Weekly Updates

The Eagles might still be working from home, but they are all systems go for ActonKL’s second Virtual Exhibition (the first one was coding in 2017)! Breaking down barriers and forging forward … that’s what Acton Eagles are all about!

Preschool / Spark Studio (PS) Update

Home Challenges

This week, the PS Eagles started their Home Challenges in preparation for their upcoming Exhibition … a cooking show ala Jamie Oliver! Aside from picking up cookings skills, the purpose of these challenges is also to learn, practice and showcase the skill of sequencing. The PS Eagles were eager to start work on their challenges and thrilled to be able to do it with their parents!

Challenge 1 – Planning

In this Challenge, the PS Eagles were challenged to follow a 3-step instruction sequence:

Decide on a recipe of their favourite dish or drink.
Write the recipe down and compile an ingredient list
Source for the ingredients in their kitchen or ask an adult to purchase the required items.

Challenge 2 – Practice

The Practice Challenge had the PS Eagles follow through with their planning to make it a reality. This included gathering the necessary ingredients and tools and following their recipe to produce their favourite dish or drink.

The next part of this challenge involved asking for feedback, reflecting on it and applying the necessary changes to their process to produce an excellent version.

Challenge 3 – Video and Recipe Book

The third Challenge was for the PS Eagles to plan a script for and shoot a video in which they would do a cooking demonstration showcasing how to prepare their favourite dish or drink!

Challenge 4 – Submit

The last Challenge had the PS Eagles be responsible for formatting their videos, recipes and shopping lists into the provided formats and submitting them to the Guides by the set deadline.

Zoom Call

A PS Eagle missed their friends, so they initiated a Zoom call to chat with them. This is our Acton Eagles at their best … taking challenging situations as opportunities to pick up new skills and initiating action to achieve what they want to achieve!

The PS Eagles have picked up many valuable skills over these past few weeks … one of them being how technology can help us overcome adversity.

Enjoying Nature

Despite being at home, the PS Eagles still managed to commune with nature … and they are so brave about it!

Elementary Studio (ES) Update

Zoom Meeting

Zoom Launches with 20-odd Eagles can get a little hectic, so Zoom Meeting ROEs had to be set up early and quickly to facilitate productive meetings. The ES Eagles all agreed that Meeting ROEs would help:

Avoid distraction.
Allow everyone to speak in turn.
Facilitate everyone with rules to follow to ensure a smooth meeting.
Start and end discussions on time so that time is not wasted.

Two Zoom Meeting ROEs were established:

1. Mute / Unmute Button

Headphones / earphones are to be worn during the meeting.
Mics are to be muted when not speaking.
When speaking, unmute your mics and speak into the mic

2. ‘Raise Hand’ Feature

When you want to share your thoughts, ‘raise your hand and wait patiently for your turn.

Zoom Zoom … how many people in the room?

Poem Challenge & Math Challenge Results!

This week’s challenge was to write poems in the forms that the Eagles had experimented with in the last Sprint – limericks, haikus and free verse. The ES Eagles were invited to write about topics centred around the Sprint focus of gardening or what was happening in the Eagle’s lives right now (COVID-19 or the MCO), and the Eagles were motivated by their love of writing … or the siren call of the choice of any item in the EB store worth up to 20 EB points.

“There once were some Eagles at home, Who had nowhere to run and roam…”

A drum roll for the winners of last week’s Math Challenge …

Arjun

Jared

Xavi

Xania

Rosalie

Lucas

Sufyan

The lucky winners will get to celebrate twice … once at home and once again when back in the Studio!

April Fool’s Schedule

Amidst this challenging time for all .. a little levity is what the doctor calls for and the Guides were fully on board with this come the international prankster’s dream date … April Fools. On that cheeky day, the ES Eagles did a double-take when they opened their daily schedule email from the Guides .. it was all in some weird language with swirls and whirls instead of letters!!

Some on-the-ball Eagles figured out that Google Translate would help them figure it all out! It was Thai!

Taking Ownership and Maintaining Accountability

In recognition that the ES Eagles have other things to juggle while at home, the Guides left it to the Eagles to set up their own schedules. This was also a great opportunity for the Eagles to take true ownership of their schoolwork. To maintain accountability, however, the Eagles were required to send their modified schedules to their Guides and Parents so that everybody was on the same page.

