Blue: New Band, New Rules, New Skills

We are a team.We get knowledge.We give knowledge.This was the anthem for Blue Band this week, and as a result, we ended up doing a lot of intellectually rigorous things. We defined some rules for interacting with each other, with our space, and for when we are trying to pay attention to other people in the classroom. We wrote and mind mapped a lot. We had a guest speaker. We had a shop training. We set up a blog, and researched in the library. We got to build some stuff, and also talk about what we all want out of the Rock Arc. For only three days together, this is a lot.This is a lot for an adult. This is a lot for a middle schooler.On Friday morning, we added another routine to the mix: morning check-in. During check-in, anything goes -- tell us how you're feeling, tell us how your yesterday went, tell us if you're having a rough day. Check-in is a good time for us to understand if someone needs extra attention or special consideration during the day, or if someone is feeling bad or tired or even really excited about something.During this new thing, an interesting sentiment emerged: "I feel upset that all of the other bands are up and around doing things, and we are in here doing nothing."All of the abstract work we did in just 3 days together translated to "nothing."In the same vein -- on our first day, when we brainstormed where knowledge comes from, everyone was a little startled by the depth and breadth of the final list. The internet, books, experts, and studying were of course listed by everyone; but then, when things like "failure," "doing stuff," or "texting," came up, the classroom erupted in laughter. But why? I asked them. Don't you learn things by failing, moving your body, or sending messages to friends? Of course we learn from those things. But, sometimes it's really hard to quantify, or even qualify, abstract work.This is hard for adults. This is hard for middle schoolers.We did a lot of hard things this week.