YESS at West Leadership Academy

Good Morning West Community, Monday -- We did not have class in observance of President's Day.  Tuesday/Wednesday, we were able to start the lesson on Dating Abuse since I was not able to cover it during Valentine's Day due to the strike. The reasoning behind facilitating a discussion on Dating Abuse during Valentine's Day is simply because there are countless relationships that are in many ways, very toxic, abusive, possessive, and overall very negative that hide under the covers of "this is the way a relationship works" which is completely inaccurate. There is no doubt in my mind that some of my students have experienced some type of dating abuse, directly or indirectly. Many of my students were very open to talking and describing some of their own personal experiences with dating abuse, which is always appreciated. I provided several examples of what dating abuse looks like, via a video that was made by El Paso County Officials. The video description is a...

Good Afternoon West Community, I am more than comfortable writing this post now then I was 1 week ago, for a variety of reasons. Last week was certainly one of the more confusing and uncomfortable scenarios that this community, this school district, and this city have seen in over 20-years. I am talking about the DCTA/DPS negotiations that endured for 3-days, which became the main talking point for many around the city. I was not above talking about it, as I fielded many questions from students, colleagues and family members. It is only human nature to want to know what is happening, and what will become of a dispute. I am very glad to report that both parties were able to come to an agreement, and they certainly got everyone's attention. What I believe is the most fascinating topic to come out of the negotiations is the students themselves. All around the city, we saw students who expressed themselves in a variety of ways. From students throwing hallway parties due to lack of...

Good Afternoon West Community, As I write this blog post about last week's activities,  I most certainly will report on what has happened during the DPS teacher's strike, and more specifically, how has YESS been impacted at West Leadership Academy.  Classroom Instruction My class finished up our personality tests (which you can read about in last week's post) and have made great progress on building a culture of building educational pride in their work. My students loved the idea of being able to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and more specifically, how the knowledge they have learned from this assignment tie back into themselves being emotionally intelligent, which is one of the main components of the YESS Curriculum. We had our first official DPS snow day on Thursday, but Friday was dedicated on our bullying in education lesson.  For those of you who are not clear on what bullying looks like, our kiddos are more than happy to educate anyone who ...

Good Afternoon West Community, As reported last week, our students were caught off guard by the snowstorm on Monday morning. For those that did show up, I had them finish up any missing assignments from their classes, or in this class as well. Wednesday, the students were being facilitated a ACCESS test, so I was not able to see any of my students that day. Tuesday and Thursday, I had my two classes and I was able to assign them a new project, something that I believe to be engaging, fun, and overall, a deep connection in the sense of the students finding themselves. The engagement levels in the classroom took a turn, as I introduced a personality test. Essentially, what I have observed with our students is the overall lack of a self-reflecting structure. What I mean by that is our students know very little about themselves, their habits, if they are extroverted/introverted etc. I am sure if I were to talk with them about some of these traits, they would be able to carry a conver...