Multicultural Fair Day is TUESDAY MAY 17. A HUGE "Thank you" to Jodi Kohler and Dan Sutton for stepping up and leading students and the committee this year! We are struggling a bit--on the Club Drive day our P.A. system was not working and so many students and staff did not come out as we wanted. PLEASE HELP US HELP OUR SCHOOL.
We really need ALL staff supporting and participating to make this a robust and worthy experience! Please get involved in any way you can--continue to build in multi-cultural curricular connections where ever possible; follow through with student clubs and assist students with their efforts, attend with your classes. Please talk with Jodi and Dan and find out how WE can all get involved. Please look for emails as well regarding this day.
We want this to be a worthy and valued experience as it has in the past.
REMINDER: CAASPP TESTING SCHEDULE
We begin implementing our modified school schedule the week of April 26th, with 11th graders testing in English classes and 10th graders taking the federally required Life Science test. Within the linked schedule you can see the variety of schedules we will be running, including AP testing and make-up testing for CAASPP into June. We must test 95% or more of our juniors so THANK YOU for your support. We have linked this schedule on our website, posters in classrooms, and will be giving Period 3 teachers hand outs for students to have and keep. We will also be conducting
"all calls" to parents and students as reminders and reminders to all staff and faculty.
Thanks to the PBIS Team for inspiring students and staff to FOCUS on the positive and "spring into change"! Out tree has truly blossomed in the Admin building! We will be continuing our positive work this year and working towards growing our POSITIVE SCHOOL CULTURE for ALL! Remember, we started our year with a focus on KINDNESS and "BETTER THAN GOOD". As we go into our final quarter and look towards 12 week grades with students, are we being as positive as we can? Is GROWTH and LEARNING our goal or "responsibility"? Recently we have had a number of students leave our school, not because of discipline or grades, but because we have not maintained HOPE, ENCOURAGEMENT, and SUPPORT. Please continue to talk in your departments and with colleagues about the issues with "zeros" in the grade book and the essential questions we should be asking ourselves; How do we know students are learning? What do we do when they are not? And how do we hold them accountable? Giving a "zero" is the easy part--the student doesn't have to do anything about it. They don't have to learn the material, demonstrate knowledge or applying lessons we are teaching in our classrooms. They just "move on" and in many cases, end with an 'F". Is that working for us?
Take a look at what a teacher sent me recently:
As we work into our self-reflections for WASC, I propose those who are interested create a "Not Yet" club! I use Dweck's mindset theories when teaching students that writing is really RE-WRITING, and their final grade is dependent on "getting close, but not yet!"
Here is a great TEDTalk to show those unfamiliar with the concept of Not Yet:
https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve?language=en#t-7716
STUDENT Art Show: Once again our terrific Art Department showcased talented student work in the Theatre Foyer for the duration of the our spring musical! Thank you to all of our Art and CTE teachers--Mr. Goodman, Mr. VanDyke, Mrs. Connant, and Mrs. Cooper for your terrific efforts and giving our school community an opportunity at seeing the range and talents of many of our students! Our next opportunity will be the GUHSD District Art Show at Parkway Plaza Mall running May 20-22! We also always have a variety of art displays in our main office as well! Art is alive and well at West Hills!
Go Wolf Pack!
