ALC Tools

Set-The-Day

We start off our morning with a Set-The-Day Meeting. Our community comes together to share announcements, plan offerings for the day, sign-up for more formal offerings, and generally organize our week ahead. We use a special board called the “Set-The-Day Board” and invite all community members to attend so that they can can plan their own days within the community’s plans.

Change-Up

Once a week, we gather together for a meeting where we share about issues arising in our community. These could be related to noise, cleaning, technology, language, or even needs for special supplies for projects. During the meeting, students and facilitators share “Awarenesses,” which could be issues for themselves or others in our community. We talk about the problem and suggest solutions, which we try out for a week at a time and talk about at the next Change-Up Meeting. At each meeting we discuss if the solution seems to be solving the problem or if we should try something new to address the problem. Solutions are practiced and tested until they become official “Community Agreements” that we adhere to until they need to be addressed again sometimes months or years later. These meetings are organic and Community Agreements vary depending on the needs and wants of our changing community.

Spawn

Spawn meetings are ways for our community to check in (often in smaller groups) about social or emotional issues, share personal goals for the day, or talk about specialized topics in separate age groups. We like to have them in the morning to plan our individual days and at the end of the day so we can reflect.