January 20th- 23rd

This week was another successful week for the students in the YESS program. This week we did presentations on their life timelines. Students shared a lot of personal stories that impacted their life. One student shared how she has been in and out of foster care and that this experience has shaped her future because now she wants to be a counselor who works with youth. Students are becoming more open this week and are comfortable sharing personal information with one another.

This week while I was in the teacher’s lounge I was approached by Ms. Breckheimer. She told me, “whatever it is that you are doing, it is working!” I laughed then she said,” My third period class is my toughest class, they never turn in any work and this week all of the mentee students turned in their work." I was super happy to hear that the mentees at Shaw are already making huge progress and it is only January.

Finally, this week the mentees and mentors started working on their “I am poem.”  Many students loved this assignment because they thought of this as writing rap/ hip hop lyrics.  One student in my 7^th hour wrote many different poems and at the end of class his face was lit up and he said, “I love this class, I think I found my passion today. I want to be a writer.” 

These students are amazing and I am excited to see how much these students have grown come May.