Hot/Cool Buttons & Productivity

Welcome back Eagles,

 Last week we went over a core YESS lesson, Hot/Cool Buttons, and learned about the spectrum of emotions that helps us to understand our own triggers and how to avoid/calm down from them.

We made a human pendulum that allowed us to get to know each other better, each person choosing a side of the human pendulum to represent where they are at on the Hot Button spectrum. We reflected on how it made us feel and how, at times, it was uncomfortable because of how this activity prompted us to not only confront our insecurities, but share them with the class. We have put in the work to build community in here so the revealing part was interestingly honest and light hearted. We concluded by debating whether or not hot buttons were positive or negative, the overall consensus was that it can be both. They can definitely sabotage our own success when we act impulsively through negative language, passive aggressive actions, or violence.

The rest of the week was dedicated to students doing make up assignments in my class and studying for midterms. I haven't seen this much silent productivity and tutoring since December! It was nice to check in with everyone individually to get a temperature check of who is where going into spring break. It should also be noted that a HUGE success for the week is that I had 9 seniors make the deadline to apply for the YESS scholarship, huge props to them!!!

Although there is no midterm in my class, the stress level can be felt a mile away from the school due to testing in other classes. These next few days will be more gifted time to them for core class midterm focus and tutoring madness- wish us luck!

See you after Spring Break!!!
Ms. C

The Mask You Live In

Last week was one for the books in the YESS room as we dove head first into the ever present theme of toxic masculinity. Our previous week's lessons on Gun Violence and Dating Abuse brought up undertones questioning and critiquing masculinity in our culture and my classes had a lot to say about their own experiences with it so I felt that it was a great time to show them one of my favorite documentaries - The Mask You Live In.

Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc45-ptHMxo

The doc exposed a plethora of startling statistics, including:

• Boys are twice as likely to drop out of school as girls and four times more likely to be expelled.
• Compared to a girl the same age, boys in late adolescence are 7 times more likely to die by thier own hand.
• Boys under 17 drink more heavily than any other population group. 

As early as elementary school, boys confront messages that encourage them to disconnect from their emotions, devalue authentic friendships, objectify and degrade women and girls, and resolve conflicts through violence.

The Representation Project’s The Mask You Live In curriculum equips K-12 with the critical thinking skills to question gender stereotypes that interconnect with race, class, and circumstance. Students define masculinity and have the opportunity to critique gender representations and norms as they create their own positive representations of boys and men. Additionally, our students learn to develop healthy self-concepts and interpersonal relationships.

We participated in the activity as seen in the documentary where they wrote words describing how we present ourselves at school and in public spaces; what we want others to perceive us as. On the back of the mask we wrote words describing who we really are behind that front that we curate. These fronts, or these masks, are put on for survival. They are handed to us by society and the environment we grow up in and, after a while, we grow to fit those masks, or we slowly and implicitly become them by repeatedly hiding vulnerable emotions. This hyper-masculine narrative links gaining respect and solving problems with violence and provides insight to why boys act out when they are depressed. It begs so many questions for educators and students alike and exposes a universal controversial discussion that prompts us to all explore our own inner masculinity (whether we are male, female, somewhere in between, or neither) and how it can be healthy for us and poisonous for us. What is the line? At what point is emotional expression "weak", or is it courageous rather than weakness? In what ways does dominant culture try to put us in a box? These are all questions we answered and debated by analyzing the media.

What we learn from video games, movies, television, music, and pop culture has everything to do with how we view ourselves in the world. To further explore this, I had them draw a fictional character that they looked up to and share it with everyone while describing personality characteristics that belong to that character. A lot of the boys chose superman, batman, and video game characters (like the one above) and many of the girls chose cartoons or Wonder Woman. We found that the girls valued empathy, justice, emotional strength, and grit and the boys valued fighting evil with violence, having superpowers, and incredibly unrealistic physique while having the responsibility of saving the world or an entire village. This was an issue that they realized before I even shined a light on it... Does idolizing these figures put an unhealthy pressure on us to mirror them? Where is the line that represents a healthy role model?

We explored many definitions including, but not limited to, gender identity and biological sex. It took a while to get the concepts across belonging to the fact that gender is between your ears; it is an innate identity generated in your brain. How people wish to express that gender they most comfortably identify with does not always match their biological sex. This is seen as taboo, but why? Because of the gender roles that are socially constructed, it is the box society has placed on you to be seen as accepted and "successful" in life.

The Netflix documentary is a 9th-12th level content and with proper fast forwarding (I can give you the times), it is an extremely eye opening learning opportunity and makes for fruitful discussions that leave students with the eagerness to challenge the status quo. They were left with the task to QUESTION EVERYTHING! Be curious to find out why society is the way it is, realize when it is unhealthy and challenge it in your own way to do your part in helping to make this world a more inclusive place.

Until next week,
Ms. C

Gun Violence & Dating Abuse

Last week was an emotionally heavy couple of days but our intense conversation brought about many fruitful take-aways and learning opportunities.

