Cool Buttons & Catching up

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.

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!

Hot Buttons & Hot Cider!

It is so very hard to believe that is will be our final posting for the YESS blog at Shaw Heights for the 2016 calendar year! Time has really flown by this semester as I got to know each and every one of our YESS scholars. As I write this, I am already missing my time in the YESS classroom, for being with our scholars is truly a rewarding experience.

This past week we did a lesson on "Hot Buttons"-- on what, exactly, makes us angry. Many of our scholars were looking forward to this lesson as they all stated how much the worksheet revealed about their tendencies to get upset, and how empowered they all felt after identifying their major triggers. Our mentors are really stepping up at this point in the semester, taking a lot of ownership over their mentees' work and celebrating their mentees' successes. While this lesson certainly brought up a lot of emotion for all of our scholars, our mentors did a wonderful job guiding their mentees through the assignment.

We wrapped up our year by having a wonderful donut and hot cider party which was hosted by Tony Streno. Our scholars were overjoyed at the sight of the delicious donuts, and many had never heard of hot cider, let alone had any. We were so very thankful for Mr. Streno's generosity. To wrap up our discussion on EQ vs. IQ and the need to establish healthy skills such as self awareness, social awareness, self management, and relationship management, we watched the movie "Elf" while enjoying our treats. In the film the main character is an "elf" named Buddy, who is really a human who was adopted by elves as a baby, and is on a journey to find his real father. Therein lies the conflict of the film, however, as Buddy is very emotional but has no boundaries, and his real father is driven by his desire to make money without care or cause for the feelings of others. Our scholars loved watching the film and we paused throughout to point out the need for Buddy to be more socially aware, or for his father to work on relationship management skills.

The front of the YESS holiday card.

The back of the YESS holiday card.

All in all it was a wonderful end to a fantastic year with our YESS scholars at Shaw Heights, topped off by the display of artwork on behalf of our Shaw Heights scholars on the YESS company holiday card. Many of our scholars turned in impressive drawings of what YESS means to them in relation to the holiday season, and four were chosen to be on the card this year. We are so proud of our amazing artistic scholars.

Here's to wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season--we cannot wait to be back together in January for the new year!

EQ vs IQ: What is Emotional Intellegence?

This past week in our YESS program at Shaw Heights we wrapped up our projects on the four key skills--Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Self-Management, and Relationship Management--by having each group present their poster to the class. Our mentors and mentees did a wonderful job working together on their presentations, and I was quite impressed with how outspoken and confident our mentees were during their presentations.



Yuliana and Ximena hold their group's poster on Social Awareness

All of the groups from each class were able to answer questions about their subject in addition to being able to provide a personal account of a time when he or she either used or ignored that particular skill, citing their experiences with evidence. It was so impressive to see our scholars apply information such as relationship management and social awareness to their own lives, especially in relation to how they will act in the future now that they are equipped with this knowledge. (For instance: one of our YESS scholars referred back to a fact we learned last week when I asked how social awareness may help us succeed; he was able to recall that 85% of us do not feel valued/respected by our peers, and that if we are aware of this, we may be able to approach a situation at work or school more sensitively, which may increase our chances of succeeding).

Once we completed our presentations, we moved on to a discussion centered around EQ (emotional quotient). Many of our scholars were familiar with the term IQ, though only a handful had ever heard of EQ (and many of these scholars were in YESS last year). We went over a packet of information about EQ and IQ, including a map that details which countries around the world have the highest and lowest EQs.




Isai shows off his results from the EQ Self Assessment

Our scholars were then asked to take a self-assessment to determine their current level of emotional intelligence. The assessment consists of four categories--self-awareness, self-control, empathy, and responding with integrity. We had a couple of scholars who scored perfect scores in some of these categories, and most of our scholars scored well in all of these areas. It seems, however, that self-control is the category our scholars need to work on the most! We will continue to work on skills to increase our self-control.

We are all looking forward to break next week!

5 Core Emotions & EQ

This past week in YESS we began our discussion on emotional intelligence (EQ) by talking about "nature vs. nurture" and the curious story of Phineas Gage, a man who lost a portion of his brain after a traumatic accident. Our scholars debated whether we are in fact a product of our environment or if we are born and destined to act and/or behave a certain way. Many were able to touch on the fact that it is a combination of the two factors that influence our behavior, though we agreed that the environment plays a crucial role in one's development.

