Ranum Pre-Vacation Week!

Hello,

The week started off strong with a great documentary on mentor Monday. The focus of the documentary was on two people from a small island off the coast of Colombia. One has been a fisherman his whole life, the other is a 10 year old boy contemplating his future. Not many people make it off the island to pursue education and this little boy wants to go to the mainland to focus on schooling. The mentors were surprised at how content all of the islanders were with their non materialistic lives, especially without WiFi!

Tuesday was a snow day so that put us a little behind for our next activity, the Love Cup! The love cup is a metaphor that helps us figure out how much of ourselves we are able to give to others. There are many things that make us happy and that goes into the Love Cup; however, there are many stresses in life that drain your love cup (arguing with friends, fighting with parents, and school work are just a few things the students came up with). As you can see below, the students had a lot of fun creating their Love Cups.

The students learned a little more about themselves and the things that bring them happiness. They also learned how to slow down /eliminate some of their leaks (stressors) through different avenues such as exercise, music, and even journaling.

I wish everyone a safe and happy holidays!

Ranum Update 12/7-12/11

Hello,

This past week went by really quickly. Our main focus was on giving back and giving back is exactly what we did. The YESS program raised $260 from the bake sale and all of the proceeds will go to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. We had an over whelming amount of help and support from both the students and teachers here at Ranum. The students did a great job of bringing in baked goods and handling the large crowds of students wanting those goods.

In class, we did self - esteem charts throughout the week to see how we felt depending on the day. Mentors and Mentees discussed anything that was going on both positive and negative that could effect their score that day. 

Later in the week we created self - esteem rainbows. Mentors and mentees each wrote some positive adjectives about one another and then switched papers so they could decide their top 6 adjectives. These adjectives represented the colors of the rainbow and the kids were very creative in their projects.

Overall, another great week and you can tell we're all itching for the winter break.

Post Turkey Day (11/30 - 12/4)

Hello all!

This week we focused our attention on Community Service Projects while mixing in a lesson on values and how we behave in different situations/locations. 

The students will be collecting donations for the Denver Rescue Mission, raising money through a bake sale for St. Jude Children's Hospital, and writing encouraging letters to one of the Veteran's organizations in Denver. 

It's powerful to see the passion and dedication the students are putting forth towards these efforts. I'm excited to update you on how things are going next week!

The values lesson gave me good insight on the importance level each student places on their values. We had some solid discussions and it gave other students a better understanding of their peers and why they react to things differently. We also did an activity that challenged students to discuss who they are in various settings and whether or not that is a good or bad thing. Most students said as long as you stick to your values and stand up for what you believe in, it is acceptable for there to be times where maybe you act differently depending on who you're with or where you are.

Overall, another fun filled week that allowed students to express themselves and share their values.

Have a great weekend!

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!

Ranum Update 10/26 - 10/29

Welcome back to the Ranum Update!

This week was highlighted with student led parent teacher conferences on back to back nights along with some great poster designs and skits around Emotional Dwarves.

Mentor Monday started off with self evaluations. This gave mentors a chance to honestly evaluate how they believe they've been performing in class and with their mentees'. After that, we got into some deeper talks about mentee successes and challenges. Some challenges were mentees getting suspended, getting their mentees to open up more about personal issues and how to refocus mentee's if they are off track. Overall, some great talks and we even implemented some strategies throughout the week to combat those struggles.

Our big topic this week was Emotional Dwarves. I was impressed by how easily the student's related Hot Buttons with Emo Dwarves and how they lead into each other. They were quick to understand Bully and Gossipy because those are trending right now in their lives. Some of the harder ones like Sulky and Vengy needed further explanation. Over the course of hearing each one, many students would say "oh that's me" or "I've been {insert Emo Dwarf here} before". It was nice to hear students share out times either they've been an Emo Dwarf or times they've noticed others being an Emo Dwarf.

Student's had the option to create a poster that showed an example of each Emo Dwarf, or they could act out a skit based on that Emo Dwarf. They were very entertaining and it helped others learn what exactly each Emo Dwarf looked like in person.

The student led parent teacher conferences went very well and it was a great turnout overall. It was nice to put a face to the voices I've talked to over the phone and also to explain more about the program and how their child is doing. I still look forward to connecting with parents that have escaped me so far!

I can't believe it's November next week! Have a great weekend!