We began the week by talking about each of the victims who lost their lives in the Parkland shooting. I displayed each of their photos on the screen and had the students take turns reading aloud who they were, what they loved, the family they left behind, and the futures that they had in store. This made so many topics important in the YESS teachings a reality- we acknowledged the need for loving one another and lending kindness because you never know the battles that someone else might be facing. We discussed the gun violence epidemic and there were respectful debates about gun control and the work that needs to be done in this country regarding mental health and toxic masculinity. We also discussed how this event is different than a lot of other tragedies in the way that there are students, the young people who are the survivors of Parkland, who are courageously using their platform to stand up for what the believe in. These young people from Florida are trying to make a change to create a safer and more moral world. I feel that in a class titled Youth Empowerment that these events happening currently are the most exquisite representation of youth empowering other youth. After watching their speeches and discussions with government officials, the kids were inspired by the bravery and maturity of these students using their voices for change... after all, it was only a few weeks ago that these students were in the same position as my ACHS students; sitting in desks worrying about upcoming tests living the normal life of a teen. And now, they are worrying about writing speeches to recite them in front of the world, forcing themselves to do the work that hired officials are not doing themselves. They strive to be the last school shooting and they are determined to be written into history books as the young people who did something about their future and the future of other student's lives to come in the education system and beyond.

In the second half of the week we discussed dating abuse. This was an interesting segue from the last lesson as a point was brought up about how all the people who have committed these mass murder crimes in the US have been statistically male. There is an epidemic concerning male mental health in this country and this lead our discussion about what we can do to change this and how violence can appear on the small scale in domestic partnerships. It was also important to point out that women can be in the role of the abuser as well. A huge part of this discussion surrounded defining what the word "consent" means to each person and how it should equate with a mandatory level of respect when people are wanting to take their relationships to the next level. We learned about shocking statistics that directed our open discussion where people who felt comfortable shared experiences belonging to their personal lives. The last activity of the week was the highlight: acting out scenarios of the 6 main dating abuse topics (physical, emotional, verbal, digital, financial, and sexual) However, I left the sexual topic out of the acting exercise as I did not feel it was appropriate for them. They used their best judgement and got my approval before acting out their scenes in front of the class to compete for some homemade Mexican wedding cookies (:-)!), and because it was such a heavy past few weeks, a lot of their skits were extremely humorous while appropriately getting their points across about the dangers of an unhealthy relationship. See a clip from a skit below!

Until next week,
Ms. Castro

13 Reasons Why Not Continued + NP4H!

Last week was a quiet week yet at the same time it brought some great news!

I say quiet because we spent all of last weeks finishing projects and doing mini bonding activities that helped the mentors/mentees get to know each other and did a few rounds of gallery walks to share what everyone was up to with their project. The example I drew to show them what I was looking for regarding the project product was totally blown out of the water, so many of them took their creativity to the next level, representing their 13 reasons in such unique and fun ways. I begin grading them this week and so far I am totally taken back by the students I serve - their zest for life and humor they put into this allowed me to get to know them on a new level. The letters they attached to their projects were written to friends and family, but often I found that a lot of my students were writing letters to themselves to thank themselves for being strong during dark times, for never giving up. This really shifted my perspective toward understanding how resilient, strong, and mature these young people really are. They are such an inspiration to me and I am glad they were able to take a moment to thank themselves, to show some recognition and some self love for how far they've come while also using their drawings to represent how far they have yet to go- there are so many accomplishments left to be experienced in the future and I look forward to following every single one of them after they graduate to keep up with all the magnificent things they accomplish. They are little world changers in the making.

The great news I received was that I will be taking over as sponsor for the No Place for Hate Club! The club stands for everything the YESS program represents, and personally, I feel that my personality represents everything the club represents as well. I am happy to take over to help them organize events, raise money, and raise awareness, acceptance, and spread love during this politically depressing time for many of our students.

Here are some of the finished products I really loved:

This student included the YESS program in her reasons, it made me smile.

Until next week,

Ms Castro

13 Reasons Why Not

I hope everyone has been keeping warm and staying safe in this wild weather!

Last week was intense yet fun in our YESS class over at ACHS. We began our 13 Reasons Why Not project where the students were to come up with 13 Reasons Why they enjoy being alive, 13 reasons they get out of bed, 13 reasons that make life enjoyable. These reasons can be memories, people, future events they want to live to see, or little silly moments in life like smelling a good candle!

This ties into our bullying/harassment lesson because it is important to analyze the consequences of disrespecting people. It isn't only wrong, but it could lead to a lot of trauma for someone else and lead to mental health concerns and potentially push them to harm themselves. We talked about teen suicide and it was astonishing to learn about the statistic that 3 out of 4 high school students contemplate taking their own life at some point... how ASTONISHING and disturbing is that fact!? This is why schools need to take on tough subjects that have otherwise been taboo, we need to prepare them for the real world as best as we can and help them to understand themselves enough to help them realize when they are having these feelings and how to reach out for help when they need it.

