What a wild past few months it has been in room F103. So much has happened in such a short time!
We appreciate that you are taking the time to catch up with us. Firstly, we have been moving at a stealthy pace through the community building lessons. We knocked out our Identity Tattoos, Mentoring 101, Speed Matching (MENTEES AND MENTORS HAVE BEEN MATCHED!), Time Capsules, Spaghetti Towers, Partner (mentee+mentor) Communication Challenge, and finally, we began exploring a core theme of our class: SEL (social emotional learning) and Shared Agreements. This combination of lessons in this order has provided a solid foundation that has introduced what the class goals are and what is expected of them as active YESS community participants. We have also built a special bond in each class and at each table with our new seats which have been strategically mapped to promote relationships and opinions belonging to students of all ages and experiences. We are currently in the process of hiring mentor leaders, our interviews are taking place this week after school. It will be a difficult decision as the competition is stiff in each class with multiple applicants pining for the opportunity to lead their class this year. Stay tuned to find out the names of the seniors who are hired on! Please see pics of our shenanigans below.
Speaking of mentor leaders; a success story that I'd like to share is that of the visitation by Shalayah Davis! She was last year's Mentor Leader of 7th block who has proven to be one of YESS' most improved and most successful obstacle destroyer. Her story of resiliency and ability to overcome can be further explained in previous entries (see the last post from the 18-19 school year down below), but her visit was so special because each class got to hear of her life update in comparison to where she came from in the past. The story of Shalayah is so special because I feel that she is someone that any young person can relate to- even some adults! She shared that she was once a student struggling with attendance, ditching tendencies, drug abuse, homelessness, and mental health issues. Although, she went on to explain that ever since her junior year and her conscious change of mindset and self-destructive habits, she has been filled with consistent motivation and ambition to change the trajectory of her narrative. She contributed this change to her circle of influence, mainly her Grandma, the support of teachers (myself and Mr. Rogers), and lastly, the responsibilities holding her accountable in our YESS class last year. She graduated on time and is now in the midst of completing her EMT certification! She is even making A's and B's on top of her full time job, her 100% emancipation status (paying all of her own bills), and handling the responsibilities that come with renting her very own first apartment- she even has a dog! This independence is something that a lot of young people dream about and she is someone who took the difficult cards she was handed in life and made something positive out of them. She is dedicating her life to serving others and she discovered this passion through her struggle with mental health in HS and through serving as a leader in her class delivering lessons that will help people in a multitude of capacities. She even stayed around to take our vitals on this day! I love her continued commitment to this program. It was so nice to see her and the students were inspired by the vulnerability of her story knowing that they could someday succeed and bloom the way she has.
Please see the pics of Shalayah's visit along with all of the other adventures and lessons we have been up to in YESS down below!
Until next month,
Ms. C
