April 17th - 20th

With testing and a day off, this week flew by in the blink of an eye! On Monday, the mentors and I discussed the recruitment process for new mentors while the mentees learned more about how to handle their emotions in a productive manner. Tuesday, we maintained steam with Tutoring Tuesday, despite nearly three and a half hours of testing. I noticed the scholars were burning out on Wednesday and Thursday, so we practiced mindfulness techniques and relaxed with a movie. All in all, a simple, semi-relaxing week. We'll be focusing on post-secondary education in the coming days. Stay tuned!

April 10th - 14th

The scholars really felt the stress of PARCC testing this week, but I was pleased to hear them speak of various strategies they used. Many students cited thinking maps, as well as the PEAL process as being useful in managing their thoughts.

In class, we kept things light by creating black-out poems. On Tuesday, we watched a video by Austin Kleon to introduce the topic of "steal[ing] like an artist." You can view his talk by clicking here. We discussed how we can repurpose words to create new works of art and how we expose our inner selves by selecting some words over others. Take a look at some of the kids' efforts below and you'll be as impressed with their depth as I was! Many students revealed their fears and even successes in this project and, like usual, I was impressed by the depth of character revealed in their work.

"Stared at blue eyes, feeling safe, warm, and loved, he felt lost, feelings mixed up. He was ignored and he became angry."

"Branches bending in the wind. Nothing to hear. Nothing to smell but the familiar scents of fears."

"No welcome appeared like a lonely sound."

"Resting anxiously on the shore, an empty sky gone forever."

"Attention. Each morning, shout I'm beautiful."

"Family: the pack that could make miserable move away."

"Fear followed his cry for help. Together, their eyes opened, they struggled and carried on."

"A deep depression, fighting in despair."

"He looked at her. There was a long silence."

April 4th - 7th

Greetings and welcome to another fun YESS Institute update! Despite being a short week, the scholars accomplished much. All groups began their weeks with a mindfulness activity called "Friendly Wishes" that encourages them to send happy thoughts to a loved one, then to themselves. The goal is to practice thinking positively, which is a trait shared by many successful individuals. Click here to check out an article from the Mayo Clinic for more information!

Wednesday through Friday were spent creating our YESS superheroes. The students were instructed to reflect on their Hot Buttons and invent a superhero to combat them. Many scholars showed great creativity and wrote stellar PEAL paragraphs! Here are some of their renderings.

A mentor, Alicia, drew this and she says the petals contain things like love, kindness, and hope. They are fighting these Hot Buttons: Not good enough, looking stupid, and being unloved.  

Yaridza, a cutie mentee, says Star Yellow fights her Hot Buttons by shooting stars. 

We took some time to engage in team builders, as well. This week's challenge was to create human pyramids and try co-standing. For the pyramids, students faced their team mates, held their hands at shoulder level, then leaned in so their weight was supported by the kids on their team. The co-standing activity involved students sitting back-to-back, locking arms, then attempting to stand. I love these team builders are always a great way to boost engagement and invoke a little laughter!

Alonzo and Virgil - having fun!

One of the classes was struggling with respect this week, so we devoted two days to participating in a restorative circle. I was impressed with how open they were with one another. Many students shared about the loss of loved ones, as well as challenges within the school building, while others wrote supportive notes to those who were struggling. We capitalized on all this love by doing an activity on Friday that allowed students to share their thoughts about their peers in writing. At the end, each scholar got to share their favorite quote. Here they are, reading aloud.