Another great week in the books AND the Broncos won!? Woohoo!
Mentor Monday was a great day of conversations between mentors. We talked about mentor goals, our mentees favorite classes, successes and struggles. The mentors offered advice to each other for what they struggled with this week. Hopefully the mentors take the advice and use it next week!
Tuesday was another successful day of tutoring. The mentees are showing improvement in their grades and behavior in most of their classes thanks to the work of their mentors.
Race is our next topic in class so I took an approach to ease into it. The topics of racism and race are big ideas so I wanted to start small with the kids and work our way up to that. So stereotypes seemed to be a good starting place. I introduced stereotypes by having the kids match words like "public transportation, hip hop, high-rise condos, and organic oatmeal" to four different characters. Each character would then be described by their home, mode of transportation, favorite music, and favorite food. We then shared out our choices as a class and found that we perceived most of the characters by their dress, skin color, and posture. The kids also said they used what they knew about a person's age and/or appearance to make their choices. Most of the kids agreed that the man in the suit probably had a high-power job, lived in a high-rise condo, and ate lobster because he was "a baller" while the grandma had to eat oatmeal and ride the bus because "she's old". After we talked about their choices, I read them their "true bios" which completely overturned what they thought. The grandma actually lived in a dorm with her granddaugher, rode a BMX bike, and listened to Jay Z. The kids were floored and said "no way" but it was an excellent way to introduce stereotypes. The kids came up with "Don't judge a book by its cover". It was my best lesson yet!
Thursday we continued stereotypes by focusing on gender. I had the boys write down the top three things they thought girls thought about with a drawing of a girl and the girls do the same only for what boys thought. The answers were hilarious. Most girls believed that boys thought about shoes, Fortnite, and sports while boys believed girls thought about makeup, drama, and boys. It was hilarious to see the reaction of the kids when they saw what the other gender believed they focused on. It was also a perfect opportunity to showcase gender stereotypes. We continued with the ideas by looking at commercials, ads, comic strips, and pictures to see more stereotypes put on males and females. The kids have really started to understand stereotypes and I look forward to focusing on other stereotypes as we make our way to racism and race.
Friday was the first quarter awards ceremony so our classes were shortened to 30 minutes. Fall won't be around for too long so we went outside for some fun. The last hour of the day is for a dodgeball tournament; some of the kids formed teams that will compete to be the last team standing and get to play the teacher team. I plan on playing to win. =) Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Mentor Monday was a great day of conversations between mentors. We talked about mentor goals, our mentees favorite classes, successes and struggles. The mentors offered advice to each other for what they struggled with this week. Hopefully the mentors take the advice and use it next week!
Tuesday was another successful day of tutoring. The mentees are showing improvement in their grades and behavior in most of their classes thanks to the work of their mentors.
Race is our next topic in class so I took an approach to ease into it. The topics of racism and race are big ideas so I wanted to start small with the kids and work our way up to that. So stereotypes seemed to be a good starting place. I introduced stereotypes by having the kids match words like "public transportation, hip hop, high-rise condos, and organic oatmeal" to four different characters. Each character would then be described by their home, mode of transportation, favorite music, and favorite food. We then shared out our choices as a class and found that we perceived most of the characters by their dress, skin color, and posture. The kids also said they used what they knew about a person's age and/or appearance to make their choices. Most of the kids agreed that the man in the suit probably had a high-power job, lived in a high-rise condo, and ate lobster because he was "a baller" while the grandma had to eat oatmeal and ride the bus because "she's old". After we talked about their choices, I read them their "true bios" which completely overturned what they thought. The grandma actually lived in a dorm with her granddaugher, rode a BMX bike, and listened to Jay Z. The kids were floored and said "no way" but it was an excellent way to introduce stereotypes. The kids came up with "Don't judge a book by its cover". It was my best lesson yet!
Thursday we continued stereotypes by focusing on gender. I had the boys write down the top three things they thought girls thought about with a drawing of a girl and the girls do the same only for what boys thought. The answers were hilarious. Most girls believed that boys thought about shoes, Fortnite, and sports while boys believed girls thought about makeup, drama, and boys. It was hilarious to see the reaction of the kids when they saw what the other gender believed they focused on. It was also a perfect opportunity to showcase gender stereotypes. We continued with the ideas by looking at commercials, ads, comic strips, and pictures to see more stereotypes put on males and females. The kids have really started to understand stereotypes and I look forward to focusing on other stereotypes as we make our way to racism and race. 
Friday was the first quarter awards ceremony so our classes were shortened to 30 minutes. Fall won't be around for too long so we went outside for some fun. The last hour of the day is for a dodgeball tournament; some of the kids formed teams that will compete to be the last team standing and get to play the teacher team. I plan on playing to win. =) Hope everyone has a great weekend!
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