ACA Explorers Mission Statement, Values, and Leadership Positions

ACA Explorers Mission Statement

The mission of the ACA Explorers is to develop academic and social skills by engendering the curiosity necessary to fulfill the Explorers Promise and live up to the Explorer Values.

Explorer Promise
‘To Explore My World
To Examine My Self,
To Treat Others How They Want,
And To Always Do My Best!’

Explorer Values
An ACA Explorer values:

-Curiosity
-Love of Learning
-Honesty
-Judgement

-Persistence
-Prudence
-Courage
-Creativity

 

 

 

ACA Explorers Vision Statement

ACA Explorers will inspire every eligible youth in Colombia, to become a curious and courageous explorer of their world and themselves, guided by the Explorer Promise and Explorer Values.

 

Check out the Explorers Guide Book below! Also testing out the name ACA Explorers Passport…

 

Influences: AKA Shout Outs to My Boys: Boy Scouts of America and Camp Fire

Great example of BSA influence with the mission and vision statements.

Overall Camp Fire deserves a much more needed shout out because its academic and social development are much more in line with goal with ACA Explorers than Boy Scout type wilderness survival.

 

ACA Explorers: The Explorer Guide

Okay, so I’ve gotten to about four pages in of what should lead to a manual or at least an informative brochure in the near future.

The better something than nothing version will be just printing these bad boys out and going to the Mayor’s office to ask about just that!  (Note to self…)

ACA Explorers: Intro/Front

This is currently on the outside of Molly and our binders.  Bought some sticker prints.

I changed the wording to ínglés bilingüismo so as to convey that English learning will be sprinkled in and done on an individual basis and as wanted.

PDF Link: ACA Explorers Front

ACA Explorers Promise and Explorers Values

Platinum Rule Addition

Added a version of the ‘golden rule’ that some call the Platinum Rule.  Who knows.  But the golden rule is:

‘Do Unto Others, As You Would Do Unto Yourself’

And the Platinum Rule’s twist is:

‘Do Unto Others, As They Would Do Unto Themselves’

Basically, just because you like it/think it would be good for them doesn’t mean you are right.  Ultimately, the other person would, under normal circumstances, know best.

So:

Treat Others How You Want to Be Treated becomes:

Treat Others How They Want To Be Treated shortens to:

Treat Others How They Want!

Always Do Your Best.

That’s just good practice.  Plus, as research has pointed out, praising a child for what they’ve done is much more effective than praising a child regardless for what they are.

Telling Johnny he did well because he studied hard – GOOD

Telling Johnny he did well because he’s naturally gifted – BAD

One leads to a great work ethic, and results to show for it; the other, a life of existentially wining, ‘I’m too smart for my own good…’.

Plus I introduce The Four Gallitos…

ACA Explorers Promise and Explorer Values

ACA Method: Los Cuatro Gallitos

Los Cuatro Gallitos help illustrate the core of the ACA Method (Input, Output, Fundamentals, Mastery) is compared against traditional grammar-translational methods (and with examples in a specific language-acquisition environment).

It all starts to flow and you realize its become this goes deeper than just linguistics and SLA (second language acquisition) research, but into educational pedagogy in and of itself.

Op-Ed: Go check out Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives [published in 1956] to see the interconnectedness firsthand.

PDF Link: ACA Method: The Four Gallitos

ACA Explorers: Leadership Positions

The ultimate goal is that ACA Explorers can be done by more than just Molly and myself.  Think Scout troops of volunteers all over the world.

So these are four basic categories trying to get more community involvement

Teaching Assistant – Explorer selected via a vote by the group.

Family Helper – Parent/Guardian/Family member of Explorer that helps

Youth Leader – The one I think will be really popular.  Teens helping out, but as a result getting extra credit in school and receiving a lot of free hands-on English training.

Adult Leader – Same as Youth Leader but an adult.  Retired teachers would be great for this.  Talk about homework help.

PDF Link: ACA Explorers Leadership Positions

 

If I find a free PDF program that lets me join PDF files I’ll put them up in a book soon.