elements and on selling tickets for the show. The Marketing Team worked with a public relations specialist on a press release, the Finance Team continued to monitor ticket sales, the Costume Team created a robot costume for Mr. Pierce and gathered the final pieces for other characters and the Set/Sound Team went to the State Theater to work on the large screens on which all the images they have created and gathered will be projected. At the same time, students were working hard to perfect their lines and practicing their scenes together.

Even with all the play preparations going on, things did not slow down very much in other parts of the school day. In PE, students practiced their Yoga poses and went for a long walk along the trail north of Pease Park. A new theme was introduced in Art – fauvism – and students began work on oil pastel portraits of trees in this whimsical style. The class continued to enjoy the unfolding plot of Hoot which kept everyone begging to read “just a few more pages” until reaching its satisfying resolution on Friday.

The mornings this week were rather unusual for Acton Academy. Students could be seen seated at desks, in the same room as their “grade level” peers, all doing the same worksheets at the same time. They were not able to use each other, the internet or the books in the library for resources to help with their work. What kind of alternate universe was this? It was “bubble test” week! Each morning this week, students spent about an hour taking a section or two of the SAT10 national standardized test. While certainly not a full picture of a student, the tests provide one small snapshot of academic progress that does not hurt to have. Without the typical anxiety associated with such tests, the students happily filled in their answers and moved on to their more typical morning work.

We had a Town Meeting one morning this week to address several Foursquare issues including the different versions now being played, the relative competitiveness of players and the ever-difficult task of deciding when a player is “out”. After identifying all the issues causing conflict, students discussed each and came up with viable solutions to put in place. It was a productive meeting, with some creative outcomes that looked promising after the first week’s implementation.

After an intense week of play production and rehearsals, the class enjoyed a little down time on Friday afternoon. With hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill, we enjoyed a sunny afternoon in the Sport Court and watched a female cardinal weave in and out of a tree, building a nest with twigs, leaves and even a gum wrapper! We are hopeful that our new friend will lay eggs soon so that we have a family of cardinals this summer.

We also took some time before heading home on Friday to talk about our feelings going into the performance week. The students have been working hard and they shared some anxieties with each other about the night of the play and the possibility of making mistakes. Students reassured each other that all the hard work would pay off. “What’s the worst that can happen?” asked one student. “No matter what, you will be stronger because of this experience,” said another. Students all went home tired from the week and excited for the final push.

Week 31

The week of the performance finally arrived! This week students were dropped off in the mornings at the State Theatre for rehearsals. Monday was the “tech rehearsal” which meant running through the entire play, stopping for sound, lighting and projection cues and practicing the blocking of each scene on the big stage. Students also tried on their costumes to make sure that they had everything they needed.

After a long rehearsal on Monday, students let out some energy with a Flag Football game in the park. We were lucky to have Matt Hovis there to help Coach Stewart as a referee. That afternoon, we had the incredible treat of working with local songwriter Darden Smith to write an Acton Academy theme song. Students collaborated on the words and Darden put them to music. They sang it a few times and then recorded it! Darden talked about his Hero’s Journey and what it means to him to be an artist. He said that everyone is creative, but to be an artist, you must: pay attention, using all your senses, have intention and always love what you are doing. He said the best advice he has is to “find what you love and do something related to it every day”. After recording with us, Darden zipped up his guitar and got ready to leave. With great courage, one of our students, Hayes, handed Darden the lyrics to a song he had written that day at lunch. Darden looked them over carefully, asked Hayes about a couple of the words and then got his guitar out of the case and began playing. He sang Hayes’ song several times. Pretty soon the whole class was joining in and he recorded that for us as well. It was an inspirational afternoon and energized us all as a community.

Each day this week at the State Theatre, the performance got tighter and cleaner and by Thursday, everyone was feeling ready for the big night.

In the afternoons, students worked to finish their oil pastels of trees. They also worked on black and white graphite imitations of Botticelli’s “Birth of Venus”. Ms. Zoey mounted and matted their work from this semester and created a spectacular exhibit in the lobby of the State Theatre for play-goers to admire on Thursday evening.

It was a spectacular evening celebrating the artistic creativity of the Acton Eagles. They acted with skill and spoke with clarity, giving a fabulous performance. The audience was delighted and so were the actors.

Before leaving school on Thursday, students went around and each shared one word to describe what they were feeling. “Nervous” and “excited” were the main sentiments. On Friday morning, they did the same thing, but this time “sad” and “proud” were the common words. Students described the feeling of great pride in what they had accomplished, but also sadness that it was all over. They were already making plans for next year’s play, discussing possible themes and the logistics involved in putting on a production with a larger class.

