December 14th- 18th

Love Cup and Winter Break Party

This has been an amazing semester. I have been so lucky to see students become such great leaders, reach goals, and plan for their future. In our last week of school, we did an activity called, "The Love Cup." This activity allows students to reflect on what is keeping them from being full or 100% their best.Students reflect on what is draining them. This year the students were very creative in displaying their feelings. One student went home and smashed a mug, then glued it back together. She said the one thing draining her is high expectations from her parents.

On Thursday, the mentees and mentors were rewarded with a sandwich party. They have been working very hard these past three weeks to get missing work turned in to their teachers. Mentors have been meeting with their mentee's teachers, and have been following up on goals the the mentors had set for their mentees. It was a great day to relax and talk about goals and expectations for next semester.

November 30- December 4th

This was our first week back from Thanksgiving break and the students came back motivated and ready to finish the semester strong. This week the mentors created a three-week goal plan for themselves as well as their mentees.  On Wednesday the mentors went over the goals they had set and helped the mentees collect missing work, as well as work on the missing assignments they had.

On Tuesday we did an activity called, "Who are you at_____." This is where students reflect on who they are when they are around different people and different environments. During this activity there were a lot of "ah ha" moments where students realized that they act up in from of their friends for attention, and they act a different way at home because they know they will get in trouble.  Many of the YESS students told me that they wanted to be true to themselves in all situations, and around all people.

Also this week, the students did "Self-esteem graphs." This is where students graph their self-esteem through out the day. It was nice to see that most students had higher self-esteem during the YESS class.

Overall, we had another successful week!

Self Esteem Presentations