Accountability

“It’s time for collaborative core skills, everyone!!”

…The sound of our heroes holding each other to the daily schedule. As I listened in the other day, I couldn’t help but reflect on how capable our kids really are. They really know how to resolve conflict, hold each other to a schedule, and help each other when it’s needed. As collaborative core skills began, I looked around the room. In the corner, 2 heroes were sitting on bean bags while working on Khan Academy. I listened in to the first hero as he coached the second hero through a multiplication problem. It made me ponder (for a moment) what the world might be like if everyone developed the ability to lead and take ownership of their learning.

Each day, our kids become more and more comfortable themselves and each other. They are able to make their own decisions, pitch their ideas to each other, and they are learning what it means to develop an attitude of “excellence”.

This week, our heroes practiced evaluating the excellence of their work by asking, “Is this my personal best?”, “Is this better than my previous work”?, and “Have I compared it to a world-class example”? They then worked in pairs to give each other constructive feedback (based on those questions) and improved their work.

In addition to creating excellent work, our heroes also worked on creating excellence by being intentional with one another. They came up with a list of ways they could encourage each other and also participated in a few Team-building Activities such as creating a secret handshake (and sharing it with studio mates who were missing) and going on a picture scavenger hunt together. Though everyone had different ideas, they did a great job listening to each other and working to create a great handshake and selection of photos!