We read the story of Phineas Gage to better understand the science behind our emotions, for Phineas Gage was a man of good character who was admired by all who knew him--that is, until he was injured on the job by an explosion which sent a 42 inch metal rod through the lower half of his skull. Surprisingly (or not so surprisingly to our scholars who now understand the brain!) Phineas was able to talk, breathe, and walk right after the accident. He not only survived but made a "full physical recovery." However, when it came to his mental and emotional well being, he was forever changed. As my scholars pointed out, only part of his brain was damaged, which is why he was able to do math, have a conversation, and continue working at his job on the railroad. What he could not do was relate to others in any capacity, for the portion of his brain that was damaged was the one responsible for regulating emotions.

Once we unpacked the story of Phineas Gage, our scholars began a research project on the four key skills necessary for dealing with our five core emotions (anger, happiness, sadness, disgust, and anxiety). The four key skills are: Self-Management, Relationship Management, Self-Awareness, and Social Awareness. Scholars worked in teams of 4-6 to figure out the definition of their key skill, why it is important for our EQ, and what we can do to strengthen that particular skill. The groups were then required to design a poster with all the relevant information for their skill which they will be presenting to our class this week.

Everyone did a wonderful job both working together and creating an informative poster, and I am proud that our scholars are taking this work so seriously. We have many mentors who are really looking forward to our lesson this week on "Hot Bottons." Stay tuned!

Presedential Elections & Student Leadership

We had an exciting week in our YESS program at Shaw Heights this past week as we held our class "Co-Presidential" elections. As a school we are working on providing more leadership opportunities for our scholars, and everyone was buzzing this week as we discussed these new roles and how they can positively affect our classroom environment.

One mentee's flyer for elections!

One mentor's flyer for elections!

Before we got into the elections, though, we had Mentor Monday and Tutoring Tuesday. Our mentors really enjoy having a day set aside for just their needs and concerns as mentors, and I always look forward to our discussions on Mondays. Meanwhile, our mentees are really getting into the WhyTry program, which is a wellness class hosted on Mentor Monday. This special, differentiated time on Mondays allows us to address the needs of our mentors and mentees in order to best support each and every scholar.

Our Tutoring Tuesday was a bit quiet this week as our 8th graders were attending the career exposition and were out for the majority of the day. Even still, our mentees did a great job of coming in and getting right to work on their academic goals. I am seeing so much growth in our mentees, especially when it comes to being more focused and organized with their assignments.

A mentee gives a speech for our class presidential elections.

Once we were all back together as a class on Wednesday, we got into unpacking the roles and responsibilities of a class president. We brainstormed in our journals to see what each thought our co-presidents should do for our class. As each scholar shared out, I drafted a Word document in order to ensure each class has a specified set of roles for their presidents. The scholars loved getting a say in these new roles and responsibilities, and they really liked that each class drafted their own document.

Dejah and Jalius, both mentors, pose with the class contract after winning.

The following day we hosted campaign speeches, which was a great opportunity for our scholars to speak to the class about his or her strengths--and weaknesses. The speeches were really wonderful, and many did a great job handling speaking to the entire class about his or her specific weakness. Following the conclusion of all the speeches (anyone who was interested was welcome to make a speech to the class!), we hosted the elections.

Not every class period had enough time to vote, so we will wrap up once we return from Thanksgiving break.
Our class co-presidents are:

3rd period-- Aliyana and Gio
4th period-- TBD
5th period-- Breann and Advino
6th period-- Kiana and Quan
7th period-- Dejah and Jalius

Thoughts vs Emotions & Positive Affirmations!

This past week was quite an emotionally charged one for our YESS scholars at Shaw Heights. Many were reeling from the news of the election, and so we spent the week unpacking these emotions by trying to better understand the connection (and disconnect) between thoughts and emotions. We talked at length about the fact that emotion and logic are regulated by different parts of the brain, and studied different images of the brain in our efforts to understand the complexity of thoughts and emotions.

