2011 December - 2012 Jan - Westview Middle School

Principal-Mark SpencerSpencer_Mark@svvsd.orgWildcat NewsDec. 2011/ Jan. 2012Vice Principal - Jeremy LaCrossePrincipal’s Letter8:10—3:15Parents, if you have anychanges to your householdinformation such as address,phones numbers or email,please contact and informour counseling registrar,Connie Bridge. She can bereached at 720-494-3784.The Holiday Season is upon us and the students are looking forward to the holidaybreak. It could be tempting to let down and just “get through” the next fewweeks of school. Let me assure you that our teachers are committed to getting themost out of each instructional day and we are not about to lose our focus on learning.Please join me in reinforcing with your student how important it is to workhard and learn each and every day at school.On November 14, we held our annual Open House. The evening was a tremendoussuccess and was very well attended. We had parents of 5 th graders from all aroundthe district coming to learn about Westview. It was nice to be able to share oursuccesses with so many interested parents. I believe that our focus on teaching thewhole child leads to high academic achievement and is one of the reasons that somany parents are eagerly seeking to open enroll their children at Westview.Along those lines, I would like to remind you that the open enrollment window fornext school year is from December 1, 2011 until January 15, 2012. If your child isan 8 th grader open enrolled at Westview, and you do not live in the attendancearea for the high school you wish to have them attend, you must apply for openenrollment at that high school. Because your child is at Westview you do not haveautomatic acceptance at our feeder high schools Longmont High and Silver CreekHigh unless you live within their attendance area.I wish you all the best this holiday season. I am truly thankful to be part of suchan incredible school community.Expect the Best!Mark SpencerAttendance - 720-494-3783Please call ahead for your childwhen picking them up for appointments.Please be advised that students may not be on school grounds before7:45 am or after 3:30 pm if they are not in any supervised schoolrelated activities.

WESTVIEWORCHESTRA► TRAFFICGUIDELINESThe Westview Orchestra program wasrecently awarded a grant from the EducationalFoundation of St. Vrain forthe creation of a world music ensemble,under the direction of our composer-in-residence,Kailin Yong. Mr.Yong is a classically trained violinistwho has travelled the world, playingand learning from musicians in allsorts of traditions. He is helping theWMS Orchestra students discover thenative music of many different countries.Mr. Yong is currently workingwith a small group of students, andwill be presenting a "preview" performanceat the December 13th WinterOrchestra Concert. After WinterBreak, a larger ensemble experiencewill be open and available for interestedorchestra students.Navigating through Westview►Never use the bus-only lane when entering the campus.Make an immediate right turn onto the school loop.►If you plan to park, please use the school parking lot.Do not park in the pick-up/drop-off lane, which is alongthe front sidewalk.►Pull to the side to drop off students in the drop-offzone. Drop off students in the drop-off zone or northparking lot only. Do not drop students off near thesouth crosswalk where you can block traffic or buses.It’s okay for students to walk a little distance from thedrop-off area or from the north parking lot to theschool doors.►Buses have the right-of-way as they move west downthe bus-only lane.►Observe the ‘cone zone’ by not making a left turn upthe bus-only lane while cones are in position. You needto exit the campus at Mountain View Avenue.►Be considerate of others and watch for drivers or childrenwho may not be observing the rules.►For safety –please do not drop your student off on AirportRoad.The WestviewAthletic Departmentwould like to thank the Carson Familyfor washing all 154 boy’s basketballuniforms at their family business, DropN Wash.THANK YOU!PARENT / TEACHERCONFERENCESTuesday, January 31st & Thursday, February 2nd.Once again you will have the opportunity toschedule your conference online. You will be ableto find the instructions and the scheduling siteonline on our school website around January 9th.We urge you to set up your conference as soon aspossible because the appointments do fill quickly.

2011-12 Girls’ Intramural Basketball SeasonWed., November 30 8th Grade 6:45-8AM Main Gym7th Grade 3:30-5:00PM Main GymThu., December 1 8th Grade 6:45-8AM Main Gym6th & 7th gr. 3:30 –5:00PM Main GymFri., December 2 8th Grade 6:45-8AM Main GymDec. 2—EVERYONE for game schedules and uniforms 3:30-3:50 Main Gym- League games begin Monday, December 5th.Basic Rules, Regulations, and Information*Friday, December 2: Team rosters will be posted, schedules will be distributed,teams will receive their uniforms, and game procedures will be explained.*All participants who have not yet turned in proof of insurance, parent permission form,and the $55.00 fee to the Main Office need to have this in as soon as possible.We have 145 girls out for basketball and it was a very exciting first week. League play beginsMonday, December 5 with 14 in-house teams captained by our stalwart 8th graders. Itreaches its culmination Monday morning, January 23 of 2012, when we play our tournamentchampionship game.Each girl is guaranteed 7 league games, with more if they keep winning in the tournament.In addition, we have 35 girls willing to come before and after school, so that theycan represent Westview in the district’s 8th grade intramural league.This season sees the Wildcats traveling to Altona on Wednesday, Dec. 7 and Erie onWednesday, January 18 for two games at each site. We will be hosting Coal Ridge onWednesday, December 14 and Mead on Wednesday, January 11.If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact any of the coaches: Greg Tafel,Jeanette Rasmussen. David Kline, and Bob Mowry. GO WILDCATS!

