West Leadership Weekly Round Up: November 12th - 16th

Hi all!

We had a fun week before Thanksgiving break as we had our Apple Pie lessons!

Monday and Tuesday students had their normal study hall and work time with grade checks, meeting with teachers, and individual conferencing with myself and Ms. Patricia. We also had them write down some of the upcoming vocabulary for the unit in order to get a jump start on the lessons for Wednesday and Thursday. After this, the students were asked to create to do lists to help fix grades that are a C or lower and then work on completing this list. We really want students to take advantage of this time in the coming weeks as we near the end of the semester.

Wednesday and Thursday were Apple Pie lesson days. We discussed the metaphor between an apple pie and our relationships. Different types of relationships and pie eaters - controlling, balanced, victim and whole, balanced, and pie crumb eaters. The students liked and understood the metaphor but more importantly seemed to like the pie! We bought mostly apple and pumpkin pie for the students to enjoy on the day of the lessons which also fell on our last day before break.

Friday was an interesting day with no classes for high school students due to them taking the PSAT and getting out at lunch time. Middle school students had normal school so we did our fishbowl activity and played a fun Kahoot! game to wrap up before break.

With only 3 weeks left until finals the next few weeks will certainly be busy! Stay tuned! -Ben

West Leadership Weekly Round Up: November 5th - 9th

Hi all!

We were back to normal last week and were able to get quite a bit accomplished over the course of the week!

On Monday and Tuesday we spent the class focusing on grade checks, study hall, meeting with our teachers, and conferencing with Ms. Patricia. Students created to do lists with their mentors, were taken to classes to follow up on missing work, and had a chance to meet with Ms. Patricia to discuss if they need any support or help outside of school. It was a productive couple of days and I'm glad to see students take advantage of this time as we near the end of the semester.

Wednesday and Thursday classes were spent discussing Gratitude. We started by introducing the concept and vocabulary through a couple videos. From there we had our Gallery Walk where students went around the room and wrote out things they are grateful for in various categories such as: Places, Health, People, etc. It was nice to hear all of the ways in which students were grateful/thankful and many students caught on to the concept quite quickly.

Friday we wrapped up the week by taking a quiz over the major concepts of Gratitude as well as some other items we talked about in the past couple of weeks: 6 universal emotions, negativity bias, and some random questions over the midterm elections on Tuesday. Students then played a Kahoot! and then finished our Fishbowl discussion for the day. It was a good way to wrap up the week. Next week we will be having the Apple Pie lessons, just in time before Thanksgiving break. Stay tuned!

West Leadership Weekly Round Up: October 29th - November 2nd

Hi all!

We had a fun and busy week here with both Halloween and Dia de los Muertos celebrations taking place on Wednesday and Thursday!

Traditional dancing during Day of the Dead on Thursday

We started the week on Monday and Tuesday with our regular grade checks with our mentors/mentees. Students then met with teachers for them to complete missing and late work. From there we had our high school students complete the annual YoBD survey which was pretty quick and easy. After this we started discussing Emotions and began this conversation with an activity: Web of Emotions. On a piece of poster paper, a emotion was listed and then students were asked to write down everything they associate with that emotion. We had quite a few interesting examples - some reasonable, some funny, and some questionable...it was certainly a fun and interesting conversation about what makes us happy, angry, sad, fearful, etc.

Wednesday was Halloween and the school asked the students to keep it low key since we had so much going on during the Day of the Dead on Thursday. That said, our YESS classes still made sure to have fun by having a small Halloween party. I brought in plates, cups, some soda, and some chips and salsa for us to get started. Students contributed with additional sugary sweets.

Parade through the hallways during Day of the Dead on Thursday

Thursday our classes were sidelined due to the Day of the Dead activities. We were able to sign students up for Chocolate, Storytelling, and then of course the Parade and Dancing. Students really enjoyed checking out the altars that were on display (including Ms. Patricia's!) and had a good time watching the dancing and performances - it was a really fun day for everyone.

Friday we finished the week with a conversation on Negativity Bias and the 3 to 1 ratio of negative to positive thoughts. I asked students to write down 9 positive things about themselves and share something positive about another classmate so we could end the week on an uplifting note.

Another fun week here at WLA! Next week we will continue our focus on grades and getting them up before the semester as well as starting our discussions on gratitude. See ya then! -Ben