Monday, December 15, 2014

December 8th - 12th

Kelsey Kyler, a 7th grade mentor, graciously offered to write a synopsis of what we did in The YESS Institute this week. Here is what she had to say:

    "This week YESS talked about how we are going to help Bienvenidos Food Bank. We
     also set our goal, which was 300 cans/boxes. On Monday, our class set personal SMART
     goals for ourselves. On Tuesday, we set SMART goals for Bienvenidos. We made a plan
     to help the charity on Wednesday. On Thursday, we decided whether we were going to
     have a social or have a "student vs. teacher" contest to see who could raise the most
     cans. Finally, on Friday, we began advertising. My favorite thing about YESS is how
     we are learning new things about YESS and how we are preparing for our mentees."

As Kelsey mentioned, we set a goal for how much we wanted to donate to Bienvenidos Food Bank (check out their website here) and the students decided that, as a school, we could contribute 300 non-perishable food items. They also wanted to do something more creative than a food drive, which will make for a little more work, but a lot more fun. Their ideas varied, but they narrowed them down to three options: a social (dance) after school, a homeroom competition, and a student/teacher competition. I'm currently working with the administrators to determine which of these possibilities makes the most sense for our kiddos. Take a look at the photos below to see an example of how we determined our goal and action steps.




Coming up, the YESS mentors are preparing to take a leadership role during a 4-day initiative that will be taking place after the holidays. #IRiseAbove (formerly known as The Colorado Meth Project) will be working with Scott Carpenter Middle School to engage all our students in some emotional intelligence lessons. It's a perfect way for the mentors to step up as leaders in other facets, especially since the topics revolve around stress, peer pressure, and making positive choices. They're really excited to be able to help their classmates.

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