This week is Exhibition week. Acton Academy’s Project Learning is driven by this goal, followed by reflection & celebrations a day or two after.
This is the perfect time to go into:-
System #5: Goal Setting
Goal setting. That’s the 5th crucial component that makes up Acton Academy’s key processes. Like the Hero’s Journey, one can dive deep into it because there are so many ways to do this—breaking goals into sub-goals, having morning routines, using various apps, and even setting time for not having any goals and agenda at all. Let’s admit it—setting goals, keeping to them, and staying motivated, without any resistance or excuse, is hard.
Goal setting requires certain foundations to help: having schedules & calendars to provide structure, a pristine working environment to “feel right working in”, a Hero’s Journey for dealing with setbacks and pursuing meaning, and a contract so that the promises and boundaries are clear. It’s for this reason that this is the last of the five key processes that make Acton Academy. To explain Goal Setting, I will first cover briefly the psychology of goal setting before explaining how we do it at Acton.
The Psyche of Goal Setting
Humans are biologically built on a hunting platform. Our eyes are sharp, capture detailed colours, and binocular, second only to Falcons. Our hand-body coordination equips us to aim at and hit a target. We even play games with this in mind and celebrate them.
Aiming and missing the aim is embedded in our culture. The word “sin” originates from the Hellenistic times and roughly translates into “missing the mark”, in reference to spear throwing. Translate that to the language of today’s world:- it means missing the aim, the target, or the goal. That’s harsh to see “sin” that way but, you know, there’s some truth in those origins.
The human psyche gets a dopamine kick * when it is moving towards a goal. Dopamine is one of the neurochemicals that are responsible for our happiness. As we aim higher and reach a level of spirituality or transcendence, it gives life deep meaning.
Enough said. Goal setting, and moving towards it, makes the world go round.
How We Do It at Acton Academy
With the Four Processes in place, Acton Academy uses goal setting in all areas of learning and development. We start with the idea of SMART Goals, and tie it to a broader structure of daily, weekly, sessionly, and yearly rhythms. For the older Eagles, they have Personal Learning Plans, which represent a deeper learning journey.
SMART Goals
“I aim to do my best.”
If you say this to an Eagle at Acton, they will ask: “What do you mean by that? Can you be more specific?”
We aim to go deeper with SMART Goals:
The JourneyTracker, an intuitive proprietary system helps our Eagles to go deeper with ease. Here’s a snapshot.
The older Eagles use a more elaborate system which involves assigned challenges, peer reviews, and long-term planning. Simply put, they are working with freedom, responsibility and plenty of accountability.
But what if an Eagle simply sets goals? Do we reign them in or let it be?
A Bad Plan Is Better Than No Plan
The aim of goal-setting in Acton Academy is not to get it right the first time, nor the second time, nor even the third time. The goal is to continuously reflect, adjust, try new tools, and keep improving until setting goals becomes a habit.
Having a bad plan allows one to at least know why a plan is bad, and identify ways to improve. So, yes, if an Eagle is naive, we allow them to fail early, cheaply and often. And we do so mindfully, with reflection and questions.
Eagles in reflection.
Acton Eagles repeat this process, try out different goal setting tools, and they see the fruit of their labour rather immediately through their accomplishments and with the end in mind—an exhibition that we open to the public, like the one we just completed this week.
Over time, they will use this process to continuously orientate themselves, aiming at the North Star (the eventual highest goal), serving their calling and changing the world.
Weekly Updates
Preschool / Spark Studio (PS) Update
ES Exhibition
The PS Eagles have had the chance to observe the ES Eagle’s Exhibitions for the past three Sprints and they have always looked forward to it. This is great preparation for when they are ready to host their own Exhibitions. What better way than to observe the older Eagles and model? This round, they participated in the Olympic Games and some even won medals!