With that being said, while my kids worked on their projects last week I had all of the social workers, school based therapists, and counselors come introduce themselves to each of my classes. There can sometimes be a negative stigma attached to reaching out for emotional help from school staff but I wanted to clear that up by having them come to make their presence more personal. They gave their location in the building and we gave out the suicide hotline and text line number as well. I also made sure to reiterate my open door policy and explain that their journals can always be a form of communication with me if they are not comfortable reaching out another way.

The second part of their project requires them to write a letter/ make a card for someone who has been there for them during a dark time. This can be someone they are close to personally or someone who lifted them up when they needed it most but they never got the chance to express their thanks. If the student feels as though they have been alone through dark times and that they are the ones who get themselves through it all, I encouraged them to write a letter to themselves. They need to acknowledge the strength and resilience it has taken for them to have pulled themselves through it. When they are done I am just grading for letter completion - what is in the letter is not my business - but I am passing them back out for them to give out to the people they wrote them to or to keep as a piece of remembrance that they can get through anything.

The projects are still in progress but they're coming along amazingly! I plan to make a giant collage outside of the class door when we are done at the end of this week.

Oh! And the past few weeks have been pretty intense with different exercises requiring them to step out of their comfort zones and reveal heavy things about themselves, so to pick up the mood I bought bagels for all of my classes on Friday! They loved it. We played a combination of heads up and pictionary on Friday as well, the week ended on a positive note for sure.

Until next week,
Ms. Castro

The Meaning & Impact of Harassment

In high school's all over the country there lies a silent yet viral problem plaguing student bodies. The topic of bullying can often take a cheesy turn at the 9-12th grade level, but through careful planning and presentation by myself and my mentor leaders, we made room for a safe space in which people could express their own experiences with feeling different & enduring harassment.

We did an exercise similar to the privilege walk except this time we were in the comfort of our own classroom. We dimmed the lights and got on either side of the line and stepped up to it when a situation related to our own lives.

Example:
Step up if...
You were raised by a single parent
You have ever been the subject of a racist joke
You have ever experienced sexual harassment
You have struggled with depression
You have participated in a racist, sexist, or homophobic joke
You have been the victim of cyber harassment
You have lost a friend due to suicide
You have been affected by someone struggling with alcoholism or drug addiction
You love someone who has been, or currently is in, jail

The students were to stay silent throughout the whole activity, showing respect to the people who were brave enough to be vulnerable and step to the line. None of the students were pressured to step up if they did not feel comfortable, I let them know that they could stay in one place the entire time if they chose to do so. After the activity they did a reflection by themselves and then with each other, expressing the feelings that this activity brought up in them. The concluding thoughts they shared related to being surprised that so many people had been through/are currently battling such difficult emotional struggles because of trauma. It was a much needed reminder to treat everyone with respect and kindness because you never know what someone is going through. This activity also brought us closer as a family, they seem to share more and more each day and they handled the activity with such maturity I was so proud.

We also explored the 4 different types of harassment and did group activities prompting real life examples for each. After each block I put up a slide with all of the contact information belonging to the school counselors and social workers, explaining where their offices are in the building. I feel that there can often be a negative stigma attached to seeking out help when you're struggling with mental health (I too experienced this in high school) so I wanted to normalize it and open up the door for students to make that first step of seeking help. I plan to aid this further next week by having the counselors come by my classes and introduce themselves.

This lesson was our introduction to our upcoming project diving into the issues belonging to the controversial yet popular show called 13 Reasons Why. More on the progress of this project next week!

See you next time,
Ms. Castro

Belief Systems and Little Moments

Last week's lesson was imperative in shaping the direction of our semester as we explored what it is that empowers us and what limits us. Belief systems were the topic of discussion as my students came up with their own definition of belief systems- they defined it as a thought that comes up over and over again.

This related to a past lesson about implicit biases, we revisited the beliefs tattooed onto our brains by our environment, some tattoos were put there without permission and we talked about how some of these ingrained ideas can be negative. It takes a lot of repeated sessions of tattoo removal to erase the beliefs that are holding us back from achieving our full potential and blocking us from succeeding educationally and personally. We also analyzed how our thoughts of others can be related to ourselves because when you think mostly negative beliefs about others, there's a pretty great chance that you harbor negative beliefs when looking into the mirror. Attitude shapes everything and, most importantly, whether you believe you can or you can't - you're right!

To wrap up the lesson, each pair created a PSA with a message representing what they learned during their research and incorporated a colorful visual image that helped to get their message across. They used their teamwork and creativity to create beautiful messages of informational empowerment such as this one:

At the end of the week, each mentee and mentor completed 2018 Surveys for the new year. In these surveys the kids were to answer questions thoughtfully that helped myself and their partner to get to know them even better and help to express what they want out of this second semester. Mentee's expressed what they needed help with most and Mentors expressed obstacles and experiences they have overcome that has lead them to be in this role of leadership. They poured their hearts into sharing more about themselves in order to improve the relationships and make their future time together as partners productive in this class.

It's little quiet moments like this from unsuspecting students that let me know that I am doing something right. I love these kids with everything I've got and I can't wait to tackle the rest of the year with them and continue to watch them grow.

Until next week,
Ms. Castro