2014 Westide Auction Projects

By Ella and Kate

On Saturday March 22nd Westside School hosted their 25th Annual Auction. Each grade participated in creating class projects that were auctioned off to raise money for our arts program and school finances in general.

Pre-Kindergarten

This year the Pre-K class created a gorgeous blown glass sculpture with hints of orange and red.

Kindergarten

Using child created drawings as inspiration, the Kindergarten worked with an artist to create a intriguing and visually interesting picture of a mythical dragon-like creature.

First Grade

Using dyed paper sheets the first grade class created a magical array of red, orange and blue layered paper.

Second Grade

Peace by Piece the second grade class created an intricate desk full of magnificent flags of the world by using legos.

Third Grade

Made by the third grade, a metal masterpiece was created. A bench filled with etchings was made by students of the class

Fourth Grade

Playing along with the theme of the our favorite planet Earth, the fourth grade created a collage of a map of the world with green and blue color tones.

5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Grade

For this years middle school auction products, students were asked to contribute to service work. The 5th grade helped entertain children at Mary's Place, 6th grade helped at Westside Baby, the 7th grade prepared delicious meals for Mary's place and the 8th grade helped sort food at the White Center Food Bank. Auction attendees were asked to contribute money corresponding to hours of work spent per project.

All and all we raised more money this year than the last. The students at Westside thank you so very much for all of your lovely donations. We appreciate all that you have done for us.

Susannah's Doorknob 2.0

By Blake

Once again Susannah's door has been broken, but this time it was even more catastrophic than before. On May 25, 2014 the doorknob officially broke, and fell off the door for that matter. Anthony, a seventh grade student, went to open the door to come into class and pulled the knob itself clean off the door. He was dumbfounded, while students around him tried to screw the knob back on. After the struggle, the seventh graders, along with Susannah, were able to put the knob on temporarily but in order to be able to open the door both someone on the inside and outside would have to turn the knob in all sorts of directions. Luckily after Susannah notified Don, the whole knob was taken off and repaired by Don and Tai. We will continue to update you on the challenges and issues with Susannah’s doorknob!

March Madness Update

By: Owen, Emilio, and Chris

There are no more perfect brackets left in the tournament, no one is getting one billion dollars and even the people who have the best brackets, have at least four games wrong. This in part because there have been upsets that less than 3 percent of people predicted. 11, 12, 13 and 14 seeds have all won, beating basketball powerhouses like Syracuse, Duke and Kansas. Many people thought these teams had a chance to get to the final four, or even win the national championship. With teams like Dayton, Harvard and North Dakota State winning against all odds over traditional powerhouses, this years tournament has been very exciting.

Some of the favorites to win are still in the tournament, but others, such as Wichita State, Creighton and Syracuse have been knocked out. With so many upsets and great games, we have experienced the madness of March once again. Our next update will be after the national championship game.  

4th Grade Biography Picture

This year for their biography projects, the 4th Graders chose a historical person from early U.S. History that made an impact in the formation of the United States. For the past month, they have used books, the internet and other sources to learn as much as they can about the person they chose. There are five major parts to this project including...

• Timeline - Which includes 10 significant events in your persons life. These events must be significant contributions transforming American history.
• Journal entries - First person narratives that expand on the events they chose from their timeline
• Bibliography - An essay that explains the chosen person's life and achievements in more detail.
• Wax museum presentation - A 1-2 minute speech from the point of view of your historical person that they will present in front of their classmates.
• Self evaluation - an opportunity to reflect on how you did on this project

If you would like a closer look at the newly completed timelines, take a peek in the main entrance hall, where the 4th grade classrooms are located. The final due date is April 4th. Make sure to take a look at the final products.

By Amber and Kayla

Crimea Leaves Ukraine, Ukrainian Troops Kicked Out, and more on the Sanctions For Everyone

By Grant

As of this last week the Russian Federation will recognize Crimea as part of Russia. The overwhelming 97% yes vote that was taken last…………... is believed to have been rigged by Russian officials. During the Russian takeover, Ukraine forces were still held up in their bases as Russia took control. They were given until last Friday to join Russia, retire, or to go back to Ukraine. Many military bases had already been overrun by local pro Russian militia and Russian troops while the Ukrainians were waiting for orders that never came. Approximately 80 Ukraine soldiers have been captured when their bases were stormed by militia. The Ukrainian government is demanding their release.

The annexation of Crimea has been called an outrage by much of the international community. U.S. and all of the EU have retaliated against Russia with sanctions against many in Putin's inner circle. These sanctions freeze all of their assets in those countries and prevent travel to said countries. Russia has responded with their own sanctions on American and EU officials.

John McCain had this to say about the sanctions put on him.  “I guess that means my spring break in Siberia is off, my Gazprom stock is lost, and my secret bank account in Moscow is frozen. Nonetheless, I will never cease my efforts on behalf of the freedom, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea.”

