Healthy Relationships Week 17

Scott Carpenter is filled with students who love each other, however, do they often keep that love throughout the year? Often something comes between friendships and sometimes students are able to work it out, other times not. So we had a discussion this week about how we handle conflict in our relationships and how we can make things better when they are not great. This week we talked learned about healthy relationships and what our role in those relationships are. I got a whole lot of sadness from previous YESS students when we learned about the Apple Pie Analogy and I didn't have apple pie for them to eat, (thanks Sara for setting the bar at real pie😁). Students then got to see what type of pie eater they were: Whole pie eater (controlling), Balanced Pie Eater, or Pie Crumb eater (Victim). I thought it was hilarious to see how many 6th graders turned out to be Pie Crumb Eaters and held the "nothing is my fault" attitude. As well, this is our second week on the Relationship unit and I still am getting snickers from kids because they think I am just talking about their boyfriend or girlfriend (shake my head). One day we will get past it, I can only hope. We continued reading The Hate U Give and I even started crying at a certain part in the book that all the kids said, "Miss, it's not that sad." It was, to my defense. On Friday we had a blast playing real life Hungry, Hungry, Hippo. It's days like this that makes everything you go through as a teacher worth it. 

Emotions Week 16 at Scott Carpenter

This week at Scott Carpenter we dove deep into understanding our emotions. We had great conversations this week about why understanding our emotions matters and the ways in which we can help ourselves by knowing what is going on with us. To add a little fun we watched a video that introduced the emotions from Inside out and played a game where the students were given a scenario and they could only choose one emotion as a table. Then in the debrief we talked about how difficult it was to choose only one emotion and situations in our lives where we have felt all the emotions. We also took a quiz to see if we were optimistic or pessimistic and another quiz to see if we were more introverted or extroverted. Then talked about how understanding where we are on these scales can help us understand our reactions in social situations and help us be patient with ourselves regarding anxiety and our personal needs at school, parties or with friends. And last but not less exciting we voted on the best trust bridges from last week! Pictures below

The Hate You Give and Trust Bridges Week 15

We had a great week here at Scott Carpenter as we started our Relationships Unit! On Monday we had Mentor Monday and I had a great time bonding with all the mentors and setting goals to raise their Lexile numbers in Achieve 3000. On Tuesday we played 2 truths and a lie to get reacquainted with each other after a week apart. On Wednesday we talked about our sphere of influence and evaluated all our closest relationships and how people influence us. On Thursday and Friday we had a blast making Trust Bridges!

 Thank you to our private donors who donated The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas! The kids are super excited to read the book, especially because we are doing it for fun and they wont be graded on anything, as of now!

Week 14 @ Scott Carpenter

It was the week before break and I am so proud of how focused all the YESS students were this week and how much we got done this week! I had expected them to be bouncing off the walls ready to go on Fall Break but every day the students came in ready to work and get things done. On Mentoring Monday we talked about careers and what types of leadership skills would be needed in our chosen careers.

Then on Tuesday, we went into Achieve 3000 to look up careers that the students were interested in and filled out a worksheet that would help them understand why their reading levels are important and how much schooling they would need to be in their chosen profession. On Wednesday we talked about the power of choice.

We watched a motivational speech that explained to the students that we have the power to react to whatever comes our way and that our ability to choose can make our lives more positive or negative. We then read the article "The Power of Choosing Your Thoughts" by Lisa Firestone and talked about positive thinking and meditation.

On Thursday we talked about positive words and Mantras and created a class list that we can refer back to whenever we need it. On Friday, the school had a spirit day that started with Academic Awards and a school-wide volleyball tournament that was extremely fun!

Week 13 @ Scott Carpenter

We are getting close to Winter Break and the energy is extremely high here at Scott Carpenter! We recently were given access to Achieve 3000 and because eight activities a week will help any reader excel we have started pushing this in the YESS classroom. So on Mondays Mentors will be required to do at least one activity after we have finished our Mentor discussion and on Tuesdays, both Mentors and Mentees will be required to do at least two if they would like their 5 minutes of fun time. This week on Wednesday we explored family values and talked about how what our family values influence our lives. Then each student filled out a survey that showed what characteristics they valued most such as, Honesty, Trustworthiness, Love, and Family. Then we counted up everyone's responses to see what we valued most as a class: Family was always number one!

Then on Thursday, we listened to a motivational speech by Will Smith about strong work ethic, being committed to your goals, and finding out who you are and what you believe in. Then we had a good amount of think time to work through 5 goals, one that was long-term, two that were for this week and next, and two for the end of the school year. While some would think this was boring school work the students really got into it. They had fun thinking about what they wanted to be when they grew up and what they could do now to get there! Looking forward to even more energy this week as it snows and gets closer to break!

Week 12 @ Scott Carpenter

Halloween was voted everyone's favorite time of year in my classes and we definitely had a great week. This week we finished the Race unit and since I was gone a day last week some of the classes had to make up some work. On Wednesday and Thursday we finished our Research on Race and completed our Public Service announcements.








On Tuesday we worked in the Tech lab and finished all our missing work for the week.

