Category Archives: Math

What constitutes “help” in Math?

Collaboration, Core Skills, Culture, Math, Town Hall

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We haven’t spent one minute “teaching” math. Not one minute.  So far, Eagles have learned math from Khan Academy; ST Math; Dreambox; Manga High; ALEX and other game based, adaptive programs.

Eagles have been progressing through Pre-Algebra at a rapid rate. One Eagle has finished most of Pre-Algebra; Algebra; Trigonometry and Geometry in six months.  At this rate, she will master twelve years of traditional school math in less than one year.

Eagles are free to help each other, as long as they stay in “Socratic Mode,” asking questions but not giving answers.

Lately, a bit of controversy has arisen, and a flurry of emails.  The Council ruled (unilaterally) that even Socratic help cannot be offered during the final Khan Mastery Quiz, so that each person proves they have mastered the material before moving on.  Others believe Socratic help is within the student contract.

Here are excerpts from the back and forth on email:

From a Council Member:

A lot of people have been complaining about the new Khan rules, but I will tell you why they are necessary.

If you have heard of the rubber band theory, good for you. If you haven’t, it’s this:

 When you learn something, a mental rubber band forms around that skill in the brain, even if you get it with help. But from there on, if someone helps you on the problem, (even socratic help, Ben!)  that rubber band does not form another one. But if you do it on your own, another rubber band forms. And you get better and better.

The reason Council made this rule, is so those rubber bands form, and you can go into calculus knowing what you’re doing. Now a lot of people might say that it’s their problem, and it’s fine, and they will have problems, and this school gives emphasis on one another helping each other, not the Guides. But something our school focuses even more strongly on, is best work. If you go into calculus not knowing what you are doing. 

That is also why I refrain from helping people on their last problem, because if they have already gotten 4 problems correct by guesstimating, than they won’t understand the last one, no matter how Socratically you explain, that rubber band will not form.  

Another Eagle supported the Council:

I wouldn’t go with the easy way out in this case… remember how none of us really learned everything we did last year on Khan? It was because we would get someone to help us on a skill and move on. Check it off, and forget. That obviously was not the correct way to approach Khan.

A third Eagle disagreed:

Socratic help is perfectly fine, what isn’t fine is when people give the answers; which is a whole different problem.

A forth Eagle reported:

Math is getting harder, so my parents can’t help me as much.

And finally:

When I was in second grade (at a different school) I learned complicated algebra, by using a bead chain system.  The bead chains were just a way to help me understand the problems better.  BUT, when I got to third grade and I had come to Acton, the bead chains were not there, so I forgot how to do that complicated algebra. The bead chains were just a way to help me understand it better, just like Socratic help, but since they were not there I forgot how to do that type of math and I had to learn it all over again.  That is why you need to learn it by yourself.

This is a powerful view into how learning really works in a community.  An open and honest debate about standards.  A discussion of what types of assistance help and which hurt.  Deep insights concerning the effort required to grow.

There will be further bumps in the road. Before long, Eagles may need to band together in small groups to watch Khan videos in sequence, as the math becomes more difficult.  Several are making plans to do so already, and Eagles no doubt will have to reach beyond Khan for even better resources.

But in the end, they will understand math far more deeply than students from a traditional classroom, because they own the process.  No doubt, they will have learned a great deal more about grit and learning as well.

Math without Math Teachers

Core Skills, Math

Guides have not taught any math in Acton Academy Middle School; not a single minute.

Almost every Eagle is on the Calculus track; many are moving much faster.

One thirteen year old Eagle has conquered 443 of the 540 possible Khan skills since September.  To put that into perspective, she’s mastered Pre-Algebra; Algebra; Geometry; Trigonometry and part of Pre-Calculus in a little over six months.   at this pace, she’ll be finished with Calculus by the end of summer.

Again – at this pace she will have mastered – meaning she has proven her competence – in twelve years of traditional school math in less than a year.  Can you imagine how bored this Eagle would have been in a normal school?

Her parents write:

We have recently signed on as parents on Khan’s site.  Looking at the hours that xxxxxx spends working on her Math, we know many of those  skills are not easy to master.   Some took her more than 50+ times of trying .  One skill took her 150 times.  We asked her why she did not ask for  help, xxxx said  “I want to learn it on my own”.   I am sure she knows how to do that problem by heart by the time she got it correctly.   

We think Khan is a cool Math site!  

We think so too.  Especially for hard charging heroes who plan to change the world.

