Thursday Already?!

Wowza - This has been a quick couple o' weeks! Last week, I arranged and hosted half a dozen interviews, coached some staff, collaborated with Emily on an exciting volunteer program, created some super practical training videos, among other things.

More recently, I did some more coaching/active listening, hosted our team meetings, continued working with our job applicants (we're so close!), hung out with y'all at Peter Grady's house, and planned our week together in January. The highlight of the week has to be the training I attended on Tuesday: Creating a Positive Feedback Culture, presented by DQUAC. I learned all about a conversation technique called COIN. It's a framework for providing difficult feedback and, while it was presented as a way to work with colleagues, I think it may prove useful for you in the classroom. If you try it, let me know how it goes!

On a separate note, I want to remind you of what important work you're doing each day. So many of our students look to YESS for love, support, and a sense of belonging. Even though we may never know the positive impact we have on our kids, we can rest easy knowing that they are benefitting from our efforts. In case you missed it, here's an inspiring 60 Minutes clip about Ryan Speedo Green.

My week, as told in GIFs

Monday

I knew I was supposed to be doing something... But what?

Oh, that's right! It was everything! I was supposed to do everything!

Tuesday

But then, Garcelle invited me to observe her classroom and Angie was there as an added bonus! (Side note: Garcelle found a way to make cell phones useful in the classroom. Ask her about it.)

Wednesday

I got to visit the Medinas and drop off some supplies. Woot!

I got some serious work done AND see Patricia in the afternoon!

Thursday

I dropped some things off for Megan, then drove to see Alex. (Another side note: She has secured a class set of The Hate U Give and has offered to lend this resource to other programs. Ask her about it.)

I rounded out my week by learning about programmatic best-practice and working on on-boarding procedures for January! Ask me about it.

If you have a mortal enemy, go to their house and sand drywall

Greetings, readers. Due to the short work week prior to Thanksgiving, I don't have a whole lot to say. I conducted some more phone interviews for the positions that begin in January, had warm conversations with colleagues, and generally caught up on things. My adventures at home were rather hectic and included, in no particular order: passing our final inspection, ripping out an old wall, two Thanksgiving dinners, adding a new wall, drywall, LOTS of cleaning, and putting up Christmas decorations.


It feels odd to write such a short post, so I've included some nifty resources for you to use during the next few weeks:

1. How to Apologize to Different People - I stumbled upon this today and remembered how many YESS kids were keen to repair relationships after messing up, but had no clue how to do it. I gave them a formula similar to the one in the article and it seemed to help. One thing this resource is missing: Apologies have to be followed up with action. Some kids just want to say they're sorry and wash everything under the bridge. That doesn't work, especially with teachers, amiright?

2. 6 Scaffolding Strategies to Use with Your Students - This little
resource has been sitting in my back pocket for a while. I know Ben does a fish bowl activity, which is great! I'd love for each of you to select a technique you haven't tried yet and weave it into your practice. Play around and see what works. If it doesn't work, reflect on what happened and what you can try next time.

3. The Power of Believing that You can Improve - This is an oldie but a goodie. "Yet" is such a small, but powerful word for our students...and ourselves!

I hope you have a chance to use some of these. If they're helpful (or even if they aren't) let me know! Take care of yourselves!

Micro-Meditations and Counting the Victories

It seems like every time I sit down to write to you all, something urgent crops up. Anyway, sorry for missing last week's post. Here are the highlights from my world.

On the 7th, I had the privilege of attending a Denver Foundation Cohort meeting. They typically bring in a speaker to teach us something new and Dr. Adeyemi Stembridge was absolutely fabulous. The crux of his message was that we all learn through concepts. Once we learn one thing, we can use it as a starting point for other, foreign concepts. You can scope out more information on this here. Another concept (see what I did there?) he talked about is "micro-meditation." This is the idea that self-care is much more helpful when done in the heat of the moment. A deep breath (in through the nose, out through the mouth) at just the right time, will do wonders for your mood. I've been putting it to the test, as I feel like I'm perpetually in Down Dog, and it's really been helping! Give it a try the next time someone pushes your hot buttons.

More recently, the cohort shared a fascinating article called The Role of White Co-Conspirators in Dismantling Systemic Racism. I love this idea that everyone's liberation is bound together; that no one will achieve true liberation if certain segments of society are still oppressed. I'll be thinking long and hard over Thanksgiving about how I can do my part to be a co-conspirator.

Some of my little victories from the last couple weeks are:
- Submitting the t-shirt order! If all goes well, we'll have shirts in December.
- Scheduling and conducting phone interviews!
- Completing observations for every program!
- Participating in an enlightening conversation about our Race lessons!
- Getting the drywall up in our new dining area, having countertops installed, putting in our new sink and dishwasher!!!

