Session 2 Week 4 in Review

Elementary Studio

Time flies when you’re having fun! Just like that, Session 2 has concluded! I want to give a huge shout out to Mackenzie Meeks for being the first learner to earn a badge! Mackenzie has completed the addition portion of Xtra Math. Xtra Math is an e-platform used in Elementary to master math quicktables. Additionally, she was awarded the school-wide Learning To Do award for taking more initiative this session. When fellow learners asked questions, she immediately jumped in to provide helpful information and has consistently exemplified a positive, hard-working attitude! Congratulations Mackenzie!In Quest, learners completed their Session 2 exhibitions! During exhibition, they compiled the knowledge they obtained throughout this session to create presentations that included a nutritious meal they cooked or a daily routine they created that support living a healthy lifestyle. After sharing their presentations in breakout rooms, they receive feedback from our visiting experts. Thanks to Maxwell Smith, Austin and Fantasia McGuffie, Emma Harvie, and Gina Brown for their willingness to provide their expertise and feedback to our learners this session! each of your expertise was very valuable to each learner’s presentation.In Story Arts, learners put the final touches on their logos. In order to create logos specific to Green Revival, they had to read a client brief and pull out key descriptors that influenced their creations. On Wednesday, they designed three logos for the Green Revival client. At the end of Story Arts workshop time, they received feedback from their running partners on what they did well and how they could improve their logos. On the following day, they reflected on the feedback received from their running partners and selected one logo to improve and submit to the client.

Middle School Studio

What a whirlwind of a session Session 2 has been! While it was one of our shortest sessions of the year, I felt like we accomplished so much in the Middle School Studio and learners completed so many fantastic, creative challenges! Our morning launches this week were all centered around Retrospectives, with learners reflecting on the session through choosing a superlative work in creativity, journaling, completing Exhibition reflections, and writing 360 Feedback for their running partners! We ended our week with an end of session celebration on Thursday, where we awarded our learners of the session, played a fun emoji game, and spent time writing shoutouts for each other using our ongoing Shout Outs Padlet.I’d like to congratulate our Studio Award winners for Session 2. Brayden was awarded the Learn to Live Together award for being a great team player in our studio. Frida was awarded the Learn to Learn award for her tremendous effort in learning the FSO model this session, as well as her curiosity for learning. A big thank you to all of our learners for their hard work this session!In Quest this week, learners wrapped up the Mythbusters- Nutrition Edition badge by presenting their nutrition projects at Exhibition! Our two guest experts Jill and Emma provided such valuable feedback to our learners, and our guests submitted tons of great feedback for the learners to use for reflection and goal setting for the next Session. It was really cool seeing all of the wonderful recipes, meal plans, and nutrition guides that our learners came up with!We also completed the Story Arts Branding badge this week with two days dedicated to logo design! The learners used their mood board from a previous challenge to inspire three custom logos for the client “Green Revival’’. Some learners opted to design their logos by hand, while others chose to use digital design tools to create their logos. Everyone did a really phenomenal job at capturing the company’s story through their branding. After finishing their three designs, each learner shared their logos with the whole studio. Everyone pitched in to give feedback on which of the logos they felt best represented the company and their story, and gave suggestions for small revisions they could make to their final logo. It was fascinating to see how the studio was unanimous for most final logo choices, but there were a few with mixed opinions! Ultimately, each learner chose one of their three logos they felt like was their best work and fit the “Green Revival” brand the best, and created a short video pitch for the client that presented the final logo design and why they felt it was the best choice for the company’s new branding. If you ever find yourself in need of a new logo design, feel free to hire our learners - their logos were stunning and very professionally designed!

High School Studio

Just like that, Session 2 has come to a close! Our week in the High School Studio was spent wrapping up any outstanding Session 2 work, celebrating our accomplishments, and reflecting on our strengths and weaknesses going forward into our break. During our Morning Launches, we completed a variety of retrospective activities; on Monday, learners chose a piece of work from their Session 2 portfolio in which they exemplified the mastery credit of “Resourcefulness”, Tuesday was spent doing solo reflective journaling on Session 2, Wednesday launched our 360 Feedback process, and on Thursday, we celebrated one another with shout-outs and announced our Session 2 Learner Award Winner: Joshua Jordan Andriatsitohaina! Joshua won the “Learn to Be” award through exemplifying curiosity in the studio everyday, and bringing great questions and energy to the studio discussions.Throughout the week, we continued our Check-In process, and learners were reminded of several important processes to complete before the beginning of Session 3: filling out the 360 Feedback forms for themselves, their running partners, and their guide, setting up and completing a Parent Conference with their parents and filling out the form, and updating their Badge Plans in writing, to start out Session 3 with a clear understanding of what work is finished, and what is yet to be accomplished. This week in Story Arts, learners finished the Branding unit by practicing filming a brief and convincing “pitch” to the imaginary client, explaining why their mood boards and logos tell the story of the brand. In Civilization this week, learners had a chance to catch up on the three History of Music Challenges: the first on music through the ages, the second on how music affects the brain and body, and the third on ethnomusicology.The Master Chef Quest came to an exciting conclusion during our Exhibition on Tuesday. Learners shared their projects and experiences with their parents, Dream Teams, and experts from the culinary industry. After receiving really positive feedback from our guests, learners created this master document to be shared with anyone who would like to try the recipes for themselves! We hope you enjoy cooking and baking these recipes as much as we did. The end of Session 2 snuck up on us quickly, and we are looking forward to a quick break before jumping in full force in Session 3!