More John Waynes (Year 1 , Week 9)

It is hard to believe that there is only one week remaining in this session! The heroes seem to be increasingly comfortable in the studio and more familiar with its systems and processes. While there are and will always be challenges and trials that each hero is facing, it is also exciting to see the community continue to develop and many heroes thrive in the environment.

Architecture Quest

The architecture quest is well under way. On Monday, the heroes moved from drafting and sketching their ideas to creating the final floorplan and elevation drawing. They were challenged to use the architect’s scale during this process to create their final floor plan and elevation plan to scale.

The next stage of the architecture quest began on Friday as the heroes began constructing their models based on their final blueprints. Seeing their designs come to life was exciting for the heroes as they saw their 2D plans begin to transform into 3D models.

Teamwork

While the focus of the quest is building the Heroes Academy building of the future, many heroes are learning the wonders and challenges of working in teams.

While each team is moving forward at difference paces, each team is challenged with learning patience, listening to others, and solving conflict. These struggles have cause each team to miss important deadlines, which will be transparent during exhibition.

Nesting

The nesting heroes were also presented with an architectural challenge on Monday, using a variety of materials including play dough, cardboard and paper. These heroes were challenged to create a miniature model of their own house using these resources. Their imagination and creativity saw them also add trees, other buildings and vehicles.

As part of the Nesting Quest, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday afternoons, the nesting heroes have been challenged to complete a series of hands-on, creative and problem-solving activities with points assigned to the completion of each. The challenges are a tactile way to learn problem solving, trial and error, and imagination.

Nesting heroes can move out of nesting and into flying (which means participating in the quests with the other heroes), by completing each nesting challenge and earning 150 points over a two week period. You can read the full list of Nesting Quest challenges here.

SOLE

The SOLE question for this week prompted heroes to imagine: what would happen if all of the world’s computers disappeared? What would happen if smartphones, laptops, game consoles, computer chips, memory cards, the internet, and cameras didn’t exist?

The heroes researched and chose the ways in which they felt the world would be most impacted by the disappearance of computers. Many interesting impacts were discussed, including loss of all money, traffic signals not working, factories closing down, and machines and electronics no longer working. When asked what positive impacts may occur if their were no computers their responses included, less pollution, more resources (such as coal) and better eyesight!

Character Callouts

The tradition of character callouts in the studio has now extended beyond just friday afternoon’s closing group. A new wall space has been designated as the “character callout” wall in which heroes can write down the character callouts for their fellow travellers. Their goal is to cover the entire section of wall with character callout notes! It is great to see such a strong community of encouragement being established.

Writer’s Workshop

The heroes have been increasingly engaged in writing this session as each week has given them the opportunity to write a creative story based on a short prompt. This week’s prompt was:

It wasn’t the first time I has been trapped inside a ______________, but it was the first time I had to escape in order to save a life. Here’s what happened.

The Thursday session of the Writer’s Workshop this week was particularly exciting for the heroes this week as those who had completed their stories had the opportunity to read them out to everyone. Two nesting heroes, Garrett and Lily, acted as guest judges to choose which story was the most creative and which was the most unique. The heroes enjoyed sharing their stories, Julianna’s was chosen as the most unique and Betsy’s was chosen as most creative.

As heroes are being challenged with writing, they are finding joy in the freedom and creativity to write their own unique pieces. A few heroes wrote additional stories, not as part of the writer’s workshop, as a result of how much they enjoyed the workshop. Excitement and joy around writing is beginning to blossom at Heroes Academy.

Socratic Discussions

Socratic discussions have grown in depth this week as the heroes have discussed further the hero’s journey, discovering their passions and gifts as well as reflecting on if they feel understood by adults. Some very interesting insights were given by the heroes during the Thursday closing group when heroes were posed with the question:

Would you rather choose the road of trials and a final showdown (hero’s journey) or not working hard and focusing on fun?

Many heroes shared that they would prefer a hero’s journey and discussion about what they feel they have to prove to world followed. Some responses to this question included:

Kai: I have to prove that I can change it (the world)

Betsy: I want to prove that kids can run a school

Town Meeting

Friday’s Town Meeting turned into a discussion of adults and children.

Do adults understand you?

Do adults treat you fairly?

This lead to a meaningful discussion about being heard. Each hero expressed they are not always understood by adults. One courageously expressed how guides in discussions try to repeat back what they are saying, but they get it wrong. Guides are now committed to never repeating back anything a hero says, undermining what they may truly mean.

The heroes also expressed, unanimously, how they often feel treated unfairly outside the studio, but inside the studio they feel free. They feel they are in charge of the way things run, their learning, and they have clear understanding of expectations. A sense of empowerment and opportunity loomed over the group as they were challenged to look for opportunities to make the studio a better place, and that they are trusted here to make important changes to the studio.

Most don’t trust children the way the heroes at Heroes Academy are trusted. Trusting heroes to be in charge of their own learning takes courage. They fail often, and they often slip into chaos. But the work that’s being done here matters. The world is in need of more heroes. “John Waynes,” as one wise parent puts it. While it’s only the beginning of our journey, these young heroes are making courageous choices, ones that are changing them. Ones that will ultimately change the world.