Week 27 @ Scott Carpenter

This week was a whirlwind! Monday the Mentors got to work on our end of the year celebration powerpoint. The mentors had to pick a picture of themselves, a powerful quote, and their future career. On Tuesday we started talking about accountability and what taking responsibility for our own actions looks like. We explored excuses, how our attitudes or belief systems impact our choices and the difference between an explanation and an excuse. On Wednesday we did something a little different and had a circle talk. Circle talks give every person a voice and allow students to talk without fear of being interrupted. We started the talk out by discussing everything the students were frustrated about school and essentially they had about 30 minutes to just get it all out. Then I turned the conversation around on them and asked them to come up with ways that they can be accountable for what is happening at school. Then asked them, for the things that they can't be accountable for, how can they self-advocate for themselves to make things better. This part of the conversation was where the gold was found. For instance, students want to fight for a student council, or some type of structure, that gives the students a voice in decisions made here at Scott. In our Period 2 class, the students took it very seriously and already chose Ms. Amy, pictured below on the right, as student body president.





















 On Thursday we started talking about social justice themes in a very specific way. I showed the students a couple videos of modern "protest songs." We then discussed the themes in the videos, digested what Social Justice means and then I sent them on their way to find their favorite protest song. Music historically brings people together and what better way for the kids to start exploring social justice than through music? After they were done picking their song, telling me why they chose it, and what was the message, students worked on missing work. On Friday we had a lot of fun. We started the day off with a minute to win it challenge, where table groups competed against each other by trying to win 4 silly games. Then we played balloon volleyball, which was so slow it made them laugh. And last, we brought back the wonderful game of kickball, which a lot of students did not know how to play! What type of elementary school deprived these students of kickball... I will be investigating! Hope everyone has a great week this week!