End of Week 4. Five more days to the E-Ship’s Exhibition. And the Children’s Business Fair is in two weeks. Furthermore, the Middle School Eagles have to line up their apprenticeships before the Children’s Business Fair.
Few Eagles were in tears. They were not sure if they were up for the tasks. It is overwhelming. Do Guides intervene? Do Guides comfort? (“It is OK, take it a step at a time?”) Do Guides give instructions? (here’s how to do it—Step 1: Do this, Step 2: Do that, etc.) Or something else?
Taking the spirit of the Lion King this Sprint, this time feels like a time when Simba ran away from Pride Rock. He was escaping from his past. Simba went through a phase of Hakuna Matata, anguish, confusion, and eventually realization. It took time. It’s no different for the Eagles.
Few characters tried to re-direct Simba’s path: Zazu (the hornbill butler), Nala (a more mature friend/partner), Timon and Pumbaa (trusted gang friends), and Rafiki (a shaman mandrill). Who do you think makes a good Guide? What should a Guide say? Do read this blog post with this in mind. I will reveal more at the end :))
Anyways, let’s explore what the Eagles have done this week.
A weekend of Jokes and Food
The week started with a weekend of Jokes & Food. Last Saturday, the parents had the final Building Block for this academic year. The parents discussed personality traits (using the Big 5) and learned how they could put action by acknowledging their (and their family members) trait biases.
Meanwhile, the Eagles created jokes and presented it at the end of the session.
Then, it was on to the Food Trucks! There’s a catch though. Eagles studied a sample size of food trucks (of their choice). Next, they had to make some guess on which Food Truck has the most customers. Within the subsequent 20 minutes, they would observe if their hypothesis was correct!
It was also a catch-up session among the parents, in a Malaysia makan style.
Birth(day)s
We had two Birthdays this week with the older ones. One Birthday was with our oldest ES Eagle, Max, and another with our oldest Guide, Dr. Ewe. Dr. Ewe’s family came to celebrate during lunchtime. A blessed moment as his daughter and him blew out the candles. Then, the Eagles lined up and chomped down the chocolate cake.
OK. ActonKL is not (always) about eating and joking. So, here’s what the Eagles were busy with:
Settle Your Mind; Set Your Goals
A leveled focused mind goes a long way. Both Studios started the week with some mindfulness practice. The ES Eagles had their mindfulness Monday, and MS Eagles had an exciting session with Uncle Ganesh.
“How do you feel? What do you see? How does mindfulness get you ready for the week?”
The MS Eagles continued Yoga sessions and a special Hero Sharing with Uncle Ganesh.
Eagle: “What? Why? Why not two months?… no, a week; Why not just two days?”
The conversations made the Eagles reflected on their lives and gained a different perspective.
With a settled mind, the Eagles tackled the week using SMART goals.
Goal settings always prompt important questions:
“How will you challenge yourself this week?”
“How can you motivate yourself to spell more?”
“Are your goals balanced?”
On Friday, the Eagles would reflect versus the goals they set, using the Challenge Donut framework.
Most of this week’s work is the (overwhelming) E-Ship Quest. Eagles dabble deeper with experiential learning in the area of consumers and market. Also, they did a lot of pitching.
E-Ship: Market Survey
The most successful Children’s Business Fair (CBF) participant is no doubt Mikaila Ulmer. She sold lemonade made from her grandma’s secret recipe. It all started in one of the earliest CBF when she was only four years old.
The recipe must have gone through many iterations to find that exact sweet, zesty spot. The Eagles were doing just that this week: Lots of lemonade tasting in the studio this week on a mission to find the best recipe.
“Which do you like better A or B? How much would you pay for our lemonade?”
“What feedback will you give to our team?”
“Wow, yours is so good!”
“Mine is not yummy thank goodness we tested. I got zero votes!”
“Sugar rush!!”
E-Ship: Negotiation Game & Haggling
While the Elementary School Eagles had a simulated market, the Middle School Eagles took on a real one. First via the Negotiation game, the second via a real market experience—a Haggling trip.
Negotiation game is a zero-sum simulation game, where each participant negotiates to get the most from an RM2 pot of money. Each Eagle had secret instructions to simulate:
- Silent type: Will say little in the negotiation, and wants the whole amount;
- High Tension: Starts high, and only go down 1 cent at a time;
- Public Figure: Has a reputation to keep and people scrutinize your every word;
- Dependent: You work and see the person you are negotiating with on a daily basis, and can’t offend him/her.
Each simulation pondered different reflections:
“Do your starting negotiation positions have a big or small effect?”
“Do your emotions have a big or small effect?”
“Is it better to be combative or cooperative?”
After each round, the Eagles sensed check to see each own natural tendency during negotiation: Was it to compete, cooperate, avoid, compromise, or accommodate?
Dr. Ewe (our MS Guide) noted that it was interesting to see that many Eagles swapped around after each round. They changed from competing, to accommodate, and even to avoid. The lesson, there is no “best way.” Instead, one has to learn and find his/her style early.
With negotiation skills at hand, the Eagles went on a haggling trip! The challenge is simple, he who haggle for the most discount—wins!
E-Ship: Business Pitch & Apprenticeship Pitch
Next week, the Eagles will be ready for a black tie event—to create a business pitch for investors. They engaged with practices and Dry Runs. It’s a lot of work, but it is far from done…
The MS Eagles also had to line up their apprenticeships during the summer!
E-Ship: ES Eagles Pitch, in a “Show and Tell” Format
The Eagles prototyped their CBF products and shared it with their community. It was the Big highlight of the week! They gave feedback to each other and shared learnings.
“Your first prototype will always be bad don’t worry guys just try again” from an experienced Eagle.
“I realized that once I started making my products more, it became easier. Now I only need 20 mins to make one product.”
The life of an Eagle is rather independent. And there is still a lot more room to grow. So here’s a message from Ms. Caryn (our Elementary School Guide).
A message from Ms. Caryn (our ES Guide)
When little things happen around the studio, often, I would say:
“What can you do about it?”
“How can the Eagles solve this together?”
But this needs to happen more often. Parents, this should be done from home too to empower children continuously.
Back to the Lion King
What makes a Guide? A Guide asks questions. A Guide is a game maker, who changes the Hero within by creating experiences.
Guides at Acton Academy are gamemakers who propose exciting challenges, set boundaries and invite Eagles to start a life changing journey.
Like Rafiki!
Sometimes, a Guide hit the Hero on the head; if that’s part of the game. Ultimately, the Hero takes the step forward with courage, strength and at his own choice. Also, sometimes a Guide can go a bit crazy. Even Master Yoda (a good example of a Guide) was whacky with food when Luke Skywalker first found him (in Star Wars V). ActonKL team too embraces some elements of that craziness, in our odd quirky ways.
Crazy Edmond
Craziness attracts crazy ones. And I have some great news: we have a new (crazy) member of the team! Meet Edmond Yap, who is known as the key builder of Edunation (the Khan Academy equivalent in Malaysia). He joins us to grow and carry the mission of Acton Academy to more people, with a particular focus towards Middle School & Launchpad. He wore shirts with a big catchline “I am GILA!”. Gila means “crazy” in Malay. Even students commented that “Edunation is GILA…” So we expect him to fit into the ranks of Master Yoda and Rafiki :))
Edmond is not foreign to ActonKL; he has visited us twice; the first time in January 2017 and the second time just recently. Welcome, Edmond to the ActonKL family!!!
[/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]