Student Recognitions

The following Sparta students were honored with a Pizza Party on Friday, December 16th, at lunch for outstanding attendance during the first trimester here at West Senior High. Please join me in congratulating them for their hard work and persistence.

Bawal, Trisha	Light, Kiefer
Bockhol, Vincent	Meyer, Kendrick
Bottoms, Jeremy	Nielsen, Andrea
Conger, Terry	Orth, Shayln
Ebach, Max	Ortiz Perez, Kiara
Edick, Justin	Pavlishin, Timofey
Erickson, Zackery	Provo, Jalen
Finch, Morgan	Ray, Mikaela
Fisher, Matthew	Roberts, Elijah
Garvin, Nicholas	Schelling, Chase
Gutowski, Mark	Schelling, Madison
Gutschke, Cedric	Schlarf, Sawyer
Harrigan, Jessica	Skeels, Alison
Holtcamp, Cameron	Sladek, Ryan
Hronek, Christopher	StJohn, Kyle
Jameson, Emily	Tabbert, Benjamin
Kiessling, Joseph	Taplin, Maria
Kyser, Sarah	Vincent, Christian
LaFleur, Dylan	Vincent, Tasha
LaFleur, Rebecca	Yezbak, David

 

 

Model UN: Congratulations to the West Senior High students that competed at the Canadian American Security Councils in Lansing during the weekend of December 3rd, under the guidance of Mr. Charles Rennie. All 42 of the kids on the team represented Traverse City West with dignity, honor, respect, trust, and distinction.

 

Special congratulations to the individual award winners who were awarded best delegate in their committee -  highest honors. In the picture from left to right; Liam Thomas (Athens), Hannah Yancho (Athens), Ruby Kirby (Athens), Elizabeth Warbasse (Athens), Lennart Wiese (Sparta), and Charlie Pacer (Olympia).  

 

 

Sparta Students of the Month

The following students have been recognized by the Sparta staff as students worthy of recognition this month.

MiKenna Ray, Max Ebach,

Nick Cobb, Alex Hogarth,

Kascha Sanor

These are student who have shown one or more of the following Habits of Mind/Characteristics throughout the 1st Trimester.

Self-directed/Sense of Humor

Positive/Persistent

Achievement

Respectful/Reliable/Resourceful

Tradition/Thoughtful

Active/Adaptable

We will have these students’ names and photos on display in the Sparta Neighborhood.

 

 

Sophomores Can Visit Career Tech Center

All sophomores will have the opportunity to visit the Career Tech Center and the MTEC program on December 13th, 2011. Principals from that program visited with our 10th grade students to discuss the various CTC programs on November 29th during advisory. Interested students can sign up to attend a field trip to the CTC and MTEC campuses. In the event of a snow day on December 13th, the field trip will take place on December 15th, 2011.

 

Faces in the Neighborhood

I would like to introduce you to some of the teachers on our 10th grade core academic teams. Each team is made up of an English, Science, Social Studies, and Math teacher with a special education co-teacher. These teachers work together to plan lessons and units, trouble-shoot issues with students, develop consistency of expectations across disciplines, and teach the skills and habits students need to succeed in school and as citizens. They meet each week during common planning and lunch time, and they work closely with me, their administrator, to best meet the needs of your students. Please contact them with concerns about your child via email or a phone call.

 

Briget Sheeran – Language Arts and Honors Language Arts After graduating from Central Michigan University, I taught at East Middle School for five years. I taught various English and history classes at the seventh, eighth and ninth grade levels. Four years ago, I transferred to West Senior High. I have taught history at the tenth grade level, English at every level, and various electives including ACT Prep. My free time is consumed by my three children, ages seven, five, and two. We enjoy camping, fishing, and cooking.

 

Cyndi Harris – Chemistry and Honors Chemistry I have been teaching for 15 years, ever since the doors opened her at West. I have taught Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry and Environmental Science. This is my second career; my first was an Environmental Chemist for a water quality laboratory. I love to travel, bike, spend time with my family and work in my gardens.

