Dr.MLK Jr. & Student Led Conferences

Parents learn about "stinking thinking" during conferences.

A great example of a script from a wonderful mentor!

This past week was a busy one as we hosted our second semester Parent Conferences! We had almost fifty families visit our YESS classroom over the course of two nights and it was truly an honor to connect with parents, siblings, and guardians. I have seen so much growth in our YESS scholars this year and it is always a wonderful experience to hear the same things from our families. "You are so awesome Ms. Garnett, her attitude is totally different now!" and, "I don't know what you did, Ms. Garnett, but he is working so much harder now and we got great reviews from all of his teachers this time!" are just a few examples of the pride that was expressed to me. Our mentors and mentees are truly making gains this year, and it is usually around this time in the year that other teachers, coaches, and family members begin to note the changes in attitude and work ethic. I am so proud of our YESS scholars!

Conferences are a great time to check in with each and every scholar. Over the course of two days I meet one-on-one with each mentee and mentor to go over our conferences script (see example) and to take a look in Empower to better understand their learning targets and progress in all other classes. We also take a look at attendance to see if there are any issues with unexcused tardies or unexcused absences. This helps bring awareness to these issues so that we may take steps to change, if necessary.

Mentors learn about Chavez in the tech lab during Mentor Monday.

Since the mentors and I have been discussing leadership during our time on Mondays we took some time this week to include the mentees in our discussions of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his contemporaries in the Civil Rights movement. We watched, "I Have a Dream," and discussed the relevance to today's political climate. We took at look at the Ram Super Bowl commercial ad that was aired on the 50th anniversary of Dr. King's, "Drum Instinct Major," speech to better understand appropriation and how it effects our culture. First, we viewed the ad--which seemed harmless, just a few shots inspiring patriotic acts with Dr. King's speech over top--but we when looked more closely at the nature of the speech, it became clear how Dr. King's words had been stolen and misused. In fact, in the original speech, Dr. King warns:

"Now the presence of this instinct explains why we are so often taken by advertisers. You know, those gentlemen of massive verbal persuasion. And they have a way of saying things to you that kind of gets you into buying. In order to be a man of distinction, you must drink this whiskey. In order to make your neighbors envious, you must drive this type of car. (Make it plain) In order to be lovely to love you must wear this kind of lipstick or this kind of perfume. And you know, before you know it, you're just buying that stuff. (Yes) That's the way the advertisers do it."

7th hour watches, "I Have a Dream."

Thomas and Sergio partner up to take Cornell notes on Chavez during Tutoring Tuesday.

Our scholars were shocked to hear Dr. King warning about advertisements and could not believe that his speech had been appropriated to, as Dr. King's friend Dr. Harry Edward's said, "peddle trucks." It really got them all thinking about the ways they interpret messages and to question the truth of the message itself.

Next week will continue our discussions on healthy relationships by looking at negative beliefs we often unknowingly hold on to and how they in turn affect our personal beliefs.

The Brain (Part 2)

Elisio and Nick work to complete the crossword puzzle.

Great work from Bethsy!

Great work from Bethsy!

Last week we wrapped up our lessons on the brain by learning even more about the various, localized parts of the brain. We continued our "Brain Word Sort" this week and, just when the menetees and mentors became comfortable with the terminology, I added five new words: medulla, hippocampus, thalamus, hypothalamus, and the nervous system. While many were frustrated by the new words at first, by the end of the day Friday every single table was feeling very confident about the new additions. We also watched several short videos that explained why the teenage brain is so "moody"--hint, it is science!--and I am pleased to say that our scholars are really connecting with this content. I even had two young mentees ask if they could share out the brain video with their mothers as they wanted to show them what they had been learning in YESS.

We wrapped up our week by completing a brain crossword puzzle. It was shocking to see how quickly every single class completed this (one class had it done in less than 10 minutes!) as they are really familiar with these terms at this point. I am glad they are accessing this material so quickly and easily as we will continue to build upon this knowledge as we continue working through our relationship unit.

Exemplary Cornell Notes from Mentor Breann McCoy.

Last week we also spent two days discussing Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani woman who has fought for the right for women to be educated and who almost lost her life due to her efforts. The mentors and I took Cornell notes on her on Monday and, on Tuesday, we watched a video with the class that explained her life and how she miraculously survived being shot in the head at close range. This was well timed with our talks on the brain as our scholars clearly understand that it is possible to be shot in the head and not to suffer major brain damage. Malala is a wonderful example of an empowered young leader, and I know so many of our scholars really connected with her story.

