May 8th - 12th

Geyonni's using her tutoring time to earn a score 4 in Science!

It's hard to believe we're wrapping up another year of YESS at Scott Carpenter! This week, we worked hard on many tasks. Monday was devoted to finalizing plans for our End of Year event, which will take place at 6:30, May 17th at Westminster HS (arrive at 6:00 for sandwiches!).


On Tuesday and Wednesday, we continued working on hitting our learning targets. Many scholars are leveling up and the pride we're all feeling is infectious. I especially enjoy that some students are taking the time to re-do old assignments to get a higher score.

Brainstorming our stressors

The final list of stressors

Thursday, we discussed stress and how our mindset during stressful times can dramatically impact our ability to thrive during difficult moments. This lesson was from our new curriculum and I was able to incorporate numerous Kagan Cooperative Learning strategies, one of which was a poem for two voices. The mentors and mentees worked together to create poems about stress, then performed their works on Friday. Minus a little bit of whining, the kids really did a fabulous job on their poems!

"Sit down and breathe, stay strong and believe. Too much on my mind, take it slow, don't freak. Rest is all you need, rock-a-bye baby, go to sleep. Eating is the key, exercise to feel relieved. Stay strong, slow down. Stress is temporary, stress goes away, just understand."

"So annoyed, so sad. Tell me what to do, trying to stay calm. Really giving up, resting won't work. Everything was down, eventually got better. Started talking to people, someone stayed to help. Sopped all the worrying, stress is only natural."

"Sleep, sleep, go to sleep. Sleep away the day's rest. Time to spend with my family, to get my stress away from me. React with a positive address, release away all my stress. Enlightenment I will try to reach, entertainment will help me out. Stress to strength, stress is hard to get away. Slowly smiling, starting to shine."

On Friday, after the scholars read their poems to the class, we all went outside for a three-legged race! I was concerned many students would be unwilling to participate out of fear of looking silly. But, as a testament to their confidence and camaraderie, nearly everyone enthusiastically raced!