Calling Google, Amazon and Apple

Core Skills, Culture, Excellence-Best You Can Do, Math, Quests, Science, Scientific Creators Inventors and Innovators

Eagles seeking an apprenticeship with  Google , Amazon or Apple likely will be given a difficult, open ended problem, like: “How many cows are in Canada?”

It’s not the answer that matters, but the quality of the thinking.

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On Friday Eagles were challenged with a difficult physics problem.  If given the experimental set up above, and d2 (the distance of the cup), can you solve for h1, the height from which to drop the ball?

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No trial and error experiments were allowed.  No equations or cookbook theories were offered. Eagles had only four tries at three different d2 distances, and each try was expensive (25 pts) relative to the payoff (100 pts.)

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All week we worked on physics experiments that involved Newton’s Laws of Motion, the Four Fundamental Forces and the Scientific Method.  Careful observation and a lot of thought might have led one college student out of a hundred to the right approach for Friday’s competition, and an equation to solve this problem, using theory alone.

Can you solve it? (Hint – consider horizontal velocity and gravity separately.)

No Eagle came up with the perfect solution.  But many theories were proposed and tested.  Lots of frustration. Human error turned out to be important. So did working effectively as a team.  Two teams came close enough that their theories helped predict h1 during the competition.

In other words, our Eagles learned a lot about how science really works, not how it works in textbook experiments.  When you become a hero charged with launching real rockets, in the real world, this distinction will make all the difference.

Who knows, it might even land an apprenticeship with a private space entrepreneur like Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson or Elon Musk.

“This is important.”

Core Skills, Culture, Energy and flow, Feedback, Math

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During three hours of Core Skills you could have heard a pin drop.  The room was alive with energy – directed, serious, purposeful energy.

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Likewise the room was humming with intentionality during Project time, as Eagles worked individually and in squads on The Contract of Promises and Rules of Engagement that would govern our learning community.

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There was even time for a team building exercise and some reflective reading.

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When asked to rate the day, it wasn’t as “fun” as Tuesday and Wednesday, but the results were a solid “5” for importance.

When we asked “Why?,” the response was immediate and unanimous.

“This is the foundation for everything that follows.”

“This school matters.”

“This is the beginning of my Hero’s Journey, so I need to focus and work as hard as it takes.”

Our Eagles understand that what they do matters. A lot.  There’s no more important foundation for a learning community that will change the world.

 

 

 

Math Challenge: Algebra, Geometry or Trig?

Core Skills, Exhibition, Math, Quests

Today was the conclusion of the Math Challenge, with three Eagles pitching to convince their fellow travelers to take either Algebra, Geometry or Trig next.  (Thanks to Khan Academy, Eagles are free to pick and pursue an individual specialty in Math.)

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Each Eagle described the history of their math specialty, how it could be used in real life, the level of difficulty and the “math heroes” who invented and added to it.

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Following the presentation, a spirited Socratic discussion changed quite a few minds.

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Then the final vote: Algebra wins! (Though each Eagle will be allowed to pick his or her individual path.)

Higher Math and Journalling

Communications, Core Skills, Journalling, Math

We launched this morning with a Sal Khan video on the beauty of Algebra, a first step in helping Eagles choose between Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry as their next math challenge.

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The speed at which the group is mastering PreAlgebra is impressive.

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So is Khan Academy’s ability to track each Eagle’s progress, including each question, each answer and the time to complete each problem.

As the math becomes more difficult and increasingly conceptual, the Khan videos will become even more important.

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Later in the day, the Eagle run Journal Contest asked: What will you choose as your next math challenge?   Here’s what one Eagle wrote:

“No question; no doubt; no maybes:  Algebra.  Algebra is one of the most useful tools in the world because it covers so much.  Trig uses variables.  Geometry uses variables.  Algebra can write formulas to solve almost anything.

You saw the video this morning. You heard what Sal said.  Isn’t it incredible how two completely different real world problems can be solved using the same equation?

Algebra can help us span the gaps in our understanding of the universe.  Math is the universal language and Algebra is its sub language and best friend.  I look forward to getting to know it better myself.”

Learning new math skills is important. Knowing why learning a math skill matters to your life is more important; and knowing that math can be beautiful, matters even more.

Blacking Out

Core Skills, Math

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Khan Academy and the various other game based adaptive math programs make teaching math an anachronism.  Our Eagles have proven they can learn math, even though we no longer teach it.

Two of our Eagles have “blacked out” all of the Khan skills in mathematics and pre-algrebra.  That’s seven years of math mastered in less than nine months.

Several more Eagles will finish all of the pre-algebra skills in the next few weeks, and every middle school Eagle will reach the same lofty goal by the end of the summer term.  All of despite the fact we haven’t taught a minute of math in the studio.

