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Building the Tribe for Week One!

By Hero's Journey Academy

Session 1, Week 1, 2022

The first week of school at our school is about building bonds, teamwork, and establishing their community. We completed many team and relationship building activities this week!

Children balance on foam pads in a teamwork game while a guide watches nearby
Teams racing to cross a river with less and less boats
Several children huddle together on letter tiles in a team-building game inside a gym-like room
Creatively fitting your team into an ever shrinking space
Three boys pose around a tall wooden block tower in a gym-like room
Can you build a taller tower by yourself or with the help of others?
Three children work with colored pencils and blocks at a table during a team-building activity
Learning about their Heroes Journey!
Two children crouch by a wooden block factory build on black mats in a gym
Building a factory!
Four children play the World game around a table, turning geography cards
Exploring Geography with the World game! (This was a favorite)

Provisional Contracts Created

What would it be like to work in the most inspiring place in the world? This type of community requires making promises to each other! Over the next 5 weeks, Elementary and Middle School Eagles will be drafting and creating a contract of promises to each other.

As of now, their starting provisional promises are:

Treat the studio like a sacred place

Speak only with kindness, encouragement, and truth.

Never distract yourself or others.

Be safe.

Little Eagles in our Early Learning Studio have 3 Simple Promises:

Be Nice.

Be Safe.

Cleanup.

Technology Challenge

The technology launch is where students completed challenges in order to earn access to their Chrome books.

Eagles learned their way around their software quickly, logging in and exploring each of their learning programs; older Eagles were challenged with tasks such as learning to compose and send a properly formatted email.

This process involved lots of group collaboration, google searches, YouTube research, etc…

Eagles work on Chromebooks at a classroom table during a challenge-based lesson
Earning their Chromebooks!
Guides help heroes use Chromebooks during internet safety learning stations
Learning about internet safety
Technology Tools Challenge worksheet listing Stage 1 internet safety and Stage 2 Chromebook login steps
Worksheet page showing Stage 3 Gmail and Stage 4 Google Drive checklist for Eagles
Worksheet checklist with Google Docs, Drive folders, sharing, and shared-with-me tasks for Chromebook access
A young boy reaches out to feed a black chicken in the grass outside the fence
Taking a break outside to care for the school chickens!

Filming a “Lip Dub” (a music video that showcases their talents and school spirit)

Our lip dub is led by the Eagles and is shown at our first public exhibition.

This process involves learning lyrics, practicing dance moves, choreography, story boarding, designing costumes, props, directing, etc..

World class examples were viewed and they created a rubric of what they thought was important to include as to how they would know if it was “excellent work”.

The process of revising work through multiple drafts was discussed and they are currently on their 8th draft of filming and continue to revise through group critique and feedback.

Conflict Resolutions

Leading a production such as this is not without it’s drama. How will you work with difficult people? Speaking with kindness and encouragement is one of their promises. Is it easier to follow the promises yourself, or it is easier to ask others to follow them or tell them when they don’t?

Our little Eagles occasionally become upset with one another, but one of the ways conflicts are resolved is with the conflict resolution tool.

Conflict Resolution poster with sentence starters for apologies and making it right after disagreements

D.E.A.R (Drop Everything and Read!)

“Once you learn to read, you will be forever free.”

–Frederick Douglas

We believe that reading sets you free in your learning and on your journey, and so we make time every week where everyone reads. It’s a time for the Eagles to be alone with your thoughts and experiences.

Story time with little eagles is where a guide reads a story, but occasionally an older Eagle reading buddy reads a book to them!

A hand holds the book cover of Who Was Frederick Douglass? by April Jones Prince
Heroes lounge on beanbags and floor cushions reading books during DEAR time in a cozy classroom
DEAR (Read whatever you want!)
Guide reads a picture book to four young children seated on the floor during Story Time
Story Time! (DEAR)

Challenge Donuts

Identifying if you are in your comfort zone, your challenge zone, or your panic zone gives Eagles vocabulary/tools to describe their goals and how they are feeling. It also gave us an opportunity to celebrate the end of our first week with Donuts during Fun Friday Time!

A group of learners pose around a box of donuts during Fun Friday
Donuts!

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