Virtual Heroes Academy
(Year 3, Week 23)
Changes
When the alarm clock went off on Monday morning, the day ahead looked a whole lot different. The guides decided to move forward with closing the physical studio. In times of uncertainty, it is the hero way to take action, reevaluate and put a plan in place.
The studio was eerily quiet while the guides updated Chromebooks, found chargers and got piles ready in place for heroes and their families to pick up their belongings. The heroes were then informed by their families that they would be moving forward with an online virtual studio.
The rest of the day was spent moving things around, downloading apps and notifying the heroes of the virtual studio. By Monday afternoon, the heroes were set up on Slack, Flip Grid and Zoom and were able to chat with one another and start their prep for the week. The heroes were resilient, strong and excited to start a new challenge. The challenge of a virtual studio!
Scavenger Hunt
Tuesday kicked off with morning launch from Jake, via Zoom. The heroes gathered round’ their laptops at home and all excitedly chatted on Zoom! Jake equipped the heroes with how to log in, what different apps they would be using and how they were going to communicate with each other and the guides. The heroes responded with gleeful expressions! They were excited to try out a new way of doing things. One hero stated,
“Just because we aren’t at the studio, doesn’t mean we can’t challenge ourselves.”
On Tuesday they started a scavenger hunt quest based on riddles. They were to pick a partner or go solo and try to decipher the riddles. When they did decipher, they had to run around their house or backyard finding the items. The heroes then uploaded videos of themselves making a case for their items. The heroes laughed as they realized maybe some of their hypothesis were wrong and celebrated over their mini wins. The heroes said that it kept them busy and moving all afternoon.
Overcoming Fears
On Wednesday the heroes shared some of their fears.
I just want everyone to be okay.
I miss my friends, I hope we can come back.
What will happen after spring break?
The heroes and guide discussed some ways in which the heroes could process their fears and take control of their situations. The heroes shared with one another their love for baking, writing and making art. They chatted on slack and called each other to show one another different projects they were working on.
For their Writer’s Workshop, the heroes were challenged to write a letter of gratitude to someone. Maybe it is a doctor, scientist or their grandparents. They were asked to share excerpts if they felt comfortable. Many of the heroes ended up writing to their grandparents, telling them they missed and loved them and cannot wait to see them soon.
At closing, the heroes who wrote letters described that their hearts felt full and at peace.
Baking
On Thursday the heroes were challenged to a bake off! They were able to choose partners or go solo and pick a recipe (or create their own). They were challenged to make the recipes together, using their webcams and chat about what was and wasn’t working.
Many of the heroes had fun finding different ingredients in the house and improvising when they weren’t able to find a specific one. They then filmed their final products and posted it to the online platform, Flip Grid.
At closing the heroes cheered and congratulated each other on their creations. Some of them made brownies, some made cookies and others made their on “concoctions.”
Character Call-Outs
All week the heroes listened to mindfulness on YouTube! The book the heroes chose to read after Narnia was Holes. On Tuesday they started their fifteen minutes of mindfulness and continued it throughout the week. Each hero was able to log into YouTube, anytime after 12:30 to watch the days reading. After they were finished with the mindfulness reading, they were challenged to post videos of themselves writing reflections. The heroes were able to watch each others reflections and chatted about what they thought in Slack. The heroes seemed excited to still share in one of their favorite activities together.
As always, Friday ended with character call outs and the heroes were excited to tell each other they were proud. They ranged from calling one another out on showing leadership, hard work and dedication. The heroes really leaned into one another, they showed true courage and strength. All part of the hero’s journey.
Wrap Up
Even Wrap-Up looked different. The guides wanted to know the feelings, thoughts and opinions from the heroes. Here are a few of the heroes with their wrap-ups on the week:
The virtual studio was weird, I’m used to actually going to school.
My distraction was probably that my cousin is here. I really wanted to play with my cousin but I had to do work. We made a canopy over my bed and it was really hard not to play with it.
My most favorite thing was baking cookies. Betsy & I partnered and baked cookies for our challenge yesterday.
Being a part of the virtual Studio was pretty fun. I like how we got to text and call each other. My main distraction was probably getting texts and calls at core skills. My favorite thing I did all week is getting to see my friends everyday.
My experience with being online studio was awesome in some ways and not good in others,
Pros: you can’t bring toys, and distract people like that, you can call people, and write a story together.
Cons: you can’t do a great exhibition when your online, and you cant show people how to do things, well you can it’s just harder
my hi-lite of the week was that don’t have to pack a lunch, because i have food “at school”
I took the hamster home and made her a mansion!
I have really like the virtual Studio because i like doing quest at home. Yesterday my challenge was to make a craft and I made a hand that was supposed to be able to pick something up but it failed because I put the tape on the wrong side
I also love to do outdoor experience with my brothers and my mom and dad. we did a competition where who could do the most push ups sit-ups and bumps it’s on the trampoline. But a distraction I have had during this week is my brother’s they have been loud and distracting and also my stomach because it growl’s and then I have to go to the kitchen which is really easy and get some food that is probably my biggest distraction. also i planted Greenhouse milk jugs I planted Peppers Tanner planted cucumbers Heber planted Tomatoes mom planted pumpkins. and also on Wednesday morning we did yoga kids yoga that was really fun to.and also i went skiing and i completed 2 hills the bunny hill and sunshine at bogus.
doing virtual school is distracting because I feel like I have to do work when the other kids are doing free time
and I miss my friends and slack was hard for me to do it finally I figured it out and sometimes I would forget to check in for holes I really like flipgrid and my favorite part of the week I made brownies.