First Day of Spring at Westside!

by Aisha and Emma 

                   Beautiful weather came along for the first day of Spring. Today, March 20th, marks the first official day of Spring. The sun is out and the skies are blue. Also make sure to check out the Google Doodle celebrating the first days of Spring. Meanwhile today during advisory some of the advisories went out to the courtyard to soak up the sun. Playing volleyball and foursquare. Here are some photos of the kids having fun in the sun.

8th Grade China Trip!

By Grant Comick

This April, the 8th grade Chinese Class will embark on the first ever Westside School international trip. This is a great opportunity to be immersed in the language and become world citizens. I myself am going on the trip and am very excited for it. We will be leaving late Saturday and arriving in Beijing late Sunday. We will be participating in various activities that showcase Beijing and Chinese culture. Here are just a few of the planned activities:

• Guided tour of Beijing
• Dragon boat ride
• Tajik Chinese breathing exercise
• Visit Forbidden City
• Take tour of Great Wall of china
• Rickshaw tour
• Beijing Zoo
• The choice of attending an acrobatics show
• Touring the Olympic Sports Complex
• Experience Chinese culture
• Free time to explore the city and do what we wish.

If all goes as planned, this will be a fantastic start to the annual language trips, I for one, can't wait.

Quote of the Week

Sounder’s Great Beginning

By Chris

The Sounders season started two Saturday's ago with a 1-0 win against Sporting from Kansas City. They won in the 94th minute on a goal by Chad Barrett. With an early win against the reigning MLS champs, the Sounders may finally be able to satisfy their fans. This off-season the Sounders made some bold moves. They got rid of striker Eddie Johnson and midfielder Mauro Rosales. Last season both of these players were key to securing a playoff berth. They may have done this to make room for Osvaldo Alonso's new contract which makes him a designated player. They signed 26 year old, Guatemalan, Marco Pappa and 29 year old Kenny Cooper to make up for the key losses. They also signed defender Chad Marshall to solidify a defense that struggled last year. With these new additions as well as returning stars like striker Obafemi Martins, midfielder Osvaldo Alonso and defender DeAndre Yedlin, the Sounders may be poised to have a breakout year. If coach Sigi Schmid can finally lead his team past the second round of the playoffs, then Seattle may have something else to cheer about. With the help of a great home crowd and U.S star Clint Dempsey, the Sounders may finally win the MLS cup.

Computers Changing the Face of Music

By Aisha 

Can there be singers without talent? Can composers compose without composing? With today's new computer technology anything is possible, but is it for the better? The BBC science journalist Alok Jha tries to find out in this exciting article. Alok Jha visits the music studio engineer Estelle Rubio. He then records a questionable song with his less than perfect voice to see if computers could really fix his beyond hopeless voice. Although Estelle Rubio was able to fix the pitch, the soul of his voice had been taken out. Next he visits Alexis Curt, a computer composer who is developing software that can create it's own compositions. Although his research is incredibly impressive, the final outcome is far from perfect. The potential for computer composition to overcome human composition is not there yet, but it is only a matter of time.     

Check out the BBC video about this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4KmRXr6x88

Source of pic: source: https://www.google.com/search?q=music+and+computer&rlz=1C1EODB_enUS572US572&espv=210&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=kbwpU_rHLcODogSPg4DoCg&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=667#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=KrbtOTdUgpNzSM%253A%3BvXTPyq2Ie86l-M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fgraphics8.nytimes.com%252Fimages%252F2012%252F09%252F16%252Fsunday-review%252F16GRAY%252F16GRAY-articleLarge.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.nytimes.com%252F2012%252F09%252F16%252Fopinion%252Fsunday%252Fthe-computer-as-music-critic.html%3B600%3B297

Helicopter Crash In Seattle

By Henry and Luke

At about 7:50 am, Tuesday on the 18th of March a KOMO 4 news helicopter crashed in the parking lot of the Space needle.  The victims of this crash where pilot Gary Pfitzner and photographer Bill Strothman.  Three cars were destroyed in this crash, in one of them was a 38 year old man.  He managed to escape but suffered 50% of his body being burned.  Firefighters arrived at the scene to find a large plume of black smoke rising into the air.  Pedestrians were from then on blocked out from the City Centre by firefighters and police.  Our thoughts go out to the family's and the KOMO 4 news broadcast teams for their lose.

The Missing Malaysian Flight

By Christopher

On March 8 Malaysian flight MH370 went missing with 239 people on board. The planes last know location was over the Strait of Malacca, but signals from the plane were detected 6 hours after it was last picked up on radar. The search began by searching air corridors north and south of the planes last known location. Malaysia says the plane was intentionally diverted. The Chinese are searching their country and the Malaysian government is trying to narrow the search grid, which is now about 2.24 million square nautical miles. 25 countries are involved in the search and so far there have been no known links to terrorism so far. Planes and satellites have been deployed to help on the search. Even after so many days, there is still hope for finding the missing plane.