Next week we have Student-led Parent Conferences and I am looking forward to meeting with families!

The Brain

We had a very long week in YESS as we got started on our lessons on the brain. Our scholars were worried as they were met with many new, challenging words such as "amygdala" and "cerebellum." Since we need to build on this knowledge, we took it slowly to ensure all scholars were learning and understanding

Kiana and her mentee, Emily did an excellent job on the word sort!

 some of the basic brain structure. In order to help this process we have been playing a brain "word sort" game every day, twice a day, with some of our new vocabulary. At first, it took each table about five minutes and two or three tries before they had it right. By Friday, however, each table was able to complete the word sort correctly in less than a minute! I am very proud of the efforts our scholars are making as we work through this new material--this is new even for those who have been with YESS for the last three years, and everyone is doing an excellent job.


To help our understanding of the brain, we watched several videos and worked on filling out a diagram. We also heard the curious story of Phineas Gage, a man who, in 1848, suffered an accident and had a railroad spike go through his head. He lived to tell the tale, though his personality was forever altered. This is a great story as it really shows just how sensitive and specialized our brains are. It really helps our scholars to understand how localized functions are in the brain, and why!

Elisio and Nick get some help from my student assistant, Isai.

On Friday we had a small party in 5th and 7th hour as they were the "winners" of a team builder from the week prior that required the whole class to pass through a hula-hoop while sharing something private. These two classes were the largest of the day and yet managed to do this exercise in less than 1:30, showing great teamwork and community. Way to go!

Next week we will continue learning even more about the brain.

A great team build during 4th hour Fun Friday free time!

Fear & Cyberbullying

Playing the "fear box" game with 5th hour.

Wow! It is hard to believe we are almost into February. It has been a great year so far in YESS as we have delved into discussions centered around fear. Fear is a strong, primal emotion, and for a few days we simply talked about what we fear and why. We played a game where each scholar had to write one fear they had on a piece of paper. I collected all of the pieces in the "fear box" and we then took turns reading them aloud one by one. If you agreed with the fear, you had to move to the "yes" side of the classroom. If you did not find the fear scary, you moved to the "no" side. This exercise is great because our scholars are able to see that they are not alone in their fears--in fact, many if not most of their peers share their fears: the fear of losing a loved one, the fear of being alone, the fear of not succeeding and graduating, or the fear of being rejected. Once we realize we are not alone in our fears, they start to become less powerful.

In order to understand exactly how one can reject fear, we watched a video that explained how we can name our fears and, in time, reject them. We learned that, just like with any personal issue, the first step is awareness. The next step is positive thinking--much like our ritual, Today I Choose. The final step is needing to take action in opposition of the fear. This is the hardest step for it requires on to embrace the fear and to likely ask for help and support in doing so (often our fears keep us from asking for help when we need it most). It was a challenge for our scholars to name, reject, and take action against one specific fear.

An example of work from the video on Fear.

One great example of this was a mentor who struggled with trust. I encouraged her reach out to the person she trusts most to share three new private things about herself. Funny enough, the person she trusts most is also a mentor who struggles with trust. I had these young ladies share three things with one another in order to deepen and strengthen their relationship. "Miss!" She told me later in the week, "We did it! It was so weird. We felt really nervous. And we cried. But it was the best conversation we have ever had and we feel closer than ever now."

4th hour enjoys some free time on Friday.

We also spent some time discussing cyber-bullying and how fear plays into whether or not we feel empowered to do something about bullying. Stay tuned for more on bullying next week!

Web of Emotions

Last week we continued our discussion on emotions by completing an art project called, "Web of Emotions." Each scholar was allowed to decide whether they wanted to work with their mentor/mentee or whether they preferred to work on their own, as exploring one's connection to a certain emotion can be deeply personal. Before we began the projects, we reviewed the six core emotions and did a circle map to brainstorm any and all possible connections (adjectives, synonyms, actions/behaviors, triggers, places, things, and even colors) one might have to the emotion anger, for example.

Webs for "fear" and "sadness."

Webs for "anger" and "joy." 

Many chose to work on their own for this project so that they could explore their own personal connection to a specific emotion. Last week, I had asked each scholar to identify one of the six core emotions that they find to be the most challenging to deal with. I was so proud to see that many decided to do their project on their most challenging (or most difficult to control) emotion. 

