Food Drive

The Westphalia Junior High Student Council would like to thank the Westphalia community for collecting and donating food items to our food drive. We collected 943 pounds of food. The food was donated to Food for Families in Marlin and the Rosebud Food Pantry. This was a great way to help other families in need this holiday season.

Thank you again for all of your donations!
Westphalia Junior High Student Council

Volleyball Tournament

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Words cannot express how thankful I am to everyone who helped make our first Westphalia Volleyball tournament a success. Special thanks to the PTO for managing the concession stand and the hospitality room. Parents…we couldn’t have held the tournament without your help and support! Thank you for providing food for the hospitality room, working in the concession stand, and helping to clean up after the tournament was over. Most of all, thank you for your continuous support throughout the season. Thanks to all of the Westphalia staff members and students who helped before, during, and after the tournament. I am blessed to work with you and am grateful for your willingness to help.

A special thanks to Gaby Hernandez, Eva Hernandez, Donna Schoenemann, Emily Thornton, Tyler Kallus, Deann Meyer, Elizabeth Puente, Mark Vaught, and Jamie Ashford for your help with the books, scoreboard, and gate. Gaby and Donna….thank you for the countless hours you have spent keeping books for the Lady Bluejays. I truly appreciate all of your help, not only at the tournament, but also throughout our volleyball season.

To the Westphalia Lady Bluejays Volleyball Teams….I am so proud of you!! Thank you for the great season and for continuing to challenge yourselves each and every day!

Thanks again for everything!!
Kristy Decker

Weekly Happenings Oct. 11-15

Here are some things going on in Westphalia this week:

• The Wesphalia Blue Jay volleyball teams will be hosting the Central Texas Christian School Lions on Monday. The White team will begin play at 5:00pm and the Blue team will immediately follow. Good luck to our girls and support our Blue Jays as they attempt to continue their excellence on the court.
• The Westphalia Football team will host Aquilla on Thursday night. Kickoff is at 6:00pm. It will be the first meeting for the two teams, so come out and support our boys as they attempt to make it back-to-back victories.
• The Westphalia Blue Jay volleyball team will be hosting their own Westphalia Blue Jay Volleyball tournament. This 8 team tournament will mark the first time that Westphalia has hosted a volleyball tournament in several years. If you are able to volunteer to help, please contact Coach Decker. Good luck girls!

Have a great week or not, as always, the CHOICE is yours!

Homecoming Week

Here are some pictures of a fun and exciting Homecoming Week:

A special thank you goes out to Mrs. Ashford for coordinating all the activities!!! Thanks for making Homecoming 2010 a great success.

Weekly Happenings 10/4 to 10/7

It's Homecoming week in Westphalia, and there are lots of things going on. Here are some things that are happening this week at WISD:

• There will be some dress-up days for students and staff to celebrate homecoming. Dress up days are as follows: Monday - Camo Day, Tuesday - Western Day, Wednesday - Nerd Day, & Thursday - Spirit Day. There will be a door decorating contest for the grades with prizes going to the class with the most spirit.
• The Westphalia Blue Jay volleyball team tries to extend its undefeated season at St. Mary's in Temple on Monday, Oct. 4. The girls' white team begins at 5:00pm and the blue team will play afterwards. Come out and support a great groups of girls!
• "Mr. Puppet," a ventriloquist and entertainer, will be giving a presentation for all students on Tuesday, Oct. 5. Mr. Puppet's comedic twist on an important subject - bullying - will hopefully inspire students to stop such behavior.
• There will be a parent workshop for all interested parents on Tuesday at 6:00pm. The title of this workshop is "Homework in Style" and is designed to help parents set up the homework environment to help students succeed. We hope to see as many parents as possible on Tuesday.
• Report cards will be issued on Wednesday, Oct. 6.
• The Westphalia Blue Jay football team will be in action again on Thursday night. The boys look to even their record for the year as they take on the Buckholts Badgers. Kickoff will be at 6:00pm and we look forward to seeing a raucous crowd support our Blue Jays.
• As a special treat at the football game, you will have the chance to see some future Westphalia cheerleaders as the "Westphalia Mini-Cheerleaders" will be cheering at the game. Come see some of the cutest kids on the planet as they cheer on the Blue Jays.
• The Westphalia volleyball blue team will be competing at the Temple College tournament on Saturday. Game time is to be determined, so ask a volleyball player later in the wee to find out more details.
• Friday will be Student Council elections. All 6-8 grade students interested in running for office need to see Ms. Decker.

