Weekly Goals

Heroes Academy
8 min readNov 5, 2021

(Year 5, Week 8)

Smart Goal

Individual smart goals have been touched on quite a bit this year. In the studio and blog. This week, the heroes added something new to the Smart Goal process and in turn it created a really fun competition this week. Not only are heroes doing weekly smart goals, they are now doing group smart goals!

Our focus over the course of this year is to learn how to set goals and reach goals. To do this, everyone needs to start small. That is why the heroes started off the year learning how to set goals for themselves and now it has trickled over into setting goals as a studio. The smart goal this week was…

“Do reflections every day before lunch. The reflections must answer the question asked directly and it must be at least four sentences in your best handwriting.”

Some heroes took to the challenge quickly, while others were a little worried. Some of the concerns were about handwriting.

“I don’t know how to write!”

“I can’t spell!”

“Can I write fewer sentences?”

Challenges like this can be hard for younger heroes. It can be a big task to handwrite and to do it to the best of their ability. However, they were then pointed to the challenge donut, they took a few deep breaths and remembered that in the end, it is the perseverance that matters. Just because their handwriting doesn’t look like a professional calligraphers, doesn’t mean that they aren't working towards some world class writing! By the end of the week, many of the heroes finished the task and were awarded with almost two hours of hero’s choice. Other did not quite meet the goal. While there were some heroes who were upset, they were reminded that the only way to get to where they're going is through failure. They were also excited to know that next week they can try again.

Hero Buck System

After lots of trial and error, the heroes have come up with a new detailed hero buck system. Every year, depending on the studio and needs, the hero buck system gets a little makeover. This year, the heroes will be moving towards a more transparent Hero Buck System. The heroes and guides noticed that many hero bucks were taken out of anger. They also saw the system being manipulated and taken advantage of. While putting their heads together and making a plan, the heroes came up with the following system:

  1. Hero bucks will now be done via a piece of paper:
  1. The person holding their friend accountable must have them sign off if they agree or disagree with losing a hero buck.
  2. At lunchtime, Hero Buck Council will get together and listen to the conflict resolution between both of the heroes. At that point, once hearing both sides, they will ask the heroes to leave and they will have a discussion on if they believe the Hero Buck loss is appropriate.
  3. If the council rules that it is appropriate for the hero to lose a hero buck, they will log into journey tracker and ask for the hero buck.
  4. Only a discussion leader and council members can ask for hero bucks and only after they sit in and listen to a conflict resolution. Letting both sides state their case.

While the system is getting going and heroes are figuring it out. The guide will be sitting in on all conflict resolutions. During the week, the system proved to be incredibly helpful. The heroes are learning how to advocate for themselves. It also has been helpful in keeping one another accountable.

Quest

Heroes were challenged to make their world class blueprints this week. They were challenged with not only working to recreate their drafts but to also label everything with precise measurements. They kicked off the day with a video from Bill Nye. Proving that his humor truly stands the test of time.

They were then given this scenario:

Imagine this: you are an architect and you have been designing and building a school building for Heroes Academy Hawaii. It’s coming along beautifully! It has a gorgeous outdoor Socratic discussion area, a pool, a large garden with lovely trees, and a playscape. Inside you have lots of rooms with no walls — everything is exposed because the weather in Hawaii allows it. Instead of walls as barriers, you have vines of passion flower and bamboo. There are skylights and beautiful Polynesian art on the walls. This is your masterpiece, and you have been working day and night for a month. Then you get a call at 12:00 a.m. The new owners had a change of heart and are now moving to Alaska! You will still be paid for the work you’ve done, but now you need to recreate the design, and this time you have half the time to do it. They loved your last design, and they are looking for the same quality.

What would you do?

Do you give up and abandon these clients, do you start over fresh with a new idea, or do you try to apply your Hawaii design to Alaska?

Most of the heroes said, too bad so sad! They would not recreate a design and they would be mad at the people for even wasting their time! A few other heroes had a different tune. They said that they would hold onto the patent of their design and pitch it to other companies, while simultaneously working hard to create another design for their clients. This time, however, they would have firm boundaries about relocating.

It is a fun experience to see heroes deeply consider what they would do in a real-life scenario. They acknowledged that sometimes they forget how high the stakes are. One hero mentioned that it would completely depend on his life. Was he single? Did he have a family to take care of? Very insightful and a real life dilemma so many people face.

Calm

We all know that the day to day varies in the studio. Sometimes the volume is turned up and energy is high. Other times, the volume is almost muted and yet the energy remains high.

What gives?

In the studio, we talk endlessly about what it looks like to be intentional. They discuss at what points during the day intentionality is a must and when they can have some brain breaks. During the week, around 2pm, the guide looked up and noticed something special. Every single hero was working. Every single hero was speaking in a more hushed tone, showing kindness to their neighbors.

At the end of the day, the guide held up a mirror to the heroes and asked this question:

“I noticed today that during one of our more high energy hours, the studio was just a humm of working energy. Why is that?”

Here are some of their responses:

“I love what we’re working on and I think I just got lost in it.”

“I felt like I had a big purpose this afternoon and that is to get in soaring. I had to focus.”

“I think I was just focused… I liked the classical music too.”

It is always nice to see the heroes in intentional flow. It makes it ten times better knowing they were so deep in concentration that they were unaware of all the time that had passed.

Contracts

In the studio the contracts are held up as sacred. Each hero voted and talked about the contract endlessly before they signed it. It is important that they keep talking and reflecting back on what it means to hold the contract up and commit to the contract.

Recently, there has been an issue with getting to the rug on time. One afternoon, 10+ heroes lost a hero buck due to breaking the Rules of Engagement contract. This was brought up to a few heroes who were struggling to make it to the rug. The guide was prepared to go into detail and ask them Socratic questions about what it means to commit to the community.

When she approached the girls, she was deeply surprised. The girls said the following:

“We have been late to the rug because of a conflict. We know it is important to be on time but its also important that we don’t stop being friends.”

The guide responded:

“What do you mean by stop being friends? Did something big happen?”

“Well no, it’s just we can’t come to a resolution. We have to take breaks because we get really upset and we have to time out so we don’t say something we don’t mean. That’s why we have had so many conflict resolutions. It’s important not to force a conversation and we want to keep being kind to another.”

Talk about a deep perspective! How beautiful would the world be if we stopped to take some much needed breaks when conflict became too emotional? The heroes are truly inspiring.

Wrap-Up

The heroes spent their week reaching goals and working on a new thing called weekly smart goals! Reflections were a huge part of the weeks success and they did some excellent practice with their writing. The heroes started a new hero buck system that they love way more than the previous one and they were excited to work on their communication skills. They wrapped up the week by getting into flow and teaching the guide how important it is to take breaks when conflicts arise. An uplifting week for sure.

--

--

Heroes Academy

Elementary blog for Heroes Academy, an innovative school in Boise, Idaho. We inspire children to find a calling and change the world → http://heroesacademy.org