Wednesday was day 70 of the pandacademic year, and the halfway mark (day 8 of 16) of the cycle. As Learners and Facilitators oined the call there was a fun conversation about flamingos. At 10:00 a.m., Facilitator Ariel opened the morning meeting with a review of the awarenesses and practices we are working on to co-create our culture. One of the practices we are working on is not speaking over others, and one of the Learners got quick feedback on that when he began talking over others.
Morning meeting was better than the picture suggests
Facilitator Ariel agreed to split the morning prompt with a young Learner who asked everyone how long their wingspan was. An adolescent Learner typed the prompt into the chat as that is also one of our practices. The answers to the prompt ranged from quantifiable lengths to comparative lengths with other animals: 5’2”, 5’6”, 5’9”, 6’5”, 7’, 16”, a barn owl, and somewhere between that of a red-tailed hawk and a bald eagle. Then Facilitator Ariel asked where everyone would go if they could go on a trip anywhere in the world. Some mentioned states, some mentioned countries, others mentioned continents, while one chose a Norwegian archipelago: Arkansas (romantic interest), Florida (Disney World), Arkansas or Florida (family), Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Dubai, Germany, Africa, South America, and Svalbard.
Daily 7-minute workout
When the morning meeting was adjourned I stayed on to have a one-on-one check-in with one of the recently enrolled Learners which lasted about ten minutes. Next up was the 7-minute workout which all the Facilitators and one guardian joined in on.
Simultaneous free write and Roblox offerings
After the 7-minute workout I quickly jumped over to Discord to join the daily free write and was thrilled to see one of the adolescent Learners was there to work on the book she is writing. I also noticed that a 14-year-old Learner dropped in for a game of Roblox with an 8-year-old Learner who really looks up to him. During this timeframe, Facilitator Lauren checked in with a 16-year-old Learner who has been spotty in terms of showing up regularly for meetings. She had a really great conversation with him and he even turned on his camera during the call.
Appreciating the finished product
At 12:00 p.m., Facilitator Ariel went out to a local park to build some cairns in a rock stacking offering. The offering was targeted at the one new Learner who has not been showing up for meetings, as he and Ariel really connected over building cairns and moving rocks during the last cycle. Unfortunately, that Learner did not show up, but Facilitator Ariel is doing his best to continue to hold space for the Learner for when he is ready to show up. Nonetheless, it was a great exercise for Ariel as he got some great hiking in to get to the place where he was going to build the cairns, and then he got to build three large cairns.
Facilitator Lauren was keeping things moving with a yoga offering the next hour that also turned into a solo offering. The great thing about the Facilitator offerings is that they are always something that the Facilitator wants to do, so even if no Learners show up, the Facilitator continues on with the offering.
The following hour, Facilitator Ariel hosted his online gaming offering. The Learner who showed up for that offering has been eagerly joining or leading online gaming offerings, but does not show up for any other offerings. We are lucky that Facilitator Ariel continues to show up for the gaming offerings that allow that Learner, as well as some of the other Learners, to have some connection with a Facilitator during the day.
afternoon roundup
At 3:30 p.m. we all came together for the afternoon roundup. First we discussed our favorite offering or experience of the day: constructing three cairns, free write, 7-minute workout (because of the crew that keeps showing up), I don’t know, socializing with mates on virtual reality, playing Super Mario Odyssey on Nintendo Switch, hiking (because I saw peacocks), talking with friends and [a younger Learner] on Discord, talking to apple support so that I can download apps again, starting a new Jurassic World Evolution game and doing well with it, and playing Nintendo. Yes, there is a strong bias toward gaming, as would be expected when the Learners are stuck at home because we are in a period of uncontrolled community spread of Covid-19 in Central Texas. And all but one of the Learners is eager for us to put this pandemic behind us so we can be together again.