Preparing for the first week is hard.  Scurrying to prepare the studio.  Memorizing faces, names and dreams of new Eagles; working hard to welcome new parents.  Of course, little of this matters to our young heroes; it’s mostly the anxiety of grown ups.

Our returning Eagles were excited to see old friends and meet new ones.  New Eagles were a bit apprehensive, but quickly warmed up as they were welcomed and honored by a week  of ice breaking challenges.

Big surprises?  How quickly and diligently Eagles settled into Core Skills.

• Our thirty Eagles earned over 700 Khan Math skills for the week, an average of twenty three each, or four times a normal week’s output, in just four days.
• Eagles were writing by day two; critiquing a partner’s writing by day three; sharing in a journal contest by Thursday.
• Deep books were being pitched and read all week.

Eagles also jumped into organizing the self governance of the studio.  With the drafting of the Contract of Promises between classmates ; Rules of Engagement for Socratic discussions; creating Eagle Bucks Systems and appointing Clean Up Champions, the self organizing moved at a rapid pace.  We appear to be a week ahead of schedule.

Our new systems are helping.  Eagles are eager to earn badges and the electronic Points Tracker system was launched with few glitches.  Good riddance to paper blizzards and bottlenecks at the printer; a warm welcome to electronic accountability, run by the Eagles.

Did the Eagles have fun?  Here’s an email excerpt from one parent:

I have never seen xxxxxx so excited about school.  He is exhausted by the time he gets home, but I don’t think he can get enough of Acton.  In the past I would have to drag info about school out of him.  Not now.  He is bubbling (is it ok to say that about a boy?) with excitement telling me about his day.  I think he would spend 24/7 there if he could.

Revisiting our goals for the first two weeks:

• Have fun – check.
• Work hard – double check.
• Like each other –  triple check.
• Commit – more and more, every day.

Oh yes, they’ll be plenty of problems ahead.  All human organizations are dysfunctional, it’s just a matter of how and when it manifests.  But for now, we’ll count our blessings, because successful launches should be celebrated.