West Leadership Weekly Round Up: September 17th - 21st

Hi all!

Students vs Teachers Football Game. The students easily won! 

We had a fun Homecoming week here at West! The students were busy the various theme days and activities including the staff versus students football game, homecoming court, the West vs North game, parade, and of course the dance. In addition to all of the fun homecoming activities, we also had a busy week discussing Community and introducing students to the Race unit.

On Monday, Sara came back in to help with our Mentor Training and led the discussion for periods 5, 7, and 9. This gave myself and our Family Advocate, Ms. Patricia, an opportunity to spend some time with the students and have conversations with them individually and in small groups. Tuesday we picked up where we left off by having a discussion about famous mentor relationships in history. From there we introduced students to the SEL 5 Domains through a poster activity. We then used our remaining time to finish up our time capsules from last week.

Spirit Week Plans 

Lockers decorated for fall! 

Wednesday and Thursday were busy days as we discussed scholarship, what an ideal student looks like, and how we can become ideal students. I also took this time to talk to students about various academic topics such as time management, organization, GPA, SAT, and answer some of the general questions they had. We plan on continuing our conversations on these topics and take a deep dive on an individual one each week. From there we introduced students to the culture unit by discussing the vocabulary and examples from their own lives. Many of the terms can overlap and be confusing we made sure to take the time and explain and discuss each of these terms before we move on throughout the unit. Overall a fun week here at WLA and I am looking forward to diving into the Race unit next week. See you then! -Ben

West Leadership Weekly Round Up: September 10th - 14th

Hi all!

Another busy week here at West Leadership Academy!

Monday and Tuesday we spent the class completing Shared Agreements and coming up with rules for the classroom. Students shared with each other and with me what they need in order to be successful in and outside of the classroom. This conversation led to an introduction into mentoring - why it is important, what it looks like, etc. Once we established the rules for the year, we filled out our grade trackers and introduced the students to their first EmoSmart goals.

Wednesday was also busy couple of day as we introduced students to the Social and Emotional Domains and had them start their Time Capsule project. Students did a fun poster activity where they wrote examples for each of the SEL domains and shared experiences from their own lives. The time capsules were also a fun activity. We started by just filling in the first portion and going over what it means and why it is helpful to reflect on this later in the year. Some of my students from last year still had theirs so they opened them up and were surprised with some of the things they had written. On Thursday we continued the busy streak with Sara visiting for some mentor training. Due to having middle school and high school students in the same classes, it is rare that we are able to split them up. By Sara coming in to meet with our high schoolers, we were able to start some much needed and helpful mentor training. I am looking forward to picking up where Sara left off this week.

Friday we wrapped the week up with some fun games and community building activities including a fun Around the World game and our Fishbowl questions. The day and week seemed to go by very quickly and students are already looking forward to the mentor matching section which is fast approaching. Stay tuned! -Ben

West Leadership Weekly Round Up: September 4th - 7th

Hi all!

Last week was a shortened week due to the Labor Day holiday on Monday. We started the week on Tuesday and Wednesday by setting up some seating arrangements so students could interact with more than just their group of friends and expand their network a bit. From there students played a couple of fun games including the Intro Bingo game before working on their Coat of Arms/Tattoo. Students were quite engaged with both activities and many took their tattoos home with them to finish up (see examples below).

Some of the unique tattoo ideas created by students

Thursday evening was Back to School Night at West. A handful of students and parents came to my classroom at which time we discussed the course, how that particular student can succeed, and what I/YESS can do to help facilitate that process. As always, it's great to meet our parents and the siblings of our students. I'm looking forward to having our new Family Advocate help support our families here in the coming weeks as well.

Friday we were lucky enough to have Emily visit and meet our seniors to help them get started on their post-secondary planning. We have significantly more seniors this year than last year (one class has 8 seniors alone, more so than all of my classes combined last year!). While Emily was working with our seniors, the rest of the students and I completed our Fishbowl Friday activity, finished any remaining tattoos, and then got outside for some fun in the sun! Overall another good week here at West, next week we will be diving into our Mentor training and students will meet our new Family Advocate!
Stay tuned! -Ben