Thursday
May 28
Jo Ann presents
the ERB
4:30pm

Friday
June 5
Field Day
Pizza Day

Saturday
June 6
New Family
Social
1:30-3pm

Thursday
June 11
Graduation &
Spirit Awards, Grades 1-5
6:30pm at
Grace Church

Friday
June 12
Last Day of School
11:45 PS/PK/K Dismissal;
Noon Dismissal, Grades 1-5
No Aftercare

May 28, 2009

From Jo Ann - I Hear You
Field Day Volunteers Needed
From Jo Ann - 2009-10 Staff Update
From Jo Ann - ERB Results
Lids on Kids
Library Update
Yearbooks!

From Jo Ann - I Hear You

This will be the last “read aloud” on our 2008-2009 survey, though there are lots of ideas for continuing our conversation on topics such as diversity, technology, communication…I look forward to continuing discussions next year as Westside School continues to focus on improvement. Now, with the year drawing to a close, here are some “read alouds” on what parents like. These will make us all feel really good!

• The very warm and sociable atmosphere for both child and parent
• Small community, committed staff and parents, fabulous playground
• I love the quality of the teachers and the friendliness that the staff – from the gardener to the front office, display toward each other and to the families and children.
• I like that we have a caring and engaged community within the school. I like that we have a more diverse school than in the past. I like that we have a core curriculum that reflects the needs of our children and that we have quality art, music and physical education programs.
• Strong academics, individualized instruction, wonderful teachers, motivated staff. Great families. We love it!
• We love that Westside School has excellent teachers, a rigorous integrated curriculum, a focus on the global community, small class sizes, and that they teach their students about respect, empathy and empower them with problem solving skills.
• The ability of the teachers is outstanding! My student wakes up dreaming about the cool things she is learning.
• Despite huge growth in the past 5 years, it has kept its priorities: teachers, curriculum, global awareness, making learning fun and accessible, and community. So many private schools are “exclusive” and offer no-doubt wonderful opportunities like skiing and pole vaulting and 1:1 computer ratios etc, but the expense of these offerings limit them to the very few, and that limit on the range and diversity of the students is much more debilitating to a student’s learning than the lack of expensive perks could ever be.
• Positive energy toward kids and learning. focus on community. de-emphasis on grades. focus on how the children treat each other--compassion & empathy.

Back to the top

Volunteers Needed for Field Day
Celebrate the End of the School Year on
Friday, June 5th - 11:45am - 3:15pm

By Susan Oxholm, Field Day Chair

Summer is almost here and Westside celebrates with one of the most popular events of the year - Field Day. The entire school gathers for a pizza party followed by an afternoon of playground games headed up by P.E. teacher Donna. Toward the end of the afternoon, you won’t want to miss the blindfolded 5th grade donut eating contest or the Westside faculty water balloon throwing frenzy!

Westside kids will be organized into18 (mixed class) teams traveling through 18 games. We’ll need 36 volunteers for the games - one chaperone per team and one “instructor” per game (12 noon - 3:15 p.m.) We also need help setting up games (10:30-11:30 a.m.) and serving pizza (11:15-12 noon).

Click here to volunteer. Questions or concerns? Contact 1st Grade and PreK parent, Susan Oxholm (206)313-2523. Hope for sun and come and join us for Field Day!

Back to the top

From Jo Ann
2009-2010 Westside School Staff

At this time, ALL of our teachers have signed contracts to return next school year. Retention of teachers is one of the indicators of quality in a school. It is my continued pleasure to work with this outstanding faculty.

With the growth of our school and the addition of another third grade class, Stuart Scolnik is moving up to teach third grade. Stuart partnering with Joe with make an exciting third grade team.

I have invited Sarah Howard to join our staff as the new kindergarten teacher. Sarah has a Master in Teaching with Elementary Education Endorsement from Seattle Pacific University. She has taught kindergarten for the last three years at Issaquah Valley Public School. Prior to her teaching experience, Sarah’s was as a chef. She holds a degree from the Culinary Institute of America, and an undergraduate degree from the University of Portland. Her culinary career took her to many different countries including China, Korea, Australia, Belize, Costa Rica, Tanzania, Guatemala, Austria and Germany. How is this relevant in the classroom? Sarah answers, “Through culinary arts and travel I have been able to broaden my multicultural awareness, develop excellent communication and people skills and learn that flexibility is essential and that it always helps to have a sense of humor.” We enjoyed having Sarah visit our kindergarten class and teach a lesson and are looking forward to next year and her partnership with Marsha.

