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!