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!

Ranum Update 10/19 - 10/23

Hello all!

Monday started off great with some solid debates around uniform policy, war, students rights, and how much dislike they have for Donald Trump. Valid arguments were made on both sides. Most students believe that we should work towards peace and we even went over why Russia and the U.S disagree.

The middle of the week had us wrapping up Hot Buttons and turning our focus on the 5 core emotions and I was impressed with how well the students understood the different types of emotions. We began class by using the letters in our first names to come up with different emotions starting with those letters. The kids were very creative with most emotions and only needed a little help with some of the more challenging letters (Z, Y, X). Later in the class, I started calling out different emotions and it was the students jobs to see which of the 5 core emotions they fit into. Often times, they realized that they would fall into multiple categories.

At the end of the week we did a team building exercise called the Egg Drop Challenge. Student's were put into small groups and had to construct an object that would protect an egg from a 10 foot fall given a limited amount of supplies. Some groups were very creative, while some groups requested their egg early to lock it into their contraption and ended up with a broken egg before dropping. Overall, it was a lot of fun and students did a great job of working together and trying to come up with the safest creation for their egg.

Have a great weekend!

Ranum Update 10/12 - 10/16

The first week back after an amazing wedding and honeymoon and the students welcomed me back with a very thoughtful poster and many questions.

While I was away the students completed their Life Maps (Pictures below). The mentor and mentee pairs, as well as myself, learned more about their pasts and different things they've gone through. Most students were very open about their pasts and it made for great conversations. They also participated in an ice breaker activity that had students silently separate themselves into one of three groups based on the colored dot they had on their forehead, however, one of the groups only had one student in it. The whole point was for students to realize that sometimes we include or exclude others based on meaningless characteristics.

This past week I had a great conversation with all the mentors and they filled me in on everything I missed while I was out. We went over learning targets for the week, based on our lessons, which were Recognizing Beliefs and Hot Buttons Part 1. Recognizing Beliefs had students take a deeper look at what a belief is and some of their personal beliefs about different topics. We had some great discussions about what one student believed vs what another student believed in. For example, the topic of religion was brought up and discussed. Next we moved onto Hot Buttons and we went in depth to find out what some examples of hot buttons are, what can trigger those feelings, and different ways we can go about handling those emotions.

Overall it was a great first week back and I'm excited to keep plugging away here at Ranum!

Ranum Update 9/25

This week was jam packed with great personal and social skill building lessons. We started the week off discussing trust and each mentor and mentee pair had the chance to share what trust meant to them and how they wanted it to look in their relationships. Many pairs talked about open and honest communication and mentors reassured their mentees to start off by only sharing things they are comfortable with. 

By mid-week we were doing some listening exercises and quizzes to see which level students were at. Many students believed they were level 3 listeners (attentive, responsive, great listeners) but after the quiz they discovered that most of them were actually level 2 and some even level 1. This was a big shock to them and they were jokingly saying that the quiz was a lie. Students also had the chance to create short skits on a listening level of their choice. Many groups chose level 1 because it gave them a chance to be goofy and create some very funny skits.

We capped off the week by talking about thoughts and emotions. What's the difference between a thought and emotion, where do our thoughts come from and what can they lead to, and also what are some of our emotions and where do they come from. When discussing thoughts, many students were already very keen on the difference between fact and opinion and had great examples to share. Also when discussing emotions, students were giving examples of times when they didn't feel comfortable sharing emotions because they were embarrassed, or times when they could not explain the emotion they were feeling.

Overall it was a busy but great week!

Pairing Up! 9/14-9/17

Happy Friday from Ranum Middle School!

Another short week of school but we accomplished a lot. Mentors and Mentees have been paired and continue to bond with one another through various activities. After being paired up, mentors and mentees wrote letters to one another. Mentor's wrote about some of their personal struggles they persevered through and how they will support their mentee for the whole year. Mentee's wrote to their mentors about any areas they struggle in (academic, socially, behaviorally) and how they would appreciate their mentor's help this year. Some letters were pretty emotional but it is so great to see students already opening up to one another.

After the letters, the pairs "interviewed" one another by asking each other questions from the YESS Success Assessment sheet. This assessment allowed the pairs to get to know one another better and for them to self assess and reflect. The pairs also started working on their "Am I on Track" sheets. These sheets require both mentor's and mentee's to attend a meeting with the mentee's teachers to see how they are doing in that class and what areas they need to work on. This way mentor's can help assist their mentee's where they need it and now they know who they have for teachers.

Tune in next week for another Ranum Update!

Happy Friday from Ranum!

Hello and Happy Friday!

This week at Ranum we completed our Time Capsules. The students had a lot of fun bringing in pictures and personal items to put into their time capsule. Some things that were brought in include; baby and family photos, chapstick, candy, pencils, a Colorado Rockies baseball, and hair just to name a few. The only required items were a personal letter to their future self, a questionnaire that asked them what their favorite things are right now, a height measurement, and a hand tracing. Overall, the students were very excited and one student even put their address on their time capsule so I could ship it to them when they graduate instead of opening it at the end of the year...we'll see how that goes.

We also did a couple personality tests so they could see where they fall on that scale and how it effects group work and other relationships. Students would highlight certain words that they felt represented them and this would place you into 1 of 4 categories. Once students found their category, I had them read a personality definition for that category to see if it matched and to their amazement they would say, "that's me!".

Monday will be the announcement of Mentor and Mentee pairs, which of course everyone is looking forward to.

Have a great weekend!

Welcome Back Ranum

It's hard to believe that two and half weeks have already gone by. It's been awesome getting to know the mentor's and mentee's more and more each day and watching them get to know one another. The first week we focused on initial relationship building through ice breakers, discussed why students are either a mentor or mentee, and started to shape what we want our classroom culture to look like.

We did a great teambuilding activity called Spaghetti Towers where groups of students had to try and design either the tallest, most stable, or most creative tower out of spaghetti and mini marshmallows. The students had to work together, communicate, and come up with a plan on how they wanted to build their structure. Fun was had by all and it was exciting watching their thought process and seeing all of their creative ideas.

This past week, in my classes that have an even number of mentor's and mentee's, we started the matching process through an activity called Speed Matching. Speed Matching had mentor's lined up sitting next to each other and mentee's would rotate through each mentor to ask questions and converse. Students were given some questions to spark their conversations or they had the freedom to ask questions that were important to them. Now, the student's will have to nominate their top 3 choices for mentor or mentee and provide a solid case why they should be paired up. I'm looking forward to what they will come up with!