Call NASA!

What a great week we had!  We started something new that the kids are really enjoying; the first five minutes of class is mentor/mentee check-in.  This is a time for the kids to build their relationship by talking to one another, catching up, checking in on goals, or simply playing a game of catch and having fun.  I'm loving how the kids are forming close bonds with each other.


On Monday the kids looked closely at values they held high.  Most kids said family, loyalty, and career were their top values.  We discussed what these values looked like in their lives and how they saw them as shaping their behavior and beliefs.

Tuesday was for tutoring, however, I added in a piece to help the kids become more aware of happenings around the world and our country.  The kids watched CNN10 and wrote three things they learned.  After that, mentors and mentees switched writing and gave one compliment and one suggestion about their writing.  I hope this helps in their writing across academic content.  After that, the kids worked on missing work or did brain teasers with their mentor/mentee.

Wednesday and Thursday was all about setting goals!  Mentors were assigned a big job to discuss challenges and write achievable goals with their mentees.  The mentees have two goals; one non-academic (loosely based on one of their values) and one academic.  Goals range from running the mile in under 9 minutes to making a football team to learning integers and decimals.  The mentors did a great job guiding their mentees in writing goals that are perfect for them.  The mentors will write their two goals when we have our first Mentor Monday, hopefully next week.

Fun Friday was a building day!  In groups, the kids designed and built Spaghetti towers.  They were judged on tallest tower and the winning groups won a bag of chips!  It sure was fun to watch them work together and compete for food.  The best quote of the day was "Call NASA!  Call NASA!  We got this!".  Haha!!


Broncos play tonight!  Let's hope they show up to play...unlike last week. =/ Have a great week!!