August 10-15: Welcome to the first week with students!
The mission of West Hills High School is to graduate critical thinkers and problem-solvers who contribute positively to society as productive, responsible citizens.
*Bookmark the Wolf Pack Weekly and these links will always be here and up to date! *
Monday: Zoom DC/Leadership meeting: 9-10 a.m. See Calendar invite for Zoom code and Agenda
ASB Virtual Dress Up Days: Take a photo and tag ASB on Instagram @whhsasb
Monday: Frosh Color (Yellow) - Let's welcome C/O 2024
Tuesday: Best Back to School Outfit
Wednesday: Pajama Wednesday
Thursday: Best COVID-19 Mask
Friday: School Colors
A HUGE ¨THANK YOU¨ to each of youas we undertake this school year online and deal with our public health crisis. This has meant a complete change of what we do, how we do it, and in what timeline. I urge EVERYONE to accept this change and truly internalize that is is OKAY to have feelings of being overwhelmed, worried, afraid, and a sense of ¨WHAT IS GOING ON????¨ It will all be okay. This year continues as none other and please give yourself time to adjust and to know that you can not ¨control¨ a lot. Focus on that which you can control.
Teachers: Your class does NOT have to be built out for all 9 weeks by Monday. While you might want to be ¨perfect¨"and at the risk of upsetting some of you, I am just going to remind all of us that it takes 3-5 YEARS to get really good at any one thing. Teaching and building classes online are no different. Some of us are going to go faster and feel ready to launch our courses faster than others--and that is TERRIFIC! However, many of us are going to need more time and not feel like our normal teaching selves for a much, much longer time--and that is FINE! You do not HAVE TO STAY OFF CAMPUS to work and teach. If you want to be in your classroom every day and work from there--or if you want several of you to work 6 ft. apart within a shared classroom--that is fine and ENCOURAGED. We all need the connectedness and immediacy of problem-solving and community as you work with Schoology or Google Classroom in real time, and having a sense of normalcy by being at West Hills might help feelings of depression, anxiety, and worry about teaching online and about not being together as a faculty and staff.
Classified and Admin are on campus daily in the B Building (our temp. Admin offices) and urge you to come through the Copy / Main room to pick up your mail (Faculty office in B Building between B6 and B7) and to say HI! to VP offices in B7 and Reception, Attendance and
Principal´s Secretary in B2! Here is a map to help you know where everyone is. Our nurse, Lori, would LOVE to see folks in A-1 (with your face covering of course) since she is located down there temporarily.
New Room Use Procedure to help our Custodians
Every classroom and main office entry door will now have two signs
in a single plastic cover. If the space is used, please turn the sign in the window
of your classroom (or on the shared office space door) to the ¨Please Sanitize"
side. You no longer need to email or text us when you are on campus--just turn your sign
and your space will be sanitized.
**The sanitize solution the District is using is 100% Green certified, hypoallergenic and safe for all uses and on all surfaces including paper, equipment, desks, etc. (Not computer screens, but tops of computers is fine). It is a fine spray mist and takes 1 mins. to dry.
Teachers and Classified will be getting their own mist sprayer for their own use if desired. If you plan to use it, you should take the ¨Integrated Pest Management¨ course within our HR module of courses to earn the training certificate.
You will also see signage appearing, plastic barriers in shared spaces, and prior to students returning to campus, a plan for marking desks and spaces in our classrooms for 6 ft. social distancing.
WASC UPDATE:
Our Mid-Term WASC Visit is in Spring 2021 via Zoom. Our Visiting Team Chair is Darryl Pechtyl, the same gentleman who chaired our Full Visit in 2018. We do need to conduct some WASC Focus Group meetings, a WASC survey of all in our school community, and complete our mid-term report. Tanya Morrison, WASC Coordinator will be communicating with all of of going forward. For now, please check out our WASC Goals Infographic and our WASC Groups (look at the bottom tab and find your Department to open and see your group. NEW SPED Aides may not be on the chart yet--but you will be soon!)
Please note: Curriculum Focus Group needs 1-2 Focus Group Leader(s): We are looking for two people willing to lead these discussions. Additional compensation is available as a Focus Group Leader. You can change Focus Groups to be able to do this. Please contact Robin or Tanya if you and / or another are willing to co-lead this work this year.
If you have students with Chromebook-related questions, please share this link with them, as it offers helpful info and links. If there are other tech-related needs that are not covered, let me know, and I’m happy to share more links or create new guidance.
Default Textbook Due Date
Textbook checkout is different than usual this year, but just in case this information is helpful for you, the default textbook due date for 2020-21 isWednesday, May 19, 2021. After this date, students will be invoiced for textbooks still checked out on student accounts. See also: Destiny Staff Help.
The Danger of a Single Story & Diversifying Our Curriculum
