Mentoring

Left: me helping my mentee, Lisa, with her mortarboard, June 2010.

This week mentoring was a big part of my life. I have many mentees, some still in high school, some in college, and some who have graduated college. One of my high school mentees is making his own decisions right now and they don't really have to do with school. He knows I'm here when he's ready to talk about school again. This is the hard part of mentoring -- letting go. . .

Reflecting on failures is a big part of mentoring: what did you learn from your failure? what decisions led to your failure? how will you do things differently next time, and will you do things differently?

One of my college mentees texted me this week asking for motivation. She's almost done with the quarter. So I called and talked with her about remembering the ultimate goal, which is to graduate college. And also how good it feels when you get a task done and how it's just like a monkey on your back when you're procrastinating.

I had lunch with another college mentee today. Listened, asked questions, dispensed a little advice, caught up on each other's lives. Tomorrow I will have lunch with another college mentee.

In CLASS, the freshmen and sophies continued to work on their personal statements. We are beginning to delve down into major events in their lives, so it's starting to get a little emotional. I love these writing assignments because I always learn so much about my students.

The Juniors talked about how to stay motivated at this time of the year. I reminded them that this time next year they will be graduating! I put the picture in their minds of them in their caps and gowns, walking across the stage at the Tacoma Dome. They all just started grinning and one of them said, "Yes!" It was so precious.

The seniors did a comparison analysis of 3 local banks or credit unions. It was useful, though not very exciting.

Tomorrow I will go to one of our Hilltop Scholars' college graduation. I am so looking forward to that!

Be the Spark Event

Friday night we went to the Be the Spark Event at the Tacoma Dome. We got to see two amazing speakers along with some wonderful dancing and singing. The students and staff came away inspired. So now what? What do we do with our inspiration?

This week I am asking the students what they are inspired to do, so stay tuned for the answer.

After eating Papa John’s pizza, we got these awesome t-shirts!




Alex had had too much Catnip tea (yes, really, catnip). It actually seemed to affect his focus. He walked out of Peace and said “Ooooh, school busses.” That was when I realized it was time to cut him off of the catnip. When I teased him about it, he responded: “Don’t judge!”

The event itself was a blast. I had my former AVID student and current intern, Shawn on my right, and newer Hilltop Scholar, Asia, on my left.

Here are my notes from the two major speakers at the event:

Craig Kielburger, Founder of Free the Children
Craig stopped reading the newspaper because the headlines always had so much violence and human suffering. He talked to Desmond Tutu about this, and Tutu told him the headlines are God’s “To Do List.” We should see the headlines as a calling, not a negative.
Craig was first inspired when he was 12 and read the story of a Pakistani boy who had been sold into slavery, escaped, and spoke against child slavery around the world. He said “Every child has the right to hold a pencil, not a tool.” He was killed at age 12.
Craig was so upset by this story that he spoke in front of his class and asked them to help him. 11 friends said they would help him. They began the first chapter of Free the Children. That was in 1995. There are now 4000 chapters world-wide.
He talked about ways we can help:
• Participate in the November 20 Day of Silence
• Make sure we buy products that are not made in sweatshops
• Adopt a village.
MINGA: Craig told a story about working in a Mexican village and there weren’t enough workers to get the school built in the time allotted. The village chief called a “minga.” People came from all over the area, some walking 5 hours to get there. When someone calls a minga, you just go. It’s a coming-together for the common good.
The chief asked how you would say “minga” in English. The English-speaking workers finally said, “it’s like a riot, but for good!”

Desmond Tutu
Old people (he called them “Oldies”) are repetitive, they tell the same stories over and over.
God is omnipotent. He created everything without our help. This omnipotent God wanted the help of a human partner.
Moses and God talked and God persuaded Moses to lead the Jews out of Egypt and the Exodus occurred. Moses did this even though it endangered his life.
The Angel, Gabriel, talked to Mary and asked her to carry the son of God in her womb. She said, “I’m a decent girl, ask next door.” But she was finally convinced. God needed her help to bring Jesus into this world.
God waited. The omnipotent became impotent. He waited for a human partner.
In February 1990, Nelson Mandela was let out of prison. In 1994, South African Blacks voted for the first time.
Everyone in the anti-apartheid movement collaborated with God t make freedom happen. It has always been that way. We have to provide the fish and bread so God can feed the hungry.
It’s not spectacular things that we have to do. Sometimes it’s just sitting on the bus and refusing to move.
We spend trillions on instruments of violence and destruction. We could use that money to provide clean water, food, housing, and health care around the world. God says, “When are they going to get it? 1.5 billion of my children go to bed hungry! 6 million killed because of discrimination.” God looks on and sees disease, poverty, war, corruption.
What did God feel about Bin Ladin being shot in front of his children? And of people celebrating at his death?
But then God looks at Tacoma and sees the sparks and starts to smile like the sunshine through the rain. He says “That’s exactly why I created them.” (He did a little dance here.) God smiles and says, “Thank you, Tacoma.”

