Ranum Pre-Vacation Week!

Hello,

The week started off strong with a great documentary on mentor Monday. The focus of the documentary was on two people from a small island off the coast of Colombia. One has been a fisherman his whole life, the other is a 10 year old boy contemplating his future. Not many people make it off the island to pursue education and this little boy wants to go to the mainland to focus on schooling. The mentors were surprised at how content all of the islanders were with their non materialistic lives, especially without WiFi!

Tuesday was a snow day so that put us a little behind for our next activity, the Love Cup! The love cup is a metaphor that helps us figure out how much of ourselves we are able to give to others. There are many things that make us happy and that goes into the Love Cup; however, there are many stresses in life that drain your love cup (arguing with friends, fighting with parents, and school work are just a few things the students came up with). As you can see below, the students had a lot of fun creating their Love Cups.

The students learned a little more about themselves and the things that bring them happiness. They also learned how to slow down /eliminate some of their leaks (stressors) through different avenues such as exercise, music, and even journaling.

I wish everyone a safe and happy holidays!

Ranum Update 12/7-12/11

Hello,

This past week went by really quickly. Our main focus was on giving back and giving back is exactly what we did. The YESS program raised $260 from the bake sale and all of the proceeds will go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. We had an over whelming amount of help and support from both the students and teachers here at Ranum. The students did a great job of bringing in baked goods and handling the large crowds of students wanting those goods.

In class, we did self - esteem charts throughout the week to see how we felt depending on the day. Mentors and Mentees discussed anything that was going on both positive and negative that could effect their score that day. 

Later in the week we created self - esteem rainbows. Mentors and mentees each wrote some positive adjectives about one another and then switched papers so they could decide their top 6 adjectives. These adjectives represented the colors of the rainbow and the kids were very creative in their projects.

Overall, another great week and you can tell we're all itching for the winter break.

Post Turkey Day (11/30 - 12/4)

Hello all!

This week we focused our attention on Community Service Projects while mixing in a lesson on values and how we behave in different situations/locations. 

The students will be collecting donations for the Denver Rescue Mission, raising money through a bake sale for St. Jude Children's Hospital, and writing encouraging letters to one of the Veteran's organizations in Denver. 

It's powerful to see the passion and dedication the students are putting forth towards these efforts. I'm excited to update you on how things are going next week!

The values lesson gave me good insight on the importance level each student places on their values. We had some solid discussions and it gave other students a better understanding of their peers and why they react to things differently. We also did an activity that challenged students to discuss who they are in various settings and whether or not that is a good or bad thing. Most students said as long as you stick to your values and stand up for what you believe in, it is acceptable for there to be times where maybe you act differently depending on who you're with or where you are.

Overall, another fun filled week that allowed students to express themselves and share their values.

Have a great weekend!

Ranum Update!

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!

It has been a great week of projects here at Ranum. We created 3-D models of emotions and talked about a variety of topics that we value as individuals.

Mentor Monday had us watching an enlightening documentary about a 14 year old boy in India that works three part time jobs and goes to school all in the same day. The mentors were shocked by a lot of things going on in the film. Among all of the differences, they could not believe how packed the city was, how crowded his house was, and how much little free time he had. Many mentors were humbled by the video but very vocal of their dislike for many other injustices in this world. 

On Tuesday and Wednesday we worked on 3-D Emotional Sculptures. Students were directed to choose any emotion that wanted and had to create a sculpture to represent that emotion. As you can see by the pictures, they were very creative and had a lot of fun with it. After they finished, they had to write ten different hot buttons that caused them to feel the emotions they just created.

At the end of the week, we worked on a project called Mind, Body, Soul. This project had students draw a body on a piece of paper and each part of the body represented different questions/skills. For example, the head/brain area asked you what your goals and dreams are. The eyes represented how you want people to see you (smart, funny, responsible, etc). All the way down to the feet, which one foot asked you where you go now (park, school, home, playground, etc) and the other asked you where you want to travel to in the future. Each group member had to share one response for each question. 

