My 1st day

Today was my first day at Acton, and the excitement is indescribable!

It’s important for me to write about how the day was going and also share the many new and cool things I saw and learned today. I will start with a description of what we actually did today.

A day at Acton starts at 08:45 in the morning. Every morning one of the guides receives the parents and Eagles at the entrance to the studio and greets them. This morning I arrived at 8:10 and immediately the first two Eagles were dropped off. The other four Eagles arrived one by one, and at 8:45 we all sat down for an opening circle. At Acton Verona we have six students this year: three girls in 5th grade, two boys in the 2nd grade and a girl in 1st grade.

The calendar at Acton is divided into sessions. The first session is “Build the Tribe” and it takes four weeks. The main output are a joint Lip Dub video, and a contract, agreed upon by all the Eagles and according to which the studio will function throughout the year.

Each morning at Acton begins with an opening circle, and this is one of the most important tools to get the Eagles into the studio’s atmosphere, motivate them and start the day off on the right foot. In today’s circle, the guide – there are no teachers, but guides who create interesting challenges and enforce a handful of essential ground rules – began with an imaginary description of the year 2038. He mentioned each Eagle, and described an exciting project that the he or she was working on in 2038. The description was so vivid and moving, and you could actually see how the Eagles were happy to hear about their cool life as heroes changing the world. It’s a wonderful idea that I recommend to every educator to adopt for the opening of a year. After the opening, the Eagles presented themselves and told five things that had changed their lives (an assignment they were asked to prepare during the vacation). Around 9:15 we played another successful introductory game, and then the guide introduced the Eagles to their 1st challenge: to create a Lip Dub video together. We showed the Eagles videos from Acton schools around the world to better understand the challenge, and then introduced them to the song he chose for them (Hall of Fame). The first challenge was to learn the song by heart. The guide had prepared printed pages with lyrics, divided into 11 sections. All the Eagles were asked to memorize all the sections. Each time an Eagle finished learning one of the sections, she came to be tested on it by one of the guides, and then proceeded to the next section. I must say that this is not a simple challenge, especially for the younger Eagles. It was really fun to see how much energy they put into it and even when it was hard for them, they asked for help and did not give up. Eventually, the older girls remembered the whole song by heart, and the younger Eagles remembered a reasonable part. Around 11:30, we sat down for lunch and the Eagles had free time. We had lunch together around the table, played the telephone game, and then the Eagles went out to play ball in the yard. At 12:30 we returned inside and Alden explained about DEAR ( Drop Everything and Read). We talked about why it was really important to read, and then each Eagle picked a book and sat down to read quietly in the library.

After we finished, we had a fascinating circle about evaluating the product: how would the Eagles judge if their product was successful? Alden let them watch excellent Lip Dub videos, and then asked what was more important when evaluating a work product: that the work improved from the previous time, that it be close to the original example, or that feedback that was received is reflected in the work? The Eagles expressed their opinions, and then created a list of criteria, according to which they would evaluate their video each time they had a version. Later we played another nice introduction game. Finally the Eagles had more time to continue learning the song by heart and begin planning the choreography and the video. The final circle of the day was about the creation of a temporary contract for the near future until the Eagles completed their own contract.
Alden proposed various rules for the contract to the Eagles, they proposed their own and eventually a vote was held and four rules that are making up the temporary contract were adopted. At 3:30 we finished the day with great joy.

So what did I like today?

Alden told the Eagles, already in the opening circle, that one of the most important things at Acton is the fact that the guides do not answer questions. Accordingly, the Eagles do not ask the guides any questions. The idea is for the Eagles to ask each other, or find the answer themselves. Every question of the Eagles is supposed to be answered in the style of: “Excellent question,what do you think?” Or “How might you find the answer to this question?” etc.
Alden told the Eagles that there is a competition between all the guides at Acton around the world: Which guide could answer the least questions? So the Eagles put my name and
Alden’s name on the big board, and every answer that was accidentally given to the Eagles was counted on the board.
Alden finished the day with 10 answers and I’m with three! Thanks to this process I learned how difficult it is not to answer questions. It’s so automatic to me, and so connected to the desire to help, and although I had received training by some of my work at the Cyber Education Center, here its implementation was not simple at all. On the other hand, I saw how powerful this tool is: so quickly the Eagles realized there was no point in asking us, and started asking each other or looking for the answers by themselves. So a cute little girl asked a new friend, who she got to know today, where the restrooms are (after she asked me and I told her that it was an excellent question), and she got accompanied there having a lively conversation along the way. All the Eagles who asked,”What are we doing now?” or “When is lunch?”, simply understood that they had to go by themselves to the schedule and check. Truly amazing and aspiring.
The LipDub challenge is a wonderful opening challenge. It has a lot of very complex elements, and it requires the Eagles to work intensively together already at this stage of the year.
Each circle was opened by Alden presenting a question that has a choice of two or more options. The fact that the Eagles must choose between concrete options, requires them to be very specific in their arguments, and not give broad answers with nothing in them. I was very impressed by the depth of the discussion that the Eagles got into (and this is the first day!), and I have no doubt that this type of conversation greatly increases the Eagles’ level of debating.
The studio itself is not large, but has a very pleasant and inviting design.
Alden introduced a way by which work products at Acton are evaluated. The first question is always “Is this your best work?” If this is a second or later version, we’ll ask: “Do you think the product is better than the previous version?” Then we’ll ask “In your opinion, how close is your product to the master pieces in this genre?” Finally, we’ll ask: “Is your product ready for public display?” The Eagles ask each other these questions, and in my opinion it is wonderful to give them such a precise and easy-to-understand tool to evaluate their own work.

That’s it for today!

And one last word of great thanks to all my dear friends who remembered that I started working today at Acton, and called to wish me success or ask how it was. I don’t take it for granted 🙂