Year 1. Session 6. Week 6
At Ascent, every session launches and lands a different “learning arc.” This session’s arc was launched with a Personal Passions Quest that sent Eagles on a journey to discover hidden talents, or to further develop their known gifts and skill sets. Eagles were also put into the role of Historians documenting this time in history and reflecting on their important experiences through each person’s unique lens. In addition to their challenges in Quest and Writers’ Workshop, Eagles launched the session with a call-to-action to develop their technical drawing skills and to come together using their creativity to make a film project over Zoom with dojo Stream. After such a rich session of learning, Week 6 was devoted to landing the arc with reflection and celebration.
Throughout the session, Eagles enjoyed Friday Lego challenges where they were given a prompt (a robot, an animal, something that could take you to the moon, etc) and could only use the 50 Legos provided in their kits. Here are some examples of the many creations:
Coach Alicia brought so much joy and energy to PD this session, motivating the Eagles to stay active and healthy from home! In Week 6, she challenged them to a PD Olympics competition where each Eagle chose 3 exercises to compete in. Then, each day, they were challenged to do reps of their chosen exercises, earning points along the way. The champions will be announced this week!
At the end of each session, Eagles write Thank You notes to those who have contributed to their community. In addition to those who worked with them on learning design (Acton jargon for “curriculum”), Eagles had the opportunity to write Thank You emails to their family members who have worked hard to support their learners throughout Distance Learning. Here are a few examples of at-home workspaces created by Eagles and their families:
Exhibition prep was a big focus this week with Eagles reflecting on each piece of their hard work, and pulling together videos as well written documentation of the Session 6 journey. Their demonstrations of learning will be displayed on a Session 6 Exhibition Blog post. Stay tuned!
For the last Closing Group of the session, many Eagles were awarded badges in their Core Skills and Learning to Be work. Every week this session there have been badges to hand out! A huge accomplishment for a driven group. After the badge ceremony, the Eagles had a Hero’s Journey circle to celebrate one of their Fellow Travelers wrapping up their journey in Discovery and moving to Middle School.
When in the studio, our breaks between sessions allow us time to reset and start fresh before returning the following session. Sometimes this looks like rearranging the furniture, or posting new things on the walls. To close the day, Eagles were challenged to figure out how to rest, reset, and find peace at home over break.