Eagle Buck Store
The PS Eagles have been talking about the Eagles Buck Store in and out of the studio, we even had an Eagle who mentioned it in his sleep! In the PS Studio there is a counter counting down the days to the time when the Eagle Buck Store will be opened. The Eagles worked hard throughout the Sprint, a little harder when there were less than 10 days left. We discussed how the Eagles would spend their money. It’s interesting to observe that some decided to spend it all, while a few decided to save their Eagle bucks and plan for big purchases.
End of Sprint Studio Cleanup
We ended this Sprint with an End of Sprint Studio Cleanup. The cleaning up was divided into 4 levels and all the Eagles worked through each level together. Each level targeted a specific area in the Studio. At the end of the day we closed by sharing what we were grateful for. The Eagles were grateful for the things that they have, for family, for food that mommy made for them and last but not least they were grateful for one another.
Elementary Studio (PS) Update
ES Exhibition
This week was all about sprinting towards the finish line working on the Eagles’ final preparation for their Exhibition.
Exhibition Day – Welcome to Ancient Greece! There were 8 stations for guests to visit – Home (Oikos), Academia, Agora (Marketplace), Techne (Architecture), Stoa (Philosophy), Stoa (Discussion), Greek Mythology and Olympics. The energy was high and everywhere you turned the Eagles were busy immersing their guests into their chosen specialties.
The Greek pots that the Eagles fashioned by hand were put on display.
Heated debate was heard coming from the Discussion Stoa. “I would be the one to decide who would be mature enough to vote,” an Eagle proclaimed.
The Eagles in charge of Greek Mythology introduced guests to the Greek gods and goddesses. 
Guests were invited into the Oikos (Greek home) and shown the Ancient Greek way of life, “Girls couldn’t go to school!”
At the Techne booth, guests were introduced to the architecture of Ancient Greece.
The Eagles who researched into Academia (education) in Ancient Greece found out that the concept of abacuses was brought over from Ancient China to ancient Greece.
A brisk trade was done at the marketplace, “Everything that they sold they made themselves.”
Sharing about Greek philosophy, Sufyan said that he felt the most drawn to the teachings of Aristotle since he was the teacher of Alexander the Great, Sufyan’s hero when he was younger.
Outside, the Eagles experienced organising and running their very own Olympics.
Reflections
The Eagles wrapped up the Sprint with reflections on what went well and what could be improved. Finally, the Eagles enjoyed an ice cream as a celebration of their hard work! See everyone at the CBF on 16th June at The School, Jaya One! Happy creating!
Middle Studio (MS) Update
Art@ActonKL
This week, focus in the MS studio was full steam ahead aimed at holding the Eagle’s artwork up to the high standards that they set themselves.
Come Exhibition Day, the energy was high as the Eagles went into presenting their artist statements.
As the guests went around the Exhibition hall, the Eagles all used different strategies to present their artwork in the best light and encourage bidding. “I chose this medium because I saw that nobody else was using it, so my work would stand out,” one business-savvy artist shared. Some Eagles went the extra mile to connect with the bidders, and this upsell attitude earned them this bidder’s bids!
When asked which pieces they were most passionate about, many Eagles indicated that they were most emotionally invested in the piece that took the longest to complete. Overall, many of the Eagles found the self-expression aspect of creating artwork to be cathartic. “I was happy to come back to expressing myself through art, I had fallen out of touch with that.”
The auction was a reflection of the success of the Eagle’s blood, sweat and tears, with satisfied bidders going home with the works that spoke to them.
The 21st Century Learning Book Project
The Eagles also showcased their exploration into what it means to be a 21st Century Learner through the various essays that they penned over the course of the Sprint. The observations were insightful and definitely something to return to in the future as reminders of lessons learnt and the path forward.
Another Sprint has come and gone and the Eagles have a lot to take away and reflect upon. Was their goal setting effective this round? What worked and what can be tweaked or should Plan B be developed? Keep the momentum going by chewing on that with your Eagles as you enjoy the break together before we dive into an exciting, new Sprint!
