West Leadership Weekly Round Up: January 8th-12th

Hello!

We had a fun and enjoyable first week back to school catching up after break and getting to know some of our new classmates! 

On Monday, students didn't have school but teachers participated in professional development regarding culturally responsive teaching and how to make our classes as inclusive as possible. 

Some of our middle schoolers goofing around
on the last day before break. 

On Tuesday, classes resumed and many were excited to be back after the long break. In our first day back, students were introduced to what YESS is all about, how the class operates, and what our goals are for the semester. We then participated in several icebreaker activities to get to know one another a bit more. 

Wednesday and Thursday classes focused on classroom rules and expectations and we completed several more in depth get to know you activities. Since we had several new students join us, we also did a quick crash course in some of the important content and terms from the fall semester including Belief Systems, Spheres of Influence, and Hot/Cool Buttons. 

One of our students made some
delicious enchiladas for our end of semester party!
I'm still drooling over them. 

On Friday, we had fun participating in a few more activities such as 21 questions and 1 sentence biographies. We then focused our attention on a current event round table. With many lessons in the spring semester focusing on social justice issues, I wanted students to start thinking about and researching what they are interested in now. The conversations around these topics was already quite interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing how this will continue to build into the Stand Up Project at the end of the year.

Next week we will have Monday off for MLK Day and will start our week with Tutoring Tuesdays focusing on grade checks and college related questions! Stay tuned!