The Weekly Ranum: Edition #22

Hello!

Welcome back to The Weekly Ranum.

Monday we were off for President's Day.

Tutoring Tuesday I printed off some President's Day based worksheets so students could learn more about past presidents. They also had the chance, as always, to catch up in their other classes.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we worked on Love Cups. The idea that we have a happiness or love tank within ourselves that is always fluctuating. There are things that bring us happiness that raise our love tank levels and there are things that can wear us down and bring our levels lower. Students had some great answers about how there are things that both bring happiness/joy but they can also become too much at times. For example, family or friends. They had a great time creating their own loves cups and as soon as I clear out the space on my phone and am able to take pictures again, I'll upload some.

Thank you for reading!

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #21

Hello!

Mentors finished up their self evaluations and goals for the second semester on Monday. Tutoring Tuesday went well. Students were on task and trying to accomplish/catch up on as much work as possible.

On Wednesday and Thursday we talked about Hot Buttons. Students would try to figure out the words/actions of others that really set them off and "push their buttons". We tried to see why these comments/actions bothered us and how we could avoid any issues in the future. After figuring out our Hot Buttons, we moved onto our Cool Buttons, or the things in life that relax us or help us get through those challenging times. Cool Buttons can range from watching T.V to taking a nap to listening to music to going on a run. Everyone is different and only you know what works best for you in a given situation.

For No Fun Friday we played a game where students sat in a circle and I would say to one student, name 5 things that... then I would say go and we would pass a ball around the circle and if the ball made it back before the person could name 5 things, they would have to go again. An example would be, name 5 things that start with the letter M or name 5 emotions or name 5 different countries.

They had a lot of fun with it and realized that being on the spot makes it 10 times more difficult, especially when you see the ball going around the circle faster and faster. 

Overall, another great week!

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #20

Hello!

Short week this past week with a whole lot of catch up!

Mentor Monday was focused on reflection. I wanted the mentors to gauge where they are at with their mentee and also with their leadership level at this point. Most mentors were pretty honest and this week we'll try to come up with some action steps on how to improve.

Tutoring Tuesday was a great day for catching up in other classes. With students knowing that conferences were happening this week, it helped a lot with motivation.

On Wednesday we had to finish up the movie Inside Out because there were some DVD issues the previous week with the substitute teacher. We had a nice little chat about the different emotions and how important of a role each one of them plays.

Since there was going to be no students on Friday, we had No Thrills Thursday instead of No Fun Friday. We are nearing the end of talking about emotions so I had students complete an emotion word search. If they couldn't define an emotion, they had to look it up.

Student led parent teacher conferences were Wednesday and Thursday night. It was great to see a lot of parents and we're all excited to help the kids finish the year strong.

Thanks for reading!