Every year we host an amazing College Fair for our Juniors and Seniors. This year it was a marvelous event with great planning by our Counseling Department and PTO. Our Juniors usually spend the most time visiting representatives as the future college experience becomes a little more concrete. Juniors can be thrilled with thoughts of independence, leaving home and beginning a new life. This also can cause the first true anxiousness and discomfort about these same thoughts. Our Seniors seem to peruse and gleefully meander between the schools they have on their personal list. Some you see, are set with their choices as the application process is on-going and time-consuming. The College Fair is also a time that our teachers and counselors see a surge in requests for recommendation letters. This may be a good time to have a quick check-in about college plans with your Junior or Senior as you may gain insight into your child’s plans since they can change sporadically. Last week, we were fortunate to open the grand walkway between the library spaces. This has been a desire for me personally as I arrived in February of 2002. This was significantly the most poorly designed area for traffic flow at WHS. This doorway was actually closed at one time to any student traffic until we opened it up in the spring of 2012. After the opening of the door, I had been reportedly told that “an opening simply cannot be done.” Even though a larger passage looked physically feasible with the current design, the answer was always no. The list of reasons was exhausting and even illogical at times. Perseverance is a mighty trait to have when the goal is to make our students’ lives a little better. With the help of our Campus Leadership Team and forward thinking by Maintenance & Operations (M&O), including Jeremy Trimble and Brian Bolek, we were able to get this completed after many years! The look on our students' and staff faces as they were passing through the first few times was priceless. These little things in our daily lives are our response to meeting student needs especially when they can minimize frustration and allow more time between classes. We had nearly a 33% jump in our sales for our Homecoming Dance this year. Thanks to Student Council for this wonderful memory for our kids. We hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
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Homecoming is always a little special at Westlake High School. Even with extremely busy schedules, this day and weekend have a special feel and excitement. Our students and staff always take pride in this school and community, but this weekend seems to bring everyone together a little closer. Upon returning to Westlake High School from WRMS, I made a commitment to brand our campus with reminders of this wonderful community. New wall graphics throughout our campus It was amazing to see how many students attended our Pep Rally while also representing their class with the color selected for their specific class. We welcomed our alumni and parents to the Pep Rally with a reserved section right in the middle of our Juniors and Seniors. We have had a wonderful day as veteran faculty members like myself have reminisced about some of our past greats like Toody Byrd, Ebbie Neptune, John Matysek, Mark Hurst, and Scott Gardner (the list goes on and on……). We will be honoring Coach Al Bennett this evening before our volleyball with the naming of the court after him. Homecoming Pep Rally 2018 While we think of the past, we are also invigorated by our current students and staff who continue to make this campus the best in Texas through their own innovations and creativity. As we all get busy with an array of events this weekend in town, we hope everyone takes a moment to reflect on this special place that is truly the “Pride of the Hills”. As we conclude our fourth week of school, we have all settled into our routine or routines. We have our morning routine concluding with the morning drop off or pre-work procedures at the home and office. We have our lunch routine, our exercise routine, our evening and night time routines. We have our calendars on our phones, laptops and even an old school physical calendar that exists somewhere in our kitchen so we do not miss something. Our kids have their routines as well which include managing up to seven classes with an array of activities. They have calendars on their phones, laptops and some have dry erase boards in their bedrooms and/or bathrooms. Routines, even according many experts, are key to a successful life. Routine: noun- a sequence of actions regularly followed; a fixed program. Adjective- performed as part of a regular procedure rather than for a special reason. As it was raining over the weekend, many of our routines were altered or canceled. On Sunday afternoon, my youngest daughter Kate and her friend and neighbor, Lucy, reminded me of the notion of spontaneity. Instead of allowing the rain to literally dampen their normal time together outside, they chose to play in the rain as if they had never experienced rain before Sunday (not a difficult concept to imagine in an Austin summer). The interesting and profound part of spontaneous events that turn out positive is the pure joy. Nothing is planned. Without prior planning, there are no expectations. Without expectations, the immense satisfaction is deeper and more meaningful. We hope your weekend is a pleasant one filled with planned activities and possibly a spontaneous event as well. We have had a week of true quality time together at WHS. This week has been filled with many activities that have brought our students, staff, parents and community together to share common experiences. The first major activity was our Back to School Night on Wednesday evening. This evening was well attended, and our parents brought exceptional enthusiasm and good natured attitudes to our campus. As part of a consortium of schools throughout the country, I can report that we are the rare campus who actively invites our parents to a Back to School evening - it is a special night for our staff as well. We also had our annual picture day. Even with 17 and 18 year olds, our kids love to get dressed up for their yearbook picture. Our staff was thrilled this was on Back to School Night day so they were already dressed up. When these two groups merge out of the normal classroom setting, students and teachers strengthen those relationships as they stay out of subject matter. Westlake’s students came together for our first Pep Rally of the year. Even Vito looked peppy in his spirit gear. Science at Westlake hit the ground running with students working together and engaged in a variety of hands-on experiences. AP physics students used DataHubs to recreate motion graphs. Physics students used spheros to predict when and where potential collisions would occur. Engineering students designed and made self-propelled vehicles. The common thread was students working collaboratively to solve problems, and design solutions. All of which amounts to an exciting and thought provoking beginning to the school year for our science students! Quality time with hands on activities builds community daily at WHS. Check out the pictures below to see what's “movin” on campus. Tonight we will have our first home football game. This is a true community event as we enjoy the talents of our football players, band musicians, Hyline dancers, cheerleaders, and Tech Crew. Good luck to all of our students tonight!
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Steve Ramsey: WHS Principal BlogPrincipal's Weekly Reflections Archives
May 2019
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