Diamond and her KidREACH kid.
Vince and his lovely mom.

Diamond is ready for the show!

Personal Statements

Sometimes we have to step up even more and work intensely with a student to help them get through a rough patch. It feels to me like bringing a fledgling bird back into the nest for some TLC and a chance to regroup so she can learn to fly again. Sometimes that can be done quickly, but often it takes a while. But once she takes off and flies again, it is a joyful moment.

Last week I helped get some food to a student's home; helped find an in-class math tutor for another; wrote a letter of recommendation; participated in a Hilltop Scholars information night; a volunteer celebration; taught the Palmer Scholars about time management, organization, and note taking; recruited 8th-graders at Jason Lee; and with my students I listened and listened and listened.

To catch us up on CLASS since last Tuesday:

The freshmen and sophomores are working on the beginning parts of writing a personal statement. I used a website from UC Berkeley to help guide us in the writing. The students started by writing answers to questions like:
What is special about me?
What kind of person am I?
What do I care about?
What’s it like growing up in (fill in the blank)
What’s it like going to school at (fill in the blank)

I then sat with each student and asked them to think about their answers and which ones they think they answered differently or uniquely from other students. Their answer gave us the lense through which they answered the next questions:
An achievement that made me feel terrific. . .
Something I have struggled to overcome or change about myself of my life. . .
A family experience that influenced me in some powerful way. . .
A time I blew it, failed,made bad choices, and how I got past it. . .

This is where the students left off today. I don’t think we will get back to our writing until next Monday because we will be discussing Desmond Tutu on Wednesday in preparation for our hearing him speak on Friday.

Daniel worked with the seniors last Thursday on budgeting. He said they were amazed at how quickly they spent their hypothetical money. Glad it's just play money for now! Tim is still working with the juniors on prepping for the ACT. We got them signed up for the ACT last Thursday. They will take the ACT on June 11.

I have spent a lot of time lately doing things other than preparing for CLASS. We are busily trying to recruit new students to Hilltop Scholars. We would like to have at least 15 to 20 students per grade. They will have to make a higher level of commitment to the program as far as time and hard work. It's a tough sell.

The Seniors and I have been studying financial management. Most of them have the goal of being financially secure. They also recognize that they spend too much money and don’t save their money. Some of them have learned good money habits from their parents and some have learned bad money habits. Alex is the frugal one. He figured out that he can save money by buying tea in bulk and making his own rather than buying tea at the shop every day.

Nick said he wastes money on gas and on text books (lost text books, that is.) Another student gives her money to her friends. She recognizes that this is a problem.

We figured out how much money we spend on gas, giving money to friends, clothes, shoes – over 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years. The kids were pretty astounded.

We also talked about interest and how much you can earn by investing a certain amount of money each month over time.

Yesterday the freshmen and sophomores finished off Wooden’s Pyramid of Success. We learned about poise and confidence. The kids also did some reflective writing on what part of the pyramid they feel they do well and what part they need to focus on. I have not yet had a chance to look at so I will have to get back to you on what they said.

The Juniors are working with Tim preparing for the ACT. We need to get them registered for the ACT this week.

Last Friday the Peace staff went to Dorky's which is an arcade with older video and pinball games. I am not that great at these games, but AmeriCorps volunteer Ryan was beating everyone at Mortal Kombat. He was so funny because after he would beat some one he'd say, "Who wants to fight me now?" It was just so out of place -- I never thought I'd hear those words come out of Ryan's mouth. Then, our Executive Director, Bill got the highest score on Miss Pacman, beating the top score of the day. He got free ice cream for his trouble.

Lots O' Math and Money Management

This is a very cute photo I took last week of Tim tutoring Tasia and Daniel. This was right after Pastor John walked up and saw they were working on Calculus and said, “Oh, baby, yeah!!!” Really? He gets that excited over math? I love the looks on Tasia’s and Daniel’s faces in this photo.

