May 18th - 22nd

What. A. Year.

I'm so fortunate to have gotten to bring the YESS program to the kids at Scott Carpenter. The staff of Adams 50 has been extremely supportive and professional, which has made this experience a joy.

Since it was the last week of school, there were many activities planned and we celebrated our many successes in a variety of ways. Monday, the Student Services department purchased breakfast burritos and pizza. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were spent cleaning the room and wrapping up the kids' experiences. Today, we had an ice cream party and watched a movie.

Even though this is bittersweet for the 8th graders and me, the week has had a celebratory tone and I'm looking forward to working with the new recruits!

May 11th - 15th

I'm still struggling to believe it's the end of the year! This week was extremely busy for the YESS Institute. We celebrated our Year-End Party at Westminster High School on Wednesday and had a wonderful turn-out! It was fabulous to honor the work put forth by all the students and they enjoyed meeting Bronco player, Corey Nelson.

In class, we worked on Emotion Sculptures, which allowed students to choose a basic emotion and then create a three dimensional representation of it. Take a look at some of the kids' work below.

Cristian's "Emotion Tree" represents all the feelings he experiences.

Valerie color-coded all her emotions.

This week, I was also able to finish up the recruitment process and submit a list of names to the school administrators. If all the kids get approved, I'll be able to hand out acceptance letters on Monday!

May 4th - 8th

 Really? There are only ten days of school left?  This week was jam-packed with events at Scott Carpenter. There were field trips, PARCC assessments, and even Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Activities specific to YESS included more mentor interviews, completing our YESS superheroes, and we had a little Cinco de Mayo fiesta, too! Take a look at some of the kids' handiwork below.

On Tuesday, we made paper flowers to honor the Mexican Army's victory over the French Army at the Battle of Puebla.

Mariza, a mentee, wrote me a little note and left it in my mailbox.

Jezzy, another mentee, is working on her YESS superhero, who has two sidekick bunnies.

 Christian has made huge improvements in YESS over the last few months. I'm impressed with his efforts in my class and I'm happy to see him interacting with his peers more often.

These mentors are currently in 7th grade and I'm extremely happy that they've decided to return for the '15-'16 school year. They are awesome leaders!

Speaking of recruitment, there are approximately fifty students who have applied to be mentors next year. We'll be continuing the recruitment and interview process next week, then announcing the mentors during the last week of school.