Category Archives: Town Hall

What constitutes “help” in Math?

March 25, 2014Collaboration, Core Skills, Culture, Math, Town Hallsandefer

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.

We should never take this for granted….

February 25, 2014Culture, Guides, Hero's Journey, Independent Learner, Town Hallsandefer

Yesterday, with no outside prodding, Eagles assembled to elect a new Council.

Six candidates were nominated. Six passionate speeches. A close election with three winners. A peaceful transition of power.

Today, as the Council’s first difficult assignment, a heated debate about the qualifications needed to serve as a Clean Up Champion. In other words, Eagles arguing for the right to work on behalf of the group.

Self governance. No adult intervention. We should never take this for granted, because it is a privilege to watch unfold.

The Keys to the City States

December 11, 2013Collaboration, Consequences, Culture, Town Hallsandefer

Today, inspired by the Eagles, we embark on a new governance experiment.

The Council has appointed six mayors, each with jurisdiction over a geographic area of the class.

Mayors must enforce the general rules of the studio, including: “No horseplay or running;” “ No noise or behavior that distracts from intentionality in other areas” and “No snarkiness towards people in other areas.”

Any additional rules and consequences must be posted and mayors have the right to ask serial offenders to move to a territory. A neighboring Mayor or Council Member may ask a Mayor for an Eagle Buck if the behavior of his or her citizens negatively impacts others.

Mayors serve at the pleasure of the Council, and may be asked to resign at any time, for any reason. Of course, Council Members are subject to recall too.

In Civilization we are finishing our sequence on 19^th century America, including the Civil War and Reconstruction. Today we placed the Eagles in the shoes of President Andrew Johnson, and asked what they would have done to bring reluctant Southern States back into the fold, while protecting the rights of minorities.

Now Eagles get to put their ideas into action. Will more lenient Mayors attract a larger number of citizens or will a lack of intentionality lead to a collapse of an entire district?

Let the experiment begin.

The Wisdom of Councils Past

November 21, 2013Culture, Town Hallsandefer

Our Eagles are becoming quite good at governing themselves, and even passing on institutional knowledge, the glue of history that makes sure we don’t have to constantly reinvent wisdom.

Below is our past Council’s advice to the incoming Council. Our public servants in Austin and Washington D.C. certainly could learn a few things from our Eagles:

Biggest lessons learned:

You can’t always make everyone happy and you can’t just make the popular decision. You have to make the decision that is best for the class.

I learned that being a good leader takes a lot of time and work.

The council this year is ten times harder than last year.

What I’d do differently:

I would stand out as a leader more and make sure that I was heard.

I will try to address problems as soon as they come up.

Praise more people.

Advice for new council:

Don’t always make the “popular” decision even if it’s what people want.

Don’t waste your time. If one person is complaining about something stupid, don’t spend 30 minutes of talking to work it out. Just say, “We have made our decision about this and that’s final.”

Don’t get hot-headed.

You can’t make everyone happy so do what’s best for the class.

Have a specific agenda for Town Hall Meetings, and whatever you do, do not “open a topic for discussion.” You will eventually have to end it after it has crunched half your time and you’ve gained nothing, and then everyone will be mad, because they’d be perfectly fine with discussing all day, even if we never came to a conclusion.

Always have meetings for every subject.

Sometimes setting an example is better than speaking directly to someone. Monkey see, monkey do.

Keep appeals short. Listen to both sides of the story (from the people who were actually involved, NOT random onlookers,) make a ruling, and let them know that that’s final. If they keep bugging you, ask them for an Eagle Buck.

Never talk during town meetings unless specifying something.

The Perils of Leadership

October 1, 2013Consequences, Covenants, Culture, Eagle Buck-Pts, Town Hall, Troublesandefer

Today was the first Town Hall meeting of the new Council. Let’s just say it was a little rocky.

During the meeting, the Council gave into the demands of a few loud voices calling for the easing of standards. Allowing music back into the classroom. Voting out the existence of Evidence Tickets (voluntary examples of work designed to help Eagles manage their many commitments.)

Bread and Circuses would have come next. Except the Council doesn’t have such broad authority.

There is a signed covenant covering music – parental approval is required. Plus the Eagles already have failed to hold each other accountable for music distractions – another violation of a covenant they had promised to uphold, and already forgotten.

Evidence Tickets are a part of the curriculum, which Guides have the right to design and propose until Eagles take on the responsibility of creating their own courses.

So later in the afternoon, the Council had to apologize to their constituents for failing to do the hard work and preparation required to be leaders, and for allowing the Eagles to take that first slippery step towards a lowest common denominator.

The first real lesson of leadership.

The Results Are In

September 21, 2013Culture, Town Hallsandefer

Ten candidates. Ten speeches. Each making promises. Each putting their hearts on the line. Not an easy task during middle school, especially when only three could win.

A few speeches were pedestrian and could have used more work. A few were stellar, even moving.

In the end, it was close, but three leaders were elected by their peers: Mason, Anna and Sara.

Now its time to hand over even more of the responsibilities to the Eagles, because they are ready to lead. The hardest time of the year for Guides is behind us.

