Parent Conferences & Self-Portrait Presentations

Julianna Romero expressed the inner turmoil she feels while Ava Martinez wanted to show all of the issues she has overcome in the during the past two years in YESS.

What an exciting week we had in our YESS program at Shaw Heights! We spent the last week before Spring Break presenting our self-portrait projects, going over grades and preparing for conferences, and writing accountability letters. Our scholars did a wonderful job on their projects and showed such confidence during our presentations. I was also quite proud of the accountability letters our scholars wrote and the way in which mentors helped support this process.

Tyler Parks' self-portrait from 6th hour.

I was so excited to do our gallery walk and presentations for the self-portraits this week as our scholars have been working so hard on these projects. Unlike many of our projects, mentors and mentees did not work together but rather had to complete their own individual projects. While many of our mentees felt "stuck" at first, it wasn't long before they were hunched over and hard at work after they took some time to flip through projects from last year and gather their thoughts. Many of our scholars were afraid to be honest in their drawings and depictions but after a few supportive conversations they had the courage necessary to be 100% honest. We ended up with a lot of projects that show how the individual thinks others perceive them and how they perceive themselves--the comparisons were rich with detail and offer a lot of insight, and I am so proud of the bravery shown in these images.

A compare and contrast self-protrait project from 3rd hour.

Dayanara reads her "I am Poem" to her mother during conferences. 

After we went over the projects we moved on to preparing for parent conferences by completing scripts and going over them together. Each scholar was required to evaluate their grades from our fall conferences and to state how they thought they were doing now; I then met individually with each and every one of our YESS scholars to discuss their progress. During this time I had everyone working on writing an "accountability letter" to either a teacher or staff member at Shaw Heights. They had to pick someone with whom they had had an issue at some point during the year (even if that issue were a simple as not sharing out ideas or participating in a certain classroom). They then had to apologize for the issue and/or behavior and state how they plan to change in the future to ensure the same issue does not reoccur. The letters were well written and genuine, and I am excited to hand them out to teachers and staff when we return from break.

I was so happy to have so many parents come out for conferences this past week. We got a chance to show parents some of the amazing art projects we have done, and I loved seeing the pride on our YESS scholars' faces as they read their poems or presented their projects to their family members. Thank you to all who made time to drop by my classroom to speak with me! 

Self Portraits & Mentors at the 5th Grade Fair!

Brenna, myself and Advino at the 5th Grade Fair!

This past week in our YESS classes at Shaw Heights we did a fantastic art project and we hosted a table at the 5th Grade Fair for two days. We were so excited to begin our self-portrait projects, and it was made even more special by the showing our 5th grade visitors our classroom and all the great work our scholars have done all year long. We also began preparing for Parent Conferences, which will take place next week.

Advino and Brenna speak to students about their experiences in YESS.

The 5th Grade Fair was an awesome opportunity for our YESS mentors to directly speak to incoming 5th graders about their experiences and why YESS helped them during middle school. Several mentors assisted me in setting up a display table in the gym, where we showcased past projects such as our emotion sculptures. The 5th graders were guided around the gym by our WEB leaders, many of whom are also YESS mentors. Each group got a chance to hear about the program and about our YESS mentors and how many went from being shy, depressed, introverted, angry, defiant, disruptive, argumentative, negative students to empowered, confident, kind, respectful, supportive, hard working scholars. I was so impressed by the efforts of Ava Martinez, Adivno Sawa-Baldizan, Stacey Tejeda-Sandoval, Brenna Torres, and Ariana Miller to connect with these 5th graders and to speak honestly about the obstacles they have overcome with the support of YESS. It is amazing to see how far they have come, but it is even more rewarding to hear them speak to the necessity of helping others and how great they feel being able to help their mentees out this year. I am so thankful to the staff at Shaw Heights for covering my classroom in order to allow me to be present at this year's 5th Grade Fair! It was a wonderful two days and I am so excited for all the new 5th graders to come to Shaw in the fall.

Mentors and their mentees hard at work in 5th hour.

Our YESS scholars were thrilled to finally get to make their self-portrait projects this past week. So many mentors had spoken about the project, and we have many artists in YESS who are always happy to hear about a new art opportunity. Before we began the project we discussed the concept of self-portraits and touched on the fact that, just like poetry, a self-portrait does not necessarily have to "be" anything- though, just like poetry, it must evoke emotion and have a connection to the artist. We did some research on famous artists and their self-portraits, and we took a look at some modern concepts. Our scholars quickly got to work, and it wasn't long before I was moved to tears by several of the projects. They are all so unique and heartfelt, and I really admire the honesty and accountability I am seeing in the art and design of these projects.

Caillou and Ryan work on their self-portraits in 5th hour.

Ivan did an amazing job on his project!

We will be having a gallery walk and presentation this week, so stay tuned for pictures of the actual projects. Our scholars are excited for spring break, and we are all enjoying the beautiful weather. We hope to make it outside this Friday for a fun day before our week long break! 

Accountability & Success

What a crazy two weeks it has been for us at Shaw Heights! I must apologize for the missing blog post as I was unable to write one last week. I have been out for two weeks as I have been recoveing from a collapsed lung, and it has been quite a long and painful process. I am so thankful to have had one of our long term substitute teachers, Mr. Morris, covering for me during my absence. Our YESS scholars are quite found of Mr. Morris, and having one person instead of a multitude of subs is something for which I am incredibly grateful.

Our worksheet on Accountability and Success

In the week prior to my absence the scholars and I continued our work on accountability by discussing success and ways that one can take accountability at any given moment. We spent some time working on accountability statements--that is, how to change the language so that we are being accountable for our actions and are not dismissive, defiant, or in denial about what transpired. We worked on statements such as, "It broke," and one by one scholars came to the board to tweak the statement until it became 100% accountable. We framed the statement in the context of an individual breaking someone's phone and simply handing it back without explanation nor apology. Our scholars changed "it broke" to, "I am so sorry, I broke your phone. Can I help pay to fix it?" We did this exercise with several common "excuse" statements such as: they were doing it first; she told me to; he started it; I didn't mean to; it wasn't my fault; and I didn't know. It was wonderful to see our YESS scholars registering the difference between an accountable statement and one that is more of an excuse.

7th Hour playing Connect Four

7th Hour Chess games

We took this knowledge and expanded upon it by doing a worksheet that asked for each scholar to complete a story in which the main character was faced with an opportunity to either be accountable or not. The worksheet also asked one to consider a time in which one was accusatory and defiant instead of accountable and to rework the situation given the new found knowledge of how, exactly, to be fully accountable. We had a great time working on these worksheets together and the mentors did an excellent job of helping the mentees understand the importance of 100% accountability.

After completing this lengthy packet we had a game day together to unwind. We had several great games of Uno, a really intense table of Connect Four players, and a few close chess games. It was a great week and I am so looking forward to getting back into the swing of things this week as we wrap up our Accountability unit with an amazing art project on self-portraits.