Week 3: Healthy Relationships

The YESS program wrapped up their short unit on Martin Luther King Jr. this week. The mentor leaders facilitated some fun activities and discussions with the mentors about working with mentees and their goals for the semester. The mentor leaders also taught a lesson on healthy relationships. Students used their personal network maps from last semester to identify which relationships in their lives they felt were healthy and which they felt were unhealthy and then identified why. 

Angel leads discussion on healthy vs. unhealthy relationships 

Week Two: Introductions and MLK Jr.

    YESS students had another short week at ACHS because of testing days and a practice snow delay! Even day classes had an intro to YESS on Monday and had discussions around the role of mentors and mentees in their YESS class. Classes also discussed community norms and values and what they expected from their peers and teacher in their YESS class.
    This week students participated in discussions around the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr. Students were encouraged to share what they knew about MLK and the civil rights movement either from school, their own research or from the media. Students then read excerpts from some of his lesser known speeches. Students were then encouraged to think critically about how Martin Luther King Jr. is portrayed today, and to think about which of his ideas and values are discussed frequently, and which of his teachings are lesser known and why.

Community Norms and Values

First Week of the Spring Semester at ACHS

This week students arrived back at school after winter break. Many of the YESS classes have lots of new faces so students had an opportunity to learn about the program and do some team building activities. Students got hear about each other's' winter breaks and learn a bit about their classmates through some fun games. The first week of school was especially short due to a snow day on Thursday, so the ACHS YESS program is look forward to meeting the rest of the students for even day classes next week!

Finals Week at ACHS

Last week was the final week of the fall semester at ACHS. Students were busy studying for finals and making sure all of their work was turned in. Students had time to do some extra studying during their YESS classes. They also used the time to finish putting together their final projects for YESS (look for photos after break). Some of the students organized potlucks on their last day of class to celebrate the end of the semester! YESS students are excited for their holiday break and are looking forward to having more mentors in their classes next semester.

Week 17 at ACHS

This past week in class we spent time exploring the War on Drugs. We watched a video narrated by Jay Z about statistics on drug use and incarceration of people of color. After the video, mentor leaders led a discussion for students to talk more about what their opinions and beliefs were on the War on Drugs and share their personal experiences. One of the mentor leaders put together a Powerpoint on research she had done on New Jim Crow laws. She went back to the start of Jim Crow Laws and compared it to today's statistics on minorities and incarceration rates. The mentees were also given time in class to study for the upcoming finals. Students also spent time working on their final projects.

Final Project: The Hippocampus and Alzheimer's  

Week 16

Students arrived back at school after a long Thanksgiving break to start their last YESS unit of the semester. This week students began a unit on drugs and the brain. We started off the unit discussing how drugs affect the brain at the beginning of the week. By the end of the week students picked out specific drugs they wanted to research and then present to the class. Students have also been busy working on their final projects for their YESS class, where they are designing a comic book character based off of a region of the brain and then making a six panel comic storyline about their character.

Cerebral Core-Brainer 

Week 15 at ACHS

This week in class the mentors focused on getting the mentees caught up with missing work. It was beneficial for them to get their missing work so they can catch up over break. This week we, the mentor leaders, focused on mentor recruitment for next semester. We delivered invitations to students we believed have the potential to become strong mentors. On Wednesday after school we held an informational meeting for students interested in becoming mentors, where we had at least 35 students show up. We told the students about our experiences in the YESS class so far this year and answered questions the students had about the program. After the meeting, the mentor leaders offered interviews for mentors. We recruited nearly 25 mentors for next semester!

Thank you Fernanda and Angel for all of your hard work last week!