Curiosity and Leadership (Year 2, Week 31)

The heroes have started the new session on Monday by picking squad leaders. The squad leaders this session are: Royce, Jack, Bryn, Paxton and Zane. These heroes have already embraced their role as leaders by helping choose their squad’s name for the session.

Hero council and studio maintenance leaders also stepped down to make room for new leaders in the studio. The heroes voted for Paxton as studio maintenance leader and Royce and Paxton as the new members of hero council.

Growing Curiosity in a Self-Organized Learning Environment

Last session, the heroes chose three quest themes to pursue for their Growing Curiosity quest.

• Speed and Velocity, led by Jack
• Wildlife, led by Betsy
• Space and Spacecraft, led by Tyler

The heroes were placed in three teams, one for each theme, based on the area they said they were most interested in exploring. They spent their quest time this week preparing launches, challenges and big questions they plan to explore.

Process Drama

Olivia and Betsy chose to follow their curiosity about drama this session by creating a process drama workshop. They will be launching process drama each Tuesday and Thursday this session and exploring scripted acting, improvisation and character creation.

The first step of their workshop was character creation. The heroes were placed in groups created by Betsy and Olivia and assigned as a hero, villain, mentor or wild card (hero’s choice). In their first launch Olivia and Betsy asked:

“Is it better for a hero to be perfect or is it better for them to make some mistakes while they are trying to do the right thing?”

• “I say that making mistakes is good, no one is perfect. If you’re perfect eventually there is no one to beat. If you make mistakes there will always be a challenge.
• “I think they shouldn’t make mistakes because it can end really badly and people get hurt.”
• “Would you rather watch them not try at all and win or have a challenge? It wouldn’t be entertaining.”
• “I disagree, at least you know you’re being protected if they beat the villain.”

As part of leading the quest, Betsy and Olivia have also taken on the challenge of acting as the Excellence Committee for the challenges they present and leading Daily Debrief.

Town Hall Meeting

The heroes had their first Town Hall Meeting of the session this Friday. The heroes started this meeting by welcoming a guest hero to the studio and explaining the Town Hall Meeting process.

The heroes decided that hero council can be held accountable for not following the rules of engagement by another hero. They decided by a majority vote that Betsy will be responsible for holding the hero buck council accountable if they are failing to do their job.

Wrap-up

Throughout the next three weeks, the heroes are taking complete ownership of exploring their curiosity during Quest and Writer’s Workshop. Already they are showing what incredible things they can do.

Give these heroes ownership of the process and watch as lifelong learning unfolds.