We will bid goodbye to Jhona Pettit, teaching assistant, who has worked alongside Nancy in our PS/PK classroom. Thank you, Jhona, for all you have done for our children and families!

The other teaching assistants, enrichment specialists and administrative staff will be back to “write” another year in the life of Westside School.

Back to the top

From Jo Ann - ERB Results

On Wednesday, Westside School mailed out the ERB results (the Education Record Bureau’s CTP IV standardized test). As is my tradition, I am speaking about this test at 4:30pm tonight in Judith’s room. Come to this talk and learn how Westside School uses the test results. Remember the results are a norm reference, scores result in a bell curve where half will do better and half will do worse. This is unlike a criterion–referenced test like the WASL, which is designed to rate a student’s performance as compared with a standard, where all can do well or poorly.

Elementary children are learning how to take a standardized test. Therefore, first grade and second grade scores are not given as a norm. The child’s performance is classified as exceeding expectations, meeting expectations, or developing. In third to fifth grades, data is represented as a percentile rank and stanines (1-9). Both parents and teachers should understand the test is just a snapshot of the child’s progress on a given day. This test should not present any surprises, but confirm your children’s daily performance. CTP IV includes two abilities tests – Verbal Reasoning and Quantitative Analysis – and achievement subtests. If these scores demonstrate inconsistencies, the test can be used as a diagnostic tool.

Below is a summary of our Spring 2009 test results. There are two charts. One shows the national norms summary and the other shows the independent norms summary. To place above average, students scored 7– 9 stanines, average 4-5 stanines and below average 1–3.

Don’t hesitate to call your teacher or me if you have any questions.

Back to the top

Lids on Kids

By Donna Jornlin, PE Teacher

The health chat this month in the gym has been all about helmets; when to wear one, and how to get a good fit. Don’t be surprised if they tell you their homework is checking their helmet - eyes, ears and chin! Eyes looking up can see the helmet, straps secure around the ears and only one finger under the chin strap. Check my web page for information on purchasing helmets through the Cascade Bicycle Club. We then turned the conversation to why it’s so important to wear a helmet and what sports require them: skiing, hockey, baseball, football and skateboarding.

Ultimate frisbee has become a tremendously popular game, particularly in middle and high school. So with that in mind I’ve been teaching the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades the basics of the game and giving them targets to practice throwing at before they aim at each other. The primary students use soft foam frisbees, tossing, catching and learning to work with a partner. The 3rd, 4th and 5th grades have just completed the Presidential Fitness testing, assessing cardiovascular fitness with a half mile run, muscular strength with the flexed arm hang and sit-ups, sprint speed with the shuttle run and flexibility with the v-sit and reach test. The students really take ownership of their fitness when they compare their scores from last year and try to improve on them. And statistically their scores have improved dramatically since we installed the playground climbing bars and focused on doing sit-ups each Monday.

The Mileage Club is wrapping up this week with total class miles to be announced on Field Day. The top mileage earner is in 1st grade with over 70 miles and two kindergartners have 60! Special thanks to all the teaching assistants for tabulating laps.

I’m doing a summon-the-sun dance for Field Day! If you’re so inclined, do one too. It’s great exercise.

Back to the top

Library Update

By Sarah Wildflower, Librarian

All books are due back at the library on June 2nd, 2009. Please help your children remember to bring their books back. Thanks!

Back to the top

Yearbooks!

It is a Westside tradition to hand out yearbooks. New this year, some of our students’ poetry from poetry month will also be included. Students should expect to receive their book during the last week of school, date to be determined. The cost of the yearbook is $10. This expense has not traditionally been part of our budget, and we request that you reimburse Westside for this expense. Payment can be mailed and/or given to Kathy in the office by the end of the year. Thank you! And we hope your students enjoy this token of their year at Westside.

Back to the top