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!