Eagles learn at a rapid clip; Eagles lead each other through Socratic questioning; adults stay out of the way.  There’s an avalanche headed towards your favorite school system, and it will be a lot more fun to be surfing it than being swept away.

Road Work

Core Skills, Culture, Excellence-Best You Can Do, Hero's Journey, Independent Learner, Math, Trouble

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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.

ImageEveryone 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”.

Work hard. Play harder.

Consequences, Core Skills, Culture, Eagle Buck-Pts, Math, Smart Goals, , , ,

Eagles work hard. Every week.

Want some proof? Since January each Eagle has logged an average of 1904 minutes on Khan – that’s five hours per week of activity.  And since each minute logged on Khan comes with another minute or so of focus, it’s really more like two hours a day of intensive math.

Some Eagles are quicker on math; others have to put in more time to master a skill.  Thankfully, every Eagle can move at his or her own pace.  And Eagles help each other, as long as they remain in a purely Socratic mode.

Our middle schoolers are on pace to master Arithmetic and Pre-Algebra by the end of spring.  Every Eagle. Not a passing grade of 70. Not even an excellent grade of 90. Mastery.  One hundred percent mastery.

At this pace, all of our Eagles would be through Calculus by spring of 2014.  Through Calculus. Before high school begins.  (Yes, they’ll probably slow down.  Still, a torrid pace.)

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Here’s a shot of the Eagle Scoreboard, a compilation of their individual SMART goals, displayed for all to see.  It’s a visual reminder of all the hours of hard work in various subjects, with each goal set by an individual.

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Eagles work hard.  So by Friday afternoon it’s time for an hour of Monopoly or Life or even a few hands of poker.

Games?  Surely a waste of time. Absolutely, unless you are interested in critical thinking, mastering probabilities, learning about human nature or social skills.

Work hard. Play harder.

The inspiration that comes from guiding others

Collaboration, Communications, Core Skills, Culture, Guides, Hero's Journey, Independent Learner, Math, Reading, Socratic, Writing, , ,

The word “inspire” means to “to breathe life into.”

Our Middle School Eagles are full of life already, but have been even more inspired lately by earning the chance to guide Acton Elementary School Eagles in Math and Reading.

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It’s important to note the word “guide” versus “teach.”  We believe the deepest and most powerful learning comes from having a Socratic Guide as your partner, rather than suffering a lecturing adult teacher posing as an expert.

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Our MS Eagles earn the right to guide an elementary school Eagle by completing a Learning Badge challenge.  Each Learning Badge challenge earns the right to 30 minutes of guiding time, which comes with a learning covenant and feedback on the Guide’s performance.  Complete a dozen or challenges and you earn a Learning Badge.

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Our MS Eagles consider it a privilege worth working hard to earn, and are lining up to do so.

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All Eagles will move from the Independent Learner badge to Running Partner to Socratic Guide to Project Guide to Curriculum Creator, until by high school each Eagle is capable of running a school (or company or non-profit) on their own.

Think of it.  An army of bright young people guiding each other, delivering “learn to do” and “learn to be” skills and lessons better, faster and far less expensive than adults.

You might even call it a revolutionary idea.

Our best ideas come from Eagles

Collaboration, Communications, Core Skills, Culture, Energy and flow, Journey maps, Math, Reading, Writing

Flow, the feeling of being “in the zone” while working, is a powerful force at Acton Academy.  When an Eagle is in flow in completing a Khan math exercise; reading a book or writing a speech, learning happens at an extraordinary pace.

Collaboration is an important part of Acton Academy too.  Sometimes you need a friend to explain a difficult concept, or even more importantly, to ask the right question.  Almost all of the real learning at Acton is student to student, not Guide to student.

But collaboration can interrupt flow.  And too many interruptions can ruin a two hour block of Core Skills time.

So what to do?

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Our Eagles came up with this solution – a Collaboration Request board.  Now if you need to ask someone to collaborate, you post a request rather than interrupting.   When your potential collaborator takes a break, he or she can check the board and rendezvous at a set time.  Plus, we have a record of the peer to peer learning.

Collaboration happens. Flow is protected.  Our best ideas come from Eagles.  Every time. If we just ask.

Intentionality

Collaboration, Consequences, Core Skills, Covenants, Culture, Distraction, Energy and flow, Journalling, Math, Reading, Writing

Today we returned from break.  Only eleven weeks until summer session.  Time to put the finishing touches on our learning culture before we let new Eagles into our tribe.

The focus word for this week: Intentionality.

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Acting with intention. Being purposeful. Tapping into your passions. That’s what heroes do.

