The Weekly Ranum: Edition #29

Hello and welcome back to the Weekly Ranum!

We're getting towards the end of the school year here and determined to finish the year strong.

On Mentor Monday we started preparing for the end of year event by making some posters.

Tutoring Tuesday was a great day for students to see what learning targets they can make up before the end of the year.

Wednesday and Thursday was the Wheel of Burnout/Caring. This was a good concept for the student's to learn. They realized that sometimes friends, family members and other people will wear them down, stress them out and even let them down sometimes and that's OK. We talked about the best way to get through those situations is to understand where the person is coming from, let it go and continue to be the best you possible. If the relationship continues to be a strain, be honest and open with that person and let them know what your needs are as a friend. If they can't/won't change or even try to, you may need to cut them out of your life. Overall, a heavy lesson but I appreciated their resiliency and willingness to talk about difficult topics.

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #28

Welcome back!

We had testing again this week so students were a little up and down but we managed to finish our documentary on nutrition. Students learned more about the effects of fast food on the body and how so many internal things can effect your health way more than what you see on the outside.

On No Fun Friday we played a team builder called "head's up". It's like the phone app if you have it. If you don't, basically one of your teammates stands in front of your group and they grab a random word (that they can't see) and hold it on their forehead. Their team then has to act out that word, charades style, so the person holding the word can guess it. You're trying to guess as many as you can in 1 minute. It's a fun game and the students really got into it.

T-shirts are in!!!

Thanks for reading!

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #27

Hello and welcome back!

Mentor Monday was a great start to the week with talks about mentees, high school and testing.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday was CMAS testing so I did not see any students in the mornings but did get to see a couple classes in the afternoon. We followed up from last week learning about nutrition by watching a documentary on unhealthy food and it's effect on the body. We will be finishing the documentary this week.

No Fun Friday was pretty laid back. We received our YESS program t-shirts so I handed those out. The students were pumped to finally have their t-shirts. I have pictures but unfortunately my phone is being a pain and not letting me send them to the computer. My apologies, hopefully next week I can upload them.

Thanks for reading!

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #26

Hello!

This was a great week back from Spring Break!

We started off on Monday with creating individual motivation flowers. On the pedals, each student had to write a few things they did over break, an academic goal they have for themselves for the rest of the year and a social/personal goal they have for themselves for the end of the year. Students had fun with this and it added some much needed color to the classroom.

Tutoring Tuesday went well, as usual. Students caught up on missing assignments and this was also a great chance for students to "wake up" from Spring Break laziness.

On Wednesday and Thursday we talked about Nutrition. We learned how to read nutrition labels and what each category meant in terms of how it effects our body. Students know that most foods they are eating are bad for them, but this gave them a better idea of just how bad, and the possible long term implications of their decision to eat these foods now.

We had no students on Friday but overall it was a great four days and I'm excited to get this week started. Students will be taking their state standardized tests and I know they're all going to do awesome!

Thanks for reading!

The Weekly Ranum: Edition #25

Hello and welcome back to the Weekly Ranum!

Another fast week over here with Spring Break quickly approaching.

In Mentor Monday we started a project where mentor's chose a cause that they care about and they had to do some research and come up with a plan of action of some steps we can take in order to help their cause. Some choices were, Environment/Pollution, human rights, homelessness and organic food.

Tutoring Tuesday was good but had low numbers because of a choir field trip.

Wednesday and Thursday we worked on Conflict Resolution Steps. Students had plenty of examples of conflict in their life, but had not really tried any of the steps we went over as a class. I feel they came away with a better understanding of what to do when conflict arises in the future. Some of their bigger break through's were just understanding that both people involved will have strong emotions during the fight and sometimes it's better to just cool down and then re-address when both people have settled down.

No Fun Friday was a team builder involving spaghetti and marshmallows. Students were in groups of 4, had the same supplies and were asked to build the tallest tower. They had a lot of fun and it was nice to see students working well together and collaborating.

Overall another fun week....1 more full week until Spring Break!

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...