Part of a Team (Year 2, Week 20)

Imagine that you run a bookstore with a team of 5 employees. As the manager, it is your job to ensure that the team is producing, and offer support when needed. While you may do them all, what do you spend the most time on?

• Praising and Encouraging your team members
• Holding them accountable to their commitments
• Mostly leave them on their own but check in with them and their work regularly

This was the first launch of the session as the heroes discussed the importance of leadership in the world and here in the studio.

As this session begins, the heroes are exploring what it means to be part of a team with new squads, quest groups and collaborative experiences.

Squad Leaders

This session marked a change in leadership. New Squad Leaders were elected on Monday morning: Zane, Kai, Tyson and Garrett were each voted in by the members of their desk cluster to take on the role of squad leader. These squad leaders will continue to take on more responsibilities this session and define what it means to be a leader in the studio.

After electing the new squad leader, the heroes updated their list of squad leader responsibilities:

• Offering Warm Hearted Praise and Encouragement
• Hold others accountable for Good Collaboration and Intentionality
• Do check ins on goals
• Hold squad members to a high level of excellence

Many of these squad leaders are new to leadership positions in the studio, and will be able to learn more about what it takes to be a world-class leader.

Hero-Led Launches

This session, the heroes have the opportunity to create and present morning launches on topics they feel are important in the studio. On Tuesday, the heroes discussed what they feel are the most important aspects of a Socratic Discussion. Many heroes agreed that having a relevant and interesting topic is the most important part of a good discussion.

“It doesn’t matter if the questions are clear, no one will want to answer them if it’s not a good topic.” This was one of the comments from the heroes.

After outlining what is important in a discussion, the heroes highlighted what they think will be the most difficult aspect of creating and running their own discussions. Choosing the right topic and keeping a good flow to the questions were two aspects of discussion leadership they concluded would be challenging.

Quest

Given how much computers can already do and will be able to do in the future, does the idea of knowing how to program them excite you, make you nervous, or ignite your curiosity?

“It excites me because most of the jobs could probably be taken care of.”

“Mostly excited because like 90% of the jobs can be done by robots and stuff like that but I’m also kind of nervous because a lot of people say the biggest threat to humanity is artificial intelligence. Robots will be better than humans. They can think faster, move faster and be better than us in every way.”

The heroes have started the Coding and Robotics quest by beginning a course on Code.org. For the first 2 weeks of quest, the heroes will be working through their course on Code.org to prepare them for the robotics portions; where they will be programming Lego Ev3 Mindstorms in preparation for a robot sumo exhibition!

Caden has been helping create and launch the challenges for Quest this session. He chose to present his first launch on Friday: Algorithms.

During his quest launch, Caden asked:

“Imagine an artificially intelligent robot is programmed to do all the things you do in a normal day, to think like you do, and to respond to certain situations like you would. How is that robot different from you?”

“It wouldn’t eat and it wouldn’t sleep.”

“It wouldn’t have to do all the human things like eat and go to the bathroom.”

“I think age, because it wouldn’t grow up.”

“I can do things that are unpredictable, it couldn’t act like me if I ran off screaming.”

Participating in the creation and execution of a quest gives heroes the opportunity to practice planning, researching, creating and executing a project. Essential skills to finding a calling and changing the world.

Writer’s Workshop

Imagine this, you are a famous author. When people think about their favorite authors, your name comes up alongside Jack London, Edgar Allen Poe and J.K. Rowling. What kind of writing are you famous for?

“Sci-Fi because it’s my favorite thing to read.”

“Fantasy because it can take you into a whole different world.”

“Mystery, because I love mystery!”

The heroes completed the first in a series of short stories they will be working on this session. At the end of the session, each hero will have the opportunity to submit their best short story to a writing competition for prizes from books and toys to a $100 contribution to a college fund! At heroes academy, we believe that real-world outcomes help show heroes that the work they are doing now is important.

Outdoor Experience

An additional Outdoor Experience has been added for this session. The heroes will be taking part in Outdoor Experience on Wednesday morning and Thursday afternoon. On Wednesday morning, the heroes chose to build a snow fort. They started working on it during Outdoor Experience and continued building it up during Free Time. During Outdoor Experience on Thursday, the heroes chose to play “Murder Mystery.” Outdoor Experience is an opportunity for the heroes to build skills in teamwork, decision making, and cooperation that will benefit them throughout their hero’s Journeys, plus its a lot of fun!

The 3 B’s

Imagine this: You move to a new school and go to a totally new classroom. You quickly realize that anytime you have a question, the teacher in this classroom will answer it. Even if you are asking for the answer on an assignment or test. Would you like to work in a classroom like this?

The heroes have come to believe that being given an answer is easier, but not always helpful. Offering real questions and ideas on how to solve problems offer an opportunity to learn how to learn. This week the heroes were introduced to The 3 b’s of Problem Solving: brains, books and buddies. These are steps the heroes can take when they run into a challenge or something they don’t know.

These steps help the heroes learn to learn and solve problems. Skills that will serve them well on as they look to build value in their homes and communities.

Integrity

This session we will be focusing on a new character trait: Integrity. “Integrity is having the inner strength to be trustworthy to be truthful and trustworthy, acting justly and honorably and being consistent in words or actions.” The heroes will be exploring what integrity means throughout the session by diving into a variety of situations that require careful thought.

Town Hall Meeting

“I think that it’s really annoying when people leave the sound on their computers when we sit on the rug. I think if your computer is making noise you should go to your desk, because you were not prepared.”

Result: The heroes decided that anyone who left their sound on while going to the rug would be held accountable by being sent to their desk and losing a hero buck.

After voting, the heroes chose to focus on upholding the rules of engagement. Most heroes who are breaking the rules of engagement are specifically not upholding the promise to listen respectfully.

Through their experiences at Heroes Academy, the heroes have realized that listening respectfully is an important part of group discussion and collaboration. This is a valuable skill that will continue to serve them throughout their lives.

Wrap-Up

The heroes began this session by analyzing their role as part of a team and looking to the future. A hero can accomplish remarkable feats on a hero’s journey. These heroes are discovering how much more they can accomplish as members of a team and the importance of using the strengths of yourself and others. This teamwork will become increasingly important as they take on the challenge of designing and coding robots, and tackling some of our time’s most challenging questions about robotics and artificial intelligence in the 21st century.