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