So time to eliminate the trivial; to minimize the unimportant. Time to put all of our energy into learning. Time for a new definition of work times, based on a survey late last session, asking Eagles how we could reduce distractions.

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So we created new definitions of the our Work Blocks.  All Core Skills time is now silent.  We added No Tech Core Skills time, where all computers are closed and Eagles simply read, write and ponder.  

No interruptions are allowed – if an Eagle needs to collaborate, he or she posts to a Collaboration Request board.  An added benefit – we now have a record of who is helping whom and why.

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We also rearranged the desks in the classroom. All of this was based on recommendations submitted by Eagles.

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Core skills time was incredibly focused and purposeful today.  Deep concentration on “blacking out” Khan skills; serious writing; deep reading.  Not a sound in the classroom.

In the afternoon, the launch of an exciting new project.  But more on that tomorrow.

Friday’s Lessons Learned

Apprenticeships, Civilization, Core Skills, Culture, Detective Quest, Distraction, Hero's Journey, Journalling, Math, Quests, Smart Goals, Writing,

At day’s end, Eagles reflected back to lessons learned from the morning’s weekly wrap-up, discussing the amount of effort they’d put into their work vs. the amount of payoff they received in terms of personal achievement and our classroom points-tracking system.  In Core Skills they determined individually which work to focus on to best reach the goals they’d set for themselves on Monday.

ImageWhile all journaled in hopes of winning the weekly writing contest (congratulations, Kenzie!), some focused on Khan skills, others on their Mystery Fiction writing, others on their Apprenticeship Quest work including some beautifully rendered Mind Maps.

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Looking for tools to increase focus and help in their pursuit excellence, some students experimented with making their own “Claire Boxes”, named for the Eagle who first had the idea of creating a sensory-deprivation space to block out distraction and help her dive deeply into her independent work.ImageImageLater in the History Yurt, all Eagles were able to enjoy special personal space with our new eye pillows; Eagles lay back with the lavendar-scented pillows weighing pleasantly against their eyelids and listened to stories from 17th Century England, including the military and political strategies of Oliver Cromwell during and after the English Civil War, and a look at daily London life through the diaries of Samuel Pepys.  We learned that one of our Eagles’ ancestors was likely the actual executioner of King Charles!   All students are working towards learning about their ancestry as part of their ongoing series of History Challenges.

Enjoy the three-day weekend and have a Happy MLK Day, see everyone on Tuesday!

Learn Math; Forget Math; Learn Math Again

Core Skills, Culture, Detective Quest, Journey maps, Math, Quests

Learn math; forget math; learn math again.

Most of us learned math in school for a test; forgot the math; and learned it again when we had to use it in the real world.

Our first efforts weren’t wasted.  Modern neuroscience suggests our early work was  laying down pathways that made math easier to learn the second time.

Our experiences at Acton Academy are crystal clear on one count: there’s no more need for traditional math teachers.  With game based adaptive programs like Khan Academy; Dreambox; ST Math and Manga High, students can learn math on their own and teach it to each other much more efficiently and effectively than with a traditional math teacher. Plus, Eagles can move at their own pace and have a lot more fun.

Perhaps even more importantly, a 70% score isn’t “passing;” in fact, even a 90% score won’t do.  You have to work on a math subject until you master it, before moving on.

But let’s not kid ourselves,  In time, this mastery will fade unless the skill is used repeatedly in the real world, in a way that matters.  Only those neurological pathways will remain, waiting to be reactivated.

At Acton Academy, we try to put math skills to use as soon as possible.  Today, Eagles worked to gather measurements from shoe impressions from a crime scene; sample the heights and shoe sizes of classmates; and use probabilities and ratios to predict the height of a possible suspect in the Detective Quest. In doing so, they had to create their own approaches and formulas – some admittedly a little complex and convoluted, but in the end all coming to the same answer.

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Will our Eagles forget this math too? Surely.  But they are less likely to forget the logic, reasoning and teamwork that was required to use the math to solve a real world problem.

This means our Eagles will want to learn more and more math and to put it to use, every repetition preparing another neural pathway, until the habits of math and science are deeply imbedded.

Back in the Flow

Communications, Core Skills, Culture, Detective Quest, Journey maps, Launches, Math, Quests, Smart Goals, Writing, ,

The first day back from break almost always is a challenge.  The second day, better.

We opened with a clip from Whodunnit – a wonderful test of our Eagle’s observational powers.  Attention to detail matters. It matters for a writer who uses crisp details to hook you into a story; it matters to a cook who needs “everything in its place;” it matters to a detective at a crime scene.

