1st week of Architecture Quest

After a week of resting and recharging ourselves, we returned to the studio for the second session: Architecture quest. The second session in the studio is already similar to the sessions that will follow. The first session is mainly dedicated to forming the tribe, consolidating the rules and getting to know the work methods of Acton. From the second session onward, the schedule is relatively fixed and therefore I’ve attached a photo of the past week’s schedule at the beginning of this post. You can see that every day starts with an opening circle, and every day there’s dedicated time for core skills, free time, lunch,meditation and studio maintenance. In addition to these activities, two art/PE classes are included during the week (week by week), two civilization classes,two sessions of DEAR, two writer’s workshops and three sessions of quest time.

Even this week, despite it being my fifth week at Acton, I felt that I had learned so many new things while I was in the studio. I’m planning on writing a separate post about some of the things. I’ve summarized the important points here:

1. Ellie’s visit – During the week, a very special guest came to the studio for a visit: Ellie. Ellie is a graduate of Acton Austin, and she is one of the three graduates who graduated as Acton’s first graduating class (exciting!) Ellie decided to take a one-year break before entering college, and she established a small consulting firm for new Actons around the world (so cool, right?). During this year, Ellie comes to any studio that invites her. She observes the studio and gives her feedback based on her personal experience as she studied at Acton beginning with the 4^th grade. We all awaited Ellie’s visit, and it was absolutely inspiring. Ellie is mature, sensitive, creative, full of fascinating insights and she has great experience, which she is happy to share with whoever’s willing to listen. Ellie observed the studio’s conduct on the first two days, and then she gave me and Alden a lot of important and vital feedback. She talked to the Eagles, opened all of the morning circles, asked a lot of excellent questions and gave great tips for the future. Ellie joined Alden for the first parents’ meeting on Thursday, and there can be no doubt that seeing such a mature graduate, who attests firsthand to the many benefits of Acton’s innovative pedagogy, is a great source of encouragement and inspiration for the parents.
2. Art – The Eagles’s current project is making the school’s welcome sign, which will be hung at the entrance. In my opinion, this week’s sign designing was very exciting: At the first stage, each child prepared a sketch of the sign he wanted to prepare on a large piece of paper. The Eagles dedicated two hours to their sketch, and in the end, some of the sketches were very impressive. At the next stage, all the sketches were hung on the wall, and then the Eagles observed each sketch and discussed it: Which are its most successful elements? Which are its least successful elements? It was nice to see that at this stage, the sketches of some Eagles, who didn’t put much effort in their work because they chose to do other things instead, were immediately disqualified. Those Eagles were very disappointed because their ideas were not chosen, but their argument of “I didn’t have enough time to finish”, did not help in any way. This way, they learned through actual experience about how important it is to invest the required time, and they understood that if they don’t do it, their voice doesn’t count. A vote was held for every element that was successful for the Eagles, and in the end, a decision was made for a sign that says:”Acton Academy” in colorful 3D letters, and it will be decorated with an eagle’s head and two flowers. Later, the Eagles designated one task to each one of them and work started. The next stage was preparing a sketch of the real sign,and one of the girls, who was chosen to write the sign, began working. Next week, the Eagles will continue working on the sign. I promise to upload photos of the final product.
3. Architecture Quest – The goals of the Eagles in the current quest are to make an architectural plan of a new – fictional – Acton, and also plan a new playground for the actual studio. During the first four weeks of the session, they will work on the architectural plan and during the last two weeks of the session, they will work on the playground. The Eagles work in pairs, designated by the guides. This week was introduction week, and the Eagles faced three challenges: The first challenge was getting to know the studio from a planner’s perspective: We’ve prepared a “Treasure Hunt” game for the Eagles, and they had to find supporting walls, water sources, secret doors, windows of different kinds, etc.The second challenge was a measuring and scaling challenge. In the challenge’s opening circle, we understood what a measuring system is, and we’ve discussed the question of whether the United States should switch to the metric system like the rest of the world or stay with the imperial system. The Eagles had to measure the following using different measuring instruments (tape, ruler, laser measurement instrument): height and width of doors, length and width of windows, depth of washbasins, length and width of a parking lot and more. This challenge made the pairs work cooperatively, and deeply engaged them in measurement in a practical manner (how to measure parking length with a straight line? Where does a window begin and where does it end? etc.).In the scale challenge, the Eagles had to draw different shapes at different scales. This challenge made them use non-trivial math (including fractions),and overall understand the concept of scale: How to represent 10 meters with a 25 cm line,etc. The third challenge was the “Famous Architects” challenge. The pairs explored the internet for famous architects around the world. They chose one that they connected with and had to put together a basic biography about him or her, to understand where their inspiration came from, what makes their architectural style so special, and more. Two of the groups have unintentionally chosen Israeli architects! Such pride! In general, working on the challenge is characterized by a lot of interest and motivation of the Eagles. The challenges are built up and ready to their last detail, including which video to show in the opening circle and which questions to discuss (of course, it’s all a suggestion and it’s open to any change that the guides choose to make). I am amazed every time by the richness and abundance and the level of detail of the study materials at Acton. It reminds me of the standards of the best courses in the army and I am deeply impressed by this. There is no doubt that it makes running the studio much easier with all these materials prepared at such a high level. This allows both the guides and the Eagles to stand on the shoulders of the Acton studios around the world who developed the materials and are already further along in their development.

That’s it for this week. I’m planning to write some more posts on topics that I think deserve separate attention. I’d love to hear what you think!