Today Tim worked with the Juniors in ACT prep. Taylor and Maranda raved about his teaching and they teased him mercilessly about a drawing he did on the board. I’m sure the drawing had to do with math. . . I didn’t get to see it, but it must have been hilarious.

The Seniors did a little quiz called “Are You a Teenage Money Genius?” It helped us to see what they know and don’t know about personal money management. It was interesting: they didn’t know what it means to “pay yourself first,” but they were pretty well informed about debit cards. Nick told a funny story about how his bank account grew in the year that his debit card was lost. When he finally found the card (in his car), he went to the bank and discovered all of the money he had earned from his work teaching snowboarding at Snoqualmie.

There was little bit of judgment in the room about one of the students who wants to buy new rims for his car. Hmmmm. . .wants verses needs. . .

Carla really enjoyed her time at Starbucks headquarters last week. She said she learned so much. I want her to get a job at Starbucks. She’d be great!

We did our binder check today – thanks to Jamie for doing that for us! Again, I repeat my mantra: please encourage the students to take Cornell notes in class. They are really slacking right now.

Debriefing Starbucks and John Wooden

Last week I was unable to write my blog and I apologize for that. Last Monday and Tuesday we prepared for our trip to Starbucks by reading an article written by Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. Here it is: http://www.newsweek.com/2011/03/13/how-starbucks-got-its-mojo-back.html
It tells the story of how Mr. Schultz realized that Starbucks was tanking, resumed his position as CEO, and served as a catalyst to help Starbucks right itself again. It is an interesting way to look at and learn about the company, its mission, and its history. We also listened to a radio interview with Howard Schultz by Tavis Smiley. Here it is: http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/tavis/local-tavis-962165.mp3 . The interview starts at about 12:30.

On Tuesday, the Juniors were given the assignment of finding three interesting things from the Starbucks website. Maranda found an iPhone App where you can order your latte and a barista on a scooter will bring it to you! This is only available in the 7 largest US cities, she told us. So I was trying to find this iPhone app so I could show the Seniors during their class. We finally googled it and found this: http://www.starbucks.com/blog/introducing-starbucks-mobile-pour

We scrolled down to the comments at the bottom of this page and figured out that it was an April Fools joke conducted by Starbucks! We were totally punked by Starbucks!!!! Unbelievable. . .

All of the students and staff went to Starbucks Corporate Headquarters last Wednesday. (I couldn’t go because I was going to my nephew’s master’s degree recital in violin performance). The kids learned about where coffee comes from (berries from trees), how to make their own coffee drinks, the history of Starbucks, the careers that exist at Starbucks, how Starbucks likes to give grants to youth-driven programs, and about the logo and brand. They were greeted by Troy Alstead, CFO, who is a fan of Peace Community Center. After that, they went to Red Robin on the Seattle waterfront. They said they learned more than they even realized and enjoyed the field trip completely.

Today, in CLASS we wrote about the following blocks in John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success: self-control, alertness, initiative, and intentness. Self-control means controlling your emotions so you don’t lose control of your common sense and discipline. Alertness means learning from the mistakes and successes of others – just paying attention to what’s going on around you. Initiative means that you keep trying and you don’t let fear of failure stop you. Intentness means you never ever ever give up! (To quote Churchill).

The students wrote some thank you notes to the Starbucks employees who participated in our field trip. The kids told me about the trip, what they learned, what they enjoyed. I’m really happy they had such a great time. Hopefully I will have some photos to post soon!

Highs, Lows, and Howard Schultz

Letha making her thank you note gorgeous!

Another day of feeling like I ran through the whole day and my feet never touched the ground. Started off the day at Stadium High School where I talked to about 20 students to see if they want to join Hilltop Scholars. Some of my current Hilltop Scholars joined the conversation to encourage students to join us. Thanks kiddos! Big thanks to Stadium staff, Principal Barnum, Mr. Harris, Ms Pearcy, and Ms Bright for all of their help. I was very impressed with how easy it was to work with the staff at Stadium. Back at work I met with an AmeriCorps, then met with Professor Houston from University of Puget Sound. We are looking at how my students and her students can work together and learn from each other.

Just one class today. The Freshmen and Sophomores are combined into once class this semester. They spent some time getting their binders organized. It had been a while so it was quite a task, especially for Antonio. Perfect binder and notes scores today: Letha, Serena, Angelina! Yay!

