San Joaquin ELD Program

Everything is going good in San Joaquin. Sometimes is hard to get the boys to show up for the lessons but it is getting better, especially after we had a talk with the parents face to face, that always help. The students may not like me for now because of this but one day, not soon, they will thank me.

Mentor Resiliency Training

Hello all. I hope all is well. We just concluded the Resiliency training. I am happy to report that the activities went better than expected. We were able to cover two of the follow-up activities. The first was the "family tree". The mentors had an opportunity to work on their family trees individually, they shared with a partner and concluded the activity with a whole group discussion. The second was the "dont hate debate" activity. We had a pre-generated vignetee, divided the group into three groups and assigned roles. One group was assigned the task of supporting the argument (proponency), the second had the task of the (oponency) and the third was assigned as the jury. They got an opportunity to develop their argument, build their case and report it to the group. Lastly, the jury gave their veridict.
Reflections: In an effort to keep the program organic, the mentors came up with some great suggestions for imporvement. They are as follow: frontload thi activities with questions or activities for the students, bring in local newspapers, show movie clips to reinforce the activities. We also determined that it is important to connect our activities to what is going on with the academic portion of the program and the student's real lives. A special thanks to the teachers and the mentors that particpated in the activities. This program now has a very speical touch from your hearts...

Thank you,
Alfredo and Janelle

Coalinga Kick off

Hello all. On Thursday, we had an opportunity to begin the resiliency program at Coalinga MS. I must say, we had quite a turn out. We had over 20 students. Janelle and I began with a bang. We introduced the program and discussed the importance of a solid foundation. The students were slow to warm up which is to be expected. They were all very respectful and most importantly very attentive. Way to go guys. We cannot wait to return...

A special thanks to Mr. Navarrette, our Mentor and Mr. Aguilar.

San Joaquin Part deux

On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to do our second session at San Joaquin Middle School. We had a bigger crowd and all of our previous attendees returned for more (always a good sign:). We discussion centered on the idea of developing a strong sense of identity. We made the analogy of the design of a building to our lives. At the end of the session, I think we all agreed that the most important section is the foundation. Both, on the house and in our lives. Yes, we had some laughs as well. Especially when a student blurted out that the most important part was the roof.... lol. churros, we said...

A special thanks to Miss. Soria, Mrs. Fernandez, and Mrs. Santana. Thank you for being active participants in the development of our future leaders of our world!

Enjoy the pictures:

Sincerely, Janelle and Alfredo

Resileincy Presentation Kick off

Hello all. We hope all is well. We kicked off the series of resiliency presentations at San Joaquin Elementary School. The presentation went better than expected. The students were so eager to learn and participate in the activities. The students are headed in the right direction. All of them had a "dream" and goals for their future. We discussed the "why" education. I must say they were not shy. They were very outspoken and we all had a great time... most importantly we learned so much!!!

One quick reflection: Part of the presentation included a picture of a turle on top of fence post. The question was, How did it get there???? They students worked in groups to formulate an answer, next they presented and substantiated their hypothesis... Their answers were "genious"
p.s. A special thank you to Maria Tereza for all of her hard work and dedication!

Resiliency presenters,
Alfredo Ponce & Janelle Martin