We also are tightening the focus on goals – long term goals for the session; weekly SMART goals; daily goal check ins with Running Partners.

After setting ambitious goals for all three, Eagles were back at work in Khan for math; were introduced to our new Mystery Writing challenge by Ms Abigail; and continued on their Detective Quest with hands on work collecting fingerprints and documenting a crime scene.

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In Pursuit of Excellence

Apprenticeships, Civilization, Core Skills, Culture, Detective Quest, Excellence-Best You Can Do, Hero's Journey, Journey maps, Launches, Math, Quests

How do you encourage a learning community to strive for excellence?  That was today’s challenge, with a roomful of energetic Eagles back from Christmas Break.

We opened the day debating whether our overarching goal this session should be Excellence or Mastery?  Excellence won the day, based on the Eagle’s logic that the practice of Excellence must precede Mastery.

So Excellence became the “word of the session,” with signatures as a sign of commitment.

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We continued with a review of the spring session, which will include a Crime Solving project and a reenactment of the Salem Witch Trial.

Silent Core Skills time began with Eagles setting long term Khan goals, including mastering the last of the basic math skill sets, before individual Eagles will be asked to choose whether to dive deeply into Algebra, Geometry or Trigonometry in a few weeks.

We followed with a Socratic Discussion about how you decide what book to read next.  Should the decision be based on ”fun” or some other criteria?  Fiction or non-fiction? Genre? A focus on the time period we’ll cover in History this spring (1600 to 1776); a scientific subject we’ll explore in projects like DNA or genetics or psychology?  Improving a skill like writing or speech making?  Or perhaps going deep into a biography of a hero.

Eagles get to choose what they read, but we want them to choose wisely.

Just before lunch we unveiled this spring’s plan for securing an apprenticeship in April, and how Mind Maps might encourage some new paths or people who can help.

Then after lunch, the launch of our newest project, using science to solve crimes, complete with a real crime scene.

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How do you encourage a learning community to strive for excellence?   Paint a vision of an exciting journey. Offer choices.  Insist on clarity.

No guarantees, but a good start.

Closing the loops; looking forward to the future

3D Game Lab - Probability, Art, Communications, Core Skills, Culture, Exhibition, Film, Hero's Journey, Math, PE, Quests, Reading

Now is a time to close some of the powerful learning loops we opened just a few months ago.

Last week, we started by closing the Art loop with an exposition of the Acton Dragons at Amy’s Ice Cream.

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Monday, we closed the PE loop with the Acton Olympics, returning to the same challenges Eagles faced in September, to record new personal records (Thanks Coach C!)

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On Wednesday, we close the loop on Projects, with the Game Expo and Film festival.

Below, yesterday Eagles practice and critique Game Expo pitches, with the Middle Schoolers feverishly working to defeat the Elementary School challengers by gathering more customer “votes” at the Expo.

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All week we are recording reflections on “lessons learned” from Math, Reading, Writing, Building the Community, Science and the Pursuit of Excellence, as Eagles prepare their final end of semester portfolios for Thursday.

Then – on Friday — a review of next semester’s adventures and a final CELEBRATION!

Celebrate!

Communications, Core Skills, Critiques, Culture, Math, Writing, , , , ,

Our theme for the next four weeks is CELEBRATE!

Celebrate living in Austin; celebrate the holiday season; celebrate learning with friends at Acton Academy.

We started the day with dancing to Cool and the Gang – CELEBRATE!

Then we quickly settled into Core Skills, because fun and hard work aren’t mutually exclusive.  All Eagles are now up to speed on Khan, with many approaching the 107 skills needed by semester break.

Towards the end of Core Skills, Claire and Jack held a Zombie story critique session with their with fellow writers and illustrators.

Then followed PE, lunch and Project Time with Ms Anna, where Eagles created new prototype games, in preparation for the public Acton Game Exposition to be held three weeks from Friday.

 

At closing group, the following exchange took place:

Guide:  “What’s your biggest lesson learned on the first day back from Thanksgiving break?”

Eagle One: “It’s good to be back.  It’s boring when school isn’t in session.”

Guide: ‘How many students in Austin do you think feel the same way?”

Eagle Two: “Fourteen.”

Eagle Three: “No, more like forty, because you have to count the (Acton Academy) elementary students too.”

No Boredom allowed.  Fun.  Hard work.  Celebrating with friends.

