We have been sharing how systems & culture works at Acton Academy. After the Hero’s Journey and Studio Maintenance, System #3 would have to be:

System #3: The Weekly Schedule

Schedules! Such a dry subject! You might think it’s just a table of time + activity, but there is more, so much more to it than that. The exciting part of scheduling is the human psychology behind it. Scheduling plugs into the natural rhythms of life— seasons, months, weeks, days … and ultimately, the rhythm of being.

The Acton Academy Way

Acton Academy has a deep learning arc that follows through a yearly overarching question, followed by a session quest, and then the weekly schedule. Within the weekly schedule, there is a daily schedule. Everything has been designed around the psychology of a learning human and the practical patterns of our civilization; and what are civilizations? Civilizations are evolved patterns from human interactions with the environment.

First, the mission of Acton Academy is to find a calling and change the world. The journey there involves asking deep questions, taking challenges and ultimately going through a deep personal journey of transformation, again and again. We call that the Hero’s Journey. Keep in mind that this is our goal. The problem is that you can’t sync everybody’s journeys together because each person has their own path and circumstances. What we can do is to have a structural learning arc that creates a rhythm to nurture the Hero’s Journey. As Matt Clayton puts it:

All great learning experiences have a beginning, a middle, and an end. They could be described as a series of “Learning Arcs.” At Acton Academy, each year, with an overarching question and theme, is an Arc with a beginning, middle, and end. So are sessions, weeks, and even days…

…a successful Learning Arc has three essential pieces: (1) the launch of a narrative or adventure; (2) a series of challenges building to a climax; and (3) time for reflection and a debrief.

Starting with the Year Arc

Years are important. That’s why we celebrate Birthdays and ask, “How old are you?” On top of this, child developmental psychologists place learning milestones and parenting priorities according to age ranges too. It’s not specific—consider the exact age of walking and speaking for babies. It ranges quite a fair bit. Naturally, Acton respects this by splitting the studios into the broad age groups.

Into the Sprint Arc

How do we split each year? Acton Academy’s curriculum is heavily based on Project-based learning. What is the appropriate length for each project?

There is a balance between spending enough time in a project such that there is exposure & some level of mastery, but yet enough time to span across various projects over a child’s lifetime. You don’t want to be focused on boxing all your life, unless you want to build a child into a fighting machine, like Viktor Drago. You want a child that resembles a renaissance human, a human that has a taste of civilization, arts, science, and what make us human. We conclude that a setup of 6–7 projects, each lasting 4–7 weeks long is the balancing point. In ActonKL, we keep to 6 projects, each lasting 6 weeks long.

For the Elementary Eagle, this equates to 30 projects that cover Architecture, Agriculture, Ancient Greece, Chess, Drama & Play, Entomology, Marine Biology, Physics, Survivor, Mythology, and so on. During each Sprint, there are more than 40 hours of deep immersion into the topics through hands-on activities, discussions, and a big exhibition at the end of each Sprint to showcase what has been discovered. Here’s a blog post where we reviewed through the different projects done over the last three years.

Weekly Arc

The human civilization is set up such that we have weekdays and weekends. One can debate that weekends can be on different days, but globally, we follow a 7-day cycle, so, let’s at least respect that.

We do the same in the studios too. Each week focuses on tackling new challenges, culminating with group celebrations on Fun Fridays. Note, Eagles have to earn and participate in their Fun Fridays. It motivates them and gives them an idea of the realities of an economic system of work + play.

Daily Rhythm

Finally, there is a daily rhythm that respects the energy, freedom, and responsibility of the child. The goal is to find the setup, with broad boundaries, to work in a flow and respect a goal-setting framework. (We will talk about goal setting next week).

Here’s an illustration of these four levels of learning arc based on Austin’s 7 Sprint (Session) and a few common tools in the ActonKL studios:

 

The Weekly Schedule is by no means a fixed thing. But having it written and followed allows a rhythm in the studio such that there is a right time for different needs. It allows anticipation for fun, the expectation of the work & commitment needed, and it sets the tone of the environment that “this is how things work”. That stability gives the Eagles reassurance to pursue what’s in front of them.

Here’s a secret, and something that takes time to work on. Whenever an Eagle asks, “What is happening next?”—the Guide never answers. After a while, every Eagle knows that they can check the schedule themselves. It creates autonomy and awareness that I’m in charge and I’m responsible for what’s next. Of course, Eagles, like most employees around the world, will shout, “It’s lunch time now!”

Finally, we take input from the Eagles. One of the changes that we experimented with that worked is the daily “Short PE”. The Preschool Eagles are experimenting with a quiet 15-minute naptime. Both these tweaks allow more focus on the Core Skills, as the child’s metabolism is more settled.

What can you do at home? The schedule can be applied at home too, but not in a rigid sense. What parents can do is set time for meals, family meetings, 1-on-1 time, and leisure time together. Here’s something I learned from an Acton Academy Austin family I stayed with recently. Each week, their daughter and son had an evening where they set the plans for what to eat + a fun activity. It was usually Monday for their daughter’s turn and Thursday for their son’s. It happened to be the daughter’s turn one evening. An energetic 8-year-old, she chose to eat curry and play tag in a nearby park—yes, 3 adults had to participate fully with the 2 of them. It’s a family commitment. Our experience is that families who have done that well see their children become more secure and have a better rhythm in the learning studios.

The Weekly Schedule might be an overlooked item in the Systems. But I would rank it among the Top 3 items to introduce in any studio. Once the rhythm is in sync, many things will come naturally together.