After reminiscing about the previous night and the weeks that went into it, we set off on a walk down to Town Lake with Coach Stewart. We had a picnic lunch there and listened to him talk about his Hero’s Journey and how Acton Academy has been an important part of it. We sang him, “Happy Hero’s Journey” and said goodbye for now, as his official time with Acton Academy is over. With the rising temperature, we will be doing Yoga and Pilates at local studio this summer.

Week 32

Summer session is in full swing. We have switched up our schedule for the summer, working on projects in the morning and focusing on individual work in the afternoons. Not only does this keep things fresh and take advantage of cooler mornings for more physically active work, but it reminds the students to be conscious of how they work in different conditions. We regularly change desk arrangements based on student reflection about how they work best and their expressed interest in experimenting with different working situations.  It is important to also consider the impact of time of day on our energy and focus.

The first part of Monday was spent writing thank you notes to all the generous and talented people who contributed to our community in the past month. With all the energy that went into the play, we had some overdue gratitude to share.

Each student also took some time to review the SMART Goals (specific, measureable, achievable, realistic, timely) that they wrote in the beginning of January. They celebrated those that they had accomplished and noted those that they had not, making plans for this summer to make progress on them or acknowledging that they were no longer goals. With that done, students got right into their work.

This summer, we will have several one to two weeks projects. We began the first project this week – writing picture books. Students started off in pairs, reading classic picture books to each other and discussing the various elements in each. Then they came together and determined what elements are universal to all picture books. From there, they began brainstorming ideas for their own stories using these elements. After defining their setting, major characters and basic plot, they began drafting their stories.

While we are focused and working hard this summer, we are also taking a little extra time to play! Students have extended daily free time – and given the rising temperatures, they can opt to play games inside instead of outside if they prefer. We are also visiting the Yoga Vida studio just a few blocks down the street twice a week for some indoor exercise. Ms. Corinne met us there on Tuesday for a Yoga class and Ms. Liana met us there on Thursday for Pilates. Both classes were challenging and fun.

Inspired by the novel Hoot that we read as a class last session, Anaya put together a presentation on burrowing owls for the class to enjoy. We also started a new book, The Candymakers, by Wendy Mass, which is about a children’s candy-making competition.

On Friday, we celebrated Saskia’s birthday. Along with taking seven symbolic trips around the sun, Saskia serenaded the class on her violin. She played a beautiful and impressively complicated piece by herself, as well as a duet with her mother. She also told us a little bit about the lives of the composers of the two different songs.

Friday was also Crazy Hair Day…and crazy it was! There were a number of wigs, but probably most surprising was an actual mohawk that one student got the evening before in honor of our special day.

Week 33

We had another great week of focused work and creative energy. In Writing Workshop, students continued to draft their stories. Once they finished their first draft, they went through and noted what text would be on each of their pages and began storyboarding their books. This process helped them revise their stories. After editing and formatting their pages, they began the final illustrations. We will begin a new project next week, but students who are not finished can continue working on their picture books during their individual work time.

We also went back to Yoga Vida for more stretching and strengthening. We enjoyed a relaxing Yoga class on Tuesday and a vigorous Pilates class on Thursday.

We celebrated two birthdays this week. Ellie turned 11 and Grayson turned 10. Students continued to enjoy The Candymakers, making predictions about what would happen next as the plot unfolded. To help us engage more deeply with the book, Grayson and his mom made chocolate pizza – served in the cafeteria of the candy factory in the book – for us to eat on his birthday.

Friday’s Pajama Day was a big hit. Students spent extra time lounging on bean bags, reading to themselves and to each other. They also had cereal for snack and eggs, bacon and waffles for lunch in honor of the day’s theme.

To celebrate Flag Day on Tuesday, students read The Pledge of Allegiance individually and as a group.  Mr. Sandefer came in and facilitated a poignant discussion, asking the students to share which word in the pledge they felt was the most important and why. He also asked them to think about whether or not students should be required to say the pledge at school. As always, the students were very thoughtful with their words, listening carefully to each other’s arguments.

Week 34

At the end of last session, students were given the opportunity to write down suggestions for topics of study and activities for the summer. Those ideas greatly influenced the short projects that the students are engaged in each week this summer.

Throughout the creation process of their picture books, students bounced ideas off each other, sought feedback from their classmates and brainstormed collaboratively. By the end of last week, students had finished the text and the storyboards for their books. Many continued to work on their picture books during the individual work time this week, but focused on a new project in the mornings.