 

Tamie Rosenburg – Geometry and Algebra II I knew I was going to teach when I was in kindergarten. I have always loved mathematics, so that became my area of concentration. This is my 23rd year in education and it never gets old. I graduated from Aquinas College with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. In 1996, I earned my master's degree in mathematics education from Western Michigan University. I am married to Dan Rosenburg (also a teacher at WSH)and have three children. When I am not spending time with my family (almost never), I sing, bake, knit, solving puzzles, and shopping in hardware stores. I am looking forward to another wonderful year at WSH! I've been at WSH since it opened and I love my job! Working with teenagers is the best job in the world!

 

Mike Durbin – World History and Geography and Advanced Placement World History Having attended Kalamazoo College to earn degrees in French and International Studies, I followed getting my teaching certification with a Masters in Humanities. While I studied in France, I also taught English in France upon two different occasions, the latter of which was on a Fulbright Exchange. Initiated through the Fulbright Commission, I now co-lead the Dutch Exchange program West has with a high school in the eastern Netherlands. Currently teaching world history, at both regular and AP levels, my time is also consumed with my own two children at home, a 6 year old daughter and an 8 year old son, with whom I like to read and play soccer. With my wife, a landscape designer, I enjoy cooking and working in the yard and the garden. All together as a family we enjoy traveling, to see relatives from Maine to Colorado, and also to the Netherlands

 

Diana Nelson – Special Education This is my 11th year teaching as a special education teacher. I have taught at WSH for 10 years. My teaching assignment includes co-teaching in language arts and history, for both the 9th and 10th grade teams in the Sparta wing. I enjoy going to the beach, jet skiing, and boating in the summer. I love being outdoors, gardening, walking my dog, and enjoying family. Winters are not my favorite time of the year. I like to travel, shop, workout, go out to dinner, and stay warm during the cold months.

 

 

Charles L. Kolbusz

Assistant Principal

TC West Senior High School

 

I would like to introduce you to some of the teachers on our 9^th grade core academic teams. Each team is made up of an English, Science, Social Studies, and Math teacher with a special education co-teacher. These teachers work together to plan lessons and units, trouble-shoot issues with students, develop consistency of expectations across disciplines, and teach the skills and habits students need to succeed in school and as citizens. They meet each week during common planning and lunch times, and they work closely with me, their administrator, to best meet the needs of your students. Please contact them with concerns about your child via email or a phone call.

 

Welcome to West Senior High and Sparta Neighborhood!
My name is Charles Kolbusz and I am the Principal for our neighborhood. It’s going to be another exciting year here at West Senior High, our 15th since we opened in the winter of 1997. For my first 10 years here at West, I taught Chemistry (to a number of your kids!) and for the last five years I have worked as an Assistant Principal - also with a number of your kids. I have enjoyed seeing them each day and I now have a 10th grader in our Neighborhood to call my own.

Below are some important things to consider as we march into the beginning of the school year. Please take a look -

• All students will have a netbook this year to use in school and to take home. These netbooks have become as essential to class as a textbook. Please take some time at the beginning of the year to discuss where your child will charge it nightly, how to store it properly, and appropriate school related usage of it. Students will be expected to have charged netbook in class. Our library is available before and after school as well as during the day and the building is equipped for wireless access for any student who does not have web access at home. Students that opt out of taking responsibility for a school-issued netbook will still be expected to complete any work that teachers may assign that requires computer usage. Students are welcome to bring their own Internet ready device to West, or they may check a netbook out of our Library Media Center (LMC) on an as needed basis.
  
• The TCAPS 2011-2012 calendar has been finalized and there are some changes, most notably, students have exams the week of Thanksgiving with school on that Wednesday. You can access the calendar at www.tcaps.net which has all important dates and vacations notes. Please carefully consider our school vacations when planning your family time.
  