Weekly Updates

Preschool / Spark Studio (PS) Update

We went out to play at Bukit Kiara Park (TTDI) on Thursday. The Eagles were very excited about the outing. A day before the outing, the studio had a meeting to discuss what was needed for the outing and the Eagles came up with a list.

On outing day, it started raining! Thankfully the rain stopped and left us with a cool but slightly wet day.

Upon arrival at the park, Aarav pointed out to Mr. Aaron and some of his friends where we could get soya cincau. He also pointed out the lake where we could see fish.

After walking for a while the Eagles decided on a spot where we could lay out our mats and put our things down. Then they decided that it was snack time! I guess it’s fuel up first before play.

Snack time was interrupted by monkeys! At first, it was only one, but before we knew it, the whole troop was approaching us! Uncle Raul and Mr. Aaron had to hold the boundary and we retreated to safer ground … The playground! The monkeys left us, and the Eagles decided to play.

We played with bubbles at the playground, and Myra brought her scooter to share. After playing for some time, the Eagles decided that they were hungry again, so we had round two of refueling.

After re-refueling, we went back down to the stream to play. It was wet, wet, wet! The Eagles enjoyed scooping sand, splashing water and “swimming” in the stream. We caught a couple of fish, tried catching water striders and admired red dragonflies and a tiny but beautiful blue colored beetle.

Time really flies when you are having so much fun! It came to lunchtime and, with some minor resistance, the Eagles cleaned up and had lunch.

We ended the day with circle time and each Eagle shared about what they were thankful for about the day. It was then time to say goodbye.

Elementary Studio (ES) Update

Quest: Yo-Yo Making

This week, the ES Eagles explored Oikos (the home), where they made things that would have been made in a Greek home like toys and art. What toys did Ancient Greek children play with? Small pottery figures, dolls made of rags, wood, rattles and even balls made from blown-up pig’s bladders! The Eagles gave it a try—no, not the pig’s bladders!—and made their own wooden yo-yos. Some tears were involved but it all turned out well! “Let’s have a yo-yo contest!” they challenged each other when the yo-yos were done.

Health Workshop

Thank you, Auntie Britt, for spending time with our Eagles yet again to equip them with BodyTalk self-care tools to help them balance and refocus. The Eagles are practicing the tools every day now. “I used them during the IOWA test to help me focus,” one Eagle shared.

Writers’ Workshop

For each genre and series of Writers’ Workshop, the Eagles go through the five steps of writing – Prewriting/ Brainstorming, Drafting, Revising, Editing, and Publishing. This week, the Eagles moved forward by giving and receiving feedback to revise and edit their drafted news reports. A few more steps before the news reports are ready to be published!

IOWA Test

On Thursday, the ES and MS did the IOWA Test. It is one of the means by which the Eagles get to see where they stand with regards to their peers around the world. The whole place was silent and quiet for the exam conditions.

Socratic Smackdown

Another week, another great mind of Ancient Greece to explore. A pleasant surprise was that the Eagles looked forward to their second Socratic Smackdown! “When is our next Socratic Smackdown? It is so fun!” and “Ohhhh this is too challenging!” were enthusiastic exclamations shared about this ancient debate format.

We dove into Stoicism and learned that Stoics believe in virtue, tolerance, and self-control. Which of these is most important for an Eagle? Should our country leaders aim to be Stoics?

“I agree with the Stoics that your suffering is because of your reaction to the things happening to you. We should not make a big deal out of little things else we will not make the right decisions.” Do you agree with this Eagle? It’s definitely plenty to think about.

Finally, Happy Birthday Kaleb and Vega! Both turned ten-years-old this week!

 

Middle Studio (MS) Update

Identifying Artistic Strengths

With less than 3 weeks left to the final exhibition, the MS Eagles started to zoom in on their strengths. To help them through this decision process, they started questioning themselves. Here are some questions that helped them:

Do I like realism, surrealism, fantasy, or abstraction?

Do I like to express inner emotions and thoughts, or depict the world around me?

Do I like to depict people, objects, nature, architecture, animals, something else?

Do I want my art to be serious, playful, beautiful, grotesque, simple, complex?

Do I feel there’s something about people or the world that I want to communicate?

   

Katelynn doing post-production work on the pictures she’s taken. She was so excited to edit her work that she invited everyone to see her hard work, comparing the originals to the final work. Come exhibition day, she’s going to put up a photo exhibition with her running partner, Aqeesha.

 

Art Critique

This week the new technique the Eagles explored was watercolor. Here are some pictures of their efforts while doing their weekly Art Critique for each other.

Rather than wasting paint, the MS Eagles donated their unfinished paint to him, and he created a vibrant and flashy depiction of the comic book villain.

Though it looked different from the picture he was referencing from the internet, he was very happy with his work.

IOWA Test

The IOWA Test opened the Eagles’ eyes to what their peers are learning across the globe. There was no pressure, no expectations, it was just a check-in point for them to see what they might like to work on in the future.

Townhall

On Friday, the Eagles had an extended Townhall. In addition to working through the current topics (e.g. debating the newly released Eagle Buck Store prices, roles in studio cleanliness), the Eagles brought up a topic that had been simmering for a while – how the Studio reacts towards and handles an Eagle who has autism. The Eagles researched and presented their findings to their peers and worked towards setting their own guidelines to assist their fellow Eagle with special needs. All in all, the studio demonstrated a leveling up of kindness and respect—a sign of the studio maturing.

New Eagle Buck Store

The MS Eagles were excited about their new Eagle Bucks Store where they could spend their hard-earned Eagle Bucks to get snacks, drinks, and services and take turns to serve each other in the spirit of commerce and trade. “… In my opinion, the EB store is 100% better than it was before.”

That’s all. Happy Long Weekend!