It doesn’t get much better than that.

from Luddites to Las Vegas

3D Game Lab - Probability, Civilization, Collaboration, Core Skills, Culture, Eagle Buck-Pts, Math, Quests, Reading, Writing,

Are you more likely to be disappointed by your laptop or by your best friend?  Does it feel worse to be disappointed, or to disappoint someone else?  If you don’t keep yor commitments to the community, who are you letting down- your running partner or yourself?  Tough questions met with candor and courage by our brave Eagles.

So, back to that laptop… or not. The middle school experimented with 30 minutes of Luddite time, focusing on (analog) reading and writing, before plugging in for their SMART goals,daily check-in and their online work.  Collaboration reigned, writers brainstorming monster story plots and presenting drafts for informal peer critique, and math geniuses unleashing their exponential  powers of encouragement.

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Sometimes it’s Yurt time, and the MS is always grateful when that time rolls around. Ms. Laura launched with the news that scientists have discovered a powerful correlation between happiness and gratitude.  After a quick survey of Thanksgiving fun facts, including info about the persuasive letter written to President Lincoln that helped make Thanksgiving a national holiday, students eagerly shared their family Thanksgiving traditions and had the opportunity to write their own letters of gratitude.  Those that chose to tackle History Challenge #2  took us back to ancient Rome for some detailed analysis of similarities and differences between their culture and our own, and earned a treasure from the Yurt Treasure Box for their efforts and courage.

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Ms. Anna launched today’s probability quest with a video addressing the Monty Hall problem.  Initially as confused as the general populace, the Eagles has a collective Aha! / Eureka! moment as they absorbed the implications of the probability swap.  Then they got to play games to further their insights, poor things.  At the end of the day, Mr. Jeff asked:  If you take a chance and lose, is it gambling or investing?  What about if you take a chance and win?  What if you break even?

Eagles will have a chance to test their hypotheses tomorrow afternoon, when the classroom is transformed into a casino, complete with free sparkling cider for all players.  Do you have to be in it to win it?  Who knows when to hold ’em and when to fold ’em, and can they back up their instincts with evidence?

And most importantly- who will hoarde/hold out out to cash their accrued chips in for an Eagle buck, and who will choose to spend them on donuts?  All bets are off, from this blog’s point of view.

Football, film and gifts

Apprenticeships, Collaboration, Communications, Core Skills, Culture, Film, Hero Story, Hero's Journey, Math, Reading, Socratic

Reading, writing and arithmetic – critical, fundamental skills, and our Eagles continue to progress faster than most middle schoolers – and thanks to Khan Academy and Shelfari, we have proof of their efforts.

But there’s much more to life, and thus should be much more to learning than the basics.

Like playing sandlot football before school starts.

Or in our morning discussion, exploring the right way to hold a film crew huddle, so you don’t waste your time in meaningless meetings (something I wish I’d learned a long time ago.)


Or as a task preparing Eagles for finding the right spring apprenticeship, having our My Hero’s Guide Mr. Temp inspire them with his drumming gifts as he asks: Are you born with powerful gifts or do you have to develop them?

Or having Allan Staker give his Hero’s story about the entrepreneurial ups and downs of starting a video-game company, a twisting tale about the risks and rewards of believing in yourself.

Yes, there’s far, far more to learning in the 21st century than simply the basics.

dragons and an election

Art, Communications, Core Skills, Culture, Film, Math, Reading, , ,

Tuesday mornings are core skills intensive, with an extra hour for students to work on foreign language, math, reading, and writing.  Today they also used some of that time to meet in their film crews as the deadline for getting their projects green-lighted for production approaches.

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Art provided a change of pace as students worked on their dragon drawings and studied dragon mythology.

It was election day, and a buzz of nervous energy permeated the room especially during project time when Ms. Samantha presented the opportunity to vote for or against an extra 30 minutes of morning silence in the classroom.  Many students were surprised when, despite some preliminary polling that indicated a likely majority against that extra 30 minutes, the final count was in favor of a full hour of silence during core skills.  Lesson learned:  a poll is a snapshot of the present rather than an accurate predictor of the future.

Eagles guiding Eagles

Collaboration, Communications, Core Skills, Culture, Excellence-Best You Can Do, Film, Math, Smart Goals,

Many outsiders have been skeptical when I predict we’ll find peer guiding and peer course creation to be far more powerful than using adult leaders.  After all, who would believe that a middle or high schooler could be trusted with the learning of an younger student?

Today we had our first real test as two elementary school Eagles, Lazlo and Sam, came into the middle school to lead the six MS Eagles who had reached 50 skills in Khan  in an introduction to the Manga High math program (our three MS’ers who graduated from AA ES already know Manga.)  Given the round of applause at the end, the mission was a rousing success.