Marsha's Kindergarten Garden

By: Scarlett and Kayla

This year, Marsh’s Westside School's Kindergarten Class is planning on growing a garden in their playground area. They have already started growing potatoes in their classroom.  Last week they began preparing to create their rainbow garden. A rainbow garden is created out of different colored vegetables. They will also be planting flowers all the colors of the rainbow.

Their garden will show the children the importance of eating healthy and making our community look beautiful. The kids haven't done very much gardening yet but are preparing the soil for spring. They continue to pull weeds from the flower bed and now have just received the alpaca based fertilizer which will enrich the soil. The children have already planted and harvested pumpkins from Halloween.

Marsha is planning on having the children eat a different color of vegetable each day. All of the kindergartners are very excited and are ready to learn  healthy eating and nature.

Shoe & Footwear Donation Drive

By Emma

Westside School is having their very own shoe harvest! We will be helping those in need by donating shoes to the Redeeming Soles Organization. All shoes are accepted, but we request that they are new or gently used. Feel free to drop off your spare shoes during morning drop off or pick up, we will have volunteer students with a donation bin at the lower parking lot. We will also have a large donation bin at the main entrance. Make sure to either tie the laces of the shoes together or rubber band them together to prevent mix up of different shoes. Please contribute and help make our community a better place.   

Mary's Place Collection Drive

By Amber, Kate and Daisy

For one of the service learning projects we are working on this year, we will be collecting daily necessities for local homeless women and children. We have been studying poverty in the United States and decided that collecting items for Mary's Place would be a great opportunity to learn more about societal dynamics and serve our community. Donations must be in by March 26th, in order to deliver them by the desired date. Drop off boxes will be located at the main and middle school entrances.

Specifically, we need...

• Deodorant
• Season appropriate clothing and coats
• Raincoats
• Children's clothing (especially teen boys)
• Tissues
• Nail clippers
• Toothpaste
• Hair brushes, large combs & picks
• Soap
• Shampoo, hair care products
• Shaving razors
• Tweezers

We hope you are able to help contribute!

Thanks so much for your help!

8th Graders Thoughts on Going to High School

By: Owen and Jackson

Being the first graduating class of the Westside Middle School is an honor.  All the eighth graders will cherish our years at Westside for the rest of our lives. We will remember the best moments, the great friends we made, and the amazing support of our teachers.

We all feel that Westside has prepared us for high school and the rest of our lives. Some of the people in the eighth grade class have been here since pre-school; Owen, Anna C, Anna N, Grant, Lucie, Jordan, and Annika have all been here for 11 years and still just can't get enough of it. The others who came after: Ella, Isabele, Jackson, Jakob, John, Larisa, Lily G, Lily S, Lily T, Niccole, and Rex are still a big part of the Westside community.

Although it will be great going to a bigger school with more opportunities, we will miss how close the community here is and how nice everyone is to each other. However, we are all very excited to meet new people and make new friends and hopefully will still stay in contact with each other. We will all miss Westside dearly and we will never forget it.

Middle School Dance

by: Scarlett and Kayla

This years middle school dance was held on February 2nd in the Multipurpose Room. Unlike the other dances that have been held, this was a masquerade. Everyone was required to bring a mask . We were also required to bring a can of food, that was later donated to the White Center Food Bank. In addition to that, Westside School also volunteers at the White Center Food Bank during community service and we enjoy knowing that we are helping our community.

The snacks at the dance were a large improvement from last year, there was popular candies, a variety of chips, baked goods and different kinds of soda. Although students enjoyed the food, they were less pleased with the music selection. Some song where repeated and some requests not played. But overall we agree the dance was a success once again.!

The Ukraine Conflict

By Kenji  & Henry

On Friday, February 28, Russia's President Vladimir Putin deployed sixteen thousand troops in a week to Crimea, Ukraine. Putin is not showing any signs of backing down. "So far, Ukraine armed forces have exercised restraint and refrained from active resistance to the aggression but they are in full operational readiness," Ukrainian Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev said. People around the country are saying that this is the most controversial decision Putin has ever made. It has even  gotten more intense than ever, as additional Russian troops have poured into the Crimea region. People are wondering if there will be fighting between Ukraine and Russian troops. Right now in Crimea, Russian troops arrived at a ferry crossing in Kerch, Ukraine.  Border guards have reported sightings of guarded Russian armored vehicles. President Obama is staying fairly neutral but is strongly advising Russia to pull out Ukraine. US armed forces are staying out of the conflict but still haven't taken that out of the plan if necessary.

