Guess. What. Day. It. Is.

Hey Mike!

Greetings! Are you happier than a camel on Hump Day? Are you grateful that you can bare your legs without developing frostbite? Are you thrilled that you have a WHOLE WEEK to relax, explore, or binge watch some fabulous tv show? I hope so. On another note, sorry this is a bit late. Here's actual footage of me at work the last couple of days...

Hilarious. Also, there are clubs for
this activity. Anybody up for a YESS
team building activity?

So, here's the scoop. I sent a rad list of resources to you all last week. Did anyone get to peruse them? If not, please do! This is not a job requirement. It will not show up on your evaluation, but it will likely address some concerns you've had at some point in the year. And here are a few more to add:

This article, from Teaching Tolerance, discusses how to support students as they watch this whole college admissions rigging thing unfold. What a hot mess. Within this article, you will find a list of strategies you can use to assist scholars in dealing with the emotions that have come up.

Here's another article from Teaching Tolerance. This one is about how to implement a "call-in" culture, as opposed to a "call-out" culture. I'm thinking specifically of some of you who have white scholars who struggle to identify their privilege and/or say things that are completely out of line. There are some really neat sentence starters that mentors could be trained to utilize. It's important to note that this article does *not* condone people of color being required to expend emotional labor to teach white students about systemic racism. I'm sharing it with you all so you can reflect on whether or not these strategies might work for you and your students.

The last resource for this post is an article from TED about the stories of our lives. Story-telling is a stupendous way to teach concepts. While this article isn't necessarily related to pedagogy, it is related to the way we reflect on our lives, which (naturally) affects the way we show up for our students. This is cool food for thought, if you're into personal growth.

I know you're all dying to learn about my activities last week, so I'll conclude with this quick bit:
Monday - MEETINGS! And a lunch 'n learn about retirement planning, which was a near-total waste of time because it was designed for people aged 55+. It does get me thinking about how to support you all in this manner, though. Stay tuned.

I'm so done with winter.

Tuesday - MS and HS team meetings and a webinar about quality program improvement.
Wednesday - See image of Holly Blvd, near my house ➜
Thursday - Catching up on everything I didn't do M-W
Friday - TGYS funder visit at Ranum (thanks, Joe!)

That's it from my neck of the woods. Hold on for the ride and enjoy your break!

Resource Dump

Hi, all. I mentioned that I've been harboring some resources and that I would share them with you. I mean, what good are they if they're sitting in a folder on my web browser, really?

This guide to facilitating a circle talk is a great resource if you're unsure of how to start. It would also be a good "brush up" guide if you've done circles before, but didn't feel like it was super successful. There is some language about a particular incident involving police brutality, but I found the suggestions to be broad enough that you can utilize them with other topics.

Teaching Tolerance is one of my fave resources of all time. This guide is specifically formulated for discussing race and racism, but again, there are some strategies here that can be generalized. I especially like the section about teacher self-care.

Do you need a quick list of interesting games to play with your students? Try this.

Some intriguing things here

Are you trying to boost your teaching prowess? I really like this list of strategies. Also, you can find the word "social loafing" here, which is kind of amusing.

This one is written for business managers, but stay with me! There are boatloads of questions you can use to get kids thinking about how they can make a difference in their lives. If I were still teaching, I'd memorize 2-3 of these questions and use them during one-on-one chats. I might also do some mentor training with them. Last thing about this resource, you'll notice that everything starts with a goal. True for grown-ups and kids alike!

This is why what you're doing is SO important!

This article talks about self-care. It's geared specifically toward women, but I think there are some gold nuggets for all our men friends, too.

I've read this article on several occasions and I take something new from it each time. The most recent reading reminded me that we don't need to earn love, but rather trust that it will be there when we connect authentically with others.

I think Emily may have shared these already, but here are some posters produced by a group called A Mighty Girl. They welcome you to print them free of charge. If you'd like a cool Facebook group to follow, sign up for this one.

Anybody want to make glitter jars with me over the summer?! This article makes a convincing case for having one. **Warning: It's a New York Times article, so it will count as one of your freebies. Does anybody else try to scrape by without a subscription?**

Brene Brown has tons of downloads on her site. Her books/articles are usually great, as well!

Here's another neat trick that's meant for business people, but would be fantastic in a classroom.

Ok, last one. Ever heard the phrase, "If you can name it, you can tame it?" This article is all about boosting your ability to handle anger, which seems appropriate for people working with adolescents. ;-)

Welp. That oughta keep you busy for a while. I'd love to discuss any and all of these resources with you, if you'd like!

Does anybody really know what time it is?

I'll just leave this here.

Now for the real fun! Last week was super busy and fun!

On Monday, I got to meet up with Jamie and Carlo for our regularly-scheduled chat. Then, Ms. Emily joined us to discuss the revival of the STAR Team (thanks, Alex, for being the first to sign up!). After all that, I caught up on emails, which is what I typically do on Mondays. Try not to be jealous.

Tuesday was a day for classroom visits. First, I went to North and had a delightful time with Vince and his scholars. After a quick caffeine run, I went over to Scott Carpenter for a lovely visit with Alex and her kiddos. My favorite sanity-saving portion of this job is seeing all of you expand your teaching skills, by the way. Thank you for always being open to my suggestions.

I attended a rather long meeting/PD on Wednesday, then met up with Carlo and Drew DeMarie. Drew is the Training Director at Mentor Colorado (our statewide mentoring partnership) and he taught me that we have the ability to apply for a grant that will allow us to receive free technical assistance. I'm  so stoked that we will be able to analyze what's going well in our programs and then address some of the issues we face! Growth makes me happy.

I began Thursday morning with stupidly slow traffic and then a wonderful chat with Joe. That was followed up with a trip to Kearney MS to meet with a slew of people about the programs there and at Adams City MS. It looks like the district is unable to overcome some scheduling issues, which means Portia and Michael will have the opportunity to modify our model while still achieving our mission! I'm thrilled to work with them on this project. :-)

On Friday (I know, I know...), I went over to West to see Carlos work his magic. I know you've all already taught the Apple Pie lesson, but I just want to toot his horn a bit. Why? Because Joey doesn't share food and it's a perfect example of a Whole Pie Eater! I'm so glad he was able to maintain fidelity while also bringing in this kid-approved resource.

That's it from here. I've got a load of resources to drop on you all, but I don't want to tack it to the end of a typical post. Stay tuned for a bonus edition of my blog!

More Memes and a Ginormous Thank You

I got so much positive feedback about the "meme" blog a while ago, I thought I'd try something similar! I realize I haven't written to you in a while and the reason is:

We went to DC for President's Day and visited our besties! Kate brought bronchitis into our home a few days before the trip, so that was fun...

Ok, this isn't a meme but she sure is cute!

After many days of being coughed on, I caught the crud and took a some time off.

Last week was finally productive, so I'll just tell you what I got into... Monday was full o' meetings and a funeral. Tuesday, I tried to host a Google Hangout with the HS Team and technology completely failed us! I researched a product called Zoom and it seems like a solid replacement - Stay tuned for more info. I also got to meet up with Portia and her guidance counseling team over at ACMS. On Wednesday, I went to KMS to see Michael, then went over to SCMS to chill with Alex and Carlo. Thursday was spent at WLA with Carlos and Diane (fun!) and then filing paperwork/catching up on tasks (less fun!).

I'd also like to take a moment to publicly thank those of you who have raised issues regarding everything from curriculum to on-boarding. I'm extremely grateful that so many of you have approached me about ways to improve the agency and I hope you all realize that YOU are the reason YESS is able to be successful. No joke. I love working with each and every one of you!