October at Scott Carpenter

October at Scott has been a blast! First, to kick off Red Ribbon Week and to inspire kids to say no to drugs we had a helicopter come to our school?! A bit odd but it was special nonetheless. Then we dove right into learning about our values and the kids really enjoyed the activity. Basically they started with 20 cards of things they loved and over the series of events had to eliminate 15 of them! The last five were the most important things in their lives and told them a lot about what they valued. 

We had a teamwork and inclusion day today where we had a series of challenges that each team had to participate in from all different knowledge bases. Some were math questions, some about music, some about the history and then some physical activities. The picture is of two students competing for the longest plank hold... this is them at 3 minutes and 45 seconds!!!! Let’s be clear here... I can maybe do it for 30 seconds and they made it to 4 minutes! 

This month we also focused on Culture and Identity. We explored both our classroom culture and our personal cultures in various ways. Below are a couple pictures of students drawing about their cultures. As well, we explored our individual identities through readings from A House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, bubble maps that included all the things they identify with, and very beautiful identity poems.

This month I would like to highlight a young mentor and mentee pair. Aaron is a 7th grader who is quite quiet but who tries his hardest every day he is in my room. He is gentle, kind, and very supportive of his mentee. He has started to come out of his shell a lot this year and is participating in group discussions and offering to lead some games in class. His Mentee Adrian is not shy at all. Adrian is a wonderful student who has a brilliant imagination and whatever group he is in wins every time for the most creative ideas. He is a powerhouse in group discussions and always has very beautiful and thought-provoking insights. As a team, Aaron and Adrian bring calm, motivation, and inspiration to the entire classroom.