• Parent Internet Viewer (PIV) PIV is available for your use. Login information has changed for 2011-12. You will receive a letter from us with the new information. An AlertNow message will be sent to inform you when the letters have been mailed. Login information cannot be provided over the phone for security reasons, but you can have your child see Mrs. Nowak in the Sparta office and she will give him/her the information. If you prefer, you can call and ask for it to be mailed and she will send it to your home address on file, or you can come on in and pick it up. We don't send it via email or grant phone requests for security reasons. This system is not typically operational until the end of September.
  
• If at any time during the year you have questions or would like to speak to your child’s teachers, please call or email the teacher directly. Our email system allows you to email any teacher by using the first 8 letters of their last name and the first two letters of their first name, followed by @tcaps.net. As an example, my email is kolbuszch@tcaps.net.  All of these staff email addresses are on the school's website under the staff tab. In addition, a great deal of information can be found our webpage on a variety of things. If you haven't accessed it yet, the address is www.tcaps.net/wsh.
  
• If you did not receive AlertNow email and/or phone messages last year, or your phone or email contacts have changed, please be sure to provide a working phone number and email address at registration so you can stay in the ever increasing paperless communication chain. More and more, we have moved away from mailings to reduce costs, and AlertNow emails and phone contacts are essential for keeping you informed. Thank you for the opportunity to work with your son or daughter during the 2011-12 school year. Feel free to stop in and see Mrs. Nowak (your administrative assistant) or myself at any time.

Faces in the Neighborhood:
Each month we will profile some of our Sparta staff members. This month, we’d like to introduce you to the staff you’ll be interacting with in the Sparta Neighborhood Office this year.

Jennifer Nowak - Sparta Administrative Assistant
Mrs. Nowak has worked at Traverse City West Senior High since the start of the 2010 school year. She is originally from the UP . She is married to Heath and has two great boys. Her and the boys enjoy downhill skiing, kayaking, and spending time on Lake Michigan.

Your Sparta Teaching Staff:
9th Grade Team: Mrs. Stuedemann, Ms. Thompson, Mr. Zenner, Mrs. Nelson and Mrs. Kassab

10th Grade Team: Mrs. Rosenburg, Mr. Durbin, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Nelson, and Mrs. Sheeran

 

 

Student Recognitions

The following Sparta students were honored with a Pizza Party on Friday, December 16th, at lunch for outstanding attendance during the first trimester here at West Senior High. Please join me in congratulating them for their hard work and persistence.

Bawal, Trisha	Light, Kiefer
Bockhol, Vincent	Meyer, Kendrick
Bottoms, Jeremy	Nielsen, Andrea
Conger, Terry	Orth, Shayln
Ebach, Max	Ortiz Perez, Kiara
Edick, Justin	Pavlishin, Timofey
Erickson, Zackery	Provo, Jalen
Finch, Morgan	Ray, Mikaela
Fisher, Matthew	Roberts, Elijah
Garvin, Nicholas	Schelling, Chase
Gutowski, Mark	Schelling, Madison
Gutschke, Cedric	Schlarf, Sawyer
Harrigan, Jessica	Skeels, Alison
Holtcamp, Cameron	Sladek, Ryan
Hronek, Christopher	StJohn, Kyle
Jameson, Emily	Tabbert, Benjamin
Kiessling, Joseph	Taplin, Maria
Kyser, Sarah	Vincent, Christian
LaFleur, Dylan	Vincent, Tasha
LaFleur, Rebecca	Yezbak, David

 

 

Model UN: Congratulations to the West Senior High students that competed at the Canadian American Security Councils in Lansing during the weekend of December 3rd, under the guidance of Mr. Charles Rennie. All 42 of the kids on the team represented Traverse City West with dignity, honor, respect, trust, and distinction.

 

Special congratulations to the individual award winners who were awarded best delegate in their committee -  highest honors. In the picture from left to right; Liam Thomas (Athens), Hannah Yancho (Athens), Ruby Kirby (Athens), Elizabeth Warbasse (Athens), Lennart Wiese (Sparta), and Charlie Pacer (Olympia).  

 

 

Sparta Students of the Month

The following students have been recognized by the Sparta staff as students worthy of recognition this month.