Based on a request for a class pet, we created a project to help develop this idea. Each student chose an animal to research – those in favor of a class pet chose animals such as guinea pigs, ferrets, rats and bunnies, while those not in favor chose less likely candidates such as skunks and blue whales. The goal of the project was for each student to develop a five-minute “pitch” along with a visual aide to convince their classmates that they animal they selected was the best – or worst – option for a class pet. They came up with a list of pros and cons, the total cost for buying and caring for the animal, directions for caring for the animal and any other interesting facts that might influence their audience. They also needed to anticipate questions that might follow their mini-presentations.

Along with the presentations, which were wonderful, came an intense discussion about how to pay for a pet. With over one thousand dollars in profit from the school play, some students argued that the money should go towards a class pet. Others felt strongly that they were each entitled to their share of the play profits and that it was unjust to force them to spend it a certain way. Someone suggested that those people who wanted to could pool their money and create a school pet fund. The discussion then turned to issues surrounding who would care for the pet and who would be entitled to play with the pet. Students asked each other questions like: Should only the people who paid for the pet get to play with it? Should only the people who take care of the pet get to play with it?

The class concluded that it was most fair to allow each individual to decide what to do with their own money, with those wanting to pool their money for a pet getting together and organizing this on their own. They were told that if they did want to get a school pet, they would need to come up with a complete proposal, including a budget and plans for caring for the pet. At the end of the discussion, each student was given an envelope with $62 (1/18th of the profits) and invited to write an intention on the back of the envelope as how to they wanted to use the money.

With all the excitement over the Pet Proposals this week, students still had lots of focused time to work on their core reading and math skills. They also went to the Yoga studio twice more – once for Yoga and once for Pilates. Many students have noticed a change already in their strength and flexibility as a result of just three weeks of these classes.

We officially welcomed Aubrie Kerr, our new apprentice teacher, to the Acton Academy team this Friday. She had a great first day, already getting to know the students and learning more about our unique environment.

We had a very special celebration on Monday night, our annual Heroes’ Banquet. After enjoying a nice meal together, each student was honored for a particular character trait that they have exemplified this year. They were given a rock with the word etched into it to represent the permanency of the character work they have done this year. We had our first graduation as well. Ellie, who has completed fifth grade, gave a beautiful speech about the most important lessons she has learned at Acton Academy. All of this was followed by a spectacular picture/video yearbook created by Ms. Anna.

Week 35

It was an exciting week for the Acton Eagles, who took on the role of curious scientists, experimenting with different materials each day to create boats, periscopes, pinhole cameras, submarines, ice cream and more. In addition to their products, at the end of each day, they came up with a question they thought of during their experimentation. The questions were written on leaves and added to a tree, so that they saw their curiosity growing throughout the week.

At the end of the week, after experiencing the life of a scientist for five days, students debated which of these five characteristics they felt was the most important to have as a scientist: curiosity, attention to detail, stick-to-it-iveness, communication or raw brain power. The discussion was a rich way to wrap up an amazing week.

In addition to growing their curiosity, students also stretched their minds and bodies in other ways this week. With Pilates, Yoga and Foursquare, there was no shortage of physical activity. Students also had lots of focused individual time to continue work on their picture books, challenge themselves with math problems, get lost in great books and practice their Spanish, both on RosettaStone, and with some very special visitors from Guatemala who were with us for the week.

We had another set of interesting visitors with us for the afternoon on Thursday. A small crew of game-developers from GamesThatWork.com came to put the students to work as game testers. They have been working to create a computer game that helps players learn about supply and demand through the not-so-simple task of selling lemonade. This was their second visit to Acton Academy. They came earlier this school year with a board game version of the concept and observed the students playing. They have since designed a computer game, which the students tested out yesterday. They are already making changes based on the feedback they received from the students.

In keeping with our themed Fridays, this week we had Camping Day. Students dressed-up in their camping best and came to school with tents and sleeping bags. We created a “fire” out of yellow and red pillows to read and sing around. For lunch we had hamburgers, hot dogs and s’mores. During the afternoon, students practiced setting up tents in the Sport Court and made plans for a real camping trip in the fall.

Week 36

Though we were only in school for three days this week after the holiday weekend, there was lots of excitement. We welcomed a new eagle to the flock, Libby. She made friends immediately and seemed to be at home in our student-centered environment. To the delight of her new classmates, she had everyone’s name memorized by Friday afternoon.

