T-shirt Winner & Thanksgiving Break

Hanging out with Amanda being silly before the break!

We have an exciting announcement regarding our YESS t-shirt contest at Shaw Heights--a winner has been chosen! Though we are awaiting official approval of the design, our peer-voted winners for this year's design contest are Celest and Chloe from 5th hour! Celest is a very talented artist and took several days to work out her hand drawn design. Many were blown away by her efforts--myself included! Congrats, ladies!

We did a lot of practicing with our, "Today I Choose..." maps before the break. I love how many of our scholars have chosen to keep with maps on their binders or right insider their planners. Many have also decorated their maps extensively, showing a lot of ownership and pride. I can see how these maps are already affecting the thinking process of our scholars.

The front design of the winning t-shirt.

The back design for the winning t-shirt.

We are starting our unit on the brain and will be talking a lot about fear this week. Stay tuned for more!

Today I Choose & "Stinking Thinking"

Quan contemplates our shared "Today I choose..." bubble map.

This past week in YESS was pivotal as we set a new routine and ritual in order to combat our "stinking thinking." This is a crucial lesson in YESS as it really sets the tone for self-care and advocacy. In this lesson we teach the importance of positive "loving kindness" and the fact that negative self-talk is a serious form of self-harm.

The "bad" apple is on the left--it decays at 5 times the rate of the "good" apple.

We watched a TedX video that discussed the power of words and the impact that "stinking thinking" thoughts like, "I'm no good, I might as well just quit," or, "I can't do it, I'm stupid." To further demonstrate just how seriously harmful negative self-talk can be we watched several experiments that show the impact and power of words. There have been many such experiments done since the 1960s when it was first discovered that our words can affect the structure and function of atoms and molecules. Our scholars watched as woman cut an apple in two, put the pieces into different jars, and proceeded to yell means things to one half while saying beautiful, loving things to the other half. She did this for three weeks and the result is shocking: the "bad" apple decays at about 500% the rate of the "good" apple (see picture). Our scholars could not believe the impact of negative words. I could see the collective shock on their faces..."this is what I am doing to my brain?" I had many approach me in a daze, saying how they want to share the information with their families and friends outside of YESS. I am proud of their desires to share this information, for too many of use engage in "stinking thinking" without realizing how significantly it affects us.

Bethsy's beautiful "Today I choose..." bubble map.Scholars are keeping them either in the front of theirYESS journals or in their daily planner if they wish to have it with them all day long (many decided to do this!). 

Once we all realized the severity of stinking thinking, we had to work hard to create a new ritual that will help combat these thoughts. This year we are going to be doing something called, "Today I choose..." at the start of each class. Each scholar has made a bubble map which they have filled with positive loving kindness. They will read their map at the start of class every day. In time, hopefully they will begin to internalize these words and phrases! "I am OK, I can do this," and, "I can help, I know what to do."

My personal "Today I choose..." bubble map!

Finally, on Friday we did a short breathing exercise to help show how powerful a tool one's breathing can be. I had our scholars listen to a short eight minute guided breathing exercise that focuses on taking long, deep breaths to the count of 3. It was great to see how relaxed and calm our scholars became in less than 10 minutes! The fact that it was such a short amount of time was one of the most powerful aspects--so many scholars were shocked as they felt like an hour had passed. This short exercise is just one tool they can use to combat stinking thinking.

Breathing exercises during 5th hour on Friday.

This week we will begin talking more about the brain (and our stinking thinking!). Stay tuned!

YESS T-Shirt Contest

A design from 5th hour.

A cool "pocket" design from 6th hour.

This past week was another art-filled one for us as our scholars worked to design a winning YESS t-shirt! Every year we hold a competition to see who can come up with the most innovative, fun, meaningful design for a Shaw Heights Middle School YESS t-shirt. Everyone had a great time working up new designs. Several decided to go with the "04" theme to represent the 4th year of YESS at Shaw Heights. Many drew or added the school falcon to their t-shirt, and we had a couple of artists who managed to free-draw the YESS logo. Next week we will vote for the top design in each class, and then we will select a winner from those top five.

Another great design from 6th hour!

Dressed up on Halloween with Symone and Ivan.

Sadly, I was quite sick last week so I missed the end of the week with our scholars but I am proud of their efforts to complete their t-shirts. We all had fun on Halloween as this was the first time in a long time that Shaw allowed students to dress up. I was the "ring leader" and am pictured here with two of my "clowns" and our penguin, Ernesto. We  had a lot of laughs, to say the least!


Next week we will select our t-shirt contest winner and we will begin working on our new unit--the brain. Have a great week!