It’s evident that the Hero’s Journey is the first process in Acton Academy. What is the second? Is it the Contract System, the Weekly Schedule, the SMART goals or Studio Maintenance?
System #2: Studio Maintenance
A logical second process would be Studio Maintenance, for three reasons:
- It’s the most tangible and concrete. You see the changes immediately!
- It impacts everything else. The act of cleaning affects change at a psychological level—see below.
- The environment is the easiest to change versus internal habits. Choose the lowest hanging fruit in any change.
Studio Maintenance is simply cleaning up and taking responsibility for the studio environment. I will elaborate more by highlighting two people. The first is Jordan Peterson, and the other is Marie Kondo.
Jordan Peterson’s Clean Your Room
There’s a famous meme that is going around the Internet. It is brilliant not because of its straightforward tone, but because of the psychological implications of … cleaning your room. Here is Jordan’s explanation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w73kF4IitT4
Marie Kondo’s KonMari
The most famous “cleaning person” is undoubtedly Marie Kondo. Who would have thought that you could be a worldwide phenomenon just by de-cluttering spaces?
Her method of de-cluttering struck a chord with people because it involves a bit of self-reflection and invokes an emotional connection with your belongings. Rather than simply sorting things out to throw, you pick each item up and spend a few seconds with it. If it sparks some joy in you, then you keep it. If it doesn’t do anything for you, or if it brings up negative energy, you part with it. Genius, right?
Both individuals have different approaches to the idea of de-cluttering, but they both have the same basic message: Create a little heaven in your area and allow yourself to be transformed.
OK, enough of the Why. Here’s how we do it.
In the Acton Academy Studios
First, the studio space needs to be set up to be pristine. Marie Kondo’s tip of having storage within one area helps. A clean beginning sets the standard.
Second, it’s the routine of cleaning it to a pristine condition. There are two parts to this, one is teamwork, and the other is accountability to quality. We use checklists, photos, or any accountability the Eagles choose.
Finally, the Eagles do it together in a fun way. Every day.
Don’t believe it? Block off a day to de-clutter KonMari style at home. Then spend 5-10 minutes every day keeping your spaces pristine. Watch how you change, and your life too!
That’s it about Systems for now. Let’s check out what the Eagles got up to this week!
Weekly Updates
Preschool / Spark Studio (PS) Update
Stepping Up
An unexpected but wonderful surprise this week was that the Spark Eagles began to lead the check-in during circle time independently. Since the first time, they continued leading check-ins for the whole week.
Alessa (4-year-old Eagle) tried leading storytelling for one of the opening and ending circles. She was brave enough to try it the first time, then she decided she didn’t want to do it again. Maybe she’s not ready, but the door is always open and, when she is ready, she is welcome to do it again. Meanwhile, we give a big clap to Alessa for being so brave!
At the same time, the Eagles are beginning to uphold studio boundaries more frequently independently. They will remind each other about what was agreed upon.
Studio Cleaning System
Cleaning up after playtime is a challenge in the studio, some days the Eagles are on point, and it’s done quickly while other times it takes a really long time.
The agreement for cleanup is that everybody helps, and clean up is done within the stipulated time. A new challenge was added this week: the Eagles divided themselves up into two teams, and they decided which group cleaned up the inside area (the PS room) and which one tackled the outside area (the foyer). The challenge was that the quickest and tidiest group won points that they had predetermined. The Eagles seemed to enjoy this ‘game,’ and the tidying process went much more smoothly. Good job, Spark Eagles!
Elementary Studio (ES) Update
Maths, Maths and More Maths
The Elementary Eagles were pumped up to learn more about telling time and multiplication this week. They started off feeling slightly lost and frustrated but ended up feeling very proud of themselves!
“Now I can tell the minutes without guessing,” was what one proud Eagle proclaimed.
“I can help you with the questions and check for you too,” another helpful Eagle offered their friends.
“Can we do more worksheets please?” This is what you hear when Eagles are left to figure it out themselves and finally GET it.
Quest: Finger Knitting
What did creativity in Ancient Greece look like? This week, the Eagles spent some time in Oikos learning how to knit and make things out of yarn. It was challenging for some of them but after an hour and a half, most of them turned into knitting enthusiasts. You saw them knitting whenever they got a chance to—at lunchtime, free time, core skills time, dear time. Enthusiastic feedback included: “This is so fun! Let’s make more scarves for the Agora to sell.”, “This is the Acton Knitting Club.” and “It was so difficult yesterday but now it’s easy.”
One Elementary Eagle was proud that they had finger knitted before and was really brought out of her shell when called upon to help her friends figure it out.
Socratic Smackdown
This week we also learned about one of the greatest minds of Athens—Socrates. The Eagles had their first Socratic Smackdown, definitely one of their most challenging discussions ever. What is a democracy? What does it really mean? Should voting be a privilege given to the educated ones, or is it a fundamental right given to everyone? They gave their best shot and had a fruitful first smackdown on Socrates’ philosophy.
Writers’ Workshop
It’s all about News Reports this Sprint. The Eagles were very excited to hunt for ‘good’ and ‘interesting’ articles in the different local newspapers. We learned about what makes a good news report, and they set off to brainstorm for ideas. Look out for the first edition of the Acton Ancient Greece News that will hit the stands on Exhibition Day!
Mother’s Day
The Eagles shared why Mother’s Day is celebrated, and their favorite memories shared with their mummies. 🙂
Happy Mother’s Day to all the superhero mummies out there!
Middle Studio (MS) Update
Drawing Gestures
The week started with drawing gestures. The idea was to capture the way your subject is posed, not the full detail of the image. The subject (their peers) were instructed to keep changing their poses at short intervals.
This was followed by a focus on facial features.
Celebrity Pictionary
Who doesn’t love a game of Pictionary? This week, the MS Eagles played Celebrity Pictionary. The challenge was to use charcoal to sketch the face of a recognizable person. A mix of ES Eagles and adults were asked to guess who had been drawn. 
Mystery Challenge
Their mystery challenge this week:
“A wealthy patron has commissioned a piece with only a single word of direction: ‘Obscurity’.”
“It was hard to deliver something without proper instructions,” one Eagle said. Yet another Eagle appreciated the freedom the vagueness gave them, “It is great as I can do anything I want.”
The winning pieces were:
Genre Writing Work
The MS Eagles have been voting and assigning writer roles for their ’21st Century Learner’ books as part of their genre writing work.
Contracts: Responsibility and Accountability
After a number of complaints from the ES Eagles and Guides, the MS Eagles had an emergency townhall meeting to discuss Cleaning and Cleanliness. They worked out who was responsible for actions taken and provided a Standard Operating Procedure for when complaints were filed against them.
At Acton, one of the ways everyone can be held accountable is when there is buy-in. It typically starts with a discussion, followed by everyone signing a contract to ‘legalize’ the discussion. For example, the editor and writer for the ’21st Century Learner’ book signed a contract. There was another contract for the outing at the end of the week.
Ilham Gallery Outing
We ended the week with a trip to the Ilham Gallery to draw (pardon the pun) inspiration for the MS Eagles’ upcoming exhibition in 3 weeks time. This Sprint, the MS Eagles are excited to hold an “Art Gallery @ ActonKL”. Watch this space for details in the coming weeks!
