Building Community

Welcome back! We spent the first full week of school working hard to build community in our YESS classes here at Shaw Heights. We got to know one another a bit better by doing team builders and working on general introductory exercises that allowed our mentors and mentees to share more about themselves. We also had a great time viewing the eclipse during our lunch on Monday, and had some time on Friday to play a few fun games to unwind.

Magaly works with Joshlyn as they interview one another.

One of the biggest accomplishments we made last week was setting several goals around attendance, school engagement, and community service. Each scholar was asked to set very detailed goals such as, "I plan to only miss up to 4 days of school this year," or, "I want to share out my opinions more in Ms. Baca's level 6 literacy class." For their community service goals our scholars were asked to consider how they could take the information they are learning in our YESS classes to others in our wider community who may need extra help and support. Many decided to reach out and work on relationships with people in their neighborhoods, on their buses and sports teams, and even within their own families.

Leslie, a first year mentor, shows off the letter that her old mentor, Stacey,
wrote her last year, which she now proudly keeps in her binder.

Not only did we set goals, we also did a fun interview activity where our scholars got to work with their face partners to ask some general questions. It was great to see our mentors and mentees interacting and asking each other things like, "When you feel a really BIG emotion, what kind of support do you want and need?" and, "What really stresses you out?" We have begun to build the foundation of a healthy class community by better understanding the emotions and needs of all of our scholars. 

Next week we will write our shared agreements and we will get to do one of our first art projects. Each scholar will be working on creating a coat of arms that expresses certain aspects of his or her identity. I am really looking forward to seeing how these turn out! We will also do one of the most beloved team builders--building "spaghetti marshmallow" towers. It is sure to be a great week! 

Back to School!

Destiny is ready to mentor this year! 

3rd hour enjoying some time outside on Friday.

Welcome back! We have returned to Shaw Heights for the 2017-2018 school year and we could not be more excited for the year ahead. We had so many former mentees who have come back this year to serve as mentors and I know we have such a strong group of leaders ready to help out! I have had countless students come by my room to ask if they can join YESS and I am so grateful to our amazing counselors as they work to schedule everyone we possible can into YESS.

A wonderful answer from one of our 2nd year mentors! 

Ivan worked with several others to build an impressive Jenga domino line!

Our first week back was a week for us to connect as a class and to begin forming a sense of community. We showed the YESS video to the new mentees, shared artwork and stories from last year, and did some fun team builders and games to get people up and moving and interacting with one another. On Thursday we did our first lesson on introductions and the importance of understanding one's self in order to set up healthy relationships. Our scholars got to know more about one another as they worked on a "Let Me Introduce Myself" worksheet. I was shocked to find out one of our new scholars has been skydiving, and another is a competitive gamer! We also have a new scholar from the Philippines who is so excited to be in YESS.

Outside with 4th hour on Friday.

Our room is set and ready, and next week we will begin working on some of our first art projects, such as our Coat of Arms. We are working with a new curriculum this year and have so many awesome new lessons on things like the teenage brain and drugs. Stay tuned as we begin our new school year together!