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April 18: Leading a fulfilling life + Personal mantras

4/18/2017

Grade 9 Goalposts: Semester 2
1. Students will be able to articulate ways they can make meaningful connections with others.
2. Students will be able to articulate at least 2 strategies they can apply to be healthier in school and in their daily life.
Goalpost Survey Prompts

Describe one way that you can make meaningful connections with others.
Describe two strategies that you can apply to be healthier at school and/or in your daily life.

Harvard’s 75 Year Study on Living a Fulfilled Life
Defining Success:
- Recap: How would we define success?
- New: What does it mean to be successful in school?

Closing Activity: Write a personal mantra (you can find one to adopt or write your own)

Feb. 7: your first interim trip!!!

2/7/2017

Link to today's Advisory presentation on Interim Semester

Nov. 28 - 31: time management

11/28/2016

Link to this week's Advisory presentation:

Time Management Presentation

Tuesday nov. 22: advisory partnerships - Freshman & Juniors

11/21/2016

Today we will have 2 advisories meet to discuss the importance of partnerships and "community" at SAS.

Here's what we will do for our first partnership meeting:
Discuss how SAS community supports you as an individual:
How has the SAS community been a good experience for you?

Thanksgiving:
What are you thankful for in your life? (write this down)

Group game Time!

Nov. 15: The importance of humor in our lives

11/15/2016

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Why is humor important?
6 Reasons Why Laughter is the Best Medicine (article)
Stress Relief from Laughter (article)

What do you find funny? Why?
Why do people have different tastes/senses of humor?
How can humor bring people together? Why is laughing together important?
How does humor help us lead more positive lives?
Who do YOU find funny? Who makes YOU laugh?

Nov. 8: U.S. election day! and "the other 'f' word

11/7/2016

You will receive an election ballot via email.

We will also do a debrief on the Peace Initiative's presentation on "The Other F Word"

ESSENTIAL QUESTION:

How does the negative stigma around failure impact the relationships we have and our health?

GREETINGS:

Walk & Talk: Thinking about Thursday’s Peace Initiative Assembly, what resonated with you?
Ball Toss: Share a moment when you experienced failure and how it impacted you.

Honest Answers about Failure:
Everyone writes their answer on on a small piece of paper, crumples it up, and throws it into the middle of the circle.
Then, everyone collects one balled-up paper.
Go around the room, sharing the answers on the paper, and everyone tries to guess who wrote it.

How do you react to failure?
How do you recover from failure?
Pressure from society?

After viewing (and laughing!):

Why did you laugh? Are these serious fails?
How does this link to the assembly presentation?
How can we lighten up and relax when we experience fails?
How can we match the size of our reaction to the size of the problem/failure? (See Social Thinking)

Nov. 9. U.S. and SAS Election voting results + Youth truth surveys.

YOU ARE ENCOURAGED TO COMPLETE THE YOUTH TRUTH SURVEY ON WEDNESDAY.

Tuesday, Oct. 25: DEEPAVALI (DIVALI)

10/24/2016

Thursday, Oct 27: First Interim meeting with your interim sponsors

Thursday's advisory meeting time, you will be meeting with your Interim sponsors and the group of students you will be traveling with in February. Look for the room postings to know where you will meet on Thursday.

Advisory: Week of Oct. 3-7 - Voting

10/3/2016

Tuesday, Oct. 4th: Interim Q&A - learn more about interim trip options

We will meet quickly in our Advisory location to get attendance and then we will join our Quintet in H301 to hear information about interim and give you a chance to ask questions before you have to sign up.

Thursday: U.S. elections - exploring the issues & where you stand on the issues

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

Whom should I vote for on November 8th?
What are my political beliefs?

You will be given an opportunity to take the Political Ideology test to see where your personal views fall on the political spectrum.

Political Typology Quiz --TAKE THIS ONE DURING ADVISORY
The Political Compass (optional political test-- if time at the end of Advisory)
I Side With - (Optional -if time available)

Reflection Discussion: After you take the quiz:

Before you took the ideology test, did you think of yourself as aligned with a particular side of the political spectrum?
Do you agree with the results of either the Political Compass, Pew Typology, or I Side With surveys? Do the results sound like you? Why or why not?
How will these results impact the way you vote in our SAS Votes election on November 8th?
How important is your personal ideology in deciding to vote or not vote for a candidate?
Do you think you would vote the same as your parents? Why/Why not?

We will discuss some of the issues that are part of the U.S. political discourse that voters will be asked to weigh in on this election day (Nov. 8th). All SAS students will be given an opportunity to participate and vote in a mock election on Tuesday, Nov. 8th and we will compare the SAS results with the actual U.S. results.

