Week 13 -- 04/01/2019 -- 04/05/2019

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 community to form an identity together and this is an opportunity to put our limits to the test the relationships we have with one another.

The final unit project consists of three assignments:

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.

2. The students must write an "I Am" Poem, in which they have an opportunity to describe themselves

3. Last but not least, students will have to write and reflect what we have learned this past unit. Not only that, the student's need to also write about their experience with their mentees/mentors, the idea being if they have been able to relate some of the lessons from the unit to build a positive relationship.

Additionally, I am happy to finally be able to present our brand new video of the impact our program has had at our partner schools. You can see the finished product below!

Tune in next week to see some of the finished projects from our classes.

Happy reading, y'all.

Cowboys, out.

Comments

January, 2020 -- A Fresh Start

Welcome back to the Westside! Thank you for visiting this blog and checking out what our organization did here at West leadership Academy in the month of December. Before I get into the month's activities, I just want to give a shout out to those of you who keep supporting and sending us positive vibes to this classroom from wherever you are. It is truly appreciated and it is something we do not take for granted. That being said let’s get to work. In today’s blog, you are going to be reading about the lesson we did before break, our Christmas dinner party at La Alma rec center, and last but not least the preparation and overall process For the final our Mentor Leadership Team and I conducted with our students. #1 -- The Brain: The unit revolves around healthy relationships specifically how to build one, how to maintain one, and to identify what we as individuals can do to make sure we are in healthy relationships with anyone we encounter. In December, we to...

September, 2019 -- Welcome to WEST

Welcome back to the YESS Institute at West Leadership Academy. I am delighted to once again be able to write my blogs about the work my Mentor Leadership Team and I are doing in our brand new room here at West Leadership Academy. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Carlos Villagrana-Juarez and I am a proud West Cowboy graduate, Class of 2012. I am also a proud University of Denver graduate, Class of 2016, and I am also a former student of the program. I am immensely involved in the school by coaching high school football and also, our feeder program, the Jr. Cowboy League middle school football team. In other words, Orange and Black run through my veins. A true Cowboy to the heart. For those of you returning to the blog...Welcome back, and as always, thank you for supporting the program here at West. This is now my 3rd year with the organization, and it has been a journey to get to this point in my life. That being said, there is no othe...

June, 2020 -- The Parting of the Ways

Good Morning and Welcome back to the final blog of the 2020 school year. The purpose of this blog is to give one final report on what happened these past 3 months over in our virtual classroom. You will read about the following topics: The Murder of George Floyd & Supporting #BlackLivesMatter YESS Final Projects Senior Graduation Parade & Dedication to Teresa Klava Senior YESS Buckets Mentor Leadership Team The Murder of George Floyd & Supporting #BlackLivesMatter The murder of George Floyd has brought forth a new age of people of color who are expressing their 1st amendment rights throughout the country. It has sparked conversations that needed to be had at dinner tables, legislature chambers, and on the streets of America. As an educator, I cannot stand idly by and not support the movement that has come from this horrendous act of police brutality against African-Americans li...

YESS at West Leadership Academy

Search This Blog