Overall the week went by very fast and as always, I'm impressed by my students insights and responses while working on these projects.

Have a great Thanksgiving!

Ranum Update!

Hello all,

Another action packed week at Ranum that covered the Top 10 Stress Relievers and ESMART goal setting.

All the students related to most of the stress relievers, with music being the top choice in most classes. Other ones on the list like power naps (of course they wanted to try this one in class), exercise, staying organized and positive thinking were very popular. Self-Hypnosis and Progressive Muscle Relaxation needed to be explained further but overall the students were interested and asked if they could keep the sheet with them so if they are ever feeling stressed, they can try out one of the tips!

For the rest of the week we talked about what it meant to be ESMART and how any goal students have should go through that checklist. Many students had goals of going to college, playing professional sports, joining the army or navy, or becoming a doctor some day. They struggled with the Time-Bound portion of ESMART so I continually reminded them setting a date completes your goal or else you could just keep pushing it off and never complete it.

A fun team-builder activity we did this week was called back-2-back drawing. It works by having mentors and mentees partner up and one person designated as the drawer or the describer. The describer would come up and look at a picture I drew, then go back to their seat and sit back to back with their partner (so they aren't tempted to look) and describe the picture to the drawer. The drawer could only go by the describers words, so verbal communication was very important. Most of the pictures were pretty accurate, usually the size of the images they drew was a little off but overall, lots of fun.

One more week until Thanksgiving Break! Have a great weekend!

Weekly Ranum Update (11/2 - 11/6)

Hello again!

This week was focused on El Dia De Los Muertos, Organization, Time Management and Stress.

On Monday, the Mentors and I celebrated El Dia De Los Muertos and watched The Book of Life. It's a great movie that shows the traditions and beliefs through a fun story line.

Tuesday was dedicated to organizing our lives, both students and myself. I had students bring in their binders, notebooks, folders, and anything from their lockers. They sorted through all of their materials and ended up recycling a lot of old paper work. When they were finished, we started organizing all of the papers in this class and students took the initiative to split up all of the paperwork and put them in the appropriately labeled folder. They were a huge help and all were very supportive of one another and enjoyed bragging about how organized they already were.

Wednesday and Thursday was dedicated to Time Management and a chance for students to realize where they are wasting a lot of their time. This brought up good conversations of how too much homework effects their after school life; especially, if they're expected to do work/chores, babysit siblings, and cook dinner.

Friday, or as I like to call it "No Fun Friday" (joking) was all about stress and those things in life that cause it. Students came up with ideas or solutions that would help limit or eliminate some of those top stressors in their lives. We ended it on a fun note by playing animal charades to keep the atmosphere light and to show that laughing and being goofy can be a solution to avoiding stress.



Have a great weekend!

Ranum Update 10/26 - 10/29

Welcome back to the Ranum Update!

This week was highlighted with student led parent teacher conferences on back to back nights along with some great poster designs and skits around Emotional Dwarves.

Mentor Monday started off with self evaluations. This gave mentors a chance to honestly evaluate how they believe they've been performing in class and with their mentees'. After that, we got into some deeper talks about mentee successes and challenges. Some challenges were mentees getting suspended, getting their mentees to open up more about personal issues and how to refocus mentee's if they are off track. Overall, some great talks and we even implemented some strategies throughout the week to combat those struggles.

Our big topic this week was Emotional Dwarves. I was impressed by how easily the student's related Hot Buttons with Emo Dwarves and how they lead into each other. They were quick to understand Bully and Gossipy because those are trending right now in their lives. Some of the harder ones like Sulky and Vengy needed further explanation. Over the course of hearing each one, many students would say "oh that's me" or "I've been {insert Emo Dwarf here} before". It was nice to hear students share out times either they've been an Emo Dwarf or times they've noticed others being an Emo Dwarf.

