Session 3 ended this mid-week with an Exhibition of Eagles’ Personal Learning Plans and Gratitude Letters. It has been a hectic three weeks, where the Eagles were introduced to a new environment, made new friends, did tribe-building activities, edited, drafted and signed their governance contracts, wrote, critiqued and edited their Thank You and Gratitude Letters, did Random Act of Kindness, and had plenty of fun along the way. All that, and putting up an Exhibition!
Highlights this week.
- Preparation of Exhibition
- Exhibition Day!!!
- Celebrations
- Simulations (Safety Briefing and a Strike)
- Reflection and Preview of Next session
Preparation of Exhibition
With one day to this Session’s Exhibition, the Eagles were under pressure. Eagles worked extremely hard to get their exhibit ready.
They had to put up their Personal Learning Plan—a personal commitment to their learning journey at Acton. They made decisions on their long-term goals, based on their ability, preferences, and aspirations.
It is hard work!
In addition, the learning plan included Eagles’ aspirations, in the form of Hero Journey tickets. These are their Joy & Flow, Gifts, top 3 apprenticeships, opportunities & injustices, their heroes, and their answer to this year’s overarching question Is Truth Discovered or Created?
Dry Runs
On the morning of Exhibition, the Eagles selected the best five Genre works and made arrangements of emcees and usherers. After a few hiccups and almost a major breakdown, the Eagles had a full dry run. As each of them presented, the rest of the Eagles listened and gave critiques to improve.
Many kept revising til the afternoon, with just one hour to the Exhibition!
Exhibition Time!!!
Given the nature of Personal Learning Plan and intimate Gratitude Letters, this Exhibition was exclusively for ActonKL parent community. Still, the Eagles greeted the guests with “Welcome to Acton Academy!” with enthusiasm and excitement!
The Eagles kicked off with a selected five readings of their Thank You and Gratitude Letters.
Eagles handled the entire session themselves. This means making quick decisions. One parent came late, and the Eagles quickly re-arranged the order of their readings so that she could listen to her child’s letter.
They wanted to keep the touching moments.
Later, the Eagles split into their Squads and presented their Personal Learning Plans. Each parent saw 3-4 Eagles present their learning commitment for the year, as well as their Hero Journey tickets.
Injustices ranged from racism, environment, education access, or even “don’t judge me by my size!”
The Exhibition ended with a Q&A session.
Given the community is still new in this journey, parents were intrigued by how Eagles learn together. Eagles explained about weekly points, Eagle Bucks, Khan Academy, and their learning journey during their short three weeks.
They asked many questions and were impressed by how well the Eagles explained and answered. Their answers demonstrated the maturity of making their own decisions and choices in life, as reflected in the planning of their Personal Learning Plan.
Eagles were excited that their Session came to a close with a successful exhibition. But they left the Elementary School studio and Gathering areas in a mess.
Consequence
The next morning, the Elementary School asked for four cross-studio Eagle Bucks, equivalent to 104 Eagle Bucks. Too harsh a consequence?
How would you feel if you have only two hours of Exhibition preparation, and you had to deal with such a situation?
The Middle School Eagles accepted and moved on.
Eagles learned from experience, and this was how the rest of the last day of Session 3 went.
Simulation – Safety Briefing
There was still one section left in Eagles’ Tribe Building Quest: Safety Briefing 2. The last morning of the Session involved two teams competing in role-playing simulation, discussing and selecting the best practices from each scenario. The Eagles made candid performances and also reminded themselves on safety precautions.
Hmm… what should we do in a case of these situations? Guides also note whether if a certain situation requires more practice in the future, based on Eagle’s discussions.
Eagles also had plenty of fun as they acted through scenarios
Celebrations…
With all the components of Session 3 completed, the Eagles had the remaining morning enjoying games and experiencing the Elementary School exhibition.
Four Eagles who completed all the requirements on-time had a special celebration outing with Mr. Jia during lunchtime. The rest of the Eagles had to stay back at campus. Naturally, they were curious and contacted the four Eagles to ask where they went.
Simulating a Strike
“Aren’t we not suppose to use mobiles on campus, during school hours?” The four celebrating Eagles prompted each other as they made vague and mysterious references about their outing location.
The four Eagles decided to put a prank, replying as Mr. Jia with strikes. It turned out that every single Eagle had put their guard down and used their mobile devices or watched YouTube videos from their computers during the extended lunch hours. For 15-minutes, the Eagles were in suspense.
During mid-day launch, the four Eagles revealed their prank. Drama ensued. Some Eagles commended the quality of the prank and felt it was the right thing to do because they clearly violated their contracts, and the 15-minutes emotional roller coaster was the only way to learn. A warning would have not worked. However, few Eagles were disgusted by the prank.
This event created a wonderful opportunity for discussion, Eagles looked deeply into their contracts to make their case. Was the four Eagles’ actions kind? Was this a prank or an experience?
Reflections and Preview of Next Session
Eventually, Eagles put their tensions behind and reflected on the Exhibition. They wrote tips and prompts for their next Exhibition.
We closed the Session with a quick preview of next session’s Quest: Travel around the World. The sub-overarching question is: Are great adventures discovered or created?
Great adventures await in 11 days. Meanwhile, have a great Lunar New Year and break!
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