Welcome to October!

yessinstitutehr
Oct 15, 2020
5 min read

Welcome back to West Leadership Academy, Home of the Cowboys.

In this blog, you will read about the following topics:

Lessons introduced to our students
Profiles of our students who are displaying the 5 Social Emotional Learning Skills throughout the school year.
What’s Next -- Highlights of next month.

The month of September was full of surprises. From start to finish, the month brought forth new challenges but also, brought forth a lot of new surprises. The transition from in-person learning to online-learning has been one of the most extraordinary challenges our students have faced. The resilience, the ability to adapt, the strength to go on and continue pushing forward, have all been demonstrated by our students here at West Leadership Academy.

Yes, we are far from finished but we believe we will be able to support our wonderful students. That being said, here is what we did in the month of September.

Lessons/Objectives from Unit I: Building Community

1. What are Social Justice Issues and how are they related to Social-Emotional Learning?

All of you will explain the relationship between a social justice issue and social-emotional learning.
All of you will explore different Social-Justice Issues.
- Black Lives Matter vs All Lives Matter
- Defund ICE vs Border Security

2. What is Community?

What is the purpose of establishing a safe community?

What is my role in creating a safe community?

3. What are Shared Agreements? -- Building a safe space for all!

What do I want my community to look, sound, and feel like?

The whole purpose behind these lessons is for our students to be able to have conversations, discussions, and to critically think about what a community is. Our students were able to have a civil discourse discussing what it means to be part of a community, what challenges they will face, and how to encourage others to be part of something bigger than themselves. See below for specific examples:

1. What are Social Justice Issues and how are they related to Social-Emotional Learning?

The discussions over the social-justice issues were something that our students were very passionate about. Social justice movements such as "Black Lives Matter" and the opposite views on it were the highlights of the lesson.

Picture this:

A digital room full of kids who have heard over and over again throughout the summer about the death of George Floyd, the death of Breonna Taylor, the death of countless other African-Americans, but also, them witnessing the peaceful protests as well as the riots at night, eagerly waiting to be asked what their opinion was on the matter. I had several outspoken students who not always agreed with one another but nonetheless were able to have a conversation with someone with opposing ideas.

I also posed this question to them: Would they still support the peaceful protests If they took place in their own neighborhoods and in communities, away from downtown Denver?

Yes, some students argued that not all cops are bad, that the peaceful protest downtown also caused a lot of damage to the city because of irresponsible people who ruin it for others. Were some students opposed to that idea? Of course. Nevertheless, the conversation stayed civil.

The other Social-Justice issue we discussed is the issue of Immigration, specifically the rhetoric behind “Defund ICE” vs “America First.” Many of my students are of Latinx descent, and it hit close to home for many. We watched a trailer for the Netflix documentary, Immigration Nation, to discuss the tone, vision, and overall purpose behind it. See it below:

If there is one thing that my students took away from this lesson, it would be that not everyone is always going to agree with them. The world is a lot bigger than they realize. For example, when we were discussing the movement on abolishing ICE vs Build the wall, some of my students were not aware that President Trump has supporters that are Latinx. They were baffled at the idea that someone like the president who has expressed himself the way that he has about immigrants and his rhetoric on building the wall, still has supporters that are Latinx. Below I have attached a link to a video that I showed the kids from Jorge Ramos, a journalist that is covering the 2020 presidential election.

Our students were very opinionated, to put it lightly. I encouraged them to showcase their Social Awareness skill, which is to place themselves in the shoes of these supporters to try and understand their point of view, even if it was against every instinct they had. We also spoke about the children along the border that are being held in the Migrant Detention Centers, and how unfair these children are being treated. Again, I encouraged the students to take a step back and place themselves in the shoes of these children, who are still being held along the border. It is not fair at all. It is cruel, unjust, and overall sickening to know that this is happening in the country.

I closed the lesson by simply reminding our students to be grateful for all they had, to hug their families a little tighter, and to remember that this country was built on the backs of immigrants. We are here to stay.

2. What is Community?

One of the projects that I had my students work on was establishing their own communities. Essentially, they were tasked with creating a community that followed their laws, customs, and overall tone that they envisioned.

Below are examples from our two leads, as well as other students.

Offering the creative freedom and encouragement of what they want their community to look like opens up the conversation to what challenges will arise. Ultimately, that is my goal with the students: to encourage independent thought and the ability to display social awareness with their classmates.

3. What are Shared Agreements? -- Building a safe space for all!

Below, I am displaying what my students have said they need from myself, the teachers, their classmates throughout online learning. The purpose of this assignment was to help the students work on their self-advocacy skills, learning how to ask for help, and recognizing that we are all in this together.

*Insert photos here

I tied all three of the lessons together by explaining to the students that while all of these issues generate very passionate feelings, they also have the potential to generate ideas that can go unchecked. In other words, they can lead to making decisions that ultimately will not bring forth any productive change. My message to the students is simple: We can agree to disagree, we do not have to agree at all, but ultimately, we have to have tough conversations that are led to bringing change. And the first place we can do that is in our own backyards; in other words, start where you can bring immediate change and that’s here in our online community classroom.

Student Highlights of the Month:

I had the two members of the Mentor Leadership Team come up with two students from their respective classes that they would like to shout-out this month!

From 3rd Period:

Andres Gonzalez-Irazaque

Manuel Calzada

They are both described by Viviana as “Caring, Positive, Smart, & Encouraging”

From 8th Period:

Jasmine Brown

Ruben Zavala

They are both described by Naisett as “Engaged, Involved, & Humorous”

All 4 of these students have displayed many aspects of the 5 Social-Emotional skills that we have continued working on. I am extremely grateful to have them contribute their voices to the class, and I am proud of them for making this online experience meaningful, interactive, and joyful.

This upcoming month, we will be discussing Bullying & Peaceful Conflict Resolution, specifically with the 2020 Presidential Election. We will also be discussing “Dia de Los Muertos” with a twist regarding Self-Identity. We will have all 3 other Mentor Leaders hired, and the team will be complete, with the closing of the month with our new Halloween event that is being coordinated by West Early College Leadership Team and our own Student Leadership Team as well.

As always, thank you for the support. Thank you for sending us positive vibes. Our Cowboy Spirit rides on.

Happy Reading, y’all.

Cowboys, Out.