The mission of West Hills High School is to graduate critical thinkers and problem-solvers who contribute positively to society as productive, responsible citizens.
Activities for the week:
Monday: Collab Day schedule; English 9/10 teachers working with Lin Kuzmich in
E-8
Tuesday: Regular Day
Wednesday: Regular Day
Thursday: Regular Day: Student Senate, per. 5 in S-8;
Friday: Regular Day
Staffing Update: We welcome Courtney Kusayanagi as our new Digital Arts and CTE Photo teacher! Courtney has taught these courses while at Marie L. Hare High School in Garden Grove, CA and is a professional photographer. Courtney has also coached girls basketball and golf. Drop by B-2 to say hello to our newest PACK member!
Staffing Update: We welcome Courtney Kusayanagi as our new Digital Arts and CTE Photo teacher! Courtney has taught these courses while at Marie L. Hare High School in Garden Grove, CA and is a professional photographer. Courtney has also coached girls basketball and golf. Drop by B-2 to say hello to our newest PACK member!
Looking at next week: Winter Dress Up Week sponsored by ASB 
Monday, Dec. 4: Client Schools Counselor and Admin Breakfast @ WHHS: Another marketing idea to welcome our K-8 Client schools and Private schools to find out about WHHS. Department Chairs and Leadership are attending (as available) to meet our local client schools Counseling and Admin reps. We have lots of information to share with them regarding our terrific school and update them on our programs. If you see us walking the campus, please introduce yourself and say hello!
Friday, Dec. 8: Winter Assembly; Assembly Day schedule
Friday, Dec. 8: Winter Assembly; Assembly Day schedule
Saturday, March 3, 2018: West Hills 3Oth Year Gala and Hall of Fame Dinner; The Handlery Hotel, tickets on sale soon. We hope you will join us for this West Hills Foundation sponsored fund raiser and celebration!
Sunday, March 18-21, 2018: WASC Visiting Team on Campus
To all who came out for our Comedy Night on Saturday, Nov. 18! We had a great night of laughs with the comedians. Thank you to all who spoke positively of this event with students. Our WHHS Foundation works tirelessly on behalf of our school and programs. We are fortunate for their support and YOURS!
We hope you enjoyed our THANKSGIVING Pie and Coco morning on Monday, Nov. 13. Our TERRIFIC PTSA brought this to us for our third year. We are so grateful to have such caring and appreciative parents, teachers, and students in our school community! If you shop AMAZON and would like to support our PTSA, go to smile.amazon.com and search for "West Hills High School PTSA" and set them as your charity to support. At no cost to you, Amazon will donate a portion the proceeds from your purchase to our PTSA. It is free, and easy to do but you have to log into this url each time for WHHS PTSA to benefit.
Hopefully we all enjoyed our time with friends, family and just having some time to enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday! We have just a few weeks and then into Finals. We will be sending out a memo with information regarding Finals Schedule and all grades are due by Friday, December 22, at 3:00 p.m. This is a contractual work day and all faculty and staff are expected to be on campus unless you let us know otherwise. When we return January 8, 2018, students begin second semester by using their online campus portal for their schedules. NO PAPER SCHEDULES are passed out. Seniors will be informed of their need to look at their second semester Government / Economics class switch if needed via the bulletin and Infinite Campus messages. 
"Wolf Call"newsletter: CALL for ITEMS--please submit items to Robin by this Friday, December 1 for inclusion in the December "Wolf Call" for parents. Really looking for any items of interest to students and parents that inform and celebrate our programs! Photos with captions are EXCELLENT! I will be using the ACADEMIC LEAGUE piece from here--what about any other "news we can use"?? Help me promote and inform our school community about the wonderful things we are doing! Thank you!!
Did you know that AVID strategies are good for ALL students? AVID certification is now for certifying the entire school, not just the students enrolled in AVID. This is a research-proven program with great results and supports for students. Check out this idea from the AVID Center to help students understand how to write and think critically from Costa's Model. Here is the Webb-Bloom's-Costa Thinking Chart that Department Chair and Leadership team focused on to give us a common language to talk about and evaluate our rigor as we design learning activities. Students would use Costa's chart for self-reflection; Adults would use the 3-in-1 chart for current standards alignment (Webb) and clarity with our familiarity with Bloom's Taxonomy.
Thank you to all who gave us critical feedback on what this means to you as a teacher. Our Department Chair and Leadership team reviewed the survey results and came up with two action approaches and one attention area that we hope fits teacher needs:
(a) A grade level pilot project: Teachers in the same grade level (as many teacher teams may do this who want to do this) who want to coordinate project-based learning (Senior AP English and AP Government and Politics for example). Check out how one school does this within a whole school project based model Teachers would share their experiences with others in Admin PLC time next year. We would combine our attention on rigor (see AVID item above) and evaluate our student learning outcomes to determine where we go from here. Please look for a survey coming soon to your email regarding your interest in this. If you have no interest, simply ignore the survey.
(b) Multi-grade level cross-content project model: Teachers with multi-grades within their courses who want to partner with other teachers on a common unit of study or theme of study that impacts students across two or more courses. Teachers would share their experiences with others in Admin PLC time next year. We would combine our attention on rigor (see AVID item below) and evaluate our student learning outcomes to determine where we go from here. Please look for a survey coming soon to your email regarding your interest in this. If you have no interest, simply ignore the survey.
(c) Digital Portfolios integrated throughout the curriculum should be celebrated and utilized to the best extent teachers feel they can and will use them. This is a powerful tool if we build in periodic student self-reflection and demonstration of their learning and growth throughout a course, a semester, a year. Slowly moving in this direction is consistent with our SLOs and 21st Century Skills.
Professional Development Opportunity: Working With Cha
Dr. Ernie Mendes uses his vast experience with both brain research and communication to help participants understand the most effective ways to communicate with challenging p
Location: Instructional Resources
Space is limited . . . Advance registration required! Please register for both Part I and Part IIWorkshop Registration Form
If you have any questions, please call 644-8040
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If you need any assistance with support in the classroom using technology or want to know the offerings for professional development with technology, remember to check out 
linked from the STAFF page on the GUHSD website.*****************************************************************************
GUHSD is excited to be collaborating with Cajon Valley, Lakeside, and Santee school districts to organize a conference with sessions led by educators from throughout the East County. Please join us for a morning or day of learning together. The schedule with session descriptions will be available in January.
- Official East County EduCon Flyer - Please Share :)
- Questions? Email - EastCountyEduCon@gmail.com
