3, 2, 1… GO! (Year 2, Week 24)

The whir of engines, screech of tires and cheer of the crowd marked the Sumo Tournament this week. Their hard work during Quest this session led up to one afternoon; where five teams of heroes faced off in double elimination!

Here was the line-up:

CRUSHER

Kai, Paxton and Bryn

Hunter

Tyler, Jack and Adri

Wackey

Betsy, Garrett and Alexa

Tip_Toe

Caden, Zane and Tyson

Epic Killer

Canyon, Olivia, Lily

In the end, Epic Killer and Tip_Toe faced off. They had each won their separate rounds, and it came down to this final battle.

And the winner is… Epic Killer! created by Canyon, Olivia and Lily!

This session’s exhibition was an incredible event where parents, guides, and heroes anxiously watched as each robot battled it out on the battle board.

The winning team was awarded the opportunity to use what they have learned about coding to program Mechano, the new studio pet, next session.

As they have learned about coding, built their robots and prepared them to battle this session; the heroes have shown the power of creativity and exploration, and what heroes can do when they set their minds to it. Like all quests, guides offer meaningful challenges that matter to the heroes, and step back so the heroes can take charge of their own learning. No doubt the heroes knew more about coding than the guides at the end of this session.

Feedback

As the session came to a close this week, the guides requested feedback from the heroes on how they can better serve them on their journey. This comes in the form of 360 degrees and direct feedback from the heroes to the guides. Overall, guide were ranked highly by the heroes for being warm-hearted, tough-minded, staying Socratic (not answering questions), and being a game-maker. The heroes suggested that guides could improve most on being tough-minded.

When discussing Writer’s Workshop, many heroes remarked that they enjoyed the opportunity to create short stories based on writing prompts. However, several of the heroes felt they needed more time to complete the challenges.

Quest has been both exciting and frustrating for the heroes this session. Learning to program, building their Mindstorm robots and programming those robots has been an entirely new experience for some of the heroes. The heroes commented that they were most excited that they were able to build and program a robot of their own to compete against the other teams. Several heroes struggled with the programming and were frustrated that they did not have additional help programming the robots. Through this struggle, they learned how to fix mistakes and keep going when they reach their challenge zone.

Caden led the exhibition discussion this week as the heroes made decisions including where the sumo stage would be, who would be doing each volunteer job, what the schedule will look like and other details that needed to be worked out. The heroes invited each guest to provide feedback for the exhibition. Afterwards the results were tallied:

1. How well was the exhibition put together? 4.0
2. How clean was the studio? 3.6
3. How creative was the exhibition? 4.9
4. How cool was the robots battle to you? 4.8
5. How good were the Writer’s Workshop Stories? 3.6

At Heroes Academy, we believe constructive feedback is a valuable part of the Hero’s Journey. After discussing their feedback, the heroes decided they need to focus on improving their Writer’s Workshop stories next session. Guides have actively focused on this area as well, offering improved challenges and more constraints to encourage more effort in writer’s workshop. This will continue on into next session as well.

Trust

Imagine this: You have spent the last year of your life getting ready to follow your calling to start a bakery. You have put your sweat and tears into this venture, not to mention all of your savings. It’s now time to begin hiring your staff, which will help make or break your business.

As you interview them, which is most important to you?
- Ability (Can they do it?)
- Intentions (Do they care?)
- Integrity (Will they do what they say?)

“That they are well meaning, if they don’t mean it… If they say I will help you and they just sit around and don’t even help out; I would not trust that person.”

“Integrity, if someone left a tip on the table maybe they would steal it for themselves. They could steal money from the company.”

“I think it’s ability, you need to be able to actually do it to get hired. Even if you care, if you can’t do it you shouldn’t be hired.”

“I think it’s integrity. If you have integrity you won’t steal and they wouldn’t just be slacking.”

“I would say experience, you can contact other companies if they worked there… In my opinion it wouldn’t make sense to hire someone with no experience.”

It’s amazing what discussions these heroes are having at this stage in their lives. Both the topic at hand is powerful, yes, but also the ability to take a stand, listen to others, and agree or disagree respectfully.

A Hero is…

This week, the heroes watched a message from Kid President:

After discussing what they believe are heroic qualities, the heroes were asked:

Who is a hero to you?

Their number one answer? To the surprise of the guides, they quickly referenced each other! Many of the heroes identified another studio member as someone they look up to. Evidence of the heroic culture being built in the studio.

Town Hall Meeting

“We think that not just hero buck council should be able to send people to their desks. Sometimes you see someone doing something distracting and hero buck council doesn’t actually see it.

Result: The heroes voted not to elect additional people to send people to their desks.

“Chocolate milk gets spilled all the time in the foyer because people leave it on the ground. I feel like we should stop leaving it on the ground at least or drink it all and throw it away.”

Result: The heroes agreed no one can leave chocolate milk sitting on the ground.

“I feel like whoever gets asked moves their name down (on the daily hero buck sheet), the person who asks them moves their name down instead. A lot of times they forget. If you are asking someone they are obviously doing something wrong.”

Result: The heroes voted to pass this proposal.

“We want to do a talent show that like, there can be teams we can do it together with other people. Or you can do it alone. We want to have a talent show.”

Result: The heroes voted to pitch a scheduled time for a talent show.

“I think we should watch the robot competition today at 10.”

Result: The heroes voted to ask if they can watch the competition on the TV.

“I think that we should have a new studio maintenance playlist. I love all the songs but what if some people want new ones and we hear it too much. So I feel like we should have new songs.”

Result: The heroes voted to ask the guides to create a second studio maintenance playlist to add new songs to.

Badge Ceremony

Badge and Milestone certificates were presented on Friday. The Badge Ceremony is a time for heroes to celebrate the accomplishments they made over the course of the session through hard work and determination.

End of Session Party

With a unanimous vote, the heroes chose to have their End of Session Party outside week. Several heroes chose to bring outdoor games, snacks, drinks and even water balloons!

Wrap-up

With two sessions left in the year; the studio is in a place to both reflect on how far we have come and look forward to how far we could still go this year. Each session brings with it new adventures and challenges. We expect that next session will be no different.