Monday, September 18, 2017

September 18th Weekly Blog

Purpose Corner - Please enjoy the video which discusses our focus for this year at West High School as a staff and why we are focused on this.


Please click here to access this 2:14 video


Have you heard of the WLA?? - Did you know that we have recently kicked off our Wolverine Leadership Academy or WLA? The WLA is comprised of approximately 65 students who went through a vetting process to be considered for the council. The purpose of the group is to have a cross representation of individuals within our building to work together to effect positive change through engaging and learning about leadership. This group has recently elected their internal executive committee as part of the structure for moving from discussion of topics to action. I want to give a shout out to all of the individual students who spoke to the entire leadership team about why they wanted to be on the executive committee.... your thoughts, insights and originality was amazing to see and Mr. LeMieux and I were so very proud of your courage to be vulnerable in front of your peers! We are looking forward to a great year of growth for the WLA!

Freshmen Tailgate - This past Thursday evening was our annual Freshmen tailgate. This tailgate continues on with our journey of welcoming Freshmen to West and is organized and run by our Ignition mentors. The entire West staff was able to come and play some of the fun games that were set up with the Freshmen and get to know them a bit. A special thanks to Mrs. Purpi for all of her hard work to help run the event and Mrs. Dominick for mastering the grill! Mentors were awesome and served our Freshmen well so they could enjoy the experience. I heard the Freshmen showed great support to the athletic events that were hosted in conjunction with the tailgate. I have also heard Freshmen have had a great start, lets keep it rolling with positivity Freshmen!

Freshmen Tailgate



Empowering Parents SeriesThe West Student Services team has a vested interest in supporting our students as well as their families. The team would like to offer a series of presentations focused around relevant school topics. Please take a moment to share your opinion; your responses will drive our presentation topics and format. I ask that you click on the link and provide us your insight so we can serve you well!  
                                                 

District Financial Aid Night - It is this week Wednesday September 20th at South High School. Please see the flyer below for information.



Fall Parent/Teacher Conferences - Parent teacher conferences are on Tuesday October 24th from 4:00 P.M. - 7:00 P.M. at West High School. Teachers will be in their classrooms per our usual format. Teachers manage their own conferences so parents will experience different processes for meeting with each teacher. Communication from parents to teachers is critical for success and technology allows us to communicate better than we ever have. With that being said, I ask all parents to consider if they truly need to come in and take a teachers time if their child is meeting expectations. Being that the time is short, and the purpose of this night is geared for parents and students to meet with teachers if they need more support, please consider alternate means of communication to maximize teacher time. It can be very difficult to meet with all teachers on this night, so I encourage parents to pick half of their child's teacher to try and get to on this night.

Celebrations Below are some celebrations we have noted with staff so far this year!!

CCR Attendance has been excellent! - We have been walking through CCR and checking attendance data and after week one we are off to a great start, thank you!
Lack of Cell Phones while we are in classrooms! - We have not seen phones out in classrooms while we have been present, which shows you are working hard to keep cell phones from being a distraction to learning...keep it up!
Wolverine Leadership Academy (WLA) shout outs! - Today Mr. LeMieux lead our WLA members through some get to know you activities as we look to build camaraderie within the group. He started by asking students to celebrate what they have seen over these last weeks of school starting...they talked about teachers ensuring student success through running extra study sessions and teachers purchasing materials from their own money for kids to be successful in class! Thanks for a great start and keep setting that culture of high expectation through ensuring kids will have success in your class.  
Wolverines Pride Website - Please access the video below to learn more about our Wolverines Pride website that features athletic and activity information for West.

Please click here to access this 2:15 video




Add/Drop Policy, Parking Lot Driving - Please access the video below to better understand our Add/Drop policy on classes and parking lot driving safety.

Please click here to access this 3:33 video

Homecoming 2017
A WANDerful night awaits you at this year’s Homecoming Dance! The theme: Harry Potter. Get out your hat and broomstick and join us for a night of enchantment on September 30th. Please see the themes of Homecoming week starting with Monday September 25th: Monday - Pajama Day, Tuesday - Hogwarts spirit, Wednesday - Class Color day, Thursday - Throwback; 80’s Muggle themed, and Friday - West Spirit day!



Archived Announcements (Link) Please access this link to find all of the information in our daily announcements from previous weeks.

Preview of this week: Please check the calendars by clicking on these two links to preview what is happening at West High School this week: