YESS at West Leadership Academy

Good Morning West Community, It was yet another wonderful week here at West Leadership Academy. I am happy to report that our students have finished their state-wide testing sessions, and for the most part, I can report that although students get testing anxiety, the adults in the building also felt some sort of anxiety for a variety of reasons. I think for the most part, we can all agree that we are happy and satisfied that our students pushed through the testing and finished strong. As reported last week, the classroom here at WLA started a new unit, the war on drugs. For context purposes, let me explain how my 5 sections work with each other. 2 out of my 5 sections are simply upperclassmen, meaning they are high schoolers. However, my other 3 are a combination of middle schoolers and high schoolers. In other words, my classes have a very unique way of being introduced the material. My teaching for every class adapts to either providing less structure and more independent work...

Good afternoon West Community, I am happy to report back to all of you who have kept in touch with my class here at West Leadership Academy. I want to start off by saying how much I appreciate all of the support I have received these past couple of months here at West, specifically those who have taken time to read what we have done here and taken an interest on how they can help join in on the conversation to build our students into responsible young adults. That being said, last week marked the end of Unit II here in class, Healthy Relationships. A brief summary of what our final project was about can be seen below: 1. An identity mask, whose purpose is for students to decorate with key identifying traits as to the person they are in public. In other words, who they are to the people out in public. On the inside, the students have been instructed to decorate their masks with the identity they hide from public, specifically ideas and constructs that might be holding them back. ...

Good morning West Community! Spring is finally here. The atmosphere has changed, and with these big changes comes a realization that it is crunch time here at West Leadership Academy. The majority of our students are undergoing statewide testing. If you are not familiar with testing anxiety, let me tell you all, IT IS REAL. Speaking from personal experience, I too underwent testing anxiety -- not necessarily in k-12 schools. Rather, in college exams. Some of our students do not know how to express themselves when they do undergo anxiety, and some start to show some defiant behaviors that undermine their abilities to test. Our staff here at WLA is equipped to support students if they do experience these anxiety attacks, as we fully work with them to try their best for these exams. That being said, the last thing I am going to do with my students is bombard them with new material to learn. Instead, my students started to finish their masks, and I gotta tell you, they look AMAZING. ...

Good Morning West Community, I'm happy to report back after two long weeks of being on hiatus! All of my classes, as well as myself, came back refreshed and ready to take on the final two months of the school year. Monday and Tuesday, the class took some time to do some ice breakers from our break and do some class-bonding. That being said, the unit has finally come to a conclusion, as Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were dedicated to starting to close the unit. The classroom here at West Leadership Academy has taken it's final steps to start the Unit II Final Project. The past three months, the unit has been focused on three main ideas: 1. How are our identities formed? 2. How do our choices and relationships influence our identity? 3. Which parts of our identities do we share with others, and which do we conceal? The emphasis has been to be able determine how we form healthy relationships with the people in our lives. Not only that, the goal is for our commun...