Week of Feb. 29-March 4, 2016

Congratulations to our Teacher of the Year for 2016-17 Mrs. Jamie Gwyn!

Please join me in congratulating Jamie for being selected our Teacher of the Year for 2016-17! Comments from her nomination include "She is a dedicated, passionate and terrific teacher with her students, always focusing on health and life-long fitness". Another colleague commented "Jamie does so much with our HOWL program and really works with both our HOWL leaders and freshmen to make West Hills a great school!" In addition to these classroom efforts, Mrs. Gwyn has written grants trying to get funds to replace aging equipment, been a class co-adviser, served on District committees and supports continuous life-long learning!

We are very proud and pleased to celebrate all of our teachers and particularly Jamie Gwyn! 

Meetings, Professional Events, and a notice this week:

Monday, 7:45-8:45 a.m.: Technology Committee in E8: All are welcome!

Please post the Spring Testing Schedule in your classroom or office space for students, faculty and staff to reference. Copies are in the mail room in your mailboxes ready to post.  

Thursday: 2:00 -4:00 p.m.: Department Chair and Leadership Meeting, E8

STANDARDS BASED INSTRUCTION RESOURCES: 

Here is a great article for reading and discussion on understanding the components of creating powerful learning experiences for all students and Webb's Depth of Knowledge. 

As always, please check our website for ALL of the activities and sports round up for the week! 

Go Wolf Pack!

Week of February 22-26, 2016

Thank you to all for PACK Day! While the internet interruptions and DDOS attacks certainly made the day a challenge for many, overwhelmingly parents commented enthusiastically and appreciatively for all you do! If you have not submitted your Period 3 Parent count yet, please do so here. Way to go Wolf Pack!

Department Chair Discussion: Please read and look at the documents within--connect with your chair and talk as a department. We have important data to guide and inform discussions related to our continuous school improvement work and areas you have said previously are critical we look at as a faculty and staff. Our Healthy Kids Survey data is linked and shows a great three year trend..check it out! Please make sure you read the staff data very carefully. Sixty one people responded to the survey. At first glance the data seems rather odd--this is just folks who responded "Strongly Agree" but scroll down and "combine" the top two ratings of "Strongly Agree" and "Agree" to get a better picture of what we said about how we feel. More discussions to be had as an entire staff with all of this information. 

WINTER SPORTS: They are wrapping up with AMAZING and TERRIFIC success! Talk to athletes in any of these sports, including Academic League--they are representing WHHS beautifully! Spring sports practices began on 2/20 for many. 

Winter Sports

Wrestling

Boys Basketball

Boys Soccer

Girls Basketball

Girls Soccer

Girls Water Polo

Roller Hockey

Spring Sports

Gymnastics

Swimming & Diving

Track & Field

Boys Baseball

Boys Golf

Boys Tennis

Boys Volleyball

Girls Softball

Speaking of Sports...our very own Alaina Melanson

was the UT "Athlete of the Week"...way to go Alaina!

Alaina Melanson

+Read Caption

Alaina Melanson

Soccer | West Hills

Defense is key for the Wolf Pack. With the senior defender leading a veteran group on the back line, West Hills moved to 15-0-7 overall by allowing Steele Canyon and Granite Hills just one goal each in 5-1 and 2-1 victories.

Teacher Supply Day: PTSA is hard at word collecting up all your requests...they received many donations and look forward to fulfilling your requests. 

Student Senate meets Period 5 on Wednesday in S-8. Thank you all for allowing your student rep some time to represent students in this important experience. They will be discussing the best way to get the Healthy Kids Survey student data out to their peers as well as the COLOR RUN sponsored by PTSA happening on Sunday, April 3 at WHHS and several other topics. 

For additional information please check out website...have a great week! Go Wolf Pack!

Week of 2/16-2/19/2016

Freshman Showcase for Class of 2020 was HUGE!
Thank you to all who attended, presented and supported this event in so many ways! We had over 600 students and parents in attendance and there was GREAT positive energy! A large number of parents were "shopping" schools and gave a TON of positive feedback! While we are expecting about 389 freshman from our public k-8 districts (best numbers we have), we KNOW we had many in attendance from other schools not within our boundaries as a district or at charter schools / private schools we don't know have intentions to attend. Please continue to encourage any friends, neighbors or community members to "check us out"...we have our link to the Freshman Showcase information on our website for anyone to use to make an informed decision. School Choice ends February 26 so it is important people take a look and use this process to enroll in WHHS. After this, we do have a process but it is a bit more complex called "Admin Exception".

P.A.C.K. Day: Friday, February 19: Minimum Day

Once again we will be hosting Parents At Class with Kids Day--hundreds of energized parents and students as they attend class with their kids. Important reminders are here  (the same document sent via email last week) and we hope to have another wonderful and full campus on Friday! Thank you in advance to EVERYONE for this day--it is the highlight for many parents and they comment on it very POSITIVELY consistently year after year. 

 We just got our data back and will be sharing it with Department Chair and Leadership this Thursday. We have added back our "third Thursday of the Month" meeting to continue the opportunities for attention, discussion and shared decision-making on our continuous school improvement efforts. More to come on this important data sharing and school-wide discussion. 

Multi-Cultural Fair needs YOU!

Please join us on Feb. 22, 7:45 in rm. E-8 to plan our Multi-Cultural Week! Several student leaders have stepped up giving feedback on ways they want to change and improve this experience for students and we need and welcome your participation and feedback as well! Please let Robin know if you want to be involved but this date / time does not work for you so we can keep you in the loop.

Please check out our website for all kinds of activities and items of interest. Have a terrific week! Go Wolf Pack!