BOXTOPSFOR EDUCATIONEvery little bit helps!If your family uses GeneralMills Products, clip and savethe box tops and drop themoff in the front office.Westview will once again becollecting Box Tops for 2011-2012.Intramural WrestlingWrestling sign up will be held the weekof January 23rd—January 27th withpractice beginning on January 30th. We look forward toan exciting season with five matches and an end-of-seasontournament. Wrestling is a sport where 6th grade has ateam and the 7th/8th grades combine to make anotherteam. Both teams practice every night from 3:20- 5:15pm. No experience is needed, you will learn all you need tobe a competitive wrestler in no time. All equipment, exceptwrestling shoes, will be provided by the school. Welook forward to another exciting season. If you have anyquestions please contact Coach Aschenbrenner, Coach Donovan,or Coach Helmus.Stuck on a homework problem?Parents, need to brush up on yourmath skills to help your studentwith their math? Check out thisfree on-line learning site. The KhanAcademy has quick easy-to-usetutorials on many academic subjects.www.khanacademy.orgDo you have a Target ChargeCard? If so, have you changedyour school designation fromelementary to middle school forthe Target rewards?Dear Parents and Students,Yearbooks are for sale!! To make this yearbook the best it can be, weneed your outside life pictures (outside of school activities, summerpictures, weekend trips, etc.) You may upload the photos using thelink below.Westview link is: https://images.jostens.com/login?user=400113425&pw=WestviewJust in case: the password for image share is: Westview (although you should notneed this)NOW is the time for 8 th grade parents to send in your 8 th grader’s babypictures and a heartfelt message! You can order the ads online bygoing to www.TheYearbookCompany.com . The baby ads are $37.00and up, depending on your size choice. Please submit them beforeJanuary 9, 2012.You can buy your yearbook online through our website, or by turningin the order form to the front office. Only $37.00, so get them nowbefore the price goes up in January. Thank you!-Westview Yearbook Staff

Welcome to the 2012Presented by the Education Foundation for the St. Vrain ValleyFor St. Vrain Valley School District students.April 13 - 14th, 2012SKYLINE HIGH SCHOOLThe Education Foundation for the St. Vrain Valley invites you and your students to participatein the exciting, newly improved district-wide Tech Fair! Open to all St. VrainValley students, the 2012 Tech Fair offers opportunities to Discover ... Innovate ...Achieve at all grade levels.Much has been added to the Fair this year. A "Challenge of the Day" is new for2012! Student participants will have the opportunity to think on their feet as a they devisea technology based answer to an exciting surprise question announced only days beforethe fair! "Teacher Share" is also new this year and is an area for teachers to presentwhat technology looks like in their classrooms. And in the "Business Spotlight" localtechnology companies are encouraged to come and display their most recent advances.To find out more about the 2012 Tech Fair, visit the Fair's website at techfair.efsvv.org.We look forward to receiving your registration. Sponsors and volunteers are also needed.Please contact the Education Foundation for more information at 720-652-8208.

St. Vrain Valley School District RE-1JWestview Middle School Counseling DepartmentJodi SmithJudith ThomasResponding to Bad GradesBecause there is so much at stake - and because we often feel like our children's grades reflect on our parental abilities - it'stough to stay calm and collected when our youngsters earn bad ones. Another factor making this subject so emotion-laden is itscomplexity. I've come to believe that the art and science of motivating children to do well in school is one of the most complicatedand challenging known to humankind.Fortunately, there are a handful of relatively simple and very powerful truths regarding this topic:• When anger and frustration are present, motivation goes down.Experiment with saying, "I love you, and I bet these grades are really disappointing. Let me know how I can help."• When control battles erupt, learning stops.This is why it's so important to say, "I will love you regardless of how happy or sad you make your own life. You need to decidewhat type of life to make for yourself."• We can't make another person learn and achieve.All we can do is be good role models and provide help when they are interested.• Positive relationships are highly motivating.When kids feel loved, they are always more likely to do well in school.• Character serves as the foundation for success.Without good values and morals, kids will never reach their potential.Over the past thirty years, we've seen case after case of parents who've decided to stop fighting with their child over grades.With the energy left over they began to rebuild the relationship and focus on raising good kids with great character. We've neverhad a parent tell us that they were sorry that they made this choice.There's No Need to Battle Over HomeworkSome of you already know that I really struggled in school as a kid. Doing what they thought was best, my parentssat right next to me and employed a combination of begging, pleading, bribing, lecturing and threatening. Theharder they worked, the less I did!When I started the fifth grade, they began a new plan that radically changed my life and theirs. We’ve seen similarresults with family after family over the past thirty years.Just a small part of the plan included:• Setting aside a time and place for me to learn• Telling me that I could either do my work or learn by thinking about it• Saying that they would help me only as long as we didn’t start arguing• Telling me that they would help only as long as I worked harder than they didAllowing me to take total responsibility for my homeworkMost importantly, they transferred all of the energy they had wasted fighting with me on making sure that I wasrespectful, did my chores, and knew that I was loved regardless of the grades I earned. Although I did worse in theshort term, things really got better in the long term!