Student's had the option to create a poster that showed an example of each Emo Dwarf, or they could act out a skit based on that Emo Dwarf. They were very entertaining and it helped others learn what exactly each Emo Dwarf looked like in person.

The student led parent teacher conferences went very well and it was a great turnout overall. It was nice to put a face to the voices I've talked to over the phone and also to explain more about the program and how their child is doing. I still look forward to connecting with parents that have escaped me so far!

I can't believe it's November next week! Have a great weekend!

Ranum Update 10/19 - 10/23

Hello all!

Monday started off great with some solid debates around uniform policy, war, students rights, and how much dislike they have for Donald Trump. Valid arguments were made on both sides. Most students believe that we should work towards peace and we even went over why Russia and the U.S disagree.

The middle of the week had us wrapping up Hot Buttons and turning our focus on the 5 core emotions and I was impressed with how well the students understood the different types of emotions. We began class by using the letters in our first names to come up with different emotions starting with those letters. The kids were very creative with most emotions and only needed a little help with some of the more challenging letters (Z, Y, X). Later in the class, I started calling out different emotions and it was the students jobs to see which of the 5 core emotions they fit into. Often times, they realized that they would fall into multiple categories.

At the end of the week we did a team building exercise called the Egg Drop Challenge. Student's were put into small groups and had to construct an object that would protect an egg from a 10 foot fall given a limited amount of supplies. Some groups were very creative, while some groups requested their egg early to lock it into their contraption and ended up with a broken egg before dropping. Overall, it was a lot of fun and students did a great job of working together and trying to come up with the safest creation for their egg.

Have a great weekend!

Ranum Update 10/12 - 10/16

The first week back after an amazing wedding and honeymoon and the students welcomed me back with a very thoughtful poster and many questions.

While I was away the students completed their Life Maps (Pictures below). The mentor and mentee pairs, as well as myself, learned more about their pasts and different things they've gone through. Most students were very open about their pasts and it made for great conversations. They also participated in an ice breaker activity that had students silently separate themselves into one of three groups based on the colored dot they had on their forehead, however, one of the groups only had one student in it. The whole point was for students to realize that sometimes we include or exclude others based on meaningless characteristics.

This past week I had a great conversation with all the mentors and they filled me in on everything I missed while I was out. We went over learning targets for the week, based on our lessons, which were Recognizing Beliefs and Hot Buttons Part 1. Recognizing Beliefs had students take a deeper look at what a belief is and some of their personal beliefs about different topics. We had some great discussions about what one student believed vs what another student believed in. For example, the topic of religion was brought up and discussed. Next we moved onto Hot Buttons and we went in depth to find out what some examples of hot buttons are, what can trigger those feelings, and different ways we can go about handling those emotions.

Overall it was a great first week back and I'm excited to keep plugging away here at Ranum!

Ranum Update 9/25

This week was jam packed with great personal and social skill building lessons. We started the week off discussing trust and each mentor and mentee pair had the chance to share what trust meant to them and how they wanted it to look in their relationships. Many pairs talked about open and honest communication and mentors reassured their mentees to start off by only sharing things they are comfortable with. 

By mid-week we were doing some listening exercises and quizzes to see which level students were at. Many students believed they were level 3 listeners (attentive, responsive, great listeners) but after the quiz they discovered that most of them were actually level 2 and some even level 1. This was a big shock to them and they were jokingly saying that the quiz was a lie. Students also had the chance to create short skits on a listening level of their choice. Many groups chose level 1 because it gave them a chance to be goofy and create some very funny skits.

We capped off the week by talking about thoughts and emotions. What's the difference between a thought and emotion, where do our thoughts come from and what can they lead to, and also what are some of our emotions and where do they come from. When discussing thoughts, many students were already very keen on the difference between fact and opinion and had great examples to share. Also when discussing emotions, students were giving examples of times when they didn't feel comfortable sharing emotions because they were embarrassed, or times when they could not explain the emotion they were feeling.