Week of sept. 26-30

9/26/2016

Tuesday, sept. 27: september birthday celebrations!!! Also... spotlight effect & oversharing on the internet

This week's focus is on something called "the spotlight effect" and discussing how much we share on the internet and how we can create a positive digital footprint.

Link to this week's presentation

week of sept. 19-23: Finding your strengths

9/19/2016

tuesday sept. 20th: TEA Time + strengths explorer

Please make note of today's schedule (you may want to screenshot this for reference today):
Grade 9 SEMESTER 1 GOALPOST:
Following StrengthsExplorers, students will be able to identify at least 2 of their strengths and describe how they apply them in their lives.

Link to this week's Advisory Presentation Slides

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS:

What is your natural talent and strength?
How does knowing your talents influence those around you?

Today you will be accessing the Clifton Strengths Assessment that was produced for Gallup. We will be accessing this through your Family Connections program. You will take the assessment which consists of 76 paired comparison items that requires about 15 minutes to complete. Upon completion, Strengths Explorer will generate a top 3 from the 10 Talents Gallup has identified for you.
Here are the ten strengths:
Achieving Youths especially talented in the Achieving theme like to accomplish things and have a great deal of energy.
Caring Youths especially talented in the Caring theme enjoy helping others.
Competing Youths especially talented in the Competing theme enjoy measuring their performance against that of others and have a great desire to win.
Confidence Youths especially talented in the Confidence theme believe in themselves and their ability to be successful in their endeavors.
Dependability Youths especially talented in the Dependability theme keep their promises and show a high level of responsibility.
Discoverer Youths especially talented in the Discoverer theme tend to be very curious and like to ask “Why?” and “How?”
Future Thinker Youths especially talented in the Future Thinker theme tend to think about what’s possible beyond the present time, even beyond their lifetime.
Organizer Youths especially talented in the Organizer theme are good at scheduling, planning, and organizing.
Presence Youths especially talented in the Presence theme like to tell stories and be at the center of attention.
Relating Youths especially talented in the Relating theme are good at establishing meaningful friendships and maintaining them.

Here are the steps for today's session:
1. Login into your Family Connections account:

Go to the SAS HSPortal
Click on the Counseling icon - High School - Family Connection
Sign in using your SAS email and enter your password

2. Go to "ABOUT ME" and click on "Strengths Explorer".
3. You are going to take the survey. Remember: you can only take this once, you can not go backwards; and your answers will be saved automatically as you progress.
4. Click on View your full report.
5. Screen shot the image of your 3 Top Themes. Save this.
6. Review your results and see what you think - do you recognize these strengths in yourself? Does this sound like you?
7. Read the Action Items for each theme. Make a note on a "sticky" on your laptop of one action for each theme you could attempt. The goal is for you to carry out this action this coming week and flex that strength muscle. It can be one of these actions suggested or one you create that is similar and fits within the theme.
8. I would like you to download the Student Play Book that is available at the Strengths Explorer opening page. Click on " VIEW YOUR WORKBOOK". This is for your use and I would like you to read through it.
9. On notecards or on the print-out Strengths Themes In My Own Words, write out what the themes mean in your own words.

wednesday sept. 21st: international day of peace

Wednesday, September 21st, is International Day of Peace. The day’s theme for 2016 is “The Sustainable Development Goals: Building Blocks of Peace” which aims to address modern challenges including poverty hunger, and social inequality.
To celebrate, Executive Service Council has partnered with GIN, SAVE, Student Council, and Peace Initiative to bring you the following exciting activities:
Hunger Pledges (with Peace Initiative) - In order to spread awareness of the urgency to end world hunger, you’ll have the opportunity to pledge your support by abstaining from food from 8 am – 3 pm. Participants will receive a special sticker, which they will wear throughout the school day as part of the pledge. A pledge booth manned by Peace Initiative will be set up in the foyer. If you’re interested, please fill in this form.
Paper-crane folding origami (with StuCo & SAVE) - There will be a crane origami activity taking place during lunch in the cafeteria. On each table, there will be recycled paper and instructions for folding paper cranes, which have been symbols of peace for centuries in Japan. Fold as many as you can, and once you're finished place them in the bins on the bottom floor of the cafeteria. There's one bin for each house, so this is also a way to win points for your house! To help with the process, it would be great if you can bring down any used paper to H203. The paper cranes will be hung around the school foyer the next day.
Guest Speaker Lobsand Phuntsok & Documentary film: Tashi and the Monk - 3:15-4:30pm in the iTheater. In partnership with GIN, there will be a screening of his story, Tashi and the Monk, on the importance of peace, followed by a discussion session. Lobsang Phuntsok is a buddhist monk who learned under His Holiness the Dalai Lama and subsequently founded the Jhamtse Gatsal School in Northern India.

VOTD: ? Who wants to submit the "Video of the Day" for Thursday?
Today we will discuss how to use your strengths to your advantage in high school.