The Elementary Eagles invited the MS’ers to join them in a Manga challenge against a high school.  Last year, the ES’ers made it all the way to third place in all of North America, competing against middle schools and high schools.

We worked hard this week on SMART goals and encouraging Eagles to set goals and hold themselves and their Running Partners for “giving their best.”  We’ll continue that emphasis in the weeks ahead.

Ms Abigail pushed forward on the film project.  Below an Eagle is presenting a specific filming technique he had researched, as Eagles discuss how they might use it in their individual films.

How bright is the future of our Eagles?  So bright, they have to wear shades!

Where did the time go?

Exhibition, Galileo Trial, Math, Quests,

With gravitas and quiet excitement, the Eagles welcomed parents and grandparents into their classroom this morning to share their hard work from the past five weeks.  Students led their parents on math tours of Khan Academy, talked them through the scientific paradigm shift timeline they built together, and shared writing and art.  They demonstrated their rules of engagement and how they hold one another accountable for keeping the classroom a terrific learning environment.  The Eagles regrouped after a brief critique session with their running partners, and with the honesty, candor and courage they regularly show during discussion mode, shared their thoughts and opinions in front of a captive parent audience.

More courage about public speaking followed after lunch when the Eagles recreated the Trial of Galileo.  The Pope and his allies presented their case to a panel of judges, then Galileo and his allies presented their well-reasearched defense.  As in the real world, judges were faced with hard decisions- not just about the facts of the case but about their own ethics as well.  Would they let their opinions be bought for the price of gold?  Your Eagles can talk you through the outcome.

Congratulations to a remarkable group of young men and women on the first leg of their Hero’s Journeys at Acton.  Enjoy a well-earned week of down time!  See you on the 15th for our groundbreaking ceremony at the new campus (then back to Riverside campus for our launch of the next session).

Pitching your film idea

Communications, Core Skills, Film, Galileo Trial, Hero Story, Math, Quests, Signalling

Core Skills time featured lots of work on Khan Academy, as well as the Eagles  pitching their script ideas to the class. Later in the day, the Eagles voted to turn Charlie, James and Mason’s scripts into real films over the next few months

Later in the afternoon, Ms Anna continued to work with the Pope, Galileo’s team and our panel of judges to prepare for Friday’s trial, and Jasper’s dad David Herman came to give his Hero’s story about working in Hollywood, as well as sharing some tips on acting and directing.

We also implemented Pace’s idea of signalling what mode the class was in: Red for discussion time, with all Rules of Engagement in force; Yellow for collaborative time when students can mill around freely, as long as no one who is focused on work is being disturbed; and Green for free time.  Interestingly, we calculated that in the average day Eagles spend 1-1.5 hours in Red (discussion) mode; 1.5 hours in Green (free) mode (including the 30 minutes before class officially starts); and 4-4.5 hours in Yellow (collaborative) mode.

Spending 5.5 to 6 hours intensely “on task” every day is the reason we can pack so much discovery and learning into a single day.

Striving for Excellence and Galileo Galilei’s Trial

Art, Communications, Eagle Buck-Pts, Excellence-Best You Can Do, Film, Galileo Trial, Math

Our Eagles love learning and being with each other.  Now it’s time to aspire to excellence.

Inspired by Po Bronson and Ashley Merriman’s NutureShock and Ron Berman’s An Ethic of Excellence, we are turning over even more responsibility for managing the learning environment to the three member Council and the Eagles themselves, but providing them with language to hold each other accountable (see below):

We also introduced a new accountability system run completely by the students themselves:

In Core Skills, students began planning and executing their Khan Academy lessons for the next nine weeks, by which time we expect every AA MS student to have demonstrated mastery in arithmetic and the other AA Elementary School Math skills (many students already have accelerated past this.) Ms Abigail continued guiding students in writing the storyline for their the “Past/Future” film project.

Ms Zoey continued the self portrait project in Art.

Ms Anna introduce the Galileo Trial debate, where over the next several days Eagles will research and assume roles to recreate Galileo’s dilemma of whether to advance or abandon his heliocentric paradigm, with real world consequences for all – either lost freedom for Galileo and his friends (lost free time) or lost riches for the Church (a loss of chocolate coins.)

Researching the trial of Galileo.

Ending week four

Core Skills, Culture, Guides, Math, Quests, Science, Testing

“Is this really the end of the fourth week?” asked one Eagle as we packed up for the day.

“Yes, hard to believe,” I replied. “Did time go by this quickly at your old school?”

“Gosh no.  School days just seemed to drag on forever.”

