One more week to go before our first Public Exhibition! Can’t believe it is almost here.

We kicked off Week 5 with a video of Brooke Raboutou, a young, motivated climber who had 7 records under her belt by 11 years old and is constantly challenging herself and breaking barriers to chase after her goals. That sparked a discussion with the Eagles on how Brooke set her SMART goal to climb the mountain.

Here is the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P5akoQ_eNI&t=1s

How was the goal specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and timely? What did she have to go through to achieve her goal? We then explored the question “What is the best SMART goal?”

Something we are positive we can achieve right now?
Something we might be able to achieve?
Something we probably cannot achieve (in a given amount of time), but we never know?

The young Eagles got really excited and inspired that even though Brooke was only 11, she could set such challenging goals and successfully achieve them. Now, how can we set our goals at Acton and achieve them? There were even discussions of a rock climbing outing at Camp 5 to celebrate their goal of fulfilling studio promises. Parents, be ready to climb with us! 🙂

Eagles discussing their SMART goals with their MS Buddy, Katelynn

Young Eagles decorating their SMART goals sheets

P.E. time! It was the Eagles’ favorite game, “Ice and Fire”, again. In case you are wondering why we play the same game every week, I am puzzled too. They absolutely love this game and voted to play it again this week. This time, Mr. Jia was challenged to be the “Ice” to freeze everyone.

1-minute of silent ball passing to help the Eagles focus

Follow me! Let’s run on the white line to warm up

They voted to play in the “waterfall” from our neighbor’s car wash session

This week, the Eagles voted that we are ready to introduce Eagle Bucks. It is an accountability system that will help the young Eagles move towards self-governance and empower them to have check and balance. We discussed the purpose of this system and role-played situations when Eagles can fine each other.

We nominated, voted and finally elected two Eagles, Max and Naomi, to be on the Eagle Bucks Council. Before they closed their eyes and voted, they said to one another “Even if we lose this round, it is okay because we can always be on the Council next sprint. We can take turns.” It was really nice to see them supporting each other and learning to win with honor and lose with grace.

Over the week, I watched them figure out how to govern each other using Eagle Bucks. There were screamings, disagreements, frustrations and negotiations but at the end of the week, an Eagle said, “Although it is sometimes difficult to ask for an Eagle Buck, I must do it so that my friends will try to behave better. This is more effective than screaming.” And of course, they cannot wait to use these Eagle Bucks to buy things (especially Pokémon and animal plushies) from our future auctions. 🙂 Lots more for us to learn together to get this governance system in place.

Sample Eagle Bucks

At the end of every day, the Eagles continued to work together to create their Studio Contract and Circle Time Rules of Engagement (RoE). More promises were suggested, tried and finalized. They are getting more nervous as the Exhibition Day is drawing near. We are hoping to have our final Studio Contract and RoE ready for the signing ceremony next week.

I want to learn to read all the big and thick books!

The colorful circles represent the different stages of a Hero’s Journey

Circle Time Rules of Engagement (RoE)

On Friday, we closed Circle Time with our weekly Character Call-Outs. Everyone was eager to share what they were thankful for. Once again, we clapped to celebrate one of our young Eagles’ improvement in his behavior. This also made the rest of us think about how we behaved and if we were setting good examples for the younger Eagles. We ended the day with a promise to improve ourselves in Week 6.

Before the party started

Five minutes later…

We all went home with happy hearts and happy tummies. Thank you Katelynn for the very yummy Gingerbread House! 🙂

Important Date:

An event not to be missed! Our Public Exhibition is next Friday, 9th December 2016 from 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Parking is available along the road at Taman Zaaba but please park considerately as we do not want to cause any disturbance to our neighbors. See you all very soon!

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