The Weekly Ranum: Edition #6

Welcome back to the Weekly Ranum!

Last Monday was our first Mentor/Mentee Monday of the year. During these classes the mentees and mentors are split up into different rooms. The mentees go over a self improvement curriculum called Why Try and the mentors work on their leadership skills and how they can better serve their mentees needs. After talking with the mentors, they are excited to be paired up and ready to dive in with their mentees.

Instead of Tutoring Tuesday we worked on Personal Values. Students went through a list of about 15-20 values and they had to determine which ones were very, kind of and not really important in their own lives. After, they had to justify why they chose some as very important over other values.

On Wednesday we re-wrote our top 3 mentee/mentor choices because students had decided to not give 100% on Friday when they had a substitute teacher. They were not extremely happy with this decision but they understood that this will continue to happen if they do not turn in their best work.

Since we wouldn't be seeing each other on Friday, I decided to have No Fun Friday on Thursday. Students were in teams of 4 and had to build the tallest paper tower using only 3 sheets of paper, 40 cm of tape, 1 ruler and 2 pairs of scissors. There were some really creative ideas that did not pan out, but there were also some that did not seem like they would work and they did really well.

Overall, it was another fun filled week. I'm hoping to have mentees and mentors paired up this week!

Quote of the week:
"I never want to leave this class" - 6th grade mentee, Serenity.

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #5

This past week we finished our Mentoring in the Community projects on Monday. Most of the posters were well thought out and all were definitely creative and colorful.

Tutoring Tuesday allowed students the opportunity to catch up on some missing assignments they had in other classes. Students were focused and glad to have this extra time to work.

On Wednesday we had a team builder that challenged students to create the longest paper chain possible. Good communication skills were needed to follow directions and come up with the most efficient chain building method.

Thursday was the big day students have been waiting for, speed matching. Speed matching gives mentors and mentees the chance to meet and talk one on one and asking as many questions as possible to see if they are potentially good fits to work together for the entire year.

Friday I was out but students were responsible for coming up with their top 3 choices for mentors or mentees for the year. The better the reason, the better the chance you have of matching with them.

My phone isn't emailing pictures for some strange reason so no pictures right now but I'll try to have it figured out and uploaded at some point.

Thanks for reading!

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #4

Hello!

I was out Thursday and Friday so this past week was a short one for me which will make this a shorter than usual blog. Sorry there will be no pictures, my phone has run out of room, so I need to figure that out!

Last week we finished our Time Capsules. Some students got really into it so it will be exciting when they open them at the end of the year. The rest of the week we talked about why mentoring is so important and where does it occur in our communities. Students were responsible for coming up with their own examples and created their own "mentoring communities" on a map.

Overall I think students were surprised to see and hear all the examples of mentoring that happens all around us every single day. This week I'm hoping to get students finally paired up!

Thanks for reading!

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #3

Hello!

Hope you all had a great long weekend. I'm sure the kiddos enjoyed the day off just as much as we did!

This past week we started off with shared agreements so we could determine the do's of the classroom and how we each learn best. We practiced our communication skills Tuesday with an activity that partnered students up and had one of them describe a picture while the other student had to draw it based solely on their partners description. They learned that they needed to be way more descriptive in their directions if they wanted the pictures to match.

On Wednesday we created a Coat of Arms that depicted how students describe themselves in terms of their strengths, weaknesses, things they care about and what they want their future to look like. Thursday, we started Time Capsules. Students love this activity because they have a chance to write to their future selves and see how much they have grown throughout the course of a school year.

For No Fun Friday we played scattergories. Students were challenged to come up with words that fit into a specific category, however, every word had to start with the same letter.

Overall, it was a great week!

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #2

Hello!

We had a very busy yet exciting full week of school which was kicked off by the Solar Eclipse on Monday. We had the entire school outside at the peak time and the students were amazed at how "cool" it looked! They even noticed the slight drop in temperature! Later that day, in class, we designed and decorated our journals that students will use throughout the year.

On Tuesday our activity was all about providing more information about ourselves. Our likes, dislikes, things we've done in the past, places we've been, etc. We then shared out this information by rotating around the room and talking with some new faces.

Wednesday, we discussed the difference between a regular student and a scholar student. Students discovered what that definition means to them personally and the supports they will need from themselves, the teachers and others in order to be a scholar student.

Thursday, Introduction Bingo was the main activity and again it was all about moving around the room and finding out more information about other students. Everyone had a bingo card and on the squares it had different fun facts like, "has more than 3 dogs" or "favorite food is pizza", so it was the students responsibilities to find other students that fit into those squares.

On No Fun Friday we played a cup stacking game where students were in groups and the had pieces of string tied to a rubber band and it was their job to work together, using only that rubber band, to stack cups into different formations. Some students became frustrated but overall there was a lot of great communication skills utilized.

                        

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #1

Hello!

Welcome back to another fun filled YESS program year at Ranum Middle School!

School started last Tuesday (8/15) with a nice mix of excitement from past students and nervousness from the incoming 6th graders. Everyone started the day in their Knighthood Families where they learned more about what's new this year at Ranum and some logistics. The day ended with class rotations which gave teachers and students a chance to see how their schedule will run and what their classes are about.

The rest of the week was all about team building activities in the YESS program. We focused on learning names, getting out of our comfort zones and seeing what YESS is all about.

Overall it was a fast and fun week and we're all excited to see the solar eclipse today!

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!