Ranum Week 7!

Hello all!

Another week in the books, I can't believe it's already the end of September!

On Monday we presented our communities and I was so impressed and happy to see all the unique creations the students came up with. Some of their communities had themes like Halloween, rich city, or kids only and it was funny to see all the different buildings and organizations they prioritized.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we worked on a YESS Success worksheet that had mentors and mentees getting to know each other a little more personally with questions about their world, relationships, strengths, changes and challenges that they face daily. Some students still aren't there in terms of opening up completely, which is just fine, but for the most part, some of their answers were really personal and meaningful. After those questions, we dove in even deeper, asking what some of their strengths, achievements, internal/external barriers to success and internal/external support systems are. This sparked some great conversations and I was happy to see the level of support and comforting that mentors provided to their mentees.

On Thursday and Friday we played some team building activities. All 8th graders were gone on Friday so classes were a bit small but the team builders were a lot of fun. The kids favorite was the Cup Challenge. They were in groups of 4 and had 6 cups, 4 pieces of string and a rubber band. Only the rubber band could touch the cups so no hands allowed to move the cups. They had to figure out how to move the 6 cups into a variety of formations like a pyramid and 3 cup tower stacks. Once they figured out the best strategy, it still did not make things easier because they had to work together and communicate effectively. Only 1 group (Matt, Erick, Eduardo, and Eddie) was able to stack all 6 cups one on top of the other and that came at the end of the day! Great job guys!

Again, very fun week but ready for the weekend!

Ranum Week 6 - Community Building

Welcome back!

Another week just flew by! At the beginning of the week we attempted to create some new art work for the curriculum. Mostly we were trying to come up with new representations of the Emo Trolls and a lot of students had very similar ideas by making them into Emoji's (more on Emo Trolls later in the year).

The rest of the week was dedicated to creating our own small communities. Mentors and mentees paired up and were put into groups of 4 and their job was to come up with their idea of the perfect community. They had the freedom to put whatever buildings, municipals, sports fields, etc. that they wanted in their cities. The only stipulation was I made sure that for each building they put into their city, they had to explain why mentoring would be beneficial there and how would mentoring occur at that location.

Overall, another great week and I'm excited for the kids to present their communities on Monday!

Ranum Week 5 - Diving In

Hello all,

Mentors and mentees have been matched and we spent last week getting to know one another on a deeper level. Mentor and mentee pairs were responsible for creating their own Google Slideshow about each other. They had a little questionnaire they could follow along with or they could ask their mentor/mentee any questions they may have thought of or wanted to know.

The mentors introduced their mentees to the class and the mentees introduced their mentors. We talked about some basic presentation skills like eye contact, posture and clear voices in hopes that this would be great practice for them. Most students were not nervous but eye contact is a skill that will need to be worked on going forward. Overall, the presentations were great and it helped mentors and mentees get off on the right foot in their relationships.

See you next week!

Ranum Week 4 - Matching!

Welcome back to the Ranum blog, hope you had a great week!

It was a short week but somehow it felt full. We started with an activity called speed matching. Speed matching was a chance for every mentor to meet every mentee and vice versa. Students were given some generic questions but also had the freedom to ask whatever they may have wanted to know about the other person. The following day I had each mentor and mentee choose their top 3 students that they wanted to be paired with and they had to give a solid reason for their choice.

The week ended with us working on our individual time capsules. Students went through a little questionnaire that asked them what their current favorite things are, like movies or music or activities, etc. They also wrote a letter to their future self talking about their current self. We took down their current heights, did a hand measurement and will put in a current picture of themselves. It's a great activity and at the end of the year, they can see how much they've grown, literally and figuratively, or they can hold onto it until they graduate high school or however long they want to.

Another great week in the books, can't wait for this week!

Ranum Week 3

Welcome back!

This week was jam packed with fun activities and we even mixed in some classroom procedures. We started off the week creating our shared agreements and how we want the class to run. After that was finished, we talked about our personal values and how they lead us towards different decisions.

Wednesday was all about communication! I gave students directions while their eyes were closed so they had to rely solely on their interpretation of my directions. We also did back to back drawing which pairs up students and requires one student to draw a picture that their partner is holding and they can only go by how their partner describes the picture. The message I wanted them to understand is that we all communicate and interpret messages differently. So in the future, if there is a miscommunication, do not react negatively, but be open and try to figure out what you're not understanding.

We wrapped up the week working on T-shirt designs and had a great agree/disagree debate on Friday. The topics ranged from current issues in the world/community to things that happened in the past and its effect on the world. I was delightfully surprised by some of the students statements and it's definitely an activity we'll do again in the future!

Thanks for reading!