Session 1 Week 1 In Review
Elementary Studio
Welcome to the 2023–2024 school year! This week was filled with lots of fun, learning, and getting to know one another! Learners participated in a scavenger hunt to help familiarize themselves with all of the accounts they will be using this school year such as Lexia, Zearn, Gmail, Google Calendar, Goodreads, Vooks, Slack, and many more! They worked together as a studio to develop skills for sending proper emails that include a subject, polite greeting, body, polite closing, and name. They even researched what the purpose of CC and BCC are and most importantly, what they mean. We began our Story Arts curriculum, Strokes of Imagination, by comparing the differences in handwriting versus typing. One learner made a unique observation during this activity. She recognized that handwriting and typing both engage your hand muscles. However, they target different areas of your hand. During Civilization, learners drafted their version 1.0 of the Elementary Studio Contract of Promises. This session, we'll revisit our draft each week to determine what changes need to happen before we feel it's ready to be printed!
So far, we're off to a great start! I'm super excited to see how this year unfolds!
Middle School Studio
The MS at Forest School Online hit the ground running during the first week of the 2023-2024 school year!In the Wayfinding quest, learners are orienting themselves to all things Google: Gmail, Drive, Classroom, folder organization, shared docs, privacy settings and more. I have been so impressed to see the learners already begin taking the lead to self-organize and tackle group projects. They are even teaching each other tips and tricks to find each other faster and huddle in Slack!
Our Story Arts dives deep into collaboration as they create a studio-wide music video that will debut at our first Exhibition, showing everyone what it means to be part of the MS Fam! There are a series of creative constraints within which they must work and their video must honor our Question of the Year (QOTY). Not sure what that is? What a great question to ask your learner! The ideas and collaboration started to snowball as they picked their music video production roles, decided their song and began brainstorming their story ideas. Don't be surprised to find your learner chatting or huddling with their studio-mates in their free time as they hash out the details and grapple with how to plan out and bring their ideas to life!
Civilization this session is all about signing their name on the dotted line. This week they began exploring the role and power of contracts and covenants in our everyday lives. They also had a Socratic discussion about what their dream studio would look and sound like. Their goal? Creating a studio space where each learner feels seen, heard, and valued.Finally we ended the week with a bang! Our first Write Now lab was a huge success. Not only did we discover and experience the joy that is MADLIB but we also had the time we needed to workshop THE most amazing concept for our studio-wide music video. We cannot WAIT to start filming next week!
I am thrilled to be leading such a fantastic group of learners at the Forest School Online and I am so excited to see how far they will go throughout the course of this year.
High School Studio
The Forest School Online High School Studio started Session 1 with plenty of lively discussion, community building, and excitement for the year ahead. Our studio has more learners than ever, and I’m excited to see how each and every one of them grows individually and as a community. Our Morning Launches this week consisted of introducing the learners to the House system, and getting sorted into their houses, along with several “getting to know you” activities, such as bingo and “would you rather”. We held our first Circle on Tuesday, and shared what advice we would give ourselves two years ago.
These community building and self-reflection activities tie into our Quest for Session 1: The Game of Life. Learners were introduced to the Game of Life this week by getting their organization and tech tools set up, and beginning to discuss how one goes about finding and pursuing their calling. In Story Arts, learners practiced writing a personal narrative from different perspectives, including first, second, and third person. Lastly, in Civilization, we compared and contrasted norms and laws, and discussed how they’re formed and implemented. On Friday, we had our first Write Now! Workshop; learners considered the various forms of writing they already take part in, and how writing is used in the careers they are interested in. It’s going to be a fantastic year- I can already feel it!