Entrepreneurship Session – weeks 1 and 2

We had a week off between the sessions, and I flew to Israel for two weeks, so I’ve been away from the blog for almost three weeks, but I’m back, and I have a lot to tell!

Entrepreneurship Quest – The entrepreneurship session is one of the two sessions that repeat themselves each year (the second session is the first session of building the tribe). The reason is, of course, the importance of entrepreneurship in the new world, and the wonderful opportunity that Eagles get each year to build their own business. At the end of the entrepreneurship session, the traditional “Eagles’ Business Fair” is held, and I will write more about it in a separate post. In the meantime, I will tell that as part of the entrepreneurship quest, each of the Eagles chooses a product he to sell, and they develop the product during the quest. In the first week, the Eagles chose the product they wanted to sell, and this week, they prepared a survey for market analysis in order to improve their product. Each Eagle formed a survey that needs to be passed on to X number of people and it includes questions to help them better understand whether the product they thought of is successful or not.

Writer’s Workshop – This session’s writer’s workshop is “Letter to a hero”. The Eagles choose a hero they like and write her a letter. In the first week, the Eagles had to brainstorm about possible heroes, pick a hero, and explain why they chose this hero. This week we used the SOLE methodology, to learn together how a letter should be written and what things to keep in mind when writing a letter. Each Eagle answered these questions himself, based on research he did on the internet, and then we presented the products to everyone and prepared a common product that answers both questions.

Civilization – In this week’s civilization launch, we read the chapter about the Renaissance period. After we finished reading, I’ve assigned each of the Eagles with a famous Renaissance artist and they had to become that same artist and tell about themselves to the group. In addition, each of them printed (in color, of course) one outstanding work of art by that same artist to tell about it to the other Eagles.

Completion of the Elementary Studio and Moving Up to Acton’s Middle School – in order to finish elementary school and move up to middle school, the Eagles are required to complete the first five learning islands, and also complete all the “How to be” tags (here is a detailed post for those who have forgotten what I’m talking about ). We currently have two girls who are very close to completing the five learning islands and are starting to work more seriously on How to be tagged. The last two How to be tagged are the “Socratic Discussion Learner Foundation” and “Leader Foundation”. The completion of the two tags requires a lot of work, and we have less than 10 weeks until the end of the year. It is important to emphasize that in Acton, there is no significance in moving up from elementary studio to middle school studio at the beginning of the year. Every Eagle moves up when he/she finishes all that is required of him/her in the elementary studio and not one day before.

Island Completion Celebrations – This week, one of the youngest Eagles in the studio completed all the learning requirements of the first island and ceremoniously moved up to the second island. This is an Eagle who has made a huge leap forward in his learning abilities, and he did not take the completion of all the first island’s tags for granted. I have no words to describe the Eagle’s excitement of the ceremony, and his joy and pride in his accomplishments. When asked what the main thing he learned during the first island was, he said he learned “not to give up even if you don’t succeed, because, in the end, you will succeed”. This is so pleasing and I’m so proud.