On our campus, we attempt to offer as many opportunities as we can for our students to work with mentors and coaches in their anticipated fields of study in college and possible career paths. We create the ability to do this through our Mentorship class, Incubator and Accelerator programs, Robotics, and our Health Science Technology classes, to list a few. We had the opportunity to host TraumaRama on Tuesday at Westlake High School. It was a day for students to learn and experience Stop the Bleed training, a Distracted Driving simulation, Q&A with a medical professional panel and more. The Eastern Association of Surgeons of Trauma, or EAST, was holding its 2019 conference in Austin and chose Westlake as its outreach community. Approximately 80 trauma surgeons spent the day with our students discussing topics that are important to teenagers and safety. We would like to thank Dr. Carlos Brown for bringing this opportunity to the attention of our nurse, Holly Hubbell, who helped to coordinate this event with Katie Bryant and Diane Dealy that reached well over 300 students. This idea of bringing in professionals from a certain area of expertise to our campuses for our students will be evaluated for more opportunities due to this success. We hope you and your family are off to a fabulous 2019. Mr. Ryan and I held our annual Senior Parent meeting on Wednesday for the Class of 2019. This evening is designed to have easy access for parents to learn about some important dates and events, a little about graduation, Project Graduation, and interact with our graduation supplier, Balfour. To the parents of seniors, this is a small milestone on the way to the May 30th graduation date! Our seniors are down to their final 18 weeks in the Eanes ISD system for a total of 85 days. We like our community to get to know our staff and see the great things we are doing here at WHS. Here's another Teacher Feature for a glimpse into some pretty cool stuff. Mobile Technology: Small changes that have a big impact on instruction. Teacher Feature - Chris Peters Algebra I Chris Peters is our new Algebra I teacher at Westlake High School. She came to us from Corpus Christi ISD. She has been teaching mathematics for over 30 years...and is still lovin’ it. Mrs. Peters has embraced the technology available to teachers and students in Eanes ISD, and has utilized it in ways that have enhanced teaching and learning in the classroom. She has used the Notability app on the iPad and AppleTV to transform her device into a mobile presentation system. She can present information and work out math problems “on the board” anywhere in the room. This freedom allows her to walk around the room while lecturing and interact one-on-one with students. She can also hand her device to students in the class, and they can work out problems “on the board” for their peers from the comfort of their desk. Students can use Notability and the iPad’s split screen feature to take notes while Mrs. Peters lectures, and have a calculator open on the device at the same time for solving problems and graphing functions. This simple yet innovative use of our district technology simplifies student workflow, and gives Mrs. Peters the flexibility to work one-on-one with students while she lectures. Additionally, her use of Google Classroom to distribute and collect classwork and materials improves workflow efficiency in the classroom. This makes it easier for students to spend more time and energy on their learning, and less time looking for that paper from yesterday’s class. It is simple yet effective strategies like these that show us how responsible use of technology can lower anxiety and improve efficiency of people not only in the school setting, but in the workplace as well. We are fortunate to have access to these tools in Eanes ISD, and the positive impacts of their presence can be felt throughout our campus. Mrs. Peters wishes to make all teachers’ teaching lives easier--she will be happy to have you come and visit a class--or sit together and talk strategies to make students’ and teacher’s lives better and easier. Have a wonderful three day weekend!
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Every once in a while, it is good to take on a new challenge. We want to inform you of the challenge that is happening on our campus next week and invite our parents and staff to participate as well. Phone Challenge Week One of the major hopes of this challenge is to encourage conversations between adults and students about technology use. This challenge reminds me of one I used with some of my students while teaching at Austin High School. While I was teaching Government, World History and Health, we decided to challenge our students to give up caffeine and sugary food items for a week. While this started as students only in my health classes, it spread throughout these classes with other classes and then to parents. When the parents got involved with the limiting of caffeine and sugary products, the family discussions and competition was intense. Sometimes a common experience can lead to brilliant family time. Feel free to take on both challenges, but I would not suggest them in the same week........ Cell phones are an ever-present reality. This coming week we want to focus on and provide strategies for students to self-manage their personal device usage. Each day we have one strategy to challenge them.
We encourage parents and guardians to try the challenges with your students that day - they are a great way to springboard conversation around supporting your teenager with setting healthy personal digital habits and managing boundaries. It should also be noted that this is not intended to be a “tech detox”, it is a way to be mindful of our device usage and personal habits and find a peaceful way to coexist with them. The “goal is to help kids regulate themselves, learn how to manage their emotions, and set boundaries for themselves.” You can read more about the original challenge here. If you are interested in knowing more about these challenges, check out the Bored and Brilliant podcast, Manoush Zomorodi’s book Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self, and her TED Talk. Have a wonderful weekend! |
Steve Ramsey: WHS Principal BlogPrincipal's Weekly Reflections Archives
May 2019
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