Tips for Middle School or Everything You Need To Know To Survive Middle School

by Scarlett, Kenji and Kayla

When coming into middle school there are some things you should remember that will make your school life much easier. Our base rules are respect and responsibility, if you always remembers these key points your middle school experience will go smoothly.

1. Come prepared. Every class you attend you will need to have all of the materials required. Make sure to always have a writing utensil, paper and your iPad. Also have your homework from the previous night. If you have not finished your homework, don't worry you can go to homework land. Homework Land is held in a different classroom each day, this is a place where, during lunch you many finish your homework.  

2.Keep track of your iPad. All of your important school documents will be on your iPad, without your iPad you will be unprepared.

3.Come to class on time. Make sure you are never late to class because that is punishable.

4. Be positive.  Keep an open mind and help others in a kind fashion.

5. And of course, our base rule, Respect and Responsibility. Apply this to everything possible because it will help you not just get through middle school, but life too.

Seventh Grade Brain Field Trip

Have you ever wanted to touch a real human brain? Well the seventh grade of Westside School did. On Tuesday the seventh grade went to the University Of Washington to look and learn about the human brain and how it works. After a lecture at the University, the seventh grade went into a room with many stations to learn about the brain and the nervous system. In the room there were stations where the kids could hold and touch a human brain! At the stations, the seventh graders got to play with sensors that detect movement and can catalog it and allow machine to move on that way. Overall the seventh grade had a very good field trip and they all learned a lot.

New Staff at Westside- Ari Feeney

What's some background information about you?

I was born in Seattle, but moved to Hawaii when I was 6 months old.  I grew up on the Big Island and still have a lot of family there.  Before moving back to Seattle last summer, I was living in Bellingham, which is about 90 miles north.   I've been a teacher for about 10 years, but before I became I teacher, I was planning to go to Law School.  I have one sister who lives in Seattle and a ton of other family members in West Seattle. I also have an amazing 4 year old niece named Isabella and a wonder-Beagle named Buster.  

What is your title at Westside?

My official title is Lower School Division Head and 4th Grade Teacher

What was your previous job?

I was a teacher for many years.  I've taught grades 3-7.  When I taught Middle School, I taught Literature, Washington State History and Language Arts.  A few years ago, I decided to go back to school to become a school administrator. I completed a two-year Post-Graduate Administrative Program and am now certified to be a school principal for grades PK-12.   Before coming to Westside, I was the Associate Head of School at another Independent school in Bellingham.

What do you like most about Westside?

I really like the kids and families at Westside. I think our school community is really open and friendly. Kids love learning at Westside and it's so great to see how happy everyone is to come to school.  The families that I have met are kind, appreciative and caring.   It makes my job so enjoyable.  I also really enjoy working with our teachers and other faculty members!

What are the pros and cons about your job?

The major pro is of my job is having the opportunity to get to know ALL the kids in the Lower School (and some Middle Schoolers too!). As an administrator, I get to go into all of our classrooms and interact with all the teachers and kids. It's fun to learn all of their names and know what's going on in the classrooms.  It's hard to think of a con about my job, but if I had to name one, I think it's managing lots of information and tasks and figuring out the best way to keep things organized.  I always want to be as helpful as possible to everyone.  Sometimes I feel like there's some many things to remember, I am worried I will accidentally 'drop" something.   

Susannah's Door Knob

By Luke and Chris

Our humanities teacher, Susannah Muench, has been struggling for months. But not for the normal reasons. You might think a teacher new to the school would have trouble adjusting to the school, or maybe her students are badly behaved. But the reason for her struggles is her door.  Now you might think "Oh, come on now her door can't be that bad." But you have no idea, it won't open, the door knob is loose and you just can't open the door.  The knob spins completely around before opening, which makes it prone to breaking and not working properly.  There was even one day a couple of weeks ago when Susannah and her advisory were trapped in the room, until someone came in and opened it.  Although there have been many attempts to fix her door knob, it remains a problem.  Maybe one day she will have a door that works.

8th Grade Costa Rica Trip

By: Owen and Isabele

The 8th grade Spanish Class has an amazing opportunity to go to Costa Rica next month.The trip is during spring break and three extra days (ten days in all) and we will be traveling all over Costa Rica. We will be in San Jose for 4 days, Arenal Region for 2 days, Monteverde for 2 days, and Carara for 2 days.

The trip will be a great chance for us to apply the skills and sentence structures we have learned in Spanish Class into real life situations. We will have a tour guide that will show us the sights in Costa Rica and restaurants, which means we will order our food in Spanish.  Getting to experience the culture of Costa Rica will also show us the difference between our lives and the lives of people in other countries. We are very excited to go swimming, eat all different types of Costa Rican delicacies and see many sites. All of us can't wait for April.