An Election Update

September 19, 2013Culture, Eagle Buck-Pts, Town Hallsandefer

Since Eagles run our Studio, Council elections are much more important than at traditional schools. Energy is high as preparations continue for Thursday’s speeches and election.

Today, we combined our overarching question of the year, “What motivates a hero?” with the campaigns by asking: “Can an Acton election be earned or bought?”

The ten Eagles running for office were charged with collecting Eagle Bucks from classmates for violations of the Rules of Engagement or Community Standards (“Can you ask for an Eagle Buck while still being encouraging?”) and allowed to award Eagle bucks for extraordinary acts of kindness or accountability. (“Can you resist the temptation to try and bribe your classmates?”)

The results were impressive. Only a handful of Eagle Bucks were collected or awarded, but the room hummed with energy during Core Skills and Project Time. One Eagle accumulated 35 skills in Khan Academy in a single day.

The Eagle Buck tally was tabulated and displayed along with campaign slogans.

Campaign posters continued to proliferate.

One group began to offer political consulting advice – for an Eagle Buck fee. Another took a poll of likely voters – again, charging for their service.

All of this while still working hard on reading, reading, arithmetic AND finishing writing a Eulogy and Epitaph. Civil society in action. Alexis de Tocqueville would be impressed.

Motivating Voters

September 17, 2013Consequences, Core Skills, Culture, Feedback, Town Hallsandefer

Motivation remains the hot topic at Acton Academy.

We started the day discussing the Personal Learning Plan each Eagle will build for the year. Is it more for Eagles, their parents, those who will hire them for apprenticeships or the world?

Next came a posting of Evidence Tickets, deliverables from the Motivation Hero Debate project. What motivated Eagles the most: a public display of work; force ranking from the top third to the bottom third or having your Running Partner sign off on the quality of your work?

Finally, a discussion about the upcoming Council elections. Since Eagles run the studio, Council members have a critical role. Immediately after ten Eagles were nominated, campaign posters began to appear.

The final question of the day: “What advice about motivating voters would you give to those who are running for Council?” Suggestions ran from the Machiavellian to the mundane.

During Thursday afternoon’s campaign speeches, we’ll see how well the candidates listened.

Inspiration, Intentionality and Excellence

September 17, 2013Consequences, Covenants, Culture, Eagle Buck-Pts, Guides, Town Hallsandefer

The high end prep school of the late 1990’s featured a didactic curriculum and a cadre of well trained teachers. Today that seems, well, so “old school.”

Given the resources available on the internet, crafting a world class curriculum today is more about curation than creation. There’s simply so much great material to choose from, and quite a bit of it is high quality.

Even better, you can equip students to choose challenges for themselves, and order the experiences in a way that appeals to their individual learning styles.

Teacher training is an anachronism too. Peer-to-peer exchanges are far more powerful than having a gaggle of lecturing adults hanging around the teacher’s lounge.

What remains difficult is keeping our Eagles inspired, intentional and aiming for the highest quality work.

Today we tried something different. Taking volunteer Champions, Eagles who would take responsibility for different parts of the studio and learning areas.

Just another experiment in helping young heroes take control of their education.

Democracy…. it’s complicated

September 13, 2013Collaboration, Consequences, Covenants, Culture, Town Hallsandefer

Democracy. Power to the people! It sounds pretty, but it’s pretty messy.

This week, the 24 (plus a 25th in and out of Skype range) Eagles revisited the Governing Documents created by the very first crop of Middle Schoolers at the beginning of the last school year- the Contract of Promises, the Rules of Engagement, the code of Community Standards and the Student Governance Plan – and took on the task of refining them, revising them, or even tossing them away and starting over from scratch.

They divided into pods of 8; each pod elected a leader; and the leaders listened, took notes, added their opinions judiciously, withheld their opinions judiciously, and provided a calming base for the intense disagreements that frequently arose.

Claire, Nikita and Sarah won deep appreciation (and an Eagle Buck apiece) for their willingness to take on those leadership roles, and their elegance in carrying them out.

It was intense this afternoon. (Picture the Second Constitutional Convention, but with women and a/c. )

The values the Eagles have already adopted- of making clear points in as few words as possible, avoiding repetition, listening respectfully and building on each others’ statements- kept this community forum from turning into an after school event.

(And they actually did have time to clean up afterwards; the resulting Studio was, according to our Clean-Up Champion Anaya Mehta, “almost pristine but with room for improvement”).

Try to get 24 people to agree on anything – anything important, that is, that affects their ability to do the work they’ve chosen and pursue the calling of their choice, to be on their own Hero’s Journey and support those of their Fellow Travelers- and it gets complicated fast. Most adults understand how hard it, even with the perspective of maturity, is to mesh one person’s Journey gracefully with that of another, let alone several or a dozen or two.

At the end of the day, they succeeded- they unanimously passed a set of documents: drawn up by Eagles, argued about by Eagles, approved by Eagles- that they will ceremoniously sign, and sign off on, tomorrow afternoon.

