Week 36 at Scott

As we come to a close of the school year there is a lot of hard work going on around Scott. This week we finished our social justice projects, worked on missing work and started packing up the classroom! The 8th graders spent Friday at their 8th-grade celebration at Elitches and the rest of us had fun making forts in the classroom and having some fun with nerf guns! I also spent the week finalizing mentors for next year and glad to say I had to cap the list because we have so many interested students! So excited and sad to say goodbye to our 8th graders and excited to finish up the year strong and send off students to a wonderful summer!

Week 35

I wanted to give a special thank you to all the parents and students who helped make the YESS social a great event by donating snacks! On Monday the Mentors got time to work on missing work and finish their social justice projects. On Tuesday we had our end of year celebration for the YESS program at Ranum Middle School.

 The students got donuts and juice and then spent the morning listening to fellow students talk about their experience with YESS.Special shoutout to Mr. Sebastian for giving a speech to over 300 kids about his personal journey!Another special thank you to DR Adcock for speaking at the event. And to all the students who got up to introduce speakers and students. Congratulations to Ms. Alexis and Mr. Andres for winning Mentor and Mentee of the Year!!!





























On Wednesday and Thursday, students presented their social justice projects. The students did an amazing job picking an issue that they thought was important and creating a Google slide presentation. The presentation included a description of the issue, a video that explained the issue, and three ways we as a class could bring light to the issue or help solve the issue. A lot of students chose racism, global warming, bullying, and mental health. On Friday we had a fun Friday and we did our usual and then YESS SOCIAL!! We had a blast and students helped run Volleyball games, Soccer, Football, Basketball, music in the gym and the best snack bar we have had all year! Thank you to all the students who helped!

Week 34 at Scott Carpenter

As we come to the end of the school year the YESS classrooms are filled with a lot of different emotions. The 8th graders are getting ready to graduate and head to high school, the 6th and 7th graders are getting excited (some worried) for summer, but I am incredibly impressed by the student's ability to keep working hard! On Monday the mentees stayed with Ms. Katrina and worked on Why Try curriculum while the Mentors worked on their social justice projects and missing work. We switched our tutoring day back to Tuesday and I was beyond impressed by student work ethic.

 On Wednesday we did a lesson centered around Empathy and the students wrote a story based on a random shoe that was put in front of them. The assignment asked them to look at the show and create a unique story about who wore that shoe, where they came from, and what their life was like. I wish everyone could read all of them because the students were really creative and some were absolutely hilarious. As well on Wednesday, 5th graders from the district came to visit and a lot of our YESS students performed in either Jazz Band or Choir and others helped give students a tour of the school after.





 We didn't have school last Friday so on Thursday some classes stayed in the classroom and played board games and a much beloved gaga ball while others went to the gym to play kickball, scatter ball and basketball. 

Week 33 @ Scott

What a week here at Scott! On Monday the school finished up testing due to the missed day of school the week prior and classes were short so students worked on missing work. Then on Tuesday, we were on a special schedule to accommodate the Social Celebration of the end of testing, so students finished their mask activity. On Wednesday all classes participated in a circle talk. In this talk, I used some time to reset expectations around being in class, reiterated that even though we only have 4 weeks of school left we are still working and being the best scholars possible and to address the increase of bad words used in my class. Each YESS class decided on their own unique consequence for what happens when someone uses foul language in the classroom. The ideas ranged from $20 in a cup to tape on their mouths or wearing funny hats in the corner for 5 minutes. We settled on things like 2 warnings and then a minute gets taken away from Friday and 10 jumping jacks where the entire class counts them out. Then the rest of the circle talk was spent talking about school culture and what we as a class could do to improve it.  Two classes decided that throwing a YESS social would be a great way to spread school spirit and we got approval today! On Thursday each student wrote an outline of things they are missing, things they could be working on in tutoring, and learning targets they could work on. This will be used for the rest of the year and the students can check things off as they finish. On Friday each class voted on what they wanted to do for Fun Friday. In one period they wanted to play card games and watch La Rosa de Guadeluope.


We had fun playing Egyptian Ratscrew and learning a new game called golf. In third period we went to the gym and played a 3 on 3 basketball tournament and even I played! My team took the cake! Another class voted to stay inside and watch superhero movies to prepare for the weekend blockbuster hit "Avengers: Endgame." And the last class voted to spend our time running around and playing outside in the beautiful weather! I look forward to planning the social with the kids this and next week and hope our energy flows high this week!

Week 32 @ Scott

This week was full of testing and high emotions! On Monday the Mentors talked through some struggles and successes they are having with their mentees and got started on their masks early.

 On Tuesday all classes started their masks. On the front of the mask students decorated based on what they show the world and on the back they put all the things they hide from the world.

 Then at the end of the day, we had a controlled release due to a threat in the city. This led to no school on Wednesday. On Thursday we had testing which only gave about 25 minutes for each class. We spent Thursday talking through questions, fears, and lingering thoughts about the events of the week. Students were able to work through some of the feelings that had kept them up through the night and learned how to recognize what was real information and what were rumors. We also had some great conversations about how we represent different groups of people in the media. On Friday we had fun in the gym and played Mentors/teacher versus Mentee dodgeball and some all class basketball games. This week we are finishing up testing and have a fun social and dress down day tomorrow! Hope everyone has a great week!

Week 31 at Scott

Hi Everyone,
This week was very jumbled. On Monday Mentors worked on finishing their Mentor slides for the end of the year celebration. We had some really great photoshoot moments!

With Testing Season in full bloom, the students are working hard and getting a bit of time in YESS to decompress. Because both the students were exhausted from testing this week we played card games, especially Egyptian Ratscrew, which was my favorite game when I was young and now becoming a huge game in my classroom. We also played board games and watched the beloved show La Rosa de Guadalupe. This show is a great show that teaches very valuable life lessons and can be used as a literacy tool when we put the subtitles on! This week we are working on our final project for the Belief Systems Unit and will be making masks. I hope everyone has a great week this week and look forward to seeing great artwork from our students.

Week 30 at Scott Carpenter

Well, this week was interesting. Testing season is upon us and this week was yet another short week for students! On Monday the Mentors reviewed 9 different quotes from famous leaders around the world, picked their favorite quote and had to do some activities around the quote. One of the activities was a drawing contest to create a visual representation of the quote and some of them were incredible. On Tuesday we spent some time reading the Hate U Give. On Wednesday we had mock testing day and had shortened classes where we read more of the Hate U Give and played some clear your mind games. On Thursday we had our fun Friday and some classes went to the gym to burn off their energy. Other classes opted to stay in the room to have card tournament games. I want to let everyone in on a little secret. If you are struggling with a student or even your own child, teach them a card game and beat them! Not only does this stimulate a positive, sometimes competitive, relationship with the student, but it also stimulates them wanting to learn from you in a fun way and makes them want to keep coming back to play!