Explore Year 5. Session 1. Week 1.

The Heroes in the Explore Studio started the year with enthusiasm and curiosity. New and familiar faces started bonding through common interests and team building games. The space came to life as shoes lined the entry, lunch boxes found their place, and Heroes noticed pennants and bins labeled with their names on them.

TEAM BUILDING

During Week 1, learners in Explore began their time together by getting to know one another through team building games. Starting with Ascent Explorer BINGO, learners were encouraged to mark their BINGO spaces with the signature of a fellow learner who agreed with the statement in the space. They were quickly introduced to the the first team challenge of the year, Film Fest. The learners in Explore chose to do a Lip Dub, quickly agreed on a song, and began memorizing lyrics and choreographing dance moves. They rehearsed, reviewed, and made adjustments to the Lip Dub throughout the week. On Friday, the learners worked through challenges and practiced Growth Mindset to work toward solutions for the Lip Dub. Many laughs were had over games like “All My Neighbors” and “Telestrations.” The learners in Explore found rest in movement through yoga and reading.

PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS

This week, learners in Explore spent time learning about the systems in their studio, including Freedoms and Responsibilities, Provisional Contract Creation, The Hero’s Journey, and Safety Protocols. One foundation of life at Ascent is a balance between freedoms and responsibilities. In order to measure this, Explore learners defined actions that are associated with earning each freedom. For example, in order to earn the freedom to choose a seat in group, learners must follow the Rules of Engagement and have less than 2 Resets per group over a 4 day period. Not only did they define actions associated to the Freedom & Responsibilities scale, they also created a Provisional Contract that will support the studio until they create and sign their permanent contract at the end of Session 1.

Week 1 introduced new friendships and lunch time games that were enjoyed by the entire studio. New systems and responsibilities were introduced between challenges that put them into practice. The learners in Explore got comfortable sharing their ideas in group discussions, and created a strong foundation that they will continue to build throughout Session 1 and beyond.