Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Ranum Week 35

Hello!

I still can't believe that the school year ended last week. It felt like this year flew by with all of the fun and engaging activities we completed.

It was your typical last week of school with lots of celebrations, field trips and of course, kids bouncing off the walls ready for summer to start.

On Monday we created superlatives for the mentees and the mentors. Some were comical, such as, most likely to never cut their hair all year, to humbling words like most likely to be valedictorian. We used these superlatives for our end of year party which was on Tuesday. We also opened our Time Capsules from the beginning of the year. Most students had forgotten about them so they were super excited to open them up and explore what they put inside their envelopes at the beginning of the year. Many of them checked to see if they had grown and were surprised to see that they actually did.

On Wednesday, 8th graders went on a field trip to Chautauqua State Park and hiked around all day so I was left hanging out with the mentees. We talked about how they felt their year had gone and we ended by watching some Brain Games. On Thursday, the last day of school, we had rotations so I did not see most of my YESS students throughout the day but, as a school, we participated in a lot of fun activities like angry birds, memory book creating, Kahoot! and puzzles/games.


Overall, another great year with a lot of great students. I wish all of them a fun filled and safe summer break and I can't wait to see most of them next year! To all my 8th graders, I know you're going to move on and do great things in High School and beyond, best of luck!

Monday, May 22, 2017

Ranum Week 34

Welcome back!

For our last full week of school we were all about giving back to the community that we live in. At the beginning of the week we decided to pick up trash and recycling all around the school. At first I thought the students may not be into it, but they were all about it. Running around outside and filling as many trash bags as possible. They turned it into a competition and it ended up being awesome for everyone involved.


We also had our Middle School year end event. Thank you to everyone who came. I like to think that Ranum Middle School had the most students show up which makes me super proud. We had great speakers all night. Special shout outs to Oanh, Zowie, Isabelle, Alejandra and our very own Vice Principal, Mr. "Wally" Walters, for standing on stage and speaking in front of everyone. Also, shout outs to Zowie and Carlos for winning Mentor and Mentee of the year. It was a really fun night and we hope you can all make it next year!


Towards the end of the week we continued with community service by writing lettings and drawing encouraging pictures/words to different individuals in need of some love and support. Students could choose to support people from the children's hospital, veteran's of armed forces or the homeless. It was very rewarding and helps students gain perspective on the simple things in life they should be thankful for.

Overall, a very rewarding (final, full) week of school! 4 days left until summer break!

Monday, May 15, 2017

Ranum Week 33

Hello and welcome back!

Last week was all about Love Cups. This is a fun and interactive activity that allows students to be really creative about sharing the good and the bad things that happen in their lives.

The Love Cup is a metaphor that helps us figure out how much of ourselves we are able to give to others. It is also a reminder that taking care of yourself is just as important as caring for others. You need to be able to take care of yourself, before you can help others.

So, the first part is to figure out what makes you happy, or what brings you joy. It could be physical like working out or it could be something emotional such as talking about your feelings with your friends. Reading can be an intellectual was to bring you joy, or even going to church or meditating can be good for the spirit/soul. All of these things that bring you joy will fill your cup up.

Now come the things in your life that take away your happiness. It could be as simple as forgetting a problem on a test, all the way to coming home to parents who always argue. No matter how big or small, these are the holes that take away your joy by leaking out of the cup.

Finally, here's the important part, plugging those holes in your cup. This can be any healthy outlet you use to stop the leak. For example, listening to music, playing sports, and not hanging out with those negative friends in your life can all be good ways of stopping those negative leaks.



Overall it was a fun project and students always have a lot of fun with it. Only 9 days left!

Monday, May 8, 2017

Ranum Week 32

Hello!

Last week flew by and was a little crazy at times because of an end of the week Field Day!

Our big project for last week was all about media and body image. We first talked about how the media will try to sell things to you in a bunch of different ways. One way being, to make you feel guilty about yourself and how you NEED their product to help you fix that "issue". So, we talked a lot about advertisements and what those look like, who they're targeting, what's their end goal, etc.

The following day we focused on magazines and all of the positive and negative words/pictures that are displayed. It was the students' jobs to go through these magazines and cut out as many positive and negative words/pictures and give reason to why they think it's one way or the other. For example, there is a lot of photoshop in pictures that try to hide blemishes and make people look completely different their natural look, so that was a big one that students could find easily.

Also, students found a lot of diets in magazines and most of the time, those ads try to make people feel like they're not skinny enough. On the bright side, students found a lot of positive words that they included in their posters.


Overall, a great lesson that students had a fun time exploring! See you next week!

Monday, May 1, 2017

Ranum Week 31

Hello!

This week was all about getting back into the swing of things post testing so we jumped right into Life Maps.

Life Maps are all about the ups and downs that occur in your life and how you persevere to overcome/ flourish in them. We talked about earliest positive and negative memories we could remember from our childhoods. We also discussed both positive and negative significant events and changes that have occurred in our lives.

There were great discussions between mentees and mentors about these topics and a realization that even though we are young, we have all been through our fair share of challenging times.


See you next week!