Since this week was Dios De Los Muertos we made an Ofrenda to honor all our loved ones who have passed. On Friday, we watched coco.

Week 11 at Scott Carpenter

This week was a bit chaotic due to some health issues and Parent-Teacher Conferences. We had a very productive week at the start of the week trying to get all our missing assignments on Empower turned in. The students had to write down all their missing assignments and get a sheet signed after they talked to their teachers to get the work turned in.

Then On Wednesday we talked about Stereotypes and did a great activity where the kids had to make assumptions of four people and guess what type of car they drove, what house they lived in, what type of food was their favorite, and their favorite type of music. They were incredibly suprised to see the answers, especially when Sopia, an 75 year-old grandma, traveled around on a BMX bike. On Friday we had a blast playing games!

Week 10 at Scott Carpenter

This past week at Scott Carpenter was quite busy. We continued our conversations about Race and worked on some projects to pull everything together. Tutoring Tuesday was very busy this week because of the upcoming Parent-Teacher conferences so students worked very hard to figure out their missing work and try to catch up on everything.

On Wednesday and Thursday the Mentors and Mentees worked hard on their research and found their own way through the 25-mini films about Race on the NY-Times website and a couple other resources. This research really gave all the students an insight into different perspectives in the United States and I was incredibly proud of the focus, teamwork and seriousness the students exhibited during this activity.






We also started a really fun activity this week where one student sits in front of the board and the rest of the class writes positive messages about them on the board and after everyone is done the student gets to turn around and see all the messages. We will be doing one of these a day until the entire class has gone.

Looking forward to finishing up our talks on Race this week and moving forward with Healthy Relationships! And of course, looking forward to meeting all the wonderful parents this week!

Week 9 @ Scott Carpenter

We have had an amazing week here at Scott Carpenter. On Monday we did our usual Mentoring Monday and the Mentors and I got to problem solve and talk about things that went well in the classroom. On Tuesday the Mentors helped the Mentees identify an area they need to work on and come up with a game plan on how to improve.

Then on Wednesday and Thursday we continued our lessons on Race which went better then I could ever have imagined. Our students here at Scott Carpenter have the most a lot to say and have really great insight to add to a variety of topics. This week we learned a bit about the Holocaust and read an excerpt from AAPA Statement on Bioligical Aspects of Race. 

We talked about many different reasons why the Holocaust happened and what aspects of society allowed indifference to be so prevalent in Germany and the rest of the world. We even had a conversation on the use of propaganda and tried to identify what propaganda would like in today's world. Then as a closing to the week the Mentor/Mentee pairs made some of their own posters to combat things we learned about this week


 

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Week 8 at Scott Carpenter

What an incredible week at Scott Carpenter! Monday was our first week of Mentor/Mentee Monday where I met with the Mentors and our wonderful Community Reach Counselor, Ms. Katrina, met with the Mentees. This gave me a chance to go over expectations with the Mentors and talk about what was going well with their Mentees and what the Mentors were struggling with. After school on Monday we had our first social at Scott Carpenter and I got to paint faces for the kids!

 On Wednesday we started our talks on Race and while each class was incredibly different and worked at incredibly different speeds, the introduction went well. We also worked on our Black Panther Presentation.

On Thursday after we had finished our lesson on Race we started the t-shirt design contest and we are so excited to vote on them tomorrow!

Week 7 at Scott Carpenter Middle School

What a week here at Scott Carpenter! We started the week talking about Culture. The students talked about what is Culture? What are examples of Cultural groups and why is Culture important. Then the students all drew pictures of what they think their culture is.

On Tuesday we had our first successful Tutoring Tuesday! The Mentors and Mentees worked hard to catch up on work, work on new projects and help each other on IXL.

The 6th graders went on Outdoor Ed this week, which is a three day overnight trip to the mountains, so I only had Mentors this week. We are starting a project to dissect Black Panther and why it is important in American Culture to pave the way for our lessons on Race this week.


The kids will be reading a Times Article about the movie and will be creating a presentation about what they learn in the article.




Then on Friday the beloved game of GAGA Ball came back to the classroom because there is a Haunted House in our normal game space. Then we all broke into groups to play card games after everyone was exhausted from GAGA Ball.

This coming week is going to be an amazing beginning to my favorite month of the year and cannot wait to discuss Race with my students.

Week 6 at Scott Carpenter!

This week was built around creating a strong bond between table groups. We started the week off with a team builder that required table groups to work together to make the most sentences out of words that were provided to them. This activity worked on creative sentence making and had everyone laughing at the crazy sentences groups came up with.

On Tuesday we played Kahoot and tables competed against each other to see who remembered all the SEL Domains, what community is and other key ideas we covered these last couple weeks.

Then on Wednesday, we worked as a group to build the best spaghetti and marshmallow challenge. Which was an amazing team building activity and the groups in every class had an amazing time!

 Since this week was a short week we had our fun Friday on Thursday this week we called No Think Thursday! We learned a game called GAGA Ball and every class loved this game! This week was incredibly fun and can't wait to dive deep into some pretty great content this week.

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