The Weekly Ranum: Edition #24

Hello!

On Mentor Monday we focused on writing letters to our mentee's telling them how proud we are of them and all the growth we've seen. It's a nice little emotional boost before Spring Break begins.

Tutoring Tuesday was catch up and making sure that students were prepared to present their projects they had worked on the week prior.

Wednesday and Thursday was presentation day. Overall, the students presented well. Some need to work on eye contact and others needed to understand their topic a little more but I enjoyed the variety. Presentations ranged from self defense to origami to history of video games to a solo student led lesson plan on media and body image.

No Fun Friday was a throwback of a few team builders we've played in the past. Pictionary, Categories and Freeze were just a few of the games chosen.

Thanks for reading!

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #23

Hello!

On Mentor Monday we talked about some different topics that mentors were interested in learning about for the rest of the year.

On Tutoring Tuesday students finished their love cups and continued to catch up in other classes that they were falling behind in.

Wednesday and Thursday were dedicated to students researching a topic they were interested in and preparing a presentation for the rest of the class. The idea is for students to teach the class about something new or something they don't always get the chance to learn more about in school. Students enjoy sharing out their interests and hobbies with others so this gives them a chance to do so, plus the skills of presenting. They will present this week!

On No Fun Friday we played Anagrams. There were 4 random words posted on the board and students had to re-arrange all the words to create new words that fit into a particular theme. It got pretty competitive but very fun!

Have a great week!

Oh and here's a couple pictures of some Love Cups...

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!

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #19

Hello and welcome back to the Weekly Ranum!

Mentoring Monday was a little slow this week because of the snow storm and the delay. We didn't have too many students show up so we basically just talked about what it means to be a leader at Ranum and in day to day life.

Tutoring Tuesday was a combination of catch up from the previous weeks projects and catch up in other classes.

On Wednesday and Thursday we focused on Emotions. More specifically, we learned about Emo Trolls.

Emo Trolls are the result of emotions we do not handle in a healthy way. When someone or something wrongs us, we may tend to gossip, seek revenge, explode with anger, or any of the other negative choices we have at our disposal.

Our collective hope is to not rely on these unhealthy, negative trolls when dealing with our emotions.

Thanks for reading!

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #18

Hello all!

Last week was a shorter one with the celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's birthday on Monday. Tutoring Tuesday opened the week with students finishing their projects on miscommunication and also continuing to catch up on classes they may be behind in.

On Wednesday and Thursday we talked about belief systems and how so many factors go into what you think or believe about someone or something. Student's learned that their families have a huge impact on how they see the world. Ranging from how you believe kids should be raised to how you should behave and interact with people in pubic and social settings. Groups were assigned an article about how beliefs are formed, how they can be changed, or even how they can be managed. It was then their job to create a poster to teach the class about their specific article.

On No Fun Friday we played a game that had students in groups of four and each student had a couple cards in front of them that would say, the best... or the highest...or the fastest...or the longest...etc. I would call out that beginning word, they would stand, and then I would give the challenge. For example, I could say, "the quickest" and the person from each team with that card would stand up and I could then say, "to recite the ABC's". I would time them and the fastest person would get a point for their team. This would keep going with all those different opening prompts.

The kids loved it and it was another great week here at Ranum!

Thanks for reading!