January 29 2018

Week of 01.29.18

Westlake Parents and Guardians:

One of the many things I love about being a member of the Westlake community is how students and staff are constantly striving for continual improvement.  This past week, Westlake staff visited one another’s classrooms in order to gain ideas and insights to improve student learning outcomes as evidence of their commitment to our school wide vision:

Igniting a passion for learning and service: Dream, Risk, Achieve!

Not only were teachers engaged in learning, but students were engaged in high levels of learning.  It truly was magical to see!

Cultural Event- New Year’s Around the World- Cancelled

The Cultural Event for this week has been cancelled due to some conflicts in the schedule.  Please contact the school with any questions.

 

Parent/Teacher Conferences

PTC’s are just around the corner!  Please watch for a sign-up coming to you shortly.  Should you have any questions please contact the school.

Category: Weekly Blog Posts | Comments Off on Week of 01.29.18
January 21 2018

Week of 01.22.18

Dear Westlake Parents and Guardians:

In a few short months time the Westlake Middle School PTO will be sponsoring our Spring Fundraiser in order to raise money to support technology at our school.  The PTO is selling Sponsorship Opportunities for the event which will be a Color Run in May. This will be a fundraiser to raise money for technology.
There are several different levels of sponsorships available for local businesses and families:
If you are looking for preferred placement, we are asking for 2 – $400 donors – each one will get the sleeve placement. This is one logo only and will have high visibility on the shirts. Plus your logo will be posted on our website and Facebook group for one year.
The middle level – $325/$250, will also include your logo and link on our PTO website and Facebook Page for 1 full year. The difference is the logos are on the back of the shirt. We can only do 15 and have already sold 4!!
The family level is $100. This will be just your name on the back of the t-shirt in text. For example, a family would be “The Smith Family.”  The sponsorship opportunity starts as soon as you send us the donation and logo/link or text.
All donations are tax deductible.  The deadline to get in on this great deal is Feb 28th. But spots are selling fast.
If you are interested in participating in any of these opportunities, you can submit the following form along with payment to –  Follow this link to access the form
Westlake PTO
Attn: Rob Hicks
Westlake Middle School
2800 W 135th Avenue
Broomfield, CO 80020.
Or send email questions to westlakepto@yahoo.com or please call 408-316-5670.
Your support and partnership of our school community is invaluable.  Thank you for being a part of our community!

Upcoming Events

Please check out the yellow sticky note above to see what events are coming up this week.  Consider joining us for Coffee with the Principal on Tuesday morning and a new parent group, Padres Unidos, on Thursday evening.  In addition, Westlake Middle School will be hosting the district Hispanic Advisory Council on Monday evening.  All are welcome to attend every event this week!  Please feel free to reach out to the school with any questions on our upcoming events.  Thank you!

Category: Weekly Blog Posts | Comments Off on Week of 01.22.18
January 15 2018

Week of 01.15.18

Dear Westlake Parents and Guardians:

Last week I was in a 7th grade Language Arts classroom and I was fortunate to have the opportunity to observe students involved in a mindfulness activity in preparation for mid-year MAPS assessment.  I observed students set goals for themselves, selected a strategy for helping them achieve this goal, shared their goals with a classmates, and then spent a moment focusing on their environment in order to gain focus.  From my perspective this mindfulness activity helped students to focus on the task at hand as well as to gain self-awareness around where they were headed.  After the class was over I asked a few of the students if they felt this practice helped them.  The students overwhelmingly shared they felt  it did and hoped their goals they had set would also be reached.

Mindfulness is something we can all use a bit more of in our lives.  This article from Parent Toolkit talks about how to bring home mindfulness for you and your children.  I hope you enjoy this article!

Eight Ways to Bring Mindfulness into Your Family

PTO Dine Out @ Mod Market-

No need to make dinner plans on Wednesday….join us for the PTO Dine Out at Modern Market!  Mention “Westlake” on Wednesday at Mod Market when ordering dinner and the Westlake PTO will receive 50% of the proceeds.  Hope to see you all there.

 

School-wide Book- Clubs beginning!

As mentioned in previous weeks in this blog, one of the major areas of focus for the Westlake School community this year has been around literacy across all content areas.  Being able to read, write, listen, and speak are critical elements to learning any content area and we are committed to supporting students in gaining these very important skills.  One way to support this effort with your child is to engage in our school book.  Please consider being a part of this effort.

