February 21st - 24th

Yet another fabulous week at Scott Carpenter MS! On Tuesday, the scholars were put into new collaborative learning teams and then worked on their homework. Wednesday, we created our new team identities. I always love how unique the team names are, especially since we used a Kagan activity to find team names that embodied the students' likes. Some highlights from this round are: The Pink Pandaz, WWW.MEMES.COM, and the Cakepop Nuggets. Once each team developed a name as a group, they created a team collage that represented the individual members. Here's the team sign for a group called McDonald's!

Although I wasn't at school on Thursday, the students carried on with their guest teacher. I was proud to come back and receive a positive note regarding the scholars' behavior. Friday, we participated in No Fun Friday by completed a team builder called Zoom. In this activity, students worked as a team to put the pages of a book in order. They were given several pages from the book with no clues about where to begin and, to make things even more difficult, they weren't allowed to show each other their pages. If you'd like to check out the book, click here. As always, I'm looking forward to more learning and leadership with our students this week!

February 13th - 17th

What a wonderfully full week! On Monday, the mentors and I prepared for conferences by completing class reflections. Tuesday was spent working on classwork and getting caught up. The highlight of the week was when the student teams created posters that outlined the steps to peaceful conflict resolution. We began this topic last week, but many kids were unable to remember all the steps in order, so we revisited this idea and learned it in a different way. Take a look at the students' work below!

The scholars used magazines to cut out letters and words that explain the process, then glued them to a poster. The goal is to hang these throughout the school to help other students resolve their problems peacefully. The kids really enjoyed this project. There is something relaxing about crafting and I appreciated how much thought they put into their spelling and grammar! The best part is that more than 75% of my students can recite these steps in order. We'll keep reviewing this until each scholar can achieve the task, but I'm proud of those that have mastered the content already!

In other news, conferences were successful. I always enjoy meeting with parents and highlighting their student's growth. Friday was the final day of these teams, so we did one last team building exercise and prepared to have new cooperative learning groups after the long weekend.

February 6th - 10th

Each year, students ask for more lessons on anger management and conflict resolution. This week we targeted both of those topics by taking an anger inventory, then studying the steps to peaceful conflict resolution. Here are the steps, as laid out by Naomi Drew, M.A. of Learning Peace:
      1. Cool off (Fun fact: it takes approximately fifteen minutes for the brain to
          stop releasing stress hormones after a trigger!)
      2. Describe what's bothering you with "I statements"
      3. Seek understanding by allowing each person to restate what they heard
      4. Take responsibility
      5. Brainstorm solutions that satisfy all people
      6. Affirm, forgive, and thank
I was proud of how well the students discussed their experiences. The trusting relationships they've formed over the course of the school year are paying dividends now that they are beings asked to analyze one another's actions.

Here, students are arranging the steps into the correct order.

Above, a team works to arrange a conversation in the correct order.

We'll be continuing to practice these steps over the next few days, as many students are struggling with what words to actually say in the heat of the moment.

January 30th - February 3rd

This week, we had our typical Mentor/Mentee Monday and Tutoring Tuesday. The highlight of the week was when we utilized the wonderful sock puppets created by our scholars to write skits that demonstrated our EmoTrolls! The students were required to make sure every team member spoke at least six lines of text and there had to be a moral to their story. As always, I was impressed with their creativity and positive messages. Here are some of the lessons our scholars found valuable: Think before you act, listen to your parents because they want what's best for you, and fighting is never the answer. Several teams performed their skits on Friday, but I'm having some trouble loading them at the moment. Stay tuned for more!

January 23rd - 27th

This week, scholars met the nine EmoTrolls: Cool and Groovy, Smiley, Stuffy, Sulky, Blamey, Gossipy, Vengy, Bully, and Bomby. As in past years, the kids really enjoyed this topic because they identify with the behaviors enacted by each character. Students were able to use relevant vocabulary and pinpoint times when they acted like an EmoTrolls. On No-Fun-Friday, we utilized a Kagan structure to make sock puppets that represent each EmoTroll. The students' creativity was, as always, astounding and I was really proud of how well they did. Take a look at some of their works of art below!

Soon, we'll be writing scripts and putting on puppet shows to demonstrate how EmoTrolls harm our relationships and devise more productive ways of handling our emotions. I can't wait to see where the scholars go from here!

January 17th - 20th

Was this week only four days? I couldn't tell because we got so much accomplished! Tutoring Tuesday was spent helping kids study for Science and Social Studies tests, as well as completing various homework assignments. Wednesdsay, Thursday, and Friday were all dedicated to Hot Buttons. I was really proud of how well the scholars identified with this concept. To make the topic more interactive, I designed an in-class project where students made artistic representations of their Hot Buttons and Cool Buttons. Take a look at some of their work!

The other exciting news from this week involved our t-shirts! The kids were thrilled to receive their shirts and many put them on immediately. We've even had teachers ask if we have extras!

January 9th - 13th

Our first full week after break was a great one! The mentors began discussing their experiences as positive leaders. They will be writing essays on their "Personal Best" and sharing them with one another over the coming weeks. I'm looking forward to hearing their tales! On Tuesday, many students were able to practice Literacy in Achieve 3000 during tutoring time. Wednesday and Thursday, we discussed biases and how they shade our view of the world. We also talked about the core emotions and the ways in which our emotions affect our ability to reason and think logically. The kids were all able to come up with some solid examples of instances when their brains were "hijacked" by their emotions and they lost control. Friday, we participated in fun team builders like Kick the Can and Cat Tails.