The Mark of Success (Week 1, Year 2)
Welcome to the first week at Heroes Academy!
Although this week has been short one in terms of days, it has been very full. As the heroes return and new heroes join the studio, this week has been spent getting to know one another better and being introduced to the foundational systems in the studio that help to form a strong community. The focus for this first session is to “build a tribe” and although it has only been a few short days, it’s evident that a strong culture and community are being built. This will be important as the face challenges and celebrate victories together.

Question of the Year
On our first morning meeting together on the rug, we imagined where each of the young heroes might be in 20 years and where will their hero’s journey have taken them… What callings might they find? How will they be changin the world?
As part of of our morning discussion the heroes discussed the question of the year: Are we born knowing good from bad? Despite being the first day, many heroes spoke up to share and debate their opinion of this question. We’ll circle back to this frequently throughout the year, and challenging ourselves as we ponder this interesting question.

Lip Dub Video
The week has been busy with the heroes taking on their first challenge as a group: creating a lip dub video. This is a wonderful first experience as it forces heroes to plan, collaborate, learn a new song, create a measurement of success, and several other factors.
Facing frustration and failure along the way, the heroes were incredibly motivated to make the video their best work, although it was hard to keep energy up for so many takes!
Check out their final video here!:
After a discussion about excellence, the heroes created their own rubric criteria to measure excellence. The heroes self-assessed their final video and gave themselves the following ratings (averages out of 5):
Planning: 4.5/5
Flow: 4.4/5
Creativity:4.2/5
Camera Work:4/5
Adding Systems
The returning heroes from last year were eager to re-introduce the studio systems as soon as possible. A list was created for them to add any systems they wished to introduce and the heroes were responsible for leading the discussions to introduce these systems to the new heroes.
It was quickly decided that the Rules of Engagement (rules for group discussions on the rug) needed to be introduced as soon as possible and Jack and Betsy took on the challenge. Franki introduced the Yacker Tracker (to guide appropriate noise level in the studio) and mindfulness to the group and Betsy also explained the purpose and schedule of town hall meetings (for heroes to bring ideas or announcements to the group).
At the end of the first day the heroes began one of the most important processes in the studio: creating the studio contract. They decided on four promises for their provisional contract to get the process started. These promises were:
- Treat the studio with respect
- Never distract yourself or others
- Speak only with encouragement, kindness and truth
- Treat others how you want to be treated
The heroes will gather each day for the next few weeks discussing new promises to add and which aren’t working.
Studio Maintenance, Core Skill and Journey Tracker
Thursday and Friday two more important systems and tools in the studio were introduced: Studio Maintenance, Core Skills and Journey Tracker. The studio space is the heroes, so it is their responsibility to also maintain and clean it. During Thursday and Friday afternoons the heroes participated in studio maintenance, following the same system as last year to clean the studio. Next week this system will be reviewed to see if their are any additions or changes they wish to make to studio maintenance time.

The introduction of core skills and Journey Tracker were a highlight for the heroes this week, particularly as it involved starting to use their chromebooks for the first time! The heroes set their SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and tough) goals each day before core skills using the Journey Tracker program, that tracks their goals set and achieved. Even more than the content they explore during core skills time, this part of the day teaches them the deeper life-lessons of self-management, goal-setting and the reward of hard work, focus and perseverance.
Summary
The journey at Heroes Academy is unique. We don’t have teachers lecturing, grades to earned, or homework to complete. We trust children to be responsible for their learning, and we believe failure matters, in a big way. But the mark of success that most parents will be stunned by has nothing to do with numbers of letters, but rather, the smile of a young hero as he leaves the studio after a day of work and play. Those smiles are the small signal that a hero-led school just might change the world.
