We had quite the short week for our first week back in 2017 as the district cancelled school last Thursday due to a frigid snow storm. Thankfully our YESS scholars came back ready to work and we were able to complete a lesson on "Cool Buttons" during our two days together last week. I am so grateful for the focus and work ethic our scholars have demonstrated after such a long break.
Continuing our discussions around triggers or, "Hot Buttons," from before break, we reviewed as a class what some of our personal hot buttons are and how we handled these over the break. Several mentors shared out frustrations over conflicts with siblings yet were able to touch on the fact that they were less reactive in those moments thanks to the simple knowledge of knowing
what, exactly, makes them upset and hurt. I continually tell our scholars that knowledge is power, and I had several echo me last week during this discussion as they told me they felt more empowered than others in knowing that 85% of their peers do not feel respected nor valued at any given moment in time (this factoid came from one of our previous lessons during which we discussed core emotions and key coping skills). Our YESS scholars enter conversations carefully, and with empathy, knowing that the people in their lives each have hot buttons of their own and that we must be cognizant of this in order to work together successfully.
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| Playing a game of Uno with 4th Period |
It was so wonderful to catch up with our scholars after weeks apart. We spent the last 15 minutes on Friday have some "fun time" together, chatting and playing board games (and some pretty awesome Uno card games!). I am really looking forward to our Mentor Monday talks next week and seeing our scholars working hard during Tutoring Tuesday so that each is able to excel in all of his or her classes this semester as much as possible!
Continuing our discussions around triggers or, "Hot Buttons," from before break, we reviewed as a class what some of our personal hot buttons are and how we handled these over the break. Several mentors shared out frustrations over conflicts with siblings yet were able to touch on the fact that they were less reactive in those moments thanks to the simple knowledge of knowing what, exactly, makes them upset and hurt. I continually tell our scholars that knowledge is power, and I had several echo me last week during this discussion as they told me they felt more empowered than others in knowing that 85% of their peers do not feel respected nor valued at any given moment in time (this factoid came from one of our previous lessons during which we discussed core emotions and key coping skills). Our YESS scholars enter conversations carefully, and with empathy, knowing that the people in their lives each have hot buttons of their own and that we must be cognizant of this in order to work together successfully.
Hi Blair, these scholars look like they are having so much fun! Glad to hear that they are really integrating some of their thoughts and learning and generalizing it out to other places. That is true learning at that point, yes? Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteHi Diane, thanks so much for your comment! They are really utilizing the knowledge from our YESS classes, and the more they do so the more excited they become to learn more. Hope you get to stop by sometime soon to meet some of our SHMS scholars!
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