At Westlake High School, you can find a combination of 2,700 students with 300 staff members. Everyday our students and staff deal with issue beyond the classroom. As with any group this large, our students and staff can be dealing with all of life’s major issues. Students may be dealing with a loss of a parent, a major personal or family illness, divorce of parents, sibling issues, and the day to day of being a teenager in this fast paced, technological and social media driven society. Our staff can be dealing with these issues as well as the complexities in teaching during this ever changing world. I am consistently amazed at the powerful ways our students and staff deal with the major struggles of life while maintaining such high achievement levels. The relationships with friends, coaches, directors, teachers, counselors, family and administrators must help our students and staff through these times. As a campus, we have multiple examples of perseverance every day that illustrate our students overcoming obstacles. We would like to share a current event that highlights how our students often turn a struggle, whether small or huge, into a success. Our girls’ golf team left on Sunday to prepare for the regional golf tournament. While eating dinner, Coach Patterson’s vehicle was broken into by a thief or thieves. Her vehicle contained some of the golfers’ equipment and personal belongings. Many of these items were stolen. If you ever had anything stolen, you know all the emotions that come along with this event. After settling in for the night after this theft, the girls woke up Monday and shot the best regional round in the history of Westlake High School. The girls then shot the best round ever for a Westlake High School team on Tuesday to win the regional championship. In the recent reality of these girls’ lives, this is rather monumental! We have even included a picture of the girls in their uniforms which were pieced together and not even matching. While this does not equate to many of the larger struggles we all face at times, it is a good reminder that our students youthful exuberance, optimism and sure will can lead to monumental achievements. Thanks to our coaches, Chuck Nowland and Ashley Patterson, and the girls’ parents for supporting these girls during this time. It's always a great day to be a Chaparral!
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Throughout the year, I make visits to the English classes of each one of our grade levels at WHS. These are timed and planned out based upon needs of each class. This Monday, I made the trip to our freshmen English classes. This class has been quite unusual in the fact that we felt like we could wait this long to visit with them about the year. I had three very simple messages to deliver. The first message was to congratulate them on a fine freshmen year so far. The best way I could describe this to them was to describe their teachers’ reactions to them as a whole. Almost every time I visit with a ninth grade teacher, they immediately smile when they begin to describe their day or latest interactions with these kids. That is the greatest compliment a class can receive. This is not the typical reaction with second semester 9th graders - this class is doing amazingly well in their first year. The second message is that they have had the opportunity to watch a senior class who has acted as a superb group of role models on our campus at WHS. The freshmen can identify this as a strong class and can even identify characteristics they admire in this class. This includes their highly inclusive nature, their response to large and small events in our community and in the larger landscape while also continuing to do the correct, simple, and respectful things on campus. The third part of the message was to enjoy this last summer! This last summer has been defined over the years as the last one before they start thinking about their busy junior year while not having the responsibility and freedoms that arrive with jobs and driving that the junior year brings. The notion of having one last summer without college and SAT/Act prep always on the mind seems like a nice, relaxed setting to continue to embrace the last summer of being just a teenager. It’s great mindset for our 9th graders during this summer - they have completed a year at WHS which gives them a new level of confidence and alleviates the teenage angst of entering high school. They are also optimistic about the realization that college is nearing but it is not so close to create the angst of leaving home. Spending time with this group was a great day. And our freshmen were pretty ecstatic to know that we have less than five weeks left until summer. It's always a great day to be a Chaparral! Astronomy Field Trip Mr. Murphy's astronomy class recently took a field trip to the McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas.
Students took a tour of the 107 inch telescope that included maneuvering the telescope, building a spectroscope, and taking part in two star parties. Students stayed at the historic Prude Ranch, visited Davis Mountains State Park, and had time to grab some desserts in the desert at the Fort Davis Drug Store. Students said: "Best school field trip I've been on." "Informative and informational but still fun." "Great experience overall and awesome way to get interested in Astronomy." Please enjoy the photos below highlighting some of the adventures students enjoyed. We are coming to the end of the ’16-17’ school year at WHS. When we return from this wonderful three day weekend, we will have 28 school days left. We wanted to highlight for you some events in our calendar that serve as reminders to the amount of important work we still have to do this academic year. STAAR Testing May 1st - Algebra One May 3rd - United States History May 4th - Biology AP Testing May 1st - May 12th Schedule can be found on home page Counseling Page. Prom This information has been shared by our prom sponsor Andria Chaney. Saturday May 13th 2017 9:00pm to 12:30am at the Austin Convention Center $55 dollars for a single ticket and $110 for a couple How and when to purchase tickets: 1. Cash purchases can be made in room 330 Monday, 5/8, through Friday, 5/12, before school or during 4th and 5th period lunches. 2. Online ticket sales (access through main Westlake webpage) Monday, 5/8, to Saturday, 5/13, (online sales end at 8:00pm, one hour before prom). If students wish to drive themselves to prom, a free parking pass is included with the purchase of the prom ticket. While at Prom: Students will be able to have 3 hours of clean entertainment, refreshments and snacks! There will be Casino games and prizes to win. The prize drawing occurs at midnight and students must be present to win! Prizes include: A $300 Tiffany's gift card, Visa gift cards, Spa gift cards, Flat screen TV, Fitbit, PlayStation PS4, and a Go Pro camera. Final Exams May 22nd -May 25th Commencement for the Class of 2107 May 25th at the Frank Erwin Center 8:30 pm We hope you have a wonderful three day weekend! We have attached a picture from Google images, a random picture, for the parents who may remember their sweet 80’s prom! It's always a great day to be a Chaparral!
Ahhh, the ol’ drop-off at the CHAP Court. As I was watching the student drop-offs last Friday morning, I was reminded about a rite of passage that many of our students go through in the spring - the student driver, with a driving permit, driving to campus and then doing the great "driver switch". For years and even decades, students arrive as drivers to WHS and then allow mom or dad to take the driver’s seat back after the student is dropped off. Some groups hustle to make the switch while some parents make the move a little slower after the journey they may have had on our Westlake roads. There is relief, fear, smiles, and even some heartwarming goodbyes as a parent and child exit the car together. For those parents of seniors, that may seem a long time ago. For our freshmen parents, this will seem as one of those new life experiences as our students continue to grow and mature. Either way, we all remember learning to drive with our parents. We had our second Live Music Lunch sponsored by our Student Council on Friday. A band from our student body plays live music while we have a cook-out for our students outside the CHAP Court. It’s a fabulous way of breaking up the monotony of the normal lunch time routine. The band and weather were a great combination for our students and staff. The SEL thought for the week (see below) is on kindness. As I have written over my years as a principal in this district, I believe this is a major strength of our students. We have a kind, caring group of kids who consistently excel in this area. As a part of this message, I would like to ask for your assistance in one area. In the past few months, we have had several parents parking in our handicapped accessible spots. Please be mindful of these spots for these spots serve as very valuable resource for our parents with needs or for our parents whose students’ have specific needs. Thanks for your attention to this matter. Sometimes things happen that are just amazing and fun. Mr. Witowski took the opportunity to display some laws of nature and physics. This picture was taken outside during an experiment. Here’s Mr. Witowski with a display of defying the laws of gravity: It's always a great day to be a Chaparral! |
Steve Ramsey: WHS Principal BlogPrincipal's Weekly Reflections Archives
May 2019
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