A hero’s journey — Reverting Online.

A call to adventure:

It was a calm Tuesday morning. The studio had just completed a morning launch on; A Hero’s Journey – Pushing Through Limitations. Inspired to push through their limits after watching a video (of deaf dancers and blind musicians) and discussing the topic, the studio was humming with busyness.

Meeting a mentor:

Squad leaders and their members huddled to discuss and kick off working on their Exhibition, due Friday morning. Squad Leaders took turns discussing their plans with the Guide. The Guide asked a couple of questions, some challenging their ideas and others for workflow clarity while providing tools and support for challenges they faced when working with younger Eagles.

Crossing the threshold:

Late morning the studio received news that one of their fellow travelers was Covid19 positive. Breaking the information to the studio caused an emotional response. Eagles were concerned about their fellow traveler while being upset and disappointed that they would need to revert to being online for the remaining days of this Sprint, with the looming stress of an Exhibition on Friday. Now their plans derailed, talk about the irony – Hero’s Journey, Pushing through Limitations (morning launch).

Trials & Failure:

The studio huddled at the end of the day for a closing circle. Eagles shared how they felt and what they hoped would have been different. They wish that Covid19 had never happened and missed being in the studio.

The studio was concerned over their fellow traveler and wished her a speedy recovery. The studio clapped off with a sense of positivity and hope.

Now down to 2 days to turn a physical exhibition into a virtual one. Eagles had to restart their planning—first thing in the morning; emergency town hall meeting.

The studio agreed to create videos for their topics, with one Squad wanting to do a live presentation. Eagles then begin work in breakout rooms. Planning, writing scripts, practicing, and thinking of options to record their videos.

Trial 1:
“They are not doing anything!” “They don’t even know what their topic is; how can they not know?” “We’ve been talking about it; how can they not know?”
A Squad Leader was struggling with leading his Squad. 

Trial 2: 
“I can’t get Eagle X. He is not online.” “Yeah, chimed in another.” “We can’t start recording if we don’t get everybody.” 
“How are we going to do this?” “We can’t do the video.”

Trial 3:
The deadline for Exhibition Feedback was at noon. 
“We are not done.”
“I don’t think we can make it.”
“He is not online.”

Trial 4:
“How do we record this?”
“Screen recording? Loom?” “But loom is only for a single person.”

Death & Rebirth

Meltdown, Eagle cries. “Our video doesn’t have sound! And I can’t get Eagle Y. She is not online!” breaks down.
“Mr. Aaron, can you help? Eagle J is having a meltdown,” said Eagle J’s brother.

(change scene)
“I can’t do this; we are doomed.” (leaves call)
Remaining members:
“We want to do a video, not a live presentation.”
“What is your next step?”

“We don’t know.”
“Would you want to focus on a couple of areas in your topic, or would you want to cover it broadly?”

“Let’s focus on two.” “Yeah”
“What’s your next step?”

“Get information.” “Yeah, research.”
“Who is going to be in charge of each of the topics?”

“I will do this.” “I’ll do this.” “I’ll work on the script.”

(change scene)
“We’re still waiting for him.” “He is not online.” “Yeah, for us too.”
“I don’t think we can do the video.”
“Yeah.” “Can we just put up slides?”
“But we agreed that it’s a video.” “OMG, dang it.”

“Would you rather risk not having a video to present for exhibition, or would you go ahead with the recording in the absent of a fellow member?”

“But part of the constraint says that we got to have everybody in the video.”

“Would you rather risk not having a video to present for exhibition, or would you go ahead with the recording in the absent of a fellow member?”

“I guess we’ll go ahead.” “But how?” “OMG, why is he not online!”

Faced with frustration, anger, temptation to drop the ball, hiding, not showing up, distracted, late, other emergencies, health issues, sickness, technical difficulties, the list goes on.

Revelation:

“While you were away, the members on your Squad decided that they wanted to do a video instead and have shortlisted two topics to focus on.”

“They’ve divided the work amongst themselves.”

“Okay.”

(change scene)

“We recorded it, and there is no sound!”

“Do you need help?”

“No, I think I know why. We’ll try again.”

(change scene)

“We tried 12 times! and it still didn’t work.” “A character call-out to Eagle A’s mum for helping us.” “Finally, we were able to do it.”

Atonement:

Eagles kept working on their videos the whole of Thursday. By the end of the day, the website was almost ready.

The following day was Exhibition day, and Eagles made sure that everything on the website was working one last time before it went live.

“I’m so excited about the exhibition!”

Exhibition site is finally up…

Gets Gift:

As the day went on, Eagles started receiving feedback from guests and parents.

Eagles took time to view them reflect on their Sprint and their Exhibition.

Challenges that they faced throughout the Sprint:
“When I was making my electromagnet and the doorbell.”
“WW (Writer’s Workshop) and sending my work.”
“Online exhibition!”

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