I hope everyone has a splendid Thanksgiving and rests up for the sprint to the next set of holidays.

Down Dog as a Resting Pose

Hi, again! Thank you for understanding the hiatus from this project. The last two weeks have had me thinking about yoga, a particularly challenging pose, and how this interaction always seems to present itself in classes:

Instructor (calm, cool, collected): And remember if you're feeling tired, you can always take a break by entering Downward Dog.
Internal Me (arms shaking, breathing heavily, sweating profusely): You've got to be kidding! I haven't worked this hard since forever! Who talks this way?! Gah!

The instructor will inevitably share a story of such-and-such person who stayed in the pose for some outrageous number of hours and how the pose is designed to be a resting position, despite being painful for many people. I inevitably think of a long, creative string of words that I'll omit from this story.

So why am I sharing this with you? Because, friends, we are in the middle of our practice right now. This is the time of year when everyone needs us - And not only do we simply need to exist, but we need to be at our best. It's incredibly tough to find peace in chaos, which is precisely what my yoga instructor is asking me to do when she speaks of Down Dog.

Since my last post, I've attended three separate trainings. They were great! But, as you can all attest, even amazing learning opportunities leave you wondering when you'll find time to perform your primary job functions. Because I've been working this muscle, I leaned into the discomfort, explored just where that irritation was coming from (my biggest hot buttons are stupid and unlovable), and allowed myself to pause.

Will anyone call me stupid if I take an extra day to answer a message? Probably not. Breathe. Do I have to have a response to that text right now? Not really. Breathe. Will I be able to handle this? Probably. Breathe. Am I messing this up? Maybe, maybe not. Breathe. Breathe again. Once more for good measure. 

I sincerely hope you're all doing that for yourselves and your students. Modeling this kind of behavior is enormously beneficial. One of the trainings, Raising Resilience, used a metaphor that goes like this:

Imagine a rider on a horse. Now imagine that the rider is your cerebral cortex. The horse is now the limbic system. What happens when the limbic system takes over? The horse bucks and the rider likely gets thrown off. In order to regain control, we have to calm down the horse and safely get the rider back on. How do we do that? We pause. We breathe. If it's a student that's been thrown off, we use calm, low, quiet voices to encourage them to breathe. We offer simple choices. We move slowly.

I adore this metaphor. The trainers even brought up the fact that it's terrifying to be thrown from a horse. If you've ever had that happen, you know just how it feels to hit the ground, wondering if anything is broken and quickly getting up to get out of the horse's way. Getting back on the now-calm horse is equally frightening! So how do we treat our youth when this happens? Do we create a power struggle or do we teach them the skills to calm down and regain control?

I'll leave you with a couple pics of my spunky girl who just loves rainbows and dinosaurs. Take care of yourselves out there, team.

Who's Nurturing Whom?

I'm hesitant to be so vulnerable in a blog, but I feel compelled to share that last week was super difficult for me. Between work obligations, national and international news stories, and personal stressors, I was feeling the strain. But, you know what? Y'all are amazing. Your compassion and love is inspirational. Thank you.

So, here's my question: Who's nurturing whom?

In August, I shared that I viewed my professional position as being one of support to you. In my mind, it was a one-way street, from me to you. That's true in some ways, but when I show up in your classrooms, you never fail to ask, "How are you?" Then, you take the time to actually listen. You make space for me to be human. I love that about you (yes, all of you).

A bold birdie at ACHS built her nest right into spikes. 

When you're working with scholars, I see that part of you, as well. You check in with your students on a deep level. You listen. You care. You offer youth an opportunity to be heard by someone who has profound compassion for them. You allow them to be human.

Who's nurturing you these days? One of my great hopes for YESS is that we find avenues for all our staff to build trusting, respectful relationships with one another. This, of course, is insanely tough for a bunch of folks who work in different locations, with different administrators and students, and on different schedules. You know better than anyone how taxing the role of YESS Program Manager can be. I hope you reach out to your colleagues in between team meetings to share what's working and to seek support, when needed. At the end of the day, we're all here for the same reason: To promote our scholars' success.

I'm honored and privileged to work with (and for) you and our youth. Take care of yourselves this week.

Welcome!

As part of my professional growth, I've set a goal to open lines of communication between Carlo and myself. I'd also like to promote this idea with all YESS staff, so I decided that I would create a blog. The primary focus here will be to highlight all the fantastic things I find in your classrooms each week. Secondarily, I'd like to use this space to offer resources for you to use in your practice. I'll begin in earnest next week. In the meantime, I hope you all take some time for yourselves and remember how much I appreciate you.