MiKenna Ray, Max Ebach,

Nick Cobb, Alex Hogarth,

Kascha Sanor

These are student who have shown one or more of the following Habits of Mind/Characteristics throughout the 1st Trimester.

Self-directed/Sense of Humor

Positive/Persistent

Achievement

Respectful/Reliable/Resourceful

Tradition/Thoughtful

Active/Adaptable

We will have these students’ names and photos on display in the Sparta Neighborhood.

 

 

Sophomores Can Visit Career Tech Center

All sophomores will have the opportunity to visit the Career Tech Center and the MTEC program on December 13th, 2011. Principals from that program visited with our 10th grade students to discuss the various CTC programs on November 29th during advisory. Interested students can sign up to attend a field trip to the CTC and MTEC campuses. In the event of a snow day on December 13th, the field trip will take place on December 15th, 2011.

 

Faces in the Neighborhood

I would like to introduce you to some of the teachers on our 10th grade core academic teams. Each team is made up of an English, Science, Social Studies, and Math teacher with a special education co-teacher. These teachers work together to plan lessons and units, trouble-shoot issues with students, develop consistency of expectations across disciplines, and teach the skills and habits students need to succeed in school and as citizens. They meet each week during common planning and lunch time, and they work closely with me, their administrator, to best meet the needs of your students. Please contact them with concerns about your child via email or a phone call.

 

Briget Sheeran – Language Arts and Honors Language Arts After graduating from Central Michigan University, I taught at East Middle School for five years. I taught various English and history classes at the seventh, eighth and ninth grade levels. Four years ago, I transferred to West Senior High. I have taught history at the tenth grade level, English at every level, and various electives including ACT Prep. My free time is consumed by my three children, ages seven, five, and two. We enjoy camping, fishing, and cooking.

 

Cyndi Harris – Chemistry and Honors Chemistry I have been teaching for 15 years, ever since the doors opened her at West. I have taught Chemistry, Environmental Chemistry and Environmental Science. This is my second career; my first was an Environmental Chemist for a water quality laboratory. I love to travel, bike, spend time with my family and work in my gardens.

 

Tamie Rosenburg – Geometry and Algebra II I knew I was going to teach when I was in kindergarten. I have always loved mathematics, so that became my area of concentration. This is my 23rd year in education and it never gets old. I graduated from Aquinas College with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. In 1996, I earned my master's degree in mathematics education from Western Michigan University. I am married to Dan Rosenburg (also a teacher at WSH)and have three children. When I am not spending time with my family (almost never), I sing, bake, knit, solving puzzles, and shopping in hardware stores. I am looking forward to another wonderful year at WSH! I've been at WSH since it opened and I love my job! Working with teenagers is the best job in the world!

 

Mike Durbin – World History and Geography and Advanced Placement World History Having attended Kalamazoo College to earn degrees in French and International Studies, I followed getting my teaching certification with a Masters in Humanities. While I studied in France, I also taught English in France upon two different occasions, the latter of which was on a Fulbright Exchange. Initiated through the Fulbright Commission, I now co-lead the Dutch Exchange program West has with a high school in the eastern Netherlands. Currently teaching world history, at both regular and AP levels, my time is also consumed with my own two children at home, a 6 year old daughter and an 8 year old son, with whom I like to read and play soccer. With my wife, a landscape designer, I enjoy cooking and working in the yard and the garden. All together as a family we enjoy traveling, to see relatives from Maine to Colorado, and also to the Netherlands

 

Diana Nelson – Special Education This is my 11th year teaching as a special education teacher. I have taught at WSH for 10 years. My teaching assignment includes co-teaching in language arts and history, for both the 9th and 10th grade teams in the Sparta wing. I enjoy going to the beach, jet skiing, and boating in the summer. I love being outdoors, gardening, walking my dog, and enjoying family. Winters are not my favorite time of the year. I like to travel, shop, workout, go out to dinner, and stay warm during the cold months.

