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!

Ranum Week 31

Hello all!

Last week was all PARCC testing in the morning and all fun and games in the afternoon. Unfortunately we did not have any formal YESS classes last week but this week we will make up for it!

See you next week!

Ranum Week 30!

Hello and welcome back!

Last week we worked on Test Taking and Note Taking skills in order to prepare students for the upcoming PARCC testing this week.

The Test Taking lesson gave students some helpful hints on how to handle themselves before, during and after tests. Studying is obviously very important but you do not want to over study and end up losing sleep because that will effect how much of it you'll actually remember. Students asked great questions and some even shared their study tips that have worked well for them. Including, eating before taking a test, breathing exercises, and even as simple as just going to the bathroom to take that distraction away.

The Note Taking lesson tested students ability to take notes in a multitude of ways. The first was strictly auditory, so I read them a short story and they had to pick out the important parts to write down for notes. Then I quizzed them on the story. After that, they watched a video that had no audio so their notes were based off of what they saw and then they were quizzed. Finally, I showed them another video that had a lot of dates but it had audio and visuals so it was a little easier to take notes.

Overall, it was a great test of their note taking abilities and realization of what they need to work on/listen for in the future when they're taking notes.

Thanks for reading, have a great week!

Ranum - Post Spring Break!

Hello!

It was a short but action packed week coming back from Spring break.

Tuesday was a chance for all of us to talk and catch up on how everyone's break was. If there were any issues that needed to be resolved we talked about them, but basically we just tried to gear up for this final stretch of the year.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we created Treasure Maps. Students cut out pictures and words from magazines that they wanted to connect to their future. For example, they could look for the house of their dreams, a location on an island to build that house, a picture of a fishing pole that could represent a favorite hobby. Basically they were trying to associate pictures and words with their future life (a.k.a the things they treasure).

                                                                         (Sorry it's upside down)

On Friday we participated in a team builder called the Egg Drop Challenge. Students were randomly assigned to teams and with a bunch of different supplies they had to create a structure that could hold and protect and egg from a 12 foot drop. They had a lot of fun with this activity even though only about 1 in 3 eggs survived.

Have a great week!

Ranum Week 28

Hello and welcome back!

We continued with the future planning portion of our curriculum this week.

The whole week was focused around interview skills because there will be a lot of interviews and auditions in life and students need to be prepared to handle those stressful situations.

Students learned about some interview skills such as eye contact, a solid handshake, voice control and how to answer a question completely. For the activity portion, I had students create a script of what a good job interview would look like and what a poor job interview would look like. After they wrote their scripts, I had them choose and perform in front of the class either the good interview or the poor interview. They had a lot of fun with the skits, most chose the poor interview in order to be funny, but the joke was on them because it still showed others what not to do and if students know what not to do, that's a great start on figuring out what to do!

Sorry there are no photos for this week! But come back next week (THE LAST WEEK BEFORE SPRING BREAK!!)

Ranum Week 27

Hello!

This past week was all about finance. We started by playing the stock market game. Each pair is given $2,000 to spend however they wish on the stock market. They can purchase any amount of shares of any company they are interested in. I had them choose a minimum of 3 companies for diversification reasons. We will check back in a month and at the end of the year to see who's stocks grew by the most. Students had a lot of fun with this and were excited about investing in the future.

We also worked on budgeting and how to keep a budget. This was a little tricky since most students do not really make an income but I gave them imaginary careers and it was their job to figure out how much they could spend on housing, a car, leisure items, etc.

On Friday we played the game of Life because it was a good wrap up of everything we learned this week. Students had a lot of fun with it not just as a board game but they viewed it now as their potential future so they had to be smarter with their money and life choices.

Another great week in the books!

Ranum Week 26

Hello and welcome back to the YESS program at Ranum Middle School blog!

This past week started off with mentor Monday and I had students present their leaders in history. They created a slideshow talking about a leader they admired and what made that person a great leader. Overall, the presents went well, the students do need to work on eye contact and not putting blocks of text/reading straight off the powerpoint but they are definitely improving!

Tutoring Tuesday went well. I printed off some new worksheets and found a math worksheet they were currently working on so students were happy to get the extra help there.

Wednesday and Thursday was all about wealth and what it means. We watched some short videos about wealth inequality here in America and globally around the world. We also saw a video on what it means to be a minimalist and how it effected some peoples lives for the good. These videos brought about great conversations of material wealth and how that is spread throughout the world. After the discussion, I had students talk about what they value besides money and how they value money depending on their moods (ex. Good/happy mood could equal donating money/giving to a friend).

Friday we did a team builder called spaghetti towers. It's like the marshmallow challenge but I do not require students to just have a structure that supports 1 marshmallow at the end. I give them just spaghetti and mini marshmallows and have them build the highest tower possible. It was great seeing students work together and collaborate. Here are some pictures:

Another great week in the books!