Creating the Community

(Year 5, Week 1)

Creating the Community

With some first day jitters sprinkled with fresh eyes, the Discovery heroes got right to work. They kicked off the day with a morning launch about building their community and creating a place that they will love coming to every day, even when the days get tough.

The first challenge the heroes were up against were learning everyones names and one interesting fact about that hero. It proved difficult and fun. By 9:30am they were all giggling and their shyness seemed to fade. During the morning team building, they were also introduced to their squads. They dedicated the morning to playing a board game with their squad members and were challenged to think about what person exuded leadership.

After the board games were put away, the heroes sat back down on the rug and had a discussion about what it means to be a leader. The guide asked the following:

“I want you to imagine that you are on a hike with a group of people that you barely know. On this hike you are having a blast looking at the beautiful scenery and jumping in every creek that you come across. You are laughing with friends and filled with the joy of nature… Then…All of a sudden, a bear crosses your path. You are terrified and realize you need a leader! What type of leader would get you out of this situation?

1. Someone who is brave.
2. Someone who cares for everyone in the group.
3. Someone who is quick thinking.
4. Something else…

The heroes had an array of answers. Some felt that the person needed to be brave, while others felt like they needed to be brave and quick! This led to a discussion about other types of leadership. How leaders can be kind, calm and caring. That brave isn’t the only type of leadership. At the end of the discussion, the heroes came up with the following words to describe a leader:

1. Brave
2. Caring
3. Quick thinker
4. Kind
5. Passionate
6. Devoted
7. Persistent
8. Grit

The real fun began when they were then asked to vote for the leader that they thought would best serve their squad. Introducing, session 1 and session 2 squad leaders!

Ibby

Gwen

Ethan

Rylan

Gabi

Ava

The squad leaders will be in charge of auditing points, maintaining studio maintenance, helping their squad members with questions and concerns, bringing big issues to the school-wide council, participating in problem solving and leaning into their leadership skills as a whole.

Working Together

Nobody said that working together was going to be easy. On day two of week one, the heroes were challenged again to build on their teamwork by playing a game together with their squads. Within a few minutes some heroes came out in tears. They were upset because rules were not being followed, their friends refused to play the game they voted on and some were upset because they felt that nobody was listening to them.

Teamwork is hard.

After a few minutes of this happening, the guide asked the squads the following question:

“What does it mean to be a good team player?”

It was an open ended question… Posed to get the heroes thinking about the type of team they wanted to create. After a long deliberation, the heroes who wanted to do what they wanted when they wanted sort of changed their tune. One hero replied,

“Well… I guess being on a team doesn’t mean I get my way all the time. But I still hate losing.”

A hero replied to him,

“When it comes to a team situation though, isn’t it more important for the team to win than for you to be the only winner?”

Teamwork is hard… But as the heroes agreed,

“totally worth it!”

The heroes then went out and competed in Chocolate River. A team building activity where it was all about working together and cheering one another on.

Failure

The Discovery heroes experienced their first failure. It was a combination of things, but ultimately fell under being able to follow the schedule. The heroes had been so excited to set up their computers on Thursday but unfortunately, ran out of time. They went over snack time by almost thirty minutes. Did not know who was responsible for personal maintenance and then were unable to go outside for their morning break.

This brought on some uncomfortable feelings. The heroes decided to circle up and figure out how to overcome this in the future. It was incredible to see the leadership that is already budding within the four walls. The heroes decided to write down their names on specific desks so that way, during lunch and snack time, squad leaders will better be able to see who needed to pick up their area in case they forgot to clean up.

They did a quick run through and it went amazing. Heroes could be seen vacuuming, wiping down tables and getting out the door within 10 minutes. A record time in the Discovery studio. The best part? Not a single complaint. It was evident that to the heroes, following the schedule was important. It meant more free time, more time to work on their lip dub and more time to spend working together and not arguing.

Lip Dubs

The heroes are competing in the annual lip dub! They were so excited to be presented the challenge. During the week they got started on figuring out what song that they were going to lip dub. There were a few disagreements and a ton of chats about what is appropriate.

The biggest challenge they faced, however, was trying to find songs that related to the question of the year,

“What does it mean to be on a hero’s journey?”

This meant many of their songs didn’t check out. They had to dig deeper and find their meaning. They were eventually challenged to come up with a squad quote that they believed represented the hero’s journey. One of the studio favorites was,

“Doing the right thing when it is hard and always persevering!”

By Friday, every single squad found a song that represented them and they worked diligently on crafting their perfect lip dub. They were a tad disappointed to find out they couldn’t edit their videos, but that didn’t stop them from working hard every single afternoon.

Wrap-Up

Week 1 kicked off with a bang. The first challenge the heroes were up against were learning everyones names and one interesting fact about that hero. It proved difficult and fun. By 9:30am they were all giggling and their shyness seemed to fade. During the morning team building, they were also introduced to their squads. They dedicated the morning to playing a board game with their squad members and were challenged to think about what person exuded leadership.

The heroes went into day two really practicing their leadership skills and working together to come up with terms of leadership. They developed their own definitions and worked together to decide what leadership meant for them personally.

The Discovery heroes experienced their first failure. It was a combination of things, but ultimately fell under being able to follow the schedule. They decided to take their future of the studio into their own hands and exercised a plan that they could implement to help them follow the schedule.

By Friday, every single squad found a song that represented them and they worked diligently on crafting their perfect lip dub. They were a tad disappointed to find out they couldn’t edit their videos, but that didn’t stop them from working hard every single afternoon.