January 22nd - 26th

How on earth have we just completed the last full week of January? This year...

On Monday, the mentors began working on a leadership project in which they select an individual that worked to promote the rights of people affected by our federal anti-discrimination laws. Most scholars are leaning toward a leader in Latino rights, but a small minority are focusing on women's rights and even LGBTQ rights! Their task is to write a short, engaging biography and draw a picture. We'll assemble all our pieces and create a mini-book in the style of Little Leaders: Bold Women in Black History.

Tuesday was Tutoring Tuesday. The scholars weren't behaving in a very scholarly fashion, however, so we took some time to reflect on what was going on and scheduled a Circle Talk for Thursday.

2nd Hour participating in their Circle Talk

We continued our unit on Belief Systems on Wednesday and part of Thursday. Specifically, we learned how Belief Systems can either help us achieve our goals or prevent us from experiencing success. We watched a brief video and took notes on the key concepts. The biggest lesson from these two days was that we have to envision ourselves succeeding in order to convince our own minds that we can achieve our goals. The kids' homework was to ignore their friends on the way to their least-favorite class and imagine themselves being the best version of themselves. They'll report on their experience this week.

I was happy with how well the Circle Talks went. Many students have noticed the negative actions of their peers and I was proud of how well the students held each other accountable.

Thanks for reading!

January 16th - 19th

This week was fantastic! Since we didn't have school on Monday, we began our week with Tutoring Tuesday. The scholars are continuing to use their time to stay on top of their studies, as well as prepare for our high-stakes testing season, which is right around the corner.

Wednesday, we reviewed the Apple Pie Concept and wrote skits that demonstrated various types of "pie eaters." They worked hard on these pieces and were excited to perform for their peers later in the week.











On Thursday, we switched gears a bit to begin a series of lessons on Belief Systems. These are the core beliefs we have about ourselves and something that can be difficult to explore. To start the conversation, we played a modified version of Musical Chairs. Like the normal version, the kids walked around a circle of chairs while music played. This was different, however, because they weren't trying to knock anyone out. Rather, they received a word each time they sat down. The hardest part was writing about their personal belief regarding the term. Some students really struggled with it, but succeeded after some thought. Then, we took those beliefs and mapped out who supported them. It was interesting and I'm looking forward to continuing this unit!















For No Fun Friday, the
students performed their skits for the class and were evaluated on their ability to present their work effectively. They also had a lovely time guessing if their peers were showing a Whole Pie, Balanced Pie, or Pie Crumb situation.

January 8th - 12th

What an amazing week! Our first day back from break happened to be a Mentor/Mentee Monday and it was awesome to ease back into things by talking about leadership. We focused on which leadership skills each mentor brings to the table and how to capitalize on their strengths. Then, we prepared ourselves for our upcoming lessons on specific leaders.

We conducted our typical Tutoring Tuesday, but with a twist: we all participated in a guided meditation. This meditation focuses on calm, slow breathing and it's extremely helpful in becoming grounded and focused. We'll continue to listen and breathe through this exercise frequently throughout the rest of the year.

A little bit of Kagan action during our Apple Pie lesson!

Apple Pie was the theme on Wednesday and Thursday. We discussed how our relationships were like pie, in that they can be dissected similarly. In a Controlling relationship, one person (the Whole Pie Eater) takes over. The inverse relationship, the Victim relationship, means one person only takes a little bit of the "pie" and we call this individual the Pie Crumb Eater. The ideal relationship is a Balanced one, in which both members of the relationship take ownership of their part and try to meet the other person's needs when appropriate. During this lesson, we talked about how we play different parts depending on the situation and the other person. Oh, and we ate pie. It was fun to be able to make a connection between real-life issues and food. As you may expect, the kids liked it too!

On Friday, we meditated again, then had No Fun Friday. The students were allowed to complete word searches, draw, or play board games with their mentor/mentee partners. A great time was had by all.

Tune in next week for more fun!