September 28th Weekly Blog

 Purpose Corner - This week I dive deeper into our TOA as promised from my blog post last week! 

Family Connect Conferences - On Wednesday, September 30th from 4:00 - 7:30 P.M. we will be having our virtual "Family Connect" conferences. We will be continuing on with our recent format for these conferences by having them as an appointment only with a focus on family connection. The format of the connection time will be 7-minute conferences with teachers leading the conference by asking these two questions:

1. Is there anything you would like me to know about your family that will help and support the continued success of your student at West?

2. What do I need to know about your student academically and/or personally in order for your student to have a successful learning experience in my class?

You can access the sign-up genius link here or through our website for scheduling a conference. It was also sent to families via email. All teachers will be sending out a common link for families to access their virtual conferences for the time they signed up. During conferences, if the teacher still has open times available on the sign-up genius, families can access the link provided by the teacher to engage in a virtual conference if needed. Teachers would let you into the virtual room if they are not reaching out and connecting with families or students during unscheduled time. 

National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists! - West High School is proud to recognize three of the four students from the School District of Waukesha, Class of 2021, who have been named Semifinalists in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship Program:

Alec Boland

Travis Hytry

Ethan Ammerman

This year there are approximately 16,000 Semifinalists in the 66th annual National Merit Scholarship Program with the opportunity to continue in the competition for 7,600 National Merit Scholarships worth more than $30 million.

 

The nationwide pool of Semifinalists, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors, includes the highest-scoring entrants in each state. The number of Semifinalists in a state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of graduating seniors.

 

Next steps? Semifinalists must submit a detailed scholarship application and provide information regarding academic records, school and community activities, leadership abilities, employment, honors, and awards.

 

Finalists are selected in February.

Additional information can be found on the National Merit website.

Best of luck moving forward in this process Wolverines!!!

Theory of Action (TOA) - Below is our TOA which I read in the above "Purpose Corner" video.

 

COVID Process - Now that we are having to deal with isolation and quarantine processes that come along with living in the COVID era, I wanted to share a district  FAQ document that may help families understand that all the processes that West High School follow, come from our district and are not individually created by West. My role is to consistently follow these processes along with every other school in our district. 

School District COVID Dashboard - Our school district does have a COVID dashboard that is public for anyone to follow.

 

Please click here to access this link

COVID-19 Testing - Please access the information below regarding COVID-19 testing:

Link to Waukesha County COVID-19 Testing Information

 

Principal Advisory Committee - The Principal Advisory Council for 2020-2021 has been set and has met with me virtually on Wednesday, September 16th. We will be meeting next on Wednesday, October 21st. Please contact any one of the representatives (below) with feedback and/or questions about anything West related. Please access the meeting minutes linked here:

Angela Schaaf	angelamschaaf@gmail.com
Cheryl Jeffers	cherylmjeffers@gmail.com
David Clark	superdavefive@gmail.com
Deshondria Baggett	deshondriabaggett@gmail.com
Karen Anderson	kammom@att.net
Kathleen Phelan	Talldoc@wi.rr.com
Michelle Kuokkanen	mkuokkanen@yahoo.com
Carri Marlow	carrimarlow@yahoo.com
Mercedes Rawson	Rawson96@wi.rr.com
Patti Bloom	pbloom27@wi.rr.com
Rebecca Flaherty	Becflaherty@gmail.com
Susan Fogelstrom	beezerpup@gmail.com

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

GO WOLVERINES...WHOOP!!

September 21st Weekly Blog (Tuesday Edition)

 Purpose Corner - Welcome to my first blog post for the 2020-2021 school year! In the video below I preview my blog, welcome new families, thank our community for a great start, and describe our parent communication process!

Please click here for this 2:27 video

Family Connect Conferences - On Wednesday, September 30th from 4:00 - 7:30 P.M. we will be having our virtual "Family Connect" conferences. We will be continuing on with our recent format for these conferences by having them as an appointment only with a focus on family connection. The format of the connection time will be 7-minute conferences with teachers leading the conference by asking these two questions:

1. Is there anything you would like me to know about your family that will help and support the continued success of your student at West?

2. What do I need to know about your student academically and/or personally in order for your student to have a successful learning experience in my class?

These conferences are in the place of traditional student/teacher conferences where grades and work completion were predominately discussed. Grades and work completion are just as important as they have always been, but technology allows families to track these things and communicate more efficiently with teachers. So, I have purposely changed the format so that connections can continue to be made to support student success. Why?... see the snippet below of this March, 12th 2019 Ed Week article on why relationships matter as in captures and reaffirms my thought process.

"People sometimes mistake a kind of casual familiarity and friendliness for the promotion of really deep relationships that are about a child's potential, their interests, their strengths, and weaknesses," said Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Southern California who studies the effects of emotions and mindsets on learning.

"A lot of teachers ... have really strong abilities to engage socially with the students, but then it's not enough," she said. "You have to go much deeper than that and actually start to engage with students around their curiosity, their interests, their habits of mind through understanding and approaching material to really be an effective teacher."

A reminder to all parents that the sign-up genius link for these conferences will be coming out this Thursday, September 24th. Once you have signed up, teachers will be sending you a link to the virtual conference. 

Principal Advisory Committee - The Principal Advisory Council for 2020-2021 has been set and has met with me virtually on Wednesday, September 16th. We will be meeting on a monthly basis. Please contact any one of the representatives (below) with feedback and/or questions about anything West related. Please access the meeting minutes linked here:

Angela Schaaf	angelamschaaf@gmail.com
Cheryl Jeffers	cherylmjeffers@gmail.com
David Clark	superdavefive@gmail.com
Deshondria Baggett	deshondriabaggett@gmail.com
Karen Anderson	kammom@att.net
Kathleen Phelan	Talldoc@wi.rr.com
Michelle Kuokkanen	mkuokkanen@yahoo.com
Carri Marlow	carrimarlow@yahoo.com
Mercedes Rawson	Rawson96@wi.rr.com
Patti Bloom	pbloom27@wi.rr.com
Rebecca Flaherty	Becflaherty@gmail.com
Susan Fogelstrom	beezerpup@gmail.com

West "Theory Of Action" - Our (Theory Of Action) TOA is what drives our professional development plan for us as an organization. It is data-driven and looked at on a yearly basis and adjusted accordingly. This year we focused our leadership work and professional development plan utilizing principles learned through the book "The 4 Disciplines of Execution." I will expand more on this through my "Purpose Corner" video series in future blog posts: Below is our TOA:

School District COVID Dashboard - Our school district does have a COVID dashboard that is public for anyone to follow.

 

Please click here to access this link

COVID-19 Testing - Please access the information below regarding COVID-19 testing:

Link to Waukesha County COVID-19 Testing Information

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

GO WOLVERINES...WHOOP!!