Week 12 at ACHS

Thanks again to our wonderful mentor leaders for writing our blog posts!

This week we have been learning about the brain and its various structures and functions. We discussed the amygdala, the part of the brain that controls fear. We learned about a person referred to as "SM". A significant amount of research around fear has been done on SM because her amygdala was damaged. We learned that the damage to her amygdala caused her to not experience fear anymore. She was not able to draw a fearful face, or experience fear in traumatic and dangerous situations. We filled out a crossword puzzles and played games in order to familiarize ourselves with the brain, as well as colored and labeled the different brain regions.

Week 11 at ACHS

This week in class we talked about fear and how we feel when we experience fear. Some students said that they were afraid of public speaking, others said spiders, and a few said they weren't afraid of anything.  Student shared experiences they have had that come with being afraid of something, for example, feeling shaky and having elevated heart rate and blood pressure. Students learned about our biological fear response and spent time learning about the amygdala, and what it would be like to not have one, such as in the case of patient S.M.

 Many mentors had senior lock-in this week where they learned about obstacles, dreams and the steps we need to take in order to succeed.

Week 10 at ACHS

This week the ACHS mentor leaders began teaching some of the YESS class and writing the ACHS YESS blog!
This week classes talked about the power of choosing. Students began the week having a discussion around the proverb, "you can't control the wind but you can adjust your sails". Students wrote about what the quote meant to them, some said that you can't control what happens around you, but you can control the way you handle it. Students gave examples of things they do have control over in their own lives, some examples included completing their homework, what they eat, what time they sleep, or how they act or respond to situations in class. After that, mentees and mentors paired up to complete a reading titled "The power of choosing your thoughts". We learned about positive and negative attitudes as well as what goes on in someone's mental state. Over the course of this week, the students in the class focused on their fear. After watching a Ted Talk, the students realized the first step to conquering fear is finding out what they fear. After identifying their fears, the students wrote down what steps they could take to conquer their fear.
This week one of our mentor leaders designed and implemented a lesson on study skills and staying organized in school. She led a discussion and shared her own experiences with school and the ways in which has learned to study and stay organized while juggling college classes, applying for college and scholarships, and finishing her senior year of high school.

Week 9 at ACHS

This week marked the halfway point in the semester for ACHS students. Students were busy studying for midterms and getting missing work turned into their teachers. Mentors had the opportunity to participate in mentor trainings with Dannikka this week. Mentors got to hear about Dannikka's experiences as a mentor and mentor leader at North while she was in high school. She discussed challenges and successes she had had with her own mentees. YESS classes wrapped up their community building unit with an art project exploring their values, goals, community, culture and personal identity. Students were asked to think of their identity through the analogy of an iceberg, and to explore what parts of their identity they share with the world and what parts they keep hidden beneath the water. This activity was meant to be a personal reflection of what we have done in our YESS classes thus far this year.

Week 8 at ACHS

This week at ACHS many students were excited about homecoming and the events leading up to the dance. YESS students discussed the relationship between values and goals and learned how to assess their goals using a SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis. Mentees worked with their mentors to help them identify challenges they might face in achieving their goals, as well as opportunities they have in school and in their communities to help support them in reaching their goals. This week YESS students also created maps of the people in their world to help them identify the different support systems in their lives and the different networks they can use to help them achieve their goals.