Comfortable morning meeting for the remote cell.
Friday was the big five-zero. Our fiftieth day of this pandacademic (pandemic + academic) year. The day started with a chilly morning, but I was sitting at Abrome in front of my computer waiting for the morning meeting to start so I didn’t need to worry much about staying warm. All the Learners in the remote cell showed up for the morning meeting. We quickly reviewed our intentions for the day and stated the practices we would focus on for the day. We also had two prompts. The first was each person’s favorite game ever: PAC-MAN, Candy Crush, Rubik’s cube, Minecraft (twice), Rogue Lineage, and Arc. Then each person shared their favorite food: Topo Chico, guacamole, air, “I don’t know”, coffee, and water. It was interesting to once again see such a tech-heavy focus from the Learners, this time on their favorite games. I was also a little shocked by the blandness of their favorite foods. Once the pandemic is over we really need to restart our past practice of regularly trying out new cuisines again. After the morning meeting we had a Check-in and Change-up where we came up with three new awarenesses and four practices to address those awarenesses. It was nice to see one of the Learners being very active in the conversation, proposing one awareness and several potential practices. Culture co-creation certainly carries more weight when the Learners are actively involved in the process.
Heating up some hot cider and hot chocolate this chilly morning
For the in-person cell there was no staying inside to avoid the chilly morning temperatures. They held their morning meeting by the climbing wall where they were surprised at the high traffic at the park, particularly on a chilly morning (although not that chilly considering it is December). The crew noticed that there were lots of people there climbing with harnesses, and it was not lost on them that when they free climbed on the wall that they had no harnesses to catch them. When they moved into their Check-in and Change-up they raised the awareness of drinking water, which has been an awareness for each in-person cell, each cycle. Afterward Facilitator Lauren broke out her camping stove and with Facilitator Ariel they made some hot chocolate and hot cider, which created the perfect moment on that chilly morning.
Back at the remote cell I met with a Learner about a project she starting. The Learner is new to Abrome, and is still in the process of deschooling, yet is embarking upon a journey that will require a lot of planning and execution. It will be challenging, and it is doubly difficult because she is not yet in the unschooled mindset where she is in control of her education. Autonomy is hard, but we listed out some initial steps during the meeting and I’m looking forward to our second meeting after the weekend.
Joy in nature, that’s all. Some cold, too.
At the in-person cell they were two Learners short as one Learner stayed home as a precaution because his sister was not feeling well, and another Learner could not come because his plan was to get a ride from the other Learner. That left the other adolescent Learner plenty of time to hang out with the prospective Learner who was in day three of his shadow. They took a walk and explored a bit while the Facilitators hung out with the younger Learners. The shadow seems to be going well for the prospective Learner because his parents asked if he could start right away after the shadow, or if he had to wait until January to start. Unfortunately, given the constraints of operating in cells, he will have to wait until January because we have another prospective Learner planning to shadow the third week of this cycle, and our pandemic plan limits us to no more than nine people per cell.
Back at Abrome, no one came to my Free Write offering, which bummed me out, but I still used that time to write. Then I stuck around for the Discord hangout which allowed me to keep writing. When it was time for the afternoon meeting all but one of the Learners came, probably because of one of the practices we came up with that morning—setting an alarm to remind us to come to the afternoon roundup. We checked in with each other, reflected on our intentions, and reflected on our practices. Then everyone shared the best part of week: finding out about the arctic bumble bee, resting and chilling at home, getting a good night’s sleep last night, wrapping Xmas presents, and playing rogue lineage. To me it was a nice start to the cycle, despite the frustration of needing to have a remote cell thanks to the state of the pandemic. It ended even better for me when Facilitators Ariel and Lauren said that the shadower was ready to enroll as soon as possible.