Lift Off! Session 1

We have lift off!

We kicked off our 2022-23 school year on Monday. This year our learners will be exploring the overarching question "Can one hero truly change the world?" They will begin with session one, by working hard on team building, communication and leadership development. This will look slightly different in each studio, but the goal is the same: Build the Tribe and create a strong foundation for the year, heroes will be drafting, trialing, and finally writing their own studio contract. Along with establishing their own “laws” for studio life.

Take a glimpse to each studio's first session culminating with their public exhibition in October!

Sparks

Build the Tribe, All About Acton

For the Spark Studio, their build the tribe quest will be broken down into focus areas/ goals for each week of the session. Here is the breakdown of each week:

1. To build a tribe where learners feel known and connected (teamwork)
2. To introduce systems of the studio
3. To establish the guardrails and routines that allow learners to work independently
4. To introduce Montessori works to the learners
5. To explore emotions and how to appropriately regulate them
6. To grow in understanding of the hero's journey and the question of the year

Discovery Heroes building community by playing games together!

Adventure Heroes reading notes to Spark Heroes from their parents on day one.

Discovery

Quest | Build the Tribe, Lip Dub + Cardboard City

The Discovery studio will be keeping with the theme of build the tribe. They will accomplish this through group activities - like filming a Lip Dub and building a Cardboard City - games, diving into the various Acton systems, reflecting and sharing during launches, and settling into their studio routine!

Core Skills and Meaningful Works will be rolled out over the course of this session as well.

Heroes enjoying free time! Our learners average 90 minutes of outdoor time a day!!

Odyssey Heroes working to memorize the song lyrics for their Lip Dub.

Odyssey

Quest | Build the Tribe, Lip Dub + Squad Olympics

Along with establishing their own “laws” for studio life, Odyssey heroes will participate in the 2022 Acton Lip Dub Competition. The Odyssey Studio will be choosing a song and then planning, choreographing, filming, and finally submitting a Lip-Dub video! For the second half of the session, the Odyssey Studio will be hosting the 2022 Squad Olympics! Heroes will compete with their squads in events that will challenge their physical, mental, and creative skills. Throughout the entire session heroes will be diving into the Hero’s Journey and will be keeping Hero Journals and designing Hero Boards that answer the questions: “What makes a hero?“, “Who are my heroes?“, “What gifts do I have?“, and “Where/How do I find my flow?"

A few of the Adventure Heroes working on an Escape Room in a box. Will they escape?

Adventure Heroes working hard to 'build the tribe' with a team challenge.

Adventure

Quest: Build the Tribe - Make the Escape
Session 1 in the Adventure Studio is all about bringing together a diverse group of unique individuals to create a world class community that will support each member on a hero's journey to find a calling and change the world. What better way to do that than with a real world, big picture challenge to create something awesome, that will require courage, collaboration, grit, and will also be a lot of fun?  Thus this session, the heroes in the Adventure studio will be challenged with designing, building, marketing, and running a pop-up escape room in their studio. Over the course of the first few weeks, the heroes will even have the opportunity to earn the ability (and some awesome tools) to open their escape room to the public and earn real money for their studio. Along the way heroes can expect plenty of traditional team building activities and discussions and work geared towards creating and shaping studio systems to support individual growth and heroic culture.

​Communication (Writing) - Hero Essay
This first session's Communication Badge will feature a fairly traditional essay writing that is designed to invite hero's to explore and communicate their own hero's journey while also diving deeply into the Acton approach to developing powerful and effective writers. Heroes will dive into topics such as their gifts and passions, core values, hopes, dreams, and fears as they craft, revise, and publish an essay answering will help them to deeply consider the critical question of "Who am I and where am I going?"