This edition of the newsletter is brought to you by:
Boy, this year is flying by!
We're back with this six weeks news from the WesterPTA. Included in this newsletter is pretty much everything anyone wanted you to know and probably some stuff they didn't. You can find the latest on:
NEXT WEEKS SOCIAL - Mardi Gras Style
The upcoming Bookfair
Spirit Nights
Every student's favorite, "Freaky Friday"
News from the Wester Middle School's Librarian extraordinaire
Teacher Appreciation
Reflections
A quick word from your Wester PTA President
Wildcat Family!
Wow! Is the first semester really already gone? It seems as if I recently wrote my last article commenting on Thanksgiving and preparing for the upcoming holiday season. Now we have a full semester behind us and preparations are in full swing for our Mardi Gras Social on February 26th!! Help is always welcome. Contact Lisa Hudgins at lisa.hudgins@sbcglobal.net to volunteer.
How about those awesome black hoodies our Wildcats are sporting these days?! Kudos to Tara Wetli (and Tammy Decker) for such a great new look! PTA still has a limited supply available in Adult sizes Small – Extra Large. Contact Tara at tara2@att.net.
Read on to learn more from the various chairmen and remember to check us out and view a calendar of events online at www.westerpta.com.
Our priority is to do everything we can to enhance the learning environment for our students and staff. Thank you for your support and for allowing me the privilege of serving you and your Wester student. If you ever have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact me. Sincerely,
Where: Wester Library When: March 22-March 26 Hours: 8:15-4:15 Special opening during Open House March 23 6:30-8pm Teachers and volunteers receive 10% off all book purchases!! Poster Raffle open to all students!
Freaky Friday's here again!
Don't forget to bring a couple of dollars with you for some well deserved snacks after school. This is a great way to help out with the student hunger problem and support your Wester PTA!
Everything is one dollar!
If you’d like to volunteer to help with sales, please contact
Donation Drive A huge thank you to everyone who participated in our “Don’t Show Up Event” Donation Drive!
All donations directly benefit the students and campus of Wester and we are thankful that your generosity has raised $4,000.00 thus far!
If you have not participated, it’s never too late to submit your tax-deductible donation!
You can donate online via Paypal at www.westerpta.com or send a check (payable to Wester PTA) to school, attention PTA.
While a $25.00 donation per student is suggested, we will happily accept any donation you can make.
Library News from the Library
Database of the Month! Gale Research Databases are a gold mine of information for your research needs. Our custom Power Search home page lets us use keywords to find newspaper and magazine articles, books, TV & radio transcripts, multimedia (video and photos and audio) from a great deal of sources, constantly updated.
Gale Virtual Reference Library is a database of encyclopedias and specialized reference sources (ebooks) for multidisciplinary research. These are actual books converted to electronic format so the students can access these excellent resources from anywhere in the world. The great collection of ebooks we have is due to a wise purchase by the MISD School Board so all students in the district have equal access.
The password for this link is “wildcats” as all our usernames are “wester” and all the passwords are “wildcats.”
One of the other great things about these databases is that we have permission to use the materials in our projects as we have paid for them. All the students need to do is “cite” where they get their information or photos to be a responsible researcher. Gale provides MLA citation at the bottom of every article for our convenience.
Please explore this great research to use with your student and encourage them to use this instead of the “open internet” as the information has a better chance of being correct.
Please do not hesitate to email me swanka@mansfieldisd.org or call me at 817-299-7015 if you have any questions.
Mrs. Swanson, Librarian
Yearbook
Have pictures you think would be great in the yearbook?
Check out the flyer at http://www.mansfieldisd.org/schools/bwester/bwester_library/documents/ImageShareFlyer.pdf to upload your pictures. Our Yearbook staff will review to see if we can use them. We could really use any basketball game pictures you may have.
A big congratulations to all the students that entered this years Reflections contest. Wester has some very talented students!
Reflections 2009 “Beauty is…” Winners
Literature Taylor Strong “Belle” Award of Excellence Marina Hawkins “Beauty is Around You” Honorable Mention Emily Townsend “Beauty is you” Honorable Mention
Photography Allison Kuster “Beauty is…Texas Bluebonnets” Award of Excellence Allison Kuster “Beauty is…the Rocky Mountains” Award of Merit Allison Kuster “Beauty is…a Mountain Waterfall” Honorable Mention
Visual Arts Katy Nelson “Invisible Beauty” Award of Excellence Gabriel Aldrete “Ranas en la hierba” Award of Merit Douglas Jamie "The Beauty of Friendship” Honorable Mention
Taylor Strong, Allison Kuster and Katy Nelson's entries will be advancing to the Mansfield Council of PTA's for judging at the city level with a possibility to move onto state. Congratulations to our winners and all the students who entered this contest.
Spirit Nights
Schlotzsky's Monthly- every second Tuesday Upcoming Dates: March 9th April 13th
Look out for more information to come on the website. Mention that you are a Wester Widcat and our school gets 20% of all proceeds.
The teachers and staff at Wester are the greatest and our parents are quick to step up and help us show them how much we all appreciate what they do every day for our kids!
Wester PTA started the school year off with a luncheon catered by Texas Roadhouse during the busy week before students started back to school. Many thanks to Roadhouse owners, who are also Wester parents, Rick and Elizabeth Schweik for such a tasty lunch! The teachers and staff were well fed and fueled up for the busy days ahead!
Next we had a "Take and Go" breakfast day on Oct. 29th with all kinds of breakfast treats provided by the Teacher Appreciation team of volunteers. If you signed up to help with Teacher Appreciation (form included in the Back to School packets) and have not received an email from me, please email me at the email address below. I had quite a few emails that bounced back to me and I don't want to leave anyone out!
Wester PTA hosted a Holiday Luncheon on Dec. 16th. Teachers and staff were treated to hot, tasty lunch catered by Johnny Carinos and desserts provided by Teacher Appreciation volunteers. Thanks so much to all our parents who continue to give so freely of their time and baking skills to show our teachers and staff how much we value them!
Our "Sweets Day" planned for February 12th had to be postponed because of the snow day. A new date will be selected soon.
Additional dates to note: May 2nd-8th - Tentative dates for Teacher Appreciation Week More details to come as those dates draw near! Thanks to all of our parents who have stepped up to help us show our teachers and staff at Wester how much they are appreciated! We have a fantastic bunch of kids and parents!! If you ever have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me.
You are not going to want to miss this one. A night to remember.
Wester PTA presents:
Mardi Gras Dance
Feb 26 7-9pm
Ticket Pre-sales- Feb 23-25 before school and at lunch $5
Day of Dance- $6
Hair Painting, Concessions, and Pictures all $1 each
BYOB- Bring Your Own Mask
Contact - Anissa Lara - utaphi@aol.com
We are still desperately in need of some help by the parents. Click here to let us know if you can volunteer?
We are looking forward to hosting a fun night for your child. Can you help us out? We need help with working and chaperoning the dance. If you are available for a fun night, please e-mail Lisa Hudgins ASAP at lisa.hudgins@sbcglobal.net. Also, as part of the fun we are wanting to have items/gift cards for prize giveaways at the Mardi Gras dance. Any amount or item you think the kids would love would be appreciated.
If you would like to contribute, please send your items/gift cards to the school office by Thursday at 4:00 for Courtney Wilson.
Want to buy your tickets online? Check this out!
Notifications Want to be kept in the loop? We also post information on Twitter and Text Messages.
Want to get updates via your cell phone? Learn how below.
Connecting to Facebook
Bookfair
Freaky Friday's here again!
Donation Drive
Library
Yearbook
