November 7th - 11th

This week was all about trusting one another and learning how to build trust with others. On Monday, the mentors brainstormed ideas to create a feeling of family in the classroom. Some highlights include: Using Kagan structures to learn tidbits about all their classmates, as opposed to only their mentor/mentee; implementing a "Random Act of Kindness" Challenge, in which each student does something kind for someone in class, then the recipient tries to guess who did it; and creating posters that encourage their peers to give compliments. Their thoughts were insightful and we've already implemented some of them to great avail.

On Tuesday, we continued our tradition of tutoring. Many students breathe a sigh of relief when they see the agenda on these days, as they feel pressured to get everything done and don't always know how to do the work. I also enjoy these tutoring days because I encourage the scholars to teach me something I don't already know, so I've learned quite a bit of math and social studies the last few weeks!

Wednesday and Thursday were our YESS curriculum days. We began both days with exercises in mindfulness, which is a practice of being calm and in the current moment. Naturally, some students are initially resistant to these activities, but the atmosphere of peace when we're done proves the scholars are benefiting. We took advantage of the calmness and opened up a dialogue between the mentors and mentees around trust. They talked about who they trust, as well as what characteristics they look for in trustworthy individuals. Then, students created a mini-obstacle course within the room and took turns guiding each other through the path. It was great fun - Take a look at some photos below!

On Thursday, I assigned a Kagan challenge to one of the core YESS lessons: The Trust Bridge. Students worked with their cooperative learning teams to create a metaphor for trust. The traits of people they don't trust went below, while the positive traits of trustworthy individuals acted as a bridge over those troubled waters. They students did a wonderful job of working together and solidifying their new cooperative teams.

On Friday, YESS participants got to experience working with other students in the school by visiting other classes.

November 1st - 4th

Even though last week was short, we enjoyed a productive time together. One of the more interesting achievements was that I assigned students to new cooperative learning groups. Even though mentor/mentee pairs remain in tact, sitting with a different pair creates a new feeling within the classroom. Some groups are already getting along famously, but others are working to overcome obstacles. The goal is that all students will learn how to positively interact with their peers, even if they don't always agree.

We began with Tutoring Tuesday, during which students brought homework from other classes or practiced their literacy skills in NoRedInk. Many of the YESS scholars brought math or social studies to work on and much progress was made.

I allow our students to journal at the beginning of each day and I require them to use the PEAL process (this is a framework for creating thoughtful paragraphs). Through this work, I have discovered that many students struggle with providing evidence for their answers and then supporting that evidence with an analysis. This is something we will focus on during the coming weeks.

The YESS Institute lesson we completed was called Time Capsule. Ordinarily, this is something we would do at the beginning of the year, but I wanted to students to be able to contemplate how their school year has been going so they may set stronger goals. Once the scholars completed the task, they sealed their time capsules and gave them to me. I'll keep everything safe and secure until we revisit them at the end of the year.

On Friday, we participated in team builders like Fact or Fiction (students tell two truthful statements and one false statement while their team tries to guess the lie), Alphabetical Lists (teams collaborate to create a list of items based on a category), and 4 Corners (a running game that lets kids burn off some energy).

Overall, it was a fabulous week and I'm looking forward to more adventures!

October 24th - 28th

This week, our students continued exploring what makes individuals successful. They finished their Success Brochures, in which they described traits of successful people, the six steps to success, and they wrote PEAL paragraphs detailing examples of successful individuals. Take a look at some of their work below!

In addition to this difficult project, scholars bid a fond farewell to their cooperative learning teams. Beginning tomorrow, they will be working with brand new teams (while, of course, staying with their current mentor/mentee partner). The students are developing some strong bonds with their mentor/mentees, as evidenced by the sweet letter one mentee wrote for his mentors. I'm excited to see how they continue to grow as they achieve the success criteria associated with the district personal/social learning targets.

October 17th - 21st

This week, our scholars studied success. We discussed how many of us have different values, which causes our definitions of success to differ. For instance, some students value family so they deemed success as taking care of one another and getting along. Other scholars value financial stability so having a good job and being able to afford quality housing were included in their definition. Nearly all the mentors and mentees identified education as being vital to being successful.

We also talked about how our definition of success may alter as we grow and our goals change. Now, many students prioritize their education and home life. As they enter adulthood, many scholars recognize that starting their careers will become their primary focus.

To hammer home these concepts, the kids are working on creating tri-fold brochures that include information like the Steps to Success, Traits of Successful People, and brief biographies of three successful adults (no sports players, singers, or actors!). This cross-curricular project is giving students the opportunity to practice using Google Docs and PEAL writing (a literacy technique).

October 10th - 13th

We're starting to get into a routine now that the mentor/mentee pairs are becoming more and more familiar with each other. I've begun giving the mentors "homework" each week and this week, they were tasked with memorizing their mentee's schedule. My goal for this is to encourage conversation between mentors and mentees that will enable the mentors to gain in-depth knowledge of their mentee's lives.

This was the second week for the mentees to work with Katrina, our Community Reach Center partner, and the kids love what they're doing, so far. I'm really lucky to be able to work with her, as she does such an excellent job of meeting the students' needs.

Tuesday, we conducted Tutoring Tuesday. Most of the scholars are grateful for the opportunity to stay on top of their studies. Any kids that don't have homework from their core classes are given assignments in No Red Ink, which helps them meet their learning targets for literacy.

We created "6 Word Sentences" on Wednesday. It was neat to learn how the scholars described themselves. Many were humorous, all were insightful.

Thursday was the highlight of my week, since we completed a team building activity I learned about during a professional development day. I dubbed it the "Poster Challenge" and the kids had to work collaboratively to create a new species of bird. Each teammate had an important role within the team and nearly all students rose to the challenge. Take a look at some of the teams working and their creations below:

October 3rd - 7th

On Monday, before our mentees embarked on their Outdoor Ed excursion, we had our very first Mentor/Mentee Monday. Mentees worked with Katrina, our Community Reach partner, and mentors met with me to identify where they were in the mentoring process. Many have moved through the initial introductory stage into the more difficult trust-building phase. They were relieved to hear other mentors were facing similar challenges and I was proud of how they supported one another.

Tuesday, we did the Facebook Questionnaire. The kids really enjoyed doing this activity and learned a lot about each other.

After our mentees departed, we took some time to strengthen our teams even more. We participated in several Kagan team builder games like Squares and Word Find. Take a look at some of the kids having fun while practicing their personal and social skills!

September 26th - 30th

This week was chocked full of Kagan, Kagan, Kagan! The cooperative learning strategies we've been learning about are perfect for YESS mentoring pairs, as well as giving me a platform to implement support systems for each mentor. When I created teams of four to five students, I was able to put one strong mentor with a younger mentor. I'm already observing some of these less-experienced mentors making great strides in how they interact with their mentees.

On Monday, we focused exclusively on team building exercises. Students invented a team name, team mascot, and a team high five. The trick was achieving consensus, which the scholars know as: An agreement we all can live with.

Consensus was achieved later in the week, too, when we created our Shared Agreements. Like last year, all students will sign the contract and will be held accountable for honoring the agreements they made.