The Youth Educators began working with the PMS 8th grade classes the week of February 25.

After receiving a letter of acceptance at the end of December break, the Youth Educators have had weekly meetings and weekend retreats to work up to teaching in classrooms. Three weeks before entering the classroom, the YEDs were split off into groups of two or three and paired with an eighth grade English class.

“We have been preparing for the first lesson from the beginning,” youth educator junior Blythe Hyman said. “We did activities during our meetings on Wednesdays which we used in our class lessons.”

Youth Educator junior Julia Sweeney said they have been preparing as a large group since the beginning of the program through bonding and activities.

“We really started preparing for the first lesson a couple of weeks ago, a lot of it involving candy and treats,” said Sweeney. “My partner Will Strimling bought donuts in the morning. We made lots of posters and name tags because we want our kids to love us and think we are creative.”

Hyman said each group made binders with the lesson plan so they could go over the material and prepare during the YEDs weekly Wednesday meeting before class with the eighth graders.

“Our first lesson went pretty well. There were a few bumps because of the class size, which was 31 people.” Said Hyman. “They were also really excited so it was kind of hard to have them settle down.”

Hyman said the lesson consisted of an introduction to the Youth Educator program, establishing ground rules and brainstorming a list of reasons why some teens use drugs and alcohol and why some do not.

Sweeney said she also had a positive first classroom experience.

“It went well. I really like the kids, they seem really cool,” said Sweeney. “We didn’t mess up too terribly, so I think it went well.”