Have a great week or not, the CHOICE is yours!

Blog Update

Ok, so we're 6 weeks into the new year and I'm just now getting to the blog. I realize that if I'm going to keep a blog, I need to actually update it, REGULARY. So I will from now on. I apologize for not doing a better job at keeping it up, but pledge to update more more often and regularly in the future.

Expect more posts in the future!

Kiss the Pig

I'm amazed at what one or two people can do. Don't ever think that you can't make a difference. The "Kiss the Pig" contest is a great example of how the thoughts/ideas of one or two people can made a difference.

I was approached several weeks ago by Mrs. Fanz and Mrs. Hernandez about doing a fund raiser for Ms. Young. As you know, Ms. Young is our 4th grade teacher and has been battling cancer for the last several years. She is currently undergoing her third round of chemotherapy, but you couldn't tell by the way she acts. She always shows up ready to work. She is always prepared. She never seems to have a bad day. She's quite remarkable.

Despite appearances to the contrary, Mrs. Fanz and Mrs. Hernandez knew that Ms. Young was in need of some help. Though she would never say it, we all know that the medical expenses have to be piling up. Mrs. Fanz and Mrs. Hernandez decided that they wanted to do something to help, so we began planning a fund raiser.

In the end, we chose a "Kiss the Pig" contest as a way to raise funds. In this type of contest, money is donated in the name of a specific staff member and the staff member with the most money donated in their name has to kiss a pig, literally. We had 8 staff members step up to be candidates to kiss the pig, and the students were absolutely thrilled to have the chance to see one of their favorite teachers kiss a pig.

In typical Westphalia fashion, the generosity displayed by our students, our parents, and the community was overwhelming. In the end, we raised over $3,000 for Ms. Young! Gracious as always, Ms. Young was very thankful to all our students and their parents for the donations. Ms. Cooper, our band and Spanish teacher, won the contest and laid a beautiful kiss right on the snout of a rather rambunctious pig. It was great fun!

I'd like to reiterate the feelings of Ms. Young and thank everyone involved in making this fund raiser such a success. Seeing the generosity of those involved in the Westphalia Community is always humbling and reminds me how lucky I am to work in a place like this!

Shirley and Marcy

A mom was concerned about her kindergarten son walking to school. He didn't want his mother to walk with him. She wanted to give him the feeling that he had some independence but yet know that he was safe.

So she had an idea of how to handle it. She asked a neighbor if she would please follow him to school in the mornings, staying at a distance, so he probably wouldn't notice her. She said that since she was up early with her toddler anyway, it would be a good way for them to get some exercise as well, so she agreed.

The next school day, the neighbor and her little girl set out following behind Timmy as he walked to school with another neighbor girl he knew. She did this for the whole week.

As the two walked and chatted, kicking stones and twigs, Timmy's little friend noticed the same lady was following them as she seemed to do every day all week. Finally she said to Timmy, "Have you noticed that lady following us to school all week? Do you know her?"

Timmy nonchalantly replied, "Yeah, I know who she is."

The little girl said, "Well, who is she?"

"That's just Shirley Goodnest," Timmy replied, "and her daughter Marcy."

"Shirley Goodnest? Who the heck is she and why is she following us?"

"Well," Timmy explained, "every night my Mom makes me say the 23rd Psalm with my prayers. And in the Psalm, it says, 'Shirley Goodnest and Marcy shall follow me all the days of my life', so I guess I'll just have to get used to it!"

May Shirley Goodnest and Marcy be with you today and always.