How nice it will be to live under the rule of a benevolent majority… until dissent, the threat of mob rule, and potential tyranny bring everyone back to the Town Hall for another argument. Probably sooner rather than later.

A 21st Century Town Hall Meeting

June 13, 2013Culture, Town HallMason, Pacesandefer

Town Hall meetings at Acton are nothing new. Eagles create their own rules of engagement, guidelines and consequences.

Today, an Eagle traveling with his parents for the summer, Skyped in to participate in the discussion, all the way from California.

Welcome to student led education in the 21st Century.

Town Council, Property Rights and the Separation of Powers

May 18, 2013Civilization, Culture, Town Hall, Troublesandefer

An exchange of letters between diplomats. Tension, with the possibility of all out war. Misunderstandings. A flurry of activity within and between the leaders of two democracies. Finally, a peace treaty.

History class? Europe, just prior to World War One? No, just another day at Acton Academy.

It seems that Middle Schoolers are disturbing the peace of Silent Core Skills for Elementary Eagles, especially now that spring has come to Austin and classroom windows are open. Likewise for the Middle Schooler’s Silent Core Skills when the Elementary Eagles are on free time. Plus, disagreements about the intensity of dodge ball and how younger Eagles can be included in Middle School games without the risk of injury.

Town Council meetings can be unruly, even to the point of wasting time – just like real world democracies. But eventually conflicts get worked out, property rights are re-established and civil society is sewn back together, stronger than it was before.

Next fall we’ll grow from twelve Eagles to twenty five in the Middle School. Time to revisit the US Constitution and hold a Socratic Discussion about how the separation of powers might help the Eagles create an even more effective governance system.

It’s one thing to read about the Founders. Quite another to be a Founder yourself, and face their same struggles. No question which approach better prepares the leaders of tomorrow.

de Tocqueville and Civil Society

May 12, 2013Consequences, Covenants, Culture, Hero's Journey, Smart Goals, Socratic, Town Hallsandefer

A visitor who wants to import the magic of Acton Academy to his school, circled the Eagles to ask the secrets to a strong culture.

Their answers:

1. Strong covenants between students.

2. Eagle Bucks and accountability.

3. A Town Council and Council Meetings that made Eagles, and not adults, responsible for creating and enforcing laws.

4. A belief that “we are all in this together, and not separate tribes like the Stanford Prison experiment.”

5. Socratic discussions where we hold each other accountable for respecting and upholding the discussion process.

6. Daily, weekly and session long SMART goals, where we have the freedom and responsibility for our own learning.

7. Running Partners who are assigned, so you learn to get along with people who are different than you.

8 Faith that we really are heroes, who are going to change the world.

Not only do the Eagles know what makes a strong culture, soon they will be able to build their own, in companies, not-for-profits and community groups. Exactly the kind of everyday heroes that Alexis-de Tocqueville observed in Democracy in America.

Changing the world through a speech

April 17, 2013Core Skills, Parent's Meeting, Speeches, Testing, Town Hall, Trouble, Uncategorized, Writingsandefer

“I have a dream…”

“Four score and seven years ago…”

“Ask not what you your country can do for you…”

There’s only one reason to give a speech: You want to change the world.

No photos from your latest family vacation; no boring PowerPoint slides to control your audience’s attention; no droning lectures to put people to sleep. Simply a moving speech that moves people to action.

Six weeks from now, each Eagle will deliver a world changing speech, as a historical figure, at a pivotal point in time, on a subject he or she feels passionate about. It will be an original speech, drafted, revised and crafted over a six week period.

Today several Eagles were called forward to stand “in the box” for ten minutes to speak on something they care passionately about. The lesson: giving a great speech takes passion AND serious preparation. You cannot just “wing it.”

Next came two hours of Improv training and practice. Because giving a world changing speech means letting go of your fears and saying “yes” to being comfortable being yourself on stage.

At the end of the day, our Eagles went to the Elementary School to present a gift of two copies of last session’s Mystery Anthology, and give each author a chance to pitch his or her story by reading a few lines.

How do you learn to give a world changing speech? You start by having the courage to get into the arena.

Learning to set your own standards

December 4, 2012Critiques, Culture, Excellence-Best You Can Do, Town HallCharlie, Coby, Hayes, Pace, Sarahsandefer

At Acton Academy, we turn over the governance of the classroom to Eagles. Above, the past Council met with its recently elected replacements to discuss ways to inspire their fellow travelers to even greater heights.

Why do we trust the setting, encouragement and enforcement of maintaining incredibly high community learning standards to a group of students? Because they govern themselves far better than if lorded over by adults. And because we want our Eagles to be leaders, not rule followers.

So how does a beginning author or artist or game designer set their own standards of excellence? By looking at world class examples and comparing those to his or her first attempts.

Below, photos of Eagles creating and comparing prototype games.

And most importantly, the criteria they developed to judge whether or not a game is “world class.”

Here, an example of a group critique in action.

Because if you can learn to set your own standards; set them high; judge your progress draft after draft, gathering honest critiques as you move towards excellence, you are well on your way to the mastery of any skill, craft or art.

Our Hero's Journey

Acton Academy Middle School and Launchpad (High School)