Welcome back to school, Shaw Heights YESS Scholars!

We are so excited to be back underway with the YESS program at Shaw Heights Middle School. So many of our scholars have returned to YESS for our third year of programming at Shaw Heights. How wonderful it is to see so much pride and ownership from our mentors!

Our year has started off with many team building exercises to help engage our new 6^th grade mentees and get the conversation going between our various grade levels. Many of our 6^th graders are still wondering what YESS is all about, but as each day passes, their smiles and excitement grow as they continue to see what a unique opportunity it is to be involved with YESS.

The most popular activity we have done thus far is the Marshmallow and Spaghetti Tower team builder. Scholars were paired up and were not allowed to speak to one another during this exercise. They could also only use one hand while attempting to build either the tallest, sturdiest, or most eccentric tower. While the marshmallows made this day a undoubtedly fun (and sticky!) one, the scholars were able to immediately identify some of the key points to this lesson: communication is important when working together, and often times we communicate with more than just the words we say, so we must pay attention to the various methods of communication; perseverance is essential when attempting something new, for you will almost certainly encounter set-backs and obstacles that may require you to re-evaluate your approach; and collaboration is crucial when working as a team, for you must be willing to give and take in order to function as one whole unit! They did a great job of wrapping us this team builder by sharing out what worked well, what didn’t, and how they could apply this lesson to working in class and with their mentor or mentee throughout the school year.

Our scholars have also been working on identifying their goals and values, which will be imperative to the work we do together this school year. We have spent a lot of time revisiting these two main topics- goals and values- so that each individual clearly knows what his or her goals are (both short and long term!) and what values are important to keep in mind as we all work toward attaining these various goals. Many of our mentors have really stepped up in showing our mentees what it means to set goals, and why it is so important to be able to identify one’s system of values.

I see so much pride amongst our YESS scholars, and I have witnessed our mentors carrying forth the YESS attitude of empowerment throughout the Shaw Heights halls and even beyond into our local community. We are looking forward to building our Time Capsules this week, along with designing our YESS t-shirts!

May 9th- May 13th

With 11 days of school left, the YESS students are staying busy, motivated, and focusing on finishing strong. This week the students did some team building activities, we did an activity on "burn out". We also presented our superheros to the class, and ended off the week with time for students to get caught up in their other classes.

Overall, this was a fun and productive week!

April 25- April 29

This week students finished up CMAS and students participated in an activity to address discrimination. Students experienced Jane Elliot's lesson called "Blue eye, brown eye experiment". We did this activity by separating the mentees from the mentors. The mentors were allowed time to relax, play games, have a snack, and talk to one another The mentees were to write one paragraph on what they learned this year, one paragraph on leadership, one paragraph on how they can improve on making choices.  Every time a student talked I added a paragraph. The students were expected to have this assignment turned in by the end of class. One student pointed out that I was discriminating against the mentees, and another student told me how it wasn't fair and how students who don't make good choices should be given this assignment.

The next day students watched Jane Elliot's original lesson with her third grade class. Student's felt that because this lesson is so important other students in the school should experience this lesson as well.

Today students will be discussing  miscro agressions, cultural appropriation Vs. Cultural appreciation vs Cultural exchange.  Students really like this unit because they feel this is where their leadership is needed in their community.

Overall, this was a great week!

April 18th- April 22nd

For the past two Monday classes, mentors have been preparing a lesson for the mentees in their class as a team. The students were very creative in addressing issues and problems that mentees are struggling with. We are the end of the school year and many of the mentors are concerned that their mentees are not caught up in their classes, are not making good choices, or need a reminder of accountability or other lessons we covered earlier in the year. One class created skits to meet the needs of their mentees, one class created sessions where the students would shift to a different station every 15 minutes, and another class did a question/ discussion writing assignment. Overall, the students were very creative in teaching their mentees this past Tuesday.

To end the week, students discussed "Unwritten rules of life." In this lesson students discussed manners and behaviors other people should follow so that we can live peacefully with one another. At the end of the lesson, many of the students realized that their behaviors may be offensive to others and there are unwritten rules they need to follow so that they are involved in less confrontations with friends, families, and teachers. 

Mentors have been selected for the 2-16-2017 school year and many mentors will return as 2nd year mentors, and many mentees will move on to be great mentors. 

Tracie Trinidad- program manager 

April 11- 15

This week was a busy week for the mentors and mentees. The students participated in a "piggy bank competition." The mentee and mentor pair worked together to create one piggy bank. With the piggy bank students have to  submit a sketch, and two paragraphs about why saving is important, and why budgeting is important.

                                                     
Also, this week students began discussing: privilege, race, culture, ethnicity, nationality stereotyping, and a type they have stereotyped or have been stereotyped. Students participated in the "privilege walk." Students felt many emotions after this discussion.

Finally, this week was the YESS road to success breakfast.  Franny Negrete gave a speech about how she has struggled and how she is now thinking about her future. It was a very emotional speech.  She was supported by her two mentor friends, and her mentor, Dominic Herrera. 

April 5th- April 8th

This was our first week back after Spring Break. Students learned about the importance of budgeting, saving money, and how to save more money. This year's mentors also helped with mentor recruitment. Currently I have 21 mentors for the next school year.

This wee was a 4 day week which also included PARCC testing. Next week we should be back to normal. 

March 14th- March 18th

This week was an exciting week. Mentors in each class created a class quote that they want to share with their mentees as well as next year's mentors. They are trying to motivate and encourage their mentees into finishing the school year strong.
This week students also learned about the 11 steps to success.  To wrap up the week we talked about Ditching school. Why do students ditch, and how can we encourage students to  come to school everyday? Students discussed reasons why a person might ditch, what the consequences could be, and how to motivate students to come to school everyday. Many of the ideas on how to get students to come to school included doing a ride share between students. The students were very creative and engaged in the lessons this week.