We also celebrated two birthdays this week. Bella turned eight over the weekend and we celebrated her birthday with red, white and blue cupcakes in honor of her July 4th birthdate. We also celebrated Ella Reese’s ninth birthday a few weeks early since the actual day is during our summer vacation. She brought in a slideshow of pictures from her nine years of life and a giant cake in the shape of a narwhal, her favorite animal.

With the summer session coming to an end next week, students were focused on their personal academic goals during their individual work time in the afternoons. In the mornings, they were presented with a variety of math challenges. One morning they found various measurements on their own bodies (including their “magic inch” which is a part of your body that measures exactly one inch). Then they traced each their bodies on giant pieces of paper and labeled them with their measurements. They used various units of measurement including centimeter, inches, feet and a unit of their choosing, such as a “pinky” or a “head”.

Another morning, they broke into small teams to solve various math riddles such as:

• You have two containers – one holds exactly 5 cups and the other holds exactly 3 cups. Neither container has any other measurement markings. You need to measure exactly four cups of water. How do you do it?

• You have two containers – one holds exactly 4 cups and the other holds exactly 7 cups. You may only fill the 4-cup container from the sink. You may only fill the 7-cup container using water from the 4-cup container. You may pour as much water out of the 7-cup container as you need to at any point. Fill the 7-cup container with exactly 5 cups.

• I have 15 beans altogether. I have 1 fewer white bean than I have black beans. I have the same number of pinto beans and red beans. I have 4 white beans. How many pintos and reds do I have?

• I have 10 coins. My coins are worth 61 cents. I have twice as many nickels as dimes. I have no quarters. What coins do I have?

It was a fun reminder that math is much more than computations and while understanding and memorizing certain skills and facts can be helpful, there is a rich world of creative problem solving in math.

Friday was Crazy Hat day. Only a few students remembered to don their festive headgear, so in the afternoon, those who forgot fashioned brown paper grocery bags into hats and painted them. It was a quick, but memorable week.

Week 37

During our last week of school, students spent the mornings getting back in touch with their inner artists, after not having formal Art classes for the first five weeks of the summer. Instead of three hour-long classes per week, we decided to try having an intensive art week of three-hour classes each day.

Each day, after enjoying the relative cool of the early morning to play outside, students gathered inside for a short Morning Group time. They activated their creative brains by attempting to solve a tough riddle and then headed a few blocks down the road to the Khabele School where Ms. Zoey was waiting for them. They spent the morning working and singing in the art studio there.

On Monday, they re-familiarized themselves with different painting techniques, each working on their own variation of a Japanese warrior. When they finished that, they began flipping through art books in search of an artist whose work caught their eye and from there chose a particular painting to study. As “apprentices” to their chosen artist, they worked off the selected work, sketching it first in pencil and then adorning it with paint on a large format canvas. The week was a huge success, not only in terms of the incredible work produced, but in terms of joy experienced by all the students.

On the walk back to school after the final class on Friday, several students proposed that we follow a similar schedule during the rest of the year, skipping Art for a month at a time, thereby “saving up” their hour-long classes to allow for longer classes.

Back at school, students were invited to small focus groups at lunch with our new Middle School Director, Candice DePrang. On Monday, she introduced all the students to the concept by having them watch and then critique a mock focus group with the other teachers, thereby establishing the purpose and some loose guidelines for behavior in their focus groups. Each day, several students brought their lunch into the office where they were given a chance to offer their feedback on an ideal Middle School.

After lunch, despite it being the middle of July and our last week of school, students took full advantage of their core work time to finish any last goals they had for the school year. During that time, students also wrote thank you notes to the people who have come in to read with us or given us other wonderful gifts during this summer session. We also took time for two more festive celebrations for students that have August birthdays, Hayes and Bodhi.

We ended the afternoon work time a little early each day to have enough time to finish reading The Candymakers. In the story, which only spans three days, the lives of the main characters – four 12-year olds – are changed forever. On the last page, there is a note from one of them that says, “If nothing changed, there’d be no butterflies.” It was a perfect phrase to have in mind at the close of an incredible school year.

On Friday afternoon, Andrew Segovia, our incredible film guide and master editor, delivered an edited version of the school play. Nat Miller came by to watch it with the students for the first time. We munched on popcorn and laughed as we saw the entire production for the first time. Students took home a copy of the DVD with bonus features, including clips from the Process Drama and post-play interviews with the actors.

We wrapped up the day on Friday by sharing our highlights from the year – nodding and laughing as our memories were triggered. We will all meet back here in September to start our 3rd year with twenty-eight exceptional Eagles from fourteen fabulous families.