The Weekly Newsletter
Week 7: October 23-27
Welcome back! So happy to say we survived the heat this week! The Eagles were troopers as we worked through the treacherous weather and accomplished lots of learning. Here’s a look into our week:
For our weekly launch we celebrated and reiterated our agreements and promises to each other as a tribe. We did this by going over and revamping our discussion rules of engagement. Like the contracts the studios write each year, the rules of engagement are a promise to be a respectful socratic learner. This includes actively listening to each person who’s speaking and to respect others’ opinions even if they differ from your own…to name a few. It was a good refresher to returning Eagles and a nice introduction to new ones.
In writing workshop this week the launchpad and navigator studios dug deep. The first challenge focused on character- how they want people to see them as people and fellow travelers, their opinions on how character and reputation are discovered, and what specific values they would choose to be remembered by. And for the second challenge they were asked to interview an entrepreneur they admire and ask them about the things they’ve learned, the struggles they’ve had, their triumphs, and their failures.
For the foundation and navigator transition studios we did a workshop on writing basics. But first we started with some food for thought: “when writing, is it more important to begin with an end in mind- or to just see where your story takes you?” Next we spent time learning about sentence structure, the three most common types of sentences, subjects and predicates, and nouns and verbs. The Eagles each showed their knowledge by writing series of complete, interesting, and grammatically correct sentences. The take away: realizing that with correct and flowing sentences, writers can relax their readers and allow their minds to receive the fun stuff in between- aka the story!
We launched the Entrepreneur Quest this week! The first challenge of the quest for the launchpad and navigator studios was the Getting Inside Your Customer’s Head Challenge. For this they interviewed someone about one of these two topics: a product similar to the one they hope to sell or the last time they bought a sandwich- for at least 10 minutes.
The foundation and navigator transition studios also had their E-ship Quest launch. These students had challenges that asked them to answer questions about themselves as entrepreneurs: Who are you/ what do you love; What motivates you; What motivates your customers? They found some new things out about themselves by taking a quiz about motivation!
In history for the foundation and navigator transition studio we read more about the British discontent during the colonization in America and what tensions lead to the 7-year war. At this point the American flag was different than it is now- with the 13 stars representing the colonies. So for our activity the students got to make flags of their own- with complete creative freedom! They turned out awesome and each one unique.
This week in art the students got back their awesome laser cut clocks from Charlie and they started painting them! We had the pleasure of having Avalon come visit us this week too! She worked with the kids during art and helped them think more about business fair ideas/ get them excited for the events surrounding the E-ship quest. We also got to celebrate her birthday 🙂
We had our very last Quidditch game! AND Niesja and Derick got to join us. Reese and Leticia chose a great sport to lead this session and did an even greater job at being PE leaders. Thanks guys! We are excited to see what sport we will start next.
At the end of the week we had a great socratic discussion based on a Newsela article about celebrating Columbus Day. It was a pro/con article, and it sparked quite a debate among the Eagles! Discussions like this are so invigorating!
For end of the week activities we got to have an awesome presentation from Penelope about her trip to France. She shared all of her beautiful pictures and souvenirs with us and we got to hear all about her time there.
We ended the week with a town hall meeting and our weekly closing group, then said goodbye for the weekend!
We can’t wait to be back next week for our Halloween party! Have a safe, fun, and festive weekend!
