March 20th - 24th

This week was all about wiping the slate clean before Spring Break. The students worked hard to complete any and all assignments early in the week. The mentors did a great job of helping their mentees with work. Later, we watched Inside Out, which we will revisit after break in order to create emotion sculptures.

Throughout the week, our mentors read their writings on Cesar Chavez. Some of them were nervous about reading in public, but nevertheless they persisted. I am so proud of their efforts and can't wait to continue their leadership training!

March 13th - 17th

This was an extremely busy week! The mentors have planned to celebrate Cesar Chavez before Spring Break by dedicating the Pledge to him for a whole week, as well as making posters for our school. They did a wonderful job and I'm excited to let their work shine!

The scholars are seeing the value in Tutoring Tuesdays, as several students have informed me that they are catching up in their classes. I'm so proud of their efforts.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent creating Love Cups. As usual, the students' creativity was impressive. The goal of this assignment was to devise an artistic representation of things in their lives that fill them and drain them. Take a look at some of their works below!

Friday was fun, too! We celebrated St. Patrick's Day by making Leprechaun Trail Mix (cereal, white chocolate, and sprinkles) and making crafts. The kids even had a chance to share their snack with all the staff in the building, although we didn't catch any leprechauns.

March 6th - 10th

We continued our lessons on accountability this week by writing letters to our teachers. Students were challenged to select one teacher they have wronged in some way, then write a business letter taking ownership of the error and apologizing. They did a phenomenal job and I'm excited to distribute their works to the teachers in the coming days.

Friday, students completed a team builder called Heart. Mind. Soul. In this activity, teams worked together to create a character and discuss topics like their hopes for the future, challenges they face, and place they'd like to go someday. Here are some of their creations:

February 27th - March 3rd

The focus this week was on accountability. When we discuss this topic, we like to use the metaphor of a ladder, which is based on this graphic:

The students always enjoy thinking of examples of times when they functioned lower on the ladder and this year's group was no exception. Some humorous stories they shared included breaking a window and blaming it on a sibling and tripping a cousin, then blaming it on someone else. Because the whole school is talking about an uptick in bullying and discipline issues, we were able to bring those topics into the conversation, as well. We talked about how we might wait and hope the kid who sits by him/herself at lunch makes friends, but fail to be the one to take action. We also discussed how our actions or acceptance of other peoples' actions might negatively affect those around us. The students then came up with solutions for some of the negative behaviors they're seeing in the building. Overall, I was impressed with their ability to observe their surroundings, identify areas for improvement, and come up with a plan to address problems. I'm looking forward to our upcoming lesson called Accountability Letters, in which students write letters to their teachers to take accountability for their actions in the classroom. Here's the second period kiddos with the activity they completed on Wednesday!

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.