Heroes Rising in Independence and Community (Sep 8 - 12)
Session 1, Week 2
Highlights
We celebrated our first Acton Birthday with Rascal the Rabbit, who later hopped into forest school and even had his ears wrapped during hair-wrapping fun.
A younger learner stepped into the timekeeper role and has been diligently keeping everyone on track—emerging as a rising sheepdog.
Town Hall was introduced as the place for announcements and in-studio challenges. There were some announcements and learners offered humorous practice problems, complete with solutions.
We had our very first Outdoor Education Day—a chance to extend learning and adventure beyond the studio walls.
Equipped for independence: learner-driven mastery with modern tools
Heroes equipped themselves with the tools for Core Skills (reading, writing, and math). Each learner located their assigned Chromebook, found their login details for Khan Academy and Journey Tracker, and signed in independently. A few heroes helped others, but guides were not asked for assistance from an adult even once—not even the youngest learners.
Badge Plans were introduced on Journey Tracker, which is Acton's proprietary tool for learners to set and track learning goals.
Hands-on, project-based Quests to master the tools and skills needed to solve problems in the real world
Work on the Lip Dub Mini-Quest continued, with learners refining choreography and transitions.
During Outdoor Education Day, learners crafted wands, with one hero teaching a simple knot to the group.
A Mini-Quest was launched: creating Hero Boards to visually represent each learner’s inspirations and interests. Learners presented their Hero Boards on Friday.
Heroes were challenged to discover ten or more unique plants in a patch of grass. From wood sorrel to plantain and clover, they impressed one another with their knowledge and added their own safety guardrail: “Wood sorrel is edible—we eat it at home—but here we shouldn’t eat anything. We don’t know what’s on this grass.”
Learners also began exploring their Badge Plans. Regardless of age or past experience, everyone started at Level 1, progressing only as they demonstrate mastery in reading, writing, and math.
Written promises and covenants that form a tightly bound community of individuals learning to form authentic friendships and honestly resolve interpersonal problems
Heroes played the Contract Game wrestling with which promises to focus on first. “We want to do all these things!” one learner exclaimed. The group agreed: nothing was being abandoned—just prioritized.
Later in the week, learners missed an opportunity to work on Hero Boards and birthday notes, mistakenly using the whole block for Core Skills. They reflected, recommitting to reading the schedule carefully. Guides, in turn, committed to making the schedule clearer with colour-coded blocks.
This week also brought a learner-led initiative: one hero proposed commemorating the 24th anniversary of 9/11. They chose to plan and lead this remembrance themselves during the mid-week mindfulness block.
Deep Socratic discussions about heroes, history, and self-governance to hone critical thinking skills and the ability to powerfully think, write, and speak
Launches this week explored:
Demonstrating mastery: Hercules
Contracts and civil society: The Mayflower Compact
Setting goals and facing setbacks: Stephen Hawking
Overcoming obstacles: Christopher Reeve
Communities uniting for a common goal: The Great Wall of China and New York City’s first firefighters (the Bucket Brigade)
Memorable quotes from learners this week
“I forgot how fun math is.”
“Chop, chop! Let’s work on Lip Dub!”
“Can we do tear-down today just for the fun of it?” (referring to studio reset before another group used the space)
“Let’s use our free time for choreography.”
“It says we’re showing our Hero Boards today. Well, I can show mine, but I can keep working on it.”
“We’re helping each other [during Core Skills time], but let’s try not to give answers.”
“Counting maybe isn’t the best way.” (during Khan Academy)