Weekly Happenings Mar. 8-12

Here are some things that are going on in WISD this week:

• Student Council will be having a meeting on Tuesday during Reading & Tutorials to discuss several upcoming events.
• Children's author "Chester Drawers" will be coming and speaking to our K-2 students. Chester is an author of over 20 children's books and will be sharing with the students the importance of reading and will read some of his books to the children.
• The WISD track team will be competing at the Holland Junior High Track meet on Friday. This event marks the second meet of the year for our athletes.
• The annual Bell County Spelling Bee will take place on Saturday, March 13. WISD has 2 students participating: Haley Hefelfinger (8th grade) and Seth Greensage (7th grade). Good luck to Haley and Seth as they represent the school in this annual event!
• The Junior League of Bell County in partnership with the Children's Miracle Network will host a St. Patrick's Day 5K run/walk on Saturday, March 13. In addition to donating to a wonderful cause, the school with the most participants could win up to $1,000 towards its PE department.

Message of the Week: Nurture our Environment!

Have a great week or not, the CHOICE is yours!

Weekly Happenings Feb. 22-26

Here are some things that are going on in WISD this week:

• Report cards will be going home with students on Wednesday, Feb. 24th
• We are in final preparations for the first TAKS test of the year. Next week, students in grades 4 & 7 will be taking the TAKS writing test. Good luck to those kiddos!
• Students interested in participating in the Junior League of Bell County and Children's Miracle Network St. Patrick's Day 5K Run/Walk need to see Mr. Steele for details. The run benefits the Children's Miracle Network and will be on March 13. The cost for participants is $10, but the local school with the must participants has the opportunity to win $500-$1,000 for their PE program. Again, anyone interested should see Mr. Steele for details.

Message for the week: Study and the Opportunities will Come!

Have a great week or not, the CHOICE is yours!

Field Trip

I love field trip days. There's just something about field trips that gets everyone excited about being at school. I guess it is probably the fact that students think they are somehow playing hooky or the fact that it is just out of the routine that gets them excited.

Today, our students in Kindergarten through 2nd grade have the opportunity to go to the Bell County Expo Center in Belton to attend a mini-rodeo. We had several show up with their cowboy hats and boots on excited about getting the chance to go. Probably the greatest part of field trips is that the students are learning in a real world, hands-on way. I think that is the best way for kids (or for anyone for that matter) to learn.

Our teachers strive to create an environment like that everyday here in Westphalia. While learning learning seemingly useless facts such as factorization or least common denominators, our teachers do a great job interjecting real world reasons why these concepts are important. I think that is one of the reasons our students are so successful. Though we are unable to physically leave school everyday, our teachers are able to connect students to the outside world in an effort to encourage learning and further exploration by students.

So, next time you ask your son or daughter "What did you learn at school today?" make sure you follow it up with "How will that help you in your life as you get older?" If possible, share how you use that concept in your work or life. Together, we can take our students beyond the four walls of the classroom and into the real world everyday.

Weekly Happenings Feb. 1-5

Here are some things that are happening at WISD this week:

• Progress reports will be issued on Wednesday, Feb. 3
• Valentine's Day goodies forms are being collected in the office.
• 2010 Keep Falls County Beautiful calendars are on sale in the office at a cost of $5 per calendar. All students who submitted artwork are in the calendar.
• Students in grades 6-8 who are interested in participating in the Bell County Spelling Bee should let Mr. Steele know by Friday.

Message for the Week: If you don't stand for something, you may fall for anything!

Have a great week or not, the CHOICE is yours!

Happiness On Hold--

It's been a while since I have posted, and I apologize about that. It sometimes becomes easy to fall out of a routine. I received a good message today that I thought I'd share, and I promise to make better effort in the future to keep up with the blog.

Happiness On Hold--

I needed this reminder...maybe you do too. We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren't old enough and we'll be more content when they are. After that, we're frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, are we able to go on a nice vacation, or when we retire.

The truth is, there's no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges. It's best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. Happiness is the way.

So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with...and remember that time waits for no one.

So, stop waiting....
--until your car or home is paid off
--until you get a new car or home
--until your kids leave the house
--until you go back to school
--until you finish school
--until you lose 10 lbs.
--until you gain 10 lbs.
--until you get married
--until you get a divorce
--until you have kids
--until you retire
--until summer
--until spring
--until winter
--until fall
--until you die

There is no better time than right now to be happy.Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

So-work like you don't need money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
And dance like no one's watching.