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 other place I would rather be than here building this program the way it is meant to be built: with Cowboy Pride.

With a new year come new environments, new faces, new experiences, and new challenges that all of us here will now be facing for the next 10 months. I am profoundly ready to take on everything that comes through my doors here at West. More importantly, WE are ready to take on the year. 

Here is some context for how the classes are this year: 5 sections (classes) -- all 5 sections have high schoolers in them. However, since West is also now a middle school, out of those 5 sections, 3 of those 5 sections are Hybrid classes with BOTH high school and middle school students in them, the only program in the Organization to do so.

It is not a challenge, rather an opportunity to take and directly incorporate the mentor skills we are teaching our students.

And who do I have to help me with this? My Mentor Leadership Team.

I have been very fortunate enough to also have 3 of my previous Mentor Leaders return to take this class: Fantasia, Joe, and Naisett. Not only that, we sat down, looked at candidates for the position, and have now hired a 4th to the team. Say hello to Viviana. Each one of my MLT's has their own class to facilitate and their jobs are to start off conversations, engage with others, help with routines, and soon, they will be running the first part of class. In other words, they are the prime example of what being a Mentor is in this class. They are high-achieving, goal setting, responsible students who have what it takes to be kind, patient, and encouraging Mentor Leaders. Yet, they are own unique in their own way and that is exactly what we need in the classes. I encourage them to bring forth their true-self to my class. With a bit of guidance, they should walk out of here ready to take on whatever may come their way.

The past 3 weeks, our class has been working on our classroom rituals and routines. What that looks like is getting my students in the classroom habits that I am encouraging for their success in my class. The minute they walk in, they should be engaged and prepared to take on the day and that usually starts off by working on a "Do-Now." It is interactive, engaging, and gets them to use their critical thinking skills before we dive into the lesson. 

Last night, we hosted our annual Back to School night and we had several families come down to meet us. It was an opportunity to teach parents about what I am teaching their kids this week, the SEL 5.

The SEL 5 or the 5 areas of Social-Emotional Development are what we are teaching our student here at West. These five areas are as follows:

1. Self-Awareness / Conciencia de sí mismo

• Identifying emotions / Identificar emociones
• Accurate self-perception / autopercepción precisa
• Recognizing strengths / Reconociendo fortalezas
• Self Confidence / Auto Estima

2. Self - Management / Habilidades de Autocuidado

• Impulse control / control de los impulsos
• Stress management / manejo del estrés
• Self-Discipline / autodisciplina
• Self-motivation / automotivación
• Goal setting / el establecimiento de metas
• Organizational skills / habilidades organizativas

3.  Social Awareness / Sensibilizacion Social

• Perspective-taking / tomando perspectiva de otros
• Empathy / empatía 
• Appreciating diversity / apreciando la diversidad
• Respect for others / Respeto a los demas

4. Relationship Skills / Habilidades Sociales y de Relación

• Communication / comunicación
• Social Engagement / Participación Social
• Relationship-building / Construyendo una relación
• Teamwork / trabajo en equipo

5. Responsible Decision Making / Tomando Decisiones Responsables

• Identifying problems / Identificación de problemas
• Analyzing solutions / analizando soluciones
• Solving problems / resolviendo problemas
• Evaluating / evaluando
• Reflecting / reflejando
• Ethical responsibility / responsabilidad ética

Each zone has several values and qualities we want to teach our kids to have. This week, their task was to identify one value in each zone, define it, and be able to explain how they will be able to apply this value in their lives. 

The goal is to have our kids develop all of these qualities in our classes and with the help of various teachers around the building, the curriculum that we are using, and the overall experiences in their own lives. Next week, we will be starting the process of pairing each other into mentee or mentors. We are all excited, anxious, and ready to start this process. Not only that, we want to make sure everyone gets paired with someone that they know they can work with and someone who can help grow but also grow themselves.

Look out for next month's update in October to find out what we are doing here at West. 

As always, thank you for supporting this program here at West. We do not take this for granted.

Happy reading, y'all.

Cowboys, Out.