Perspective + Personal Value

This year we explore at the connections to be found among us - through COIN, CLOTH, and CITY arcs. Using a lens of VALUE as an entry point into coin, the Orange Band set to work on exploring how--and if--we are connected in what we value.

Before we were able to begin to identify our connections, though, we had to learn about each other. What is one person's story, and how does it connect to me? What do they value? What do I value? Where is there commonality; where is there difference?

 As the Swampy Cree Indians say, "To say the name is to begin the story." And so the Orange Band began with our names and the stories they carry.We also took time to identify the many circles of our complex, intertwined selves. Orange Banders asked themselves: "What are the aspects of ME that I value?"Students shared their multifaceted identities and aspects of themselves, wrote about specific memories that highlighted an identity circle, and distilled their work into a single word. Heading into the Shop with Gever, Brendon, and Evan,  Orange and Band will create a staircase of the words the students choose to represent themselves; one word for one student, on each staircase step. So it will be that the Orange Band may also be known as: CYPHER, TENACIOUS, KING, SCIENCE, COMEDIAN, OPTIMISTIC, and COOL.These stories helped to create a pathway for connection and understanding of the individuals in the band as they came together to identify our individual hopes and dreams, the agreements we would need to make the collective hopes and dreams a reality, and, finally, Band Agreements that we could live, work, and play by for the year.During this time, we also spent time establishing the tone and tenor of our math community. Using the work of Stanford researcher Jo Boaler, Orange Banders learned about the way the brain changes, grows, and creates new pathways as we do math, and as we persevere while doing math. A group of diverse mathematicians, each Orange Bander approached our daily math challenges in a different way, highlighting the breadth and range of how we can do math and what it might look like!Next week we will continue to look at how perspective influences value, as well as where such a diverse and different group of people such as ourselves might find commonalities on the microscopic level.