Blue: The Close of an Arc

Last we left Blue, they were prepping for their Seed Arc presentations. They were feeling battered and bruised and also excited to close an arc with a public exclamation of their accomplishments.Last week, they practiced and re-practiced: in the bandspace, on the cork floor, with a microphone and with our microphone prop. They got use to advancing their own slides and pointing at the projector screen. They tried out walking around while talking and also holding on for dear life at our new podium.They practiced being nervous and also killing their jitters. As a group, we practiced power posing, put our arms up for 120 seconds, and screamed "I'M EXCITED!" at each other to acknowledge all the tension and scariness of 7 minutes of 70 people staring at you.They took it really seriously.And, we got to talk about social psychologist Amy Cuddy for a long time last week. (Check out her TEDtalk, if you have a moment -- it'll really help you before your next presentation.)Anyway!Spoiler Alert: they did great. I was so nervous and proud as they presented. There was lots of clapping and smiling. And afterward, of course, there was much celebrating. I told them that their Tuesday evening homework was to go out and have pizza and smile (because that's what I did).But here's the thing.The amazing Tuesday presentations were just a chapter. For many of them, they presented the story of projects that weren't yet complete, and they fielded questions (like pros) that they hadn't yet discovered the answers to. For many of them, we talked about how bad the unknowing/incompleteness felt, and what they would do differently after seeing the Indigo Band present on the following day."It's not that I would change my project," Kaia told me on Wednesday morning. "It's just that I have better ideas of how to tell my story now.""Good," was my reply.Completing a project, telling a great story, anticipating all the questions -- these are such concrete, complete, mile markers of knowledge that were incidental to the process that Blue experienced during the latter portion of the Seed Arc. This Arc was about establishing a baseline for them to build upon during the Human Arc. This is a beginning.And, even as we continued to celebrate accomplishments at Expo Night on Thursday and during Community Friday the following day, Blue started to ask all the questions about next Arc. Would they do the same sorts of things? Would there be field trips? Would they get MORE TIME to work on projects?No. Yes. and Yes.Now that you know how to do a project, and do it well, I won't have to teach it to you again.(Maybe.)Enjoy break, and see you in the next Arc, Blue!