Session 6 Week 3 in Review

Elementary Studio

This week elementary learners, spent time reflecting on their personal growth during the school year and the growth of the studio as a whole. We also resumed our read-alouds! Being that Mackenzie has earned the most badges on her badge plan, she was able to choose which book we'd read. Her selection was Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. We ended the week by participating in collaborative course skills. However, there were two learners that were rewarded with a fun Friday instead! Shout out to Sophia and Mackenzie for being the only learners to provide me with feedback on the launches I facilitated this week.During Quest, learners devoted their time to building their prototypes! On the final day of prototype creation, Prentice Osborne revisited our studio to provide feedback on the learners' prototypes. During Civilization, learners stepped into the role of a cartographer to create a map of the state they live in. Their map included all the landforms, climate zones relative to their state, and a colored map key to easily locate items on the map. During Story Arts, they worked with their creative teams from last week to add a melody or beat to pair with the lyrics they created last week. Following their work time, the singers in each group gave the studio a live sample of each group's lyrics, melody, and beat by singing alongside the music! Shout out to Aleem & Raigen for their bravery!

Middle School Studio + HS Story Arts & Civ

Week 3 of Session 6 was a busy one and marked the halfway point in the Session! In Circles, we had a really deep discussion where learners shared their experiences with both not fitting in and feeling a sense of belonging. One launch was dedicated to establishing our new House System! Learners were sorted into their Houses in a sorting ceremony, and then they had the chance to meet with their new house-mates to choose a name, design their flag, and come up with their slogan! We also spent some time this week having a check-in on our Studio Norms, as a reminder to treat each other with respect and be inclusive. The theme of morning launches this week really ended up being centered around the idea of community, belonging, and kindness.This week’s Quest was spent in the Design Thinking phase of prototyping. Learners started out by drawing low-fidelity sketches of their prototype, asked their users for their feedback, and then made any necessary revisions to their sketches. Next, learners began working on either their mid or high fidelity prototypes. This could be a computer design, a 3D model, or a semi-functional replica of their final prototype. Learners received feedback from each other, their Guide, and then their users to get one last round of feedback before finalizing their prototypes next week!In Civ this week, both MS & HS some learners wrapped up their web-quests and started work on their paper bag Maker’s Challenge, while other learners continued work on their projects. At the end of work time, learners shared what they’ve done so far with their project and got feedback from their peers. Their paper bag projects are really starting to come together, and it was really fun to see what Revolutionary War era artifacts learners had found or were creating for their bag!The music production teams from the MS & HS Studios joined up again this week in Story Arts to continue crafting their song. Teams were tasked to finalize the lyrics they wrote for the song, and then began composing music to pair with the lyrics. Some teams used pianos or guitars to compose melodies and chords, some used electronic beats to create a rhythmic background for their song, while others created digital music tracks. Seeing the different ways each team came at the challenge was really fantastic!

High School Studio

Time is flying by! We started off the week with Max helping us fill in and set up our new Badge Plan’s. Learners organized their assignments and began learning the new system while filling it out.
For SLE, learners  started their Lo-fidelity prototypes. Learners are producing at least 3 sketches, all that include measurements, parts listing, and thorough rendering of their “product”.Wednesday: For morning Launch, Shriya led their second Socratic Launch of the school year, the subject was “Dystopia”. We collectively talked about what a perfect world/society would look like, and what challenges we would face while creating that.Friday, we had a Socratic Learner Launch led by Milcah, who walked us through the History of Live Streaming. We talked about which platforms we were familiar with, and what we enjoy about streaming.
In the afternoon, we welcomed a guest speaker Aysha Pennerman, an Atlanta based Muralist and community engaged artist. Aysha shared with us her history of mural making, how she began in making art, and answered learners' questions. She walked us through her process of community outreach (locally and internatioanlly), how she conducts her interviews in communities to brew ideas for murals, her process of creating murals on a large scale, and how she gives herself passion projects to make side money and relieve stress.