Session 7, Week 1, Year 2Growing Curiosity Quest – The current quest is especially amazing. Selected older eagles (Quest Leaders) choose a topic, which he/she wants to study further, and makes a mini-quest for himself/herself. During last week’s and this week’s launches, we began forming their quests: Each of them chose a topic, studied it for several hours, picked a relevant project that the Eagles would have to do and then divided it into three meetings. I would like to emphasize that this is not a simple task: To take a subject, create a project from it, and then divide it into parts that will constitute a complete learning process, is not trivial work. But the Eagles are completely into it and I am very curious to see where this path will lead us.
**Week 1: Art and Creativity!**This week, one of the Quest Leaders chose to focus on the history of art and the basics! She set up challenges for the Eagles to complete and we held circle after to give feedback on what went well and what she could improve on.Goals: Study the foundations of drawing and technique, make an educated decision about a specialty or niche to study further and make a deliberate practice of as you work towards a public showcase
Writer’s Workshop – This session’s writer’s workshop is about Technical Writing.They will be challenged to write instructions for a task of their choosing in each of the following categories:
- How to use a software program (for example, Khan Academy)
- How to build something (for example, a popsicle-stick bridge)
- How to make something (for example, a hat, fishing pole, or website)
During this week’s writer’s workshop launch, we talked about manuals:Imagine you are hired as a technical writer for a car company. You are in charge of a team of people writing the car manual. You know your customers will be safer if they read it, so you gather your team to brainstorm ways to improve the manual so your customers read it before operating the car. The team comes back with the following ideas. Which one do you choose?
- Write the manual in the form of a graphic novel
- Add lots and lots of pictures and more detail to the instructions
- Condense the manual into a small booklet with only the life-threatening information
The Eagles chose from these options and shared them in circle!
We are Truly Learner-Driven
Everyone in our program has a significant role to play here. Each learner and guide has a responsibility to be a contributing member, committing to the process of supporting each other in their learning goals. Our learners “audit” each other’s work, dive into deep learning and also deep conversations that sometimes might be tough. We value the messiness that comes with making mistakes or not getting something quite right — we view mistakes more like experiments that lead us to necessary corrections and improvements.