Overall it was a busy but great week!

Pairing Up! 9/14-9/17

Happy Friday from Ranum Middle School!

Another short week of school but we accomplished a lot. Mentors and Mentees have been paired and continue to bond with one another through various activities. After being paired up, mentors and mentees wrote letters to one another. Mentor's wrote about some of their personal struggles they persevered through and how they will support their mentee for the whole year. Mentee's wrote to their mentors about any areas they struggle in (academic, socially, behaviorally) and how they would appreciate their mentor's help this year. Some letters were pretty emotional but it is so great to see students already opening up to one another.

After the letters, the pairs "interviewed" one another by asking each other questions from the YESS Success Assessment sheet. This assessment allowed the pairs to get to know one another better and for them to self assess and reflect. The pairs also started working on their "Am I on Track" sheets. These sheets require both mentor's and mentee's to attend a meeting with the mentee's teachers to see how they are doing in that class and what areas they need to work on. This way mentor's can help assist their mentee's where they need it and now they know who they have for teachers.

Tune in next week for another Ranum Update!

Happy Friday from Ranum!

Hello and Happy Friday!

This week at Ranum we completed our Time Capsules. The students had a lot of fun bringing in pictures and personal items to put into their time capsule. Some things that were brought in include; baby and family photos, chapstick, candy, pencils, a Colorado Rockies baseball, and hair just to name a few. The only required items were a personal letter to their future self, a questionnaire that asked them what their favorite things are right now, a height measurement, and a hand tracing. Overall, the students were very excited and one student even put their address on their time capsule so I could ship it to them when they graduate instead of opening it at the end of the year...we'll see how that goes.

We also did a couple personality tests so they could see where they fall on that scale and how it effects group work and other relationships. Students would highlight certain words that they felt represented them and this would place you into 1 of 4 categories. Once students found their category, I had them read a personality definition for that category to see if it matched and to their amazement they would say, "that's me!".

Monday will be the announcement of Mentor and Mentee pairs, which of course everyone is looking forward to.

Have a great weekend!

Welcome Back Ranum

It's hard to believe that two and half weeks have already gone by. It's been awesome getting to know the mentor's and mentee's more and more each day and watching them get to know one another. The first week we focused on initial relationship building through ice breakers, discussed why students are either a mentor or mentee, and started to shape what we want our classroom culture to look like.

We did a great teambuilding activity called Spaghetti Towers where groups of students had to try and design either the tallest, most stable, or most creative tower out of spaghetti and mini marshmallows. The students had to work together, communicate, and come up with a plan on how they wanted to build their structure. Fun was had by all and it was exciting watching their thought process and seeing all of their creative ideas.

This past week, in my classes that have an even number of mentor's and mentee's, we started the matching process through an activity called Speed Matching. Speed Matching had mentor's lined up sitting next to each other and mentee's would rotate through each mentor to ask questions and converse. Students were given some questions to spark their conversations or they had the freedom to ask questions that were important to them. Now, the student's will have to nominate their top 3 choices for mentor or mentee and provide a solid case why they should be paired up. I'm looking forward to what they will come up with!

First full week at Ranum!

The first full week here at Ranum is just about complete and it has flown by. It's always a nice challenge early on the memorize the students names and I almost know all of them by now. I am also an expert on opening lockers since 6th graders are still having a little trouble with it. Either way, they all bring a lot of energy to the table and it's been a lot of fun so far.

This week we discussed and posted our Shared Agreements so that we can hold each other accountable in order to maintain a collaborative and safe classroom. We created our own communities, talked about philanthropy, introduced ourselves to one another and built Spaghetti Towers.

The students are getting more and more comfortable sharing with one another and mentor's have already started telling me who they want their mentee's to be. To quote one of the mentors, "Mister, I already know who my mentee is going to be (points to mentee). I'm going to make her less shy, just like how I became less shy last year". I told him that sounds great to me.

Looking forward to week 2! Have a great weekend!