Students, parents and community members, this year, we have selected Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (the young adult version) to be our all school book.  This is the amazing story of Joe Rantz and the 1936 Olympic rowing team’s miraculous journey to win gold in Berlin.   A story of courage, perseverance and the power of teamwork, this will be a text to connect our whole community with our vision, Dream, Risk, Achieve.

We are asking students and families to get involved by reading this exciting text. You may also think about organizing a book discussion with your own family or pull together other families you know to discuss the ideas in this book. We have discussion questions and you can use this book club guide for tips on how to facilitate your conversation.

Here at school in January, we will be hosting grade level book clubs run by our administrators, and teachers will have some activities and discussions they can use in their classrooms. This event will be culminated on February 22nd with a movie night when we will be showing The Boys of ‘36 the PBS documentary about this inspiring story.

The book is available for a discounted price from both Amazon and Walmart. Many teachers here at school have copies to loan to students and books will be provided for students who are participating in grade level book clubs.

 

New Year’s Around the World- Multicultural Event

Westlake’s Culture Club wants to learn more about how different cultures celebrate New Year’s.  Please take a moment to share with us various traditions or cultural experiences you and your family are involved in to celebrate the new year through this survey.

New Year’s Around the World Survey

Westlake’s Culture Club will be holding a cultural night on January 31st at 6:30pm to celebrate New Year’s around the world!  Please join us for this fun and engaging event.

W.E.B. (Where Everyone Belongs) Go Fund Me Opportunity-

Our wonderful coordinators for the Westlake W.E.B. program which supports our incoming 6th graders as well as provides leadership opportunities for our 8th graders have an opportunity to gain more training and expand our program.  There is still time to contribute if you’re interested!  Please consider helping send out coordinators to this training by helping to support them through Go Fund Me.

https://www.gofundme.com/webtraining

Category: Weekly Blog Posts | Comments Off on Week of 01.15.18
January 7 2018

Week of 01.08.18

Happy New Year Westlake!

Welcome back  and happy 2018!  As we end one year and begin another, we can reflect on the accomplishments of the year and set goals for the next.  One of the major areas of focus for the Westlake School community this year has been around literacy across all content areas.  Being able to read, write, listen, and speak are critical elements to learning any content area and we are committed to supporting students in gaining these very important skills.  One way to support this effort with your child is to engage in our school book.  Please consider being a part of this effort.

Students, parents and community members, this year, we have selected Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (the young adult version) to be our all school book.  This is the amazing story of Joe Rantz and the 1936 Olympic rowing team’s miraculous journey to win gold in Berlin.   A story of courage, perseverance and the power of teamwork, this will be a text to connect our whole community with our vision, Dream, Risk, Achieve.

We are asking students and families to get involved by reading this exciting text. You may also think about organizing a book discussion with your own family or pull together other families you know to discuss the ideas in this book. We have discussion questions and you can use this book club guide for tips on how to facilitate your conversation.

Here at school in January, we will be hosting grade level book clubs run by our administrators, and teachers will have some activities and discussions they can use in their classrooms. This event will be culminated on February 22nd with a movie night when we will be showing The Boys of ‘36 the PBS documentary about this inspiring story.

The book is available for a discounted price from both Amazon and Walmart. Many teachers here at school have copies to loan to students and books will be provided for students who are participating in grade level book clubs.

 

How do you celebrate New Year’s in your culture?

Westlake’s Culture Club wants to learn more about how different cultures celebrate New Year’s.  Please take a moment to share with us various traditions or cultural experiences you and your family are involved in to celebrate the new year through this survey.

New Year’s Around the World Survey

Westlake’s Culture Club will be holding a cultural night on January 31st at 6:30pm to celebrate New Year’s around the world!  Please join us for this fun and engaging event.

W.E.B. (Where Everyone Belongs) Go Fund Me Opportunity-

Our wonderful coordinators for the Westlake W.E.B. program which supports our incoming 6th graders as well as provides leadership opportunities for our 8th graders have an opportunity to gain more training and expand our program.  Please consider helping send out coordinators to this training by helping to support them through Go Fund Me.

https://www.gofundme.com/webtraining

Category: Weekly Blog Posts | Comments Off on Week of 01.08.18