The road gets slippery, and people stumble.  How do you get back on track?  If you, like the Acton Academy Middle Schoolers, are committed to independent learning and being on a Hero’s Journey, you might refer back to the standards that you have set, dig into the specifics of how those standards look and feel in action, and recommit with deeper intentionality.

The Eagles believe that striving towards excellence is an important part of what defines their community.  But what are the signs of that?  And how does it feel- what are the symptoms?

Respect topped their list of characteristics that distinguish them from any other group.  Nice word, but what does that look like?  How does it feel?

After brainstorming specifics, they discussed how to bring these back into the classroom to return the bar to where they prefer it (quite high).  So, how’d they do?  The group ranked itself at a (low) 3 on a scale of 1-10 coming into the morning.  By closing, they’d climbed to an 8-9, and left the classroom with enthusiasm about striving for a 10 tomorrow.

Everyone has off days, and no road is always smooth.  The Eagles are learning how to attend to the rough spots, then get right back to the business of their Hero’s Journey.   Maybe, some days, that IS the business of their Hero’s Journey.

And speaking of Excellence…. Congratulations to Claire, who became our first Eagle to nail her Khan goal (2.5 weeks ahead of schedule!).  She’s looking forward to taking a break from all that math… so she can move on to a couple of weeks of intense computer science.  No wonder Hayes commented, “I felt really respected when Claire took the time to help me on math”.