Plant Updates

The ES Eagles are continuing to care for and watch their plants grow. Xavi planted a sunflower seed and reported that it was growing nicely. He was asked if this was the first time that he’d planted a sunflower seed. He was further prompted to think about the sunflower life cycle and whether bees pollinate sunflowers. All these questions – and more – arise just from growing a little plant.

Two little sunflowers bursting out of seed.

Exhibition Planning

This will be the first time ever that the ES Eagles host a virtual Exhibition and they’re excited about it! The biggest questions were:

“What are we going to show our guests?” to which the answer was slides of photos, a model with a video presentation or a poster with a video presentation.
“How are we going to show our guests?” to which the answer was that the media platform will be confirmed soon as Google Hangout and Zoom are laggy.
“If we are not going to see or speak to our guests, how are we going to answer their questions? to which the answer was that the guests will send in emails to the Eagles who will reply via email.
“How do I make an informative slide?” to which the answer was to research the process.

Middle Studio (MS) Update

Monday Afternoon Huddle

As promised last week, Dhanya volunteered to lead the Monday Huddle with the following question:

From a scale of 1-10 how productive were you?
What was 1 thing that you did today that you were proud of?
Have you done CS and made any progress in it?
Are you on track? If not, what would you need to get back on track?
What would you do differently tomorrow?

These questions were asked so that the Eagles could report their progress to each other on a daily basis and hold each other accountable.

Aqeesha said that she would wake up earlier. Haidan said that he was happy to have created a daily schedule for himself. Morris said he would not change anything.

The Guide congratulated everyone who participated in the Huddle for being honest and open about their progress and what they envisioned to do differently tomorrow.

The Monday Afternoon Huddle was productive and uplifting.

Tuesday Afternoon Huddle

Following the success of everyone reporting their daily progress at Monday’s Huddle, Aqeesha was expected to lead Tuesday’s Huddle. Unfortunately, she could not make it due to a last-minute family commitment and there was no one to replace her to lead the Huddle. It turned out that only Ra’ees attended the Huddle via Google Hangouts.

Ra’ees typed on Google Hangouts, “Mr. Daniel and I were sitting there in awkward silence waiting for someone,” after the session ended. It ended up that Tuesday’s personal progress and daily reflections went unreported. Mr. Daniel typed on Google Hangouts, “What can we learn from the no-Launch show, except for Ra’ees?” No comments were made.

The Tuesday Afternoon Huddle did not happen as only 1 Eagle turned up.

Wednesday Morning Launch – Which Systems Matter Most?

The MS Eagles participate in daily Socratic Discussions designed to inspire them to discover the ‘why’ – the purpose of their Hero’s Journey. The past 2 week’s Morning Launches have been online via either Zoom or Google Hangouts.

Unfortunately, Wednesday’s Launch was disrupted because of poor reception on Mr. Daniel’s mobile data. Ra’ees quipped, “Mr. Daniel, you sound like a cyborg!”

Mr. Jia noted that Mr. Daniel sounded frustrated and was breathing heavily when the video and audio didn’t work and turned to the Eagles who were pursuing the Socratic Leadership Badge to see if they wanted to take on the additional challenge of leading the Afternoon Launch on short notice. Dhanya and Aqeesha agreed to lead the next 2 Launches plus Wednesday’s Huddle.

The Wednesday Morning Launch was a frustrating time as technical difficulties abound.

Friday Town Hall

The Town Hall was led by Katelynn and Dhanya and the MS Eagles discussed Studio matters that needed resolving. Evan highlighted 2 items:

When will the Badges be approved?
Standards of ROE during Studio Discussions have fallen.

For Item 1, Mr. Daniel noted that he will provide a timeline by Monday 6th April for when previous Sprint Badges will be approved, failing which every MS Eagle will be awarded 2 EBs. The MS Eagles voted on this and Mr. Daniel thanked everyone for upholding the standards.

For Item 2, Haidan recorded the outcome as:

Violations of ROE in discussions IN SCHOOL is a deduction of 3EBs.
Launches are at 12.40pm until 1pm. Lunch is at 1pm until 1.40pm (during MCO).
An MS Eagles must give a valid reason PRIOR to a Launch should the need to skip arise. The consequence of missing a Launch is 3EB.