Kicking-Off 2023 With Strengths: Week-1 In Our Virtual Village
What an amazing way to kick off 2023!
We just finished the first week of our Winter 23 Enrichment Courses, and man, was it an exciting week!
We faced cyclones off the west coast and hurricanes in the southeast. Mother nature certainly threw us a few curveballs, but we were able to preserve and hit our home runs! We are so thankful that all of our families are safe and sound.
By today, Friday, I have received 76 emails from families just like yours, who all had a story to tell about the magic of this week. Each email detailed a special moment, or two, that really made this week special. Just like each student who is a member of our Virtual Village, each story was so different. What made classes special for one child was worlds apart from another. Across most of the messages, 2 clear trends emerged
our students are thrilled to be learning unconventional material with unparalleled depth and complexity by some pretty amazing mentors
there are some exciting friendships blossoming in both the enrichment classes and the Homeroom Social Club that our families join at no extra cost. Parents shared great stories about the visible change in affect that they noticed in their kiddos after having a place to share their unique interests with other students and meet other kiddos with similar interests
That’s what it’s all about! Having a dedicated space where your child can be their true, whole self, learn more about the content that lights their fire, and can connect with like-minded friends!
Here are a few highlights from the week:
Young N Thriving: Reflected on our goals, our processes, and how task management can help us achieve
Beginner Debate: Practiced the art of using logos, pathos, and ethos to convince fellow classmates to see a movie or buy a household product!
Returner Debate: Explored Student Congress debate as we prepare to debate our new legislation on the floor! will it pass or get blocked? Stay tuned!
Advanced Speech: Discovered the world of Competitive Speech as we explored the 13 Individual Event formats and selected the burning topics we’re called to share with the world!
Improv: Invented a food/toy printer called the Maggleboogah Kalaruc that can be as tall as the moon, but can easily be collapsed and stored in your pocket! That’s what our creative, brilliant minds are doing!
Dungeons and Dragons: We got to know one another’s characters, made friends, departed on our quest, tamed wolves who we adopted as pets, and so took turns problem-solving!
Robotics: Unpackaged our new kits, programmed code into our robot brains (microchips), and then demonstrated what we created! Some played music, some displayed messages when turned upside down, and more!
Tools of War: Teamed up as historians, sifted through primary documents as we explored World War I weaponry at a level that would impress a history graduate student!
Weird History: Learned about Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm and his penchant for collecting… castles! It got even weirder as we explored his eclectic estates and mysterious death…
Chemistry: Explored proton, neutron, and electron and geared up for our big experiment next week where we’re clearing off our desks, rolling up our sleeves, and getting scientific!!!
Design Engineering: Discovered the engineering design process and spent time brainstorming solutions to some of the world’s largest issues by using marshmallows and string? OH YEAH!
Homeroom Social Club: Not to mention we made connections with others and started relationships with our new soon-to-be friends by playing games and linking up in breakout rooms to share our passions
AP Classes: Hit the ground running as we gear up for the big test in 5 months!!!
Adulting N Thriving: Our seniors worked on turning their resolutions into actionable habits that they create executive function plans around to ensure success!
And that was just week 1…
Can’t wait for next week!!!
Click here to learn more about these exciting programs!