I remembered the words of one student, the first week of class: “Fun and hard don’t have to be opposites.”  No, they don’t.  Our Eagles have proved that fun and hard work can go hand and hand, when you hand the freedom and responsibility over to a class.

Our Eagles spent most of Friday finishing the last of the standardized tests, working on their MyHJ ‘Stars and Steppingstones” interview preparation and finishing up their scientific paradigm videos and time lines.

Below is a picture of the beginnings of their Paradigm timeline, which captures the fourteen paradigm shifts they’ve independently researched.

Eagles also – entirely on their own – made a list of thank you notes to write, assigned authors, and completed the letters.

Next week we begin to slow the learning rhythm in anticipation of the end of the session, launching the Galileo Trial Debate experience on Monday and continuing core skills, but otherwise beginning to synthesize the learning portfolios for Friday’s exhibition and celebration.

You see, a learning community isn’t like a factory.  It’s more like a living organism, with energy lows and highs and patterns, a combination of the individual learning paths of our young flesh and blood heroes in the making.  There are times to work hard, and times to slow and reflect.

As a Guide, you can lightly touch with an encouraging word and shape around the edges, but mainly you are along for a glorious ride.  The sooner we Guides realize this, the better.

What’s your paradigm?

Communications, Math, PE, Reading, Science, ,

After a morning of core skills and reading, writing and math – and PE –  today in project time we introduced our first scientific challenge.

Unlike many schools, which focus on the scientific method itself as the glue for a disparate smorgasbord of scientific topis, and often veer dangerously close to Scientism (science explains everything), we’re going to take a more Socratic, skeptical – and, well – scientific view of science as a whole, and expand from scientific discovery alone, to include invention and innovation.

That means using Thomas Kuhn’s Theory of Scientific Revolutions – or paradigm shifts – as our jumping off place.  So today we introduced a series of challenges about paradigms and watched videos on the topic and discussed the following questions:

1. What is more important in science – the scientific method itself or paradigm shifts?

2. Who accomplishes more: paradigm busters; those who pose and ponder puzzles; or those who do the hard work of collecting data?

3.  What matters more: discovery, invention or innovation?

Eagles then chose from a list of scientific heroes and paradigms the one person and period they wanted to research and soon were hard at work.  We’ll get to see their work in  an end of session public demonstration.

Above – students signing up for their scientific heroes and paradigms.

Next week – the ranch trip, where we will apply math and the scientific method in the real world.

Below: Eagles at the new Acton Bistro.

Decisions, decisions

Core Skills, Culture, Math, Quests, Smart Goals, Socratic

Today, the students got even more into the rhythm of core skills.  One student even remarked: “I never know math could be fun until I tried Khan.  I’ve even got my eight year old brother doing it, an hour each day.”

We’re particularly stressing the importance of setting SMART goals and striving for them.
And students are becoming more and more comfortable with the Socratic Method: listening, building and offering evidence.  One student today even referred to two past comments, weaving them together to make a more powerful point.

In Project Time, Eagles took on three decision making challenges, in the form of Acton sim games: Robo-rush (trial and error); Cha-Ching (a sales funnel) and Galactic Zappers (an assembly line process), contrasting these systematic ways to solve a problem with yesterday’s more “one off” methods.

Eagles now have seven different decision making processes to call on as leaders.  Quite an accomplishment for just one week.

Heroic Committments

Hero's Journey, Math, Quests, Reading,

This was an important day for our Acton Eagles.  We continued to work on journaling (today on the question of how “learning styles” and “love languages” affect Heroes’  Journeys and leadership styles); Khan Academy and “reading your favorite book,” as well as leadership challenges during project time (“untie the knot” and “comfort, challenge and panic zones”.)

Much more importantly, today each Acton Eagle signed the Contract of Promises; Rules of Engagement; Governance Framework and They Say-We Say rubric – making a deeply personal commitment to each of his or her peers.  Before doing so, each student reflected on how the Founding Fathers were really just ordinary people, with extraordinary courage, much like themselves.  We also discussed the bravery of the men and women of the Alamo, accepting Colonel Travis’ challenge and crossing the line he had drawn in the sand.  Then, one-by-one, and in complete silence, each Eagle came forward and signed the documents.

Note that these founding documents are the student’s creation.  In less than two weeks, our Eagles have proposed and debated principles, drafted and wordsmithed and finalized a series of promises and pledges that will govern their own learning.  Quite extraordinary for any group, of any age.

We still have many trials and challenges ahead: electing leaders for their skills and judgment rather than popularity; our Guides staying in Socratic mode; developing and reinforcing the habit of committing to learning goals and following through, especially when learning becomes difficult.  But the foundation has been laid – by the students themselves.