Life after Spring Break

Hello!

This week is a wild one coming back from Spring Break. Students had it extended by having no school on Monday but 7th and 8th graders were welcomed back with PARCC testing from Wednesday to Friday.

Tuesday we had a fun lesson on budgeting for a completely made up life. It started with giving all students a job that you only needed a high school diploma in order to be hired. The monthly salary range was between $1,300 to $3,100, a lot of money either way when you're only a middle school student (or so they thought). We quickly dove into taxes (federal, state, social security) and they realized that their "huge paycheck" was already dwindling and they haven't even purchased anything yet. Next we moved onto expenses, so students had the choice to live with their parents for a small sum of money, rent an apartment either by yourself or with roommates, or purchase a house and pay a mortgage. Some students wanted the freedom of living on their own, some said their parents wouldn't charge them rent and I said wait until you're in your 30's and still living at home, trust me they'll want some money.

We moved onto car expenses if they wanted one or they had the option to walk/bus/subway to work. Their final expenses we talked about involved their food budget and luxuries like internet, cable, laptop, TV, entertainment, etc. A lot of students initially went over budget but went back and decided to cut some things out of their life that were not necessities. This taught them a great lesson on budgeting and also how a high school diploma will limit your career choices and the amount of money you can make in the future.

For the rest of the week I only had the mentees in class so to continue with finance we did a mock stock scenario. I gave the students an imaginary $1,000 and they used this to invest in stocks that interested them. We'll check back at the end of the year to see if they earned or lost money but it was fun talking with them about how stocks work.

(Student looking through their stock options!)

On Friday we will be working on our own Piggy Banks that will be made from recycled plastic bottles and the students will take them home and use them as their personal piggy banks to collect coins.

Have a great weekend!

First week of March at Ranum

Hello all,

Can you believe it's March already? There were lots of things happening this week so I hope I cover everything.

We've started recruiting and handing out applications for students to be mentors next year. So far there has been a lot of interest and I'm excited to start interviewing and creating our team for next year. Current mentors began preparing for the end of year event in May by writing little bio's of themselves. Parent teacher conferences were this week, which is always great seeing parents and talking about their kids and tying to make sure both sides are doing everything they can to support them. Finally, the in-class work of this week had students completing their Treasure Maps and 10 year reunion biographies.

These treasure maps represented students both short and long term goals and how by completing each goal, they are working towards that end goal or "X" that marks the spot of feeling at peace and completely happy/satisfied. As you can see from the photos, some goals along the way involve going to college, moving to a new state or even buying their own house. And the "X" for most students was having a house, spouse, kids, pets, car, career they love and living in a place they enjoy. The students had a lot of fun with this and it was interesting to dive in a little deeper and see exactly how students have their futures planned out.

After students finished their treasure maps, they moved onto their 10 year reunion biographies. I had them imagine that they were at their 10 year high school reunion, so most of them would be around 28 years old. Their job was to write about all of their accomplishments and general life from the time they graduated (age 18) all the way to the reunion (age 28). Again it was great to see how far ahead some students were looking and how particular they were about certain things later in life. For example, students saying that their families would live right next or how many pets/kids they would have.

Hope everyone had a great week! See you next time!

Ranum Career Week

Hello all!

This week at Ranum we focused on future careers. The week started with students choosing a career that interested them and putting in the time and effort to research it. Questions varied from why do you believe you are a fit for this career, how many jobs are there available in this field, what is the average/top 10%/bottom 10% salary, and all the way to do you believe this industry is growing, shrinking or staying the same. Students did a great job getting to know career tracks better and learned that they will have to put in a lot of effort to achieve their goals.

We continued with family career trees after we finished our research. The goal of this activity was for students to list off family members and include their occupations, education level and career experiences. There were a lot of students saying that their parents did not even finish high school so they talked with excitement about how they not only will finish high school but they'll go on and complete a college degree.

Closing out the week was a great discussion based class about key tips for job interviews. Some tips, such as how to shake hands properly, many students were already accustomed to. However, they learned a lot about body language and how big of an impact appearance can have on interviews. They asked some great questions and after the discussion, mentors and mentees performed interview skits that were a lot of fun to watch.

Overall, another fun filled week that brought a lot of goal setting and future plans to the forefront of the YESS students minds.

Ranum College Week

Hello!