 

 

Charles L. Kolbusz

Assistant Principal

TC West Senior High School

 

I would like to introduce you to some of the teachers on our 9^th grade core academic teams. Each team is made up of an English, Science, Social Studies, and Math teacher with a special education co-teacher. These teachers work together to plan lessons and units, trouble-shoot issues with students, develop consistency of expectations across disciplines, and teach the skills and habits students need to succeed in school and as citizens. They meet each week during common planning and lunch times, and they work closely with me, their administrator, to best meet the needs of your students. Please contact them with concerns about your child via email or a phone call.

 

Welcome to West Senior High and Sparta Neighborhood!
My name is Charles Kolbusz and I am the Principal for our neighborhood. It’s going to be another exciting year here at West Senior High, our 15th since we opened in the winter of 1997. For my first 10 years here at West, I taught Chemistry (to a number of your kids!) and for the last five years I have worked as an Assistant Principal - also with a number of your kids. I have enjoyed seeing them each day and I now have a 10th grader in our Neighborhood to call my own.

Below are some important things to consider as we march into the beginning of the school year. Please take a look -

• All students will have a netbook this year to use in school and to take home. These netbooks have become as essential to class as a textbook. Please take some time at the beginning of the year to discuss where your child will charge it nightly, how to store it properly, and appropriate school related usage of it. Students will be expected to have charged netbook in class. Our library is available before and after school as well as during the day and the building is equipped for wireless access for any student who does not have web access at home. Students that opt out of taking responsibility for a school-issued netbook will still be expected to complete any work that teachers may assign that requires computer usage. Students are welcome to bring their own Internet ready device to West, or they may check a netbook out of our Library Media Center (LMC) on an as needed basis.
  
• The TCAPS 2011-2012 calendar has been finalized and there are some changes, most notably, students have exams the week of Thanksgiving with school on that Wednesday. You can access the calendar at www.tcaps.net which has all important dates and vacations notes. Please carefully consider our school vacations when planning your family time.
  
• Parent Internet Viewer (PIV) PIV is available for your use. Login information has changed for 2011-12. You will receive a letter from us with the new information. An AlertNow message will be sent to inform you when the letters have been mailed. Login information cannot be provided over the phone for security reasons, but you can have your child see Mrs. Nowak in the Sparta office and she will give him/her the information. If you prefer, you can call and ask for it to be mailed and she will send it to your home address on file, or you can come on in and pick it up. We don't send it via email or grant phone requests for security reasons. This system is not typically operational until the end of September.
  
• If at any time during the year you have questions or would like to speak to your child’s teachers, please call or email the teacher directly. Our email system allows you to email any teacher by using the first 8 letters of their last name and the first two letters of their first name, followed by @tcaps.net. As an example, my email is kolbuszch@tcaps.net.  All of these staff email addresses are on the school's website under the staff tab. In addition, a great deal of information can be found our webpage on a variety of things. If you haven't accessed it yet, the address is www.tcaps.net/wsh.
  
• If you did not receive AlertNow email and/or phone messages last year, or your phone or email contacts have changed, please be sure to provide a working phone number and email address at registration so you can stay in the ever increasing paperless communication chain. More and more, we have moved away from mailings to reduce costs, and AlertNow emails and phone contacts are essential for keeping you informed. Thank you for the opportunity to work with your son or daughter during the 2011-12 school year. Feel free to stop in and see Mrs. Nowak (your administrative assistant) or myself at any time.

Faces in the Neighborhood:
Each month we will profile some of our Sparta staff members. This month, we’d like to introduce you to the staff you’ll be interacting with in the Sparta Neighborhood Office this year.

Jennifer Nowak - Sparta Administrative Assistant
Mrs. Nowak has worked at Traverse City West Senior High since the start of the 2010 school year. She is originally from the UP . She is married to Heath and has two great boys. Her and the boys enjoy downhill skiing, kayaking, and spending time on Lake Michigan.

Your Sparta Teaching Staff:
9th Grade Team: Mrs. Stuedemann, Ms. Thompson, Mr. Zenner, Mrs. Nelson and Mrs. Kassab

10th Grade Team: Mrs. Rosenburg, Mr. Durbin, Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Nelson, and Mrs. Sheeran