The more we talked, the more our scholars were able to touch on the demarcation point between logical thought and emotions. Several shared out experiences from when someone had crossed his or her "personal boundary" and the fight that ensued as a result of feeling very emotional and reactionary in that moment. We discussed, as a class, how thoughts and feelings are different, and took the Thoughts vs. Feelings quiz to gauge our understanding of why, "I feel anxious," is a feeling, and, "I feel as though I am being torn apart," is a thought. This was a tricky topic for many, and it took two days before our scholars had a solid understanding of thoughts and emotions. Each day we began by rereading the quote on the board:

"When dealing with people, remember-- you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion." --Daniel Carnegie



One scholar's list of "10 Positive Affirmations"

Our scholars agreed that we are all certainly creatures of emotion, and we further discussed how some thoughts can begin to ruminate in the brain, becoming dangerous to our health. Everyone seemed to agree that ruminations are unhealthy and are unwelcome, yet we all seem to fall prey to these emotionally-charged thoughts. We touched on the fact that positive thoughts, or affirmations, can actually help break this negative cycle.

In order to better understand how logic and emotions affect one another, we watched a short film called "The Quiet," in which a young, half-deaf girl gets bullied while riding home on the school bus. The young lady becomes emotionally overwhelmed and storms off the bus, leaving her cell phone behind. Her mother had texted her to let her know that a man named John, driving a blue van, would be picking her up that day, but the young lady never saw the message. Instead, she saw the blue van waiting on the road and panicked, taking off into the woods in fear. John tried to catch her, which then turned into a wild chase through the woods, as the young lady grew increasingly frightened. In the end, she falls and gets hurt, and is later found by a search party. The movie plays off the fear of the viewer, and afterwards we discussed how fear, in particular, can be a very strong emotion which often overrides our ability to think logically.

To wrap up the week on a more positive note, we each spent the last day of the week drafting a list of 10 positive affirmations. Once each scholar has a completed this list, they were then asked to pick their favorite affirmation to illustrate for our classroom. We all enjoyed this activity as we talked about how positive thoughts can help break the negative ruminations and thought patterns that can occur in our minds.

Personal Boundaries & Trust Walks

This past week in YESS we continued our unit on relationships by discussing what our personal boundaries are- how to identify these boundaries, how to set healthy boundaries in our various relationships, and how best to clarify our expectations for personal boundaries and what to do should someone violate our boundaries and, "cross the line." The scholars were quiet at first, but as each individual shared out at least one personal boundary, the class excitement and energy grew. We made a list of all the "no-go" boundaries in our lives, and the list kept growing as we continued to talk. Many began opening up as to why they felt they needed a certain boundary, which in turn encouraged other, more reserved scholars to open up about their needs and experiences.

We discussed different types of boundaries--mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual- and the need to communicate our desires about these boundaries to others in order to form healthy, balanced relationships. Some commonly shared boundaries amongst our scholars were against negative behaviors and/or beliefs that they feel act as boundaries to personal success. Examples include individuals who lie, cheat, steal, abuse others, use drugs, smoke cigarettes, gossip, bully, homophobic individuals or those who do not believe in LGBTQ rights, aggressive individuals and gang members. We also discussed boundaries against behaviors that make us physically uncomfortable, such those who invade our personal space without asking by way of hugs or intimate touches that feel unwarranted.

Overall, the classes thoroughly enjoyed our talks on personal boundaries. Many felt validated when I told them they had a right to feel upset should someone cross one of their personal boundaries. Perhaps the most pertinent part of the lesson was not necessarily identifying these boundaries, but our discussion on what to do next if someone crosses a personal boundary. When I asked how it felt when an individual crosses one of our personal boundaries (and what one should do), I was met with a pretty unanimous feeling of frustration and anger. Very few were able to articulate what they say and do in this situation; the majority said they tend to be reactionary once someone has "crossed a line."

We took a day to unpack these feelings around boundaries and how to proceed in a manner best suited to progress-that is, not falling prey to reactionary emotions in that moment. We identified, as a class, ways to cope and to protect our emotions. Scholars noted the need to clarify what one's boundaries are from the start of a relationship so that issues don't just "crop up" suddenly; rather, each person is certain what the other's boundaries are, and, more importantly, what will happen as a result of crossing this understood boundary. We decided that the best method would be to distance ourselves from those who fail to respect our boundaries, and that we need to be cautious and clear communicators when forming new relationships.

To complete our week, we did a "trust walk" where the mentees and mentors each took turns being blindfolded and lead through the maze by simply listening to the voice of his or her partner. I even participated with my student assistant's help, and everyone was over the moon with laughter and joy as I blindly stumbled around the classroom. Afterward we all discussed how the blindfold made us uneasy, though everyone trusted that his or her partner would take them safely through the maze. It was a very fun day to bookend our week discussing boundaries and trust in relationships!