UCCR Educator Scholarship: Peacebuilders of Tomorrow Award Recipient
Congratulations, and thank you for your contributions in promoting peace and leadership in youth!
Brendan Weeks, Northwest Middle School
Brendan Weeks teaches the class Techniques for Tough Times (T3) at Northwest Middle School in Salt Lake City. Students in his class learn tools to use for conflict resolution as well as completing activities and tasks to build their own confidence in many areas.
Students learn to self-advocate, have a voice, and use higher-order thinking skills to power through life’s obstacles. Students with an increased self-esteem are better at conflict resolution. They do not let others get to them and are able to successfully think through conflict using the tools they have learned.
Students in T3 also complete projects to increase their student voice and build confidence in speaking. Mr. Weeks student’s complete scenario tasks where they talk about how they would handle different types of situations and have class discussions about what choices to make over other options. His students complete a passion project of their choosing where they research and present a topic of their choosing that they are passionate about.
Students learn about each other and make connections to new students and build new relationships. One of the projects this year started with a lesson on character traits and what words students would use to describe themselves. Eventually, the assignment evolved into the students emailing current or prior teachers to get their perspective of what three words those teachers would use to describe them. This was an amazing task where students got to reflect on themselves as well as receive input from others on how they viewed them. Students really learned a lot about themselves and the great things that others thought about them, too.
Mr. Weeks is an awesome nomination for this award as he works so hard every day to connect with students and help them navigate middle school. He is loved for the flexibility he has when students share difficult situations with the class. He can make a class discussion out of it and help the students trouble shoot and navigate how to handle the situation. He capitalizes on every learning opportunity.