Robert and his mentee Javoni do "Today I Choose..." together.

Celest and her mentee, Chloe, enjoy some fresh air on Friday afternoon.

We took two days to build our webs, and then had a wonderful gallery walk and share out. It is was so interesting to see the different ways each experiences anger, or sadness, or even fear. I could see a lot of self-awareness as we completed this exercise, and I really think our scholars benefited from a deeper understanding of they relate to certain emotions. 

Donovan and Austin play Monopoly during some Fun Friday free time.

Next week we will be doing some reflection work with the mentors as we prepare for break. We also have a pretty fun week planned with a school dance and an awards ceremony. Stay tuned!

Emotions

Brainstorming emotions with 5th hour.

This past week in YESS we began talking about emotions in more detail. We began by trying to brainstorm out as many emotions as we possibly could--shout out to Cora, Chadaey, and Jayleen, all of whom managed to come up with 41, 39, and 32 emotions in less than three minutes! These mentors have a strong EQ and are great about sharing out their knowledge--thanks, ladies!!

An example of the annotated reading we did last week.

As a class, we noted how many different words we can use to describe just one single emotion. For example, if we are sad, we may say we are feeling down, depressed, melancholy, blue, unhappy, miserable, gloomy, or heartbroken. Since there are SO many ways to describe how we are feeling, it is easy to see how miscommunication might occur. Both mentors and mentees did a great job of connecting this point to our lessons last week on communication.

Fabulous notes from a second year mentor!

We took some time to identify the six core emotions--sadness, anger, joy, disgust, surprise, and fear--and then we used some Kagan structures for a reading and writing exercise to learn more about the purpose of emotions. Though it took us two days to work through the reading, I am very proud to say our mentors did a great job of facilitating this activity. Our scholars were required to number the paragraphs, circle key words, and underline main ideas. They worked in groups of four and each member took a turn reading and relaying information to their group members so that all could record notes. We learned a several important facts, such as emotions are adaptions that help us survive and that there are three main components in how we process emotions: subjective, physiological, and expressive. We also noted that emotions give us important information about the world around us, and that others can take cues from our body language to take action to help us, if necessary.

7th hour ladies enjoying some free time on Friday afternoon.

Next week we will work on a group art project that will detail and explain the six core emotions and any/all associations that we have with that particular emotion.

Miscommunication

3rd hour during the drawing challenge.

This past week in YESS we continued our discussion on "stinking thinking" by discussing the issue of miscommunication and how it, in turn, can trigger some stinking thinking if we are not very careful with our language. The mentors and I have been talking about language for a few weeks now as  I have been coaching them on the approaches they take when (if) they have a conflict with their mentee. We noted how a simple sentence or two can set someone "on edge" without us having even realized the impact of our words. In order to be more aware, we did a couple of fun exercises to demonstrate just how easily miscommunication can occur and what happens as a result.

Austin tries to explain his drawing to his mentor, Chase.

We played the telephone game to warm up (not one class was successful in passing the sentence around the circle unchanged!) and then we watched a short video that noted four ways we can improve our communication. First, we must practice active listening; second, we must be open in the conversation and we must go slowly when talking; third, we must pay attention to the signals we send with our body language; and finally, we must be aware of the perceptions and perspectives we bring to each conversation based on our history, culture and personal experiences as these things influence the way we understand and see things.

Andrew working hard to follow Darrien's directions!

Isai and TJ during our drawing challenge in 5th hour. 

Everyone seemed to really connect with this issue of miscommunication. We noted how even a cell phone can cause problems by having auto-correct change a word while texting. Once we had increased our awareness about this issue, we then started working as mentor/mentee pairs to try and improve the ways we communicate. We had the mentees and mentors pair up, sitting back to back, for a drawing challenge. The mentors has two minutes to draw whatever they wished, but the catch was that they had to then explain how to draw the same image to their mentee--while remaining back to back. This was a great challenge and really helped our scholars get engaged with this issue of communication.

Chadaey tries to stop laughing as she attempts to draw "taste" for her group during Pictionary.

We took it a step further by playing team charades on Friday. It was VERY hard for our scholars to not talk during this game, but as time went on they all got better and better about using non-verbal cues to coach their team members along.

We are excited to talk more about relationships and communication next week!