While we organized binders, one student shared her highs and lows for the day. Sometimes they just need to talk and I’m happy that they feel CLASS is a safe place to talk it out.

They wrote some thank you notes to donors and they put some effort into them, sprucing the notes up with colored pencils and markers. It was kinda cute to see how hard they worked on these. Letha described her artwork as “FRESH.” (See attached photos).

We are going on a field trip to Starbucks corporate headquarters next week so I had the students listen to Tavis Smiley interviewing Howard Schultz on how he helped to revive Starbucks. They learned that he is dedicated to Starbucks and considers it his “baby.” He closed all of the Starbucks for a day to re-train everyone and took a lot of criticism for it. They thought he was humble when he said the revival of Starbucks wasn’t because of him, he was just a catalyst.

Then it was time to get ready to go recruiting at Foss High School tomorrow. Long day, but very productive.

Thank you notes, and Ms Ruiz got frustrated.

This is a is a shot of the Juniors with Flat Stanley who has come to visit me from San Antonio. I am to take photos of Flat Stanley in Tacoma and send them to my niece’s teacher. Anyway, the Juniors decided to pretend that they were flat, which is why they are all lying on the floor. That was Juwan’s idea.

Long day, very tired. Here’s what I can remember about CLASS today.

The kids were supposed to have binder checks today, but our binder checker wasn’t here, so we had to reschedule that to Thursday. Please encourage the students to take notes in their classes and to get their binders organized.

Development Director, Kelly Merry, visited both sections of CLASS today to introduce herself to the students and explain to them a little project she needed from them which was for them to write a thank you note to some people who attended our Instruments of Peace breakfasts. The students cheerfully wrote the notes, which as usual is greatly appreciated.

We discussed our upcoming field trips. Then we did an ACT practice drill and reviewed that.

The seniors also wrote thank you notes and then we had to have a serious discussion about their grades which resulted in them asking me at least five times why oh why they have to write Cornell notes? I answered very patiently telling them that Cornell makes them interact with the material four times which makes it more likely to stay in their head and that it gives them an easy, organized study guide. They didn’t buy that and kept asking until I just told them it was a class requirement and I was done talking about it. Note this isn’t the first time we’ve had this conversation. I think I need some of my college students to talk to them and attest to the value of Cornell notes.

Tomorrow I am going to Stadium to recruit some new Hilltop Scholars current grades 9 – 11. Trevor and Daniel and their significant others stayed late and helped me put together everything I need for tomorrow. They are the BEST!

Restarting This Blog!

Here is a photo of me and two of my mentees, Devin and Chyna. They are both Juniors and I have known them both since they were in 8th grade. My, how they've grown. And what a joy it is to be a part of their lives.

Joys: Seeing my students compare the notes they took in my class to the notes of the intern and analyze how well they did compared to him. Baby steps.
Hearing Will (sometimes Peace Custodian, sometimes Peace musician and director extraordinaire) tell me the story of proposing to Taneisha. It gave me goosebumps. He had other people involved like Taneisha's daughter and sister, the restaurant waiters were all in on it and he even had a musician! (Of course.) So sweet.

Concerns: One of our alums is having trouble focusing on her studies, another is threatening to go to NYC to open a cupcake business (I think she's kidding). Also really concerned about some of our students lack of access to health care and food! If parent doesn't or can't provide either of these, the kid is just sunk. It's very painful to watch, we intervene when/where we can, but it never feels like enough.

Here's what we did in CLASS:

Today the Freshmen and Sophomores practiced their note taking. Intern Shawn took notes during class and so did the students. At the end they compared notes.

We reviewed the students midterm grades (which are not pretty) and discussed how they got this grade and what they need to do to improve. We also discussed our upcoming Field Trips and activities, which are:
Wed., April 20: 11am to 7pm trip to Starbucks corporate headquarters and dinner
Friday, May 5: 3:30-5:30pm Living Legacy Project, Creative Brainstorming
Friday, May 13: 6-9:30pm Archbishop Desmond Tutu

We then reviewed the reading we did on Wednesday from John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success.

Students have a make-up assignment to do that is due on Wednesday:

Think of a song that motivates you, another song that calms you, and another song that cheers you up.
Attached are three note cards.
On the first note card write the name of the song that motivates you and a few of your favorite lyrics.
On the second note card write the name of the song that calms you and a few of your favorite lyrics.
On the third note card write the name of the song that cheers you up and a few of your favorite lyrics.