This week at Ranum has been all about college and will culminate with a field trip to the University of Colorado at Denver. The short week began with a few questions for students to see how much they already know about college. Questions such as what do you think when you hear the word college, who do you know who has been to college and what colleges do you know about all seemed to spark a response from most students. When asked what jobs do students think require a college education, they quickly realized that most higher paying and challenging jobs require at least a Bachelors Degree.

On Wednesday we discussed how a higher education equals a higher reward. Students learned that by going to college they have more job opportunities, security, money, stability and even better health. They were surprised to hear how much health insurance costs and how there are companies out there that help you pay for it, as long as you have your degree and in turn, were hired by a great company.

Thursday brought some technology into the classroom and students did virtual tours of campuses around the United States. They had to explore one Colorado based University/College and one out of state University/College. Most students went with University of Colorado because of familiarity and for out of state, they went with Harvard or Yale, mostly Ivy League schools.

As I'm typing this, I'm also preparing for the field trip to CU Denver today. The students are really excited and there will be pictures to follow soon!

Have a great weekend!

Ranum Update - February Edition

Hello all,

We've had a busy couple of weeks here at Ranum. The students have become more accountable and learned some very important peaceful conflict resolution steps that they will start to utilize whenever confronted with an issue/disagreement.

We also created self portraits (pictured below) so students could get a better understanding of who they are right now. They drew how they viewed themselves and included the things that are most important to them in their life currently.

The project we worked on at the end of last week was our hand contracts (pictured below). Students came up with goals for themselves for their second semester in the YESS program. Goals ranged from being a mentor next semester to completed all of their math learning targets. It was a fun activity that culminated with a poster that has their goals on it to remind them why they're here and what they're working for as the semester closes out.

Have a great week!

Mid-January Update

Hello all,

A nice 4 day week leads us into what should be a great game between the Patriots and Broncos (Go Pats)! This week we worked on Anger Management, Consequences, and the Abuse Cycle.

The Anger Management topic resonated with many of the students and the discussions that we had were fantastic. Students learned several new anger management strategies such as taking deep breaths, walking away, or even a nice workout (a.k.a a punching bag). Discussions also focused towards the cause of their anger and students agreed that family/siblings, peers, and teachers were some of the main causes. They were very honest with me and it allowed for some great insight into their world and what they see and think.

The consequences lesson was a fun and challenging one at the same time. They had a lot of trouble thinking of a specific time one of their actions led to a negative outcome but with a little guidance, they finally came up with a good example. It also involved a lot of scenarios so students could diagnose the appropriate vs the inappropriate way to handle the situation. Overall, they made the correct choice when prompted, but they did stress it is difficult in the moment depending on who they were with.

We finished the week talking about the abuse cycle and again I was impressed by the conversations we had. Students shared out examples of situations they've seen both at home and with their friends parents. The topic hit home with all of them and although it was definitely a tough topic to discuss, it is definitely important for them to hear so they can recognize these situations in the future.

It was a great week of work and we're all excited for the weekend!

New Year, New Post

Hello all!

Fresh off of winter break most kids, myself included, seemed to be energized and ready to go while others were still adjusting to having to wake up early again. This week we focused on I am poems, the apple pie metaphor and boundaries.

The I am poems gave students a chance to be creative in their writing and truly express themselves through an outlet they may not use very often, writing. Most students had done one of these before but I asked them to dive a little deeper and express their feelings more, and they did not disappoint. They did such an amazing job I felt they needed to present their poems and although these are personal poems, many students were confident and prepared to share. Here are some examples of poems below:

The apple pie metaphor gave mentor and mentee pairs the chance to talk about their relationship and work towards making it a 50/50 partnership. This was very empowering for the mentees because instead of having the mentor dominate opinions and work, they felt as if the power was now shifting towards them and a more even split of responsibility. Here is an example of what one pair came up with in terms of how they will improve their relationship:

We wrapped up the week talking about personal boundaries. This activity helped students realize each others boundaries in terms of talking, touching, and emotionally. I had mentors and mentees walk towards each other and whoever was being walked towards had the chance to say stop when they felt the other person was close enough. Some students said stop sooner than they thought they would but most felt comfortable with when they told the other to stop.

Overall it was a pretty packed first week back but the energy level was so great we just kept on working! 

Have a great weekend!