Warrior of the Week

Previous W.O.W. Recipients

by Karen McKelvey

December 04, 2007

3/16/10	Junius Welch	Mr. Welch recently created a new English course which gives his students an opportunity to study literature while evaluating their individual footprint on the world. His lessons are truly engaging and on any given day, an observer will witness him challenging his students to “exercise their brains” while thinking critically and analytically about literature and their writing.
3/1/10	Susan Croxton, Betty Heenan, Sally Ausbourne, Cheryl Woehrstein, Joy Rosen, Ellen Hamilton, Janice Gebel, Paula Verbeck & Diana Carpenter	For the past several years, the West High School Special Education Department has sponsored Disabilities Awareness Week, a truly amazing and meaningful event for our 9th graders. The backbone of this event is our special education staff, and in particular our paraeducator team who runs the disability simulation stations. In addition to doing great work on a daily basis to support our students, each of these women gave their own time (and resources) to help make this years experience another great one. They are all very deserving of our recognition.
2/11/10	Ricardo Villa	Mr. Villa is one of the hardest workers on staff at West High School. From working late at night, covering a weekend shift or standing on the roof to repair a leak, he is always willing to handle any task. But most importantly, Mr. Villa always keeps a positive attitude as he works to maintain a daily high standard.
1/27/10	Terri Vorhis	Mrs. Vorhis works countless hours every week to prepare her dance students to perform at their very best. This year’s Winter Production was of particularly high quality and level of excellence displayed by her beginning, intermediate and advanced dancers was very apparent. Mrs. Vorhis sets extremely high and daily standards of excellence for both her students and herself – and it shows.
1/20/10	Eric Foster	Mr. Foster works effectively to keep the students and staff at West High School safe. He is always willing to get involved when a disruption occurs and he handles difficult situations with professionalism. Recently, when a campus “lockdown” occurred, he helped our staff and students to follow the appropriate emergency protocols and he handled a difficult situation with a sense of calm.
1/11/10	Steve Martin	Mr. Martin works tirelessly to prepare meaningful lessons and to assess student work on a daily basis. He cares deeply about the achievement of every student and it shows in his preparation and their performance. Additionally, he is a leader among the faculty in helping to bring about positive and cohesive curricular advances at West High School.
12/14/09	Donna Burt, Nadeane Peterson, Elizabeth Szucs, Shelly Thompson & Julie Woods	Currently, all five of these teachers represent the entire faculty as site TTA Representatives. Given the very uncertain financial times, they have given up their lunch break on numerous occasions to ensure that every West High teacher has opportunity to give their feedback about future and potential budget cuts. Each of them has approached their peers with a care and sensitivity and they are fully committed to putting in whatever time it takes to listen to everyone. Additionally, each of these teachers continue to work diligently for their students and, in spite of increased class size, their curriculum and expectations remain rigorous and demanding.
12/9/09	Keita Kadono	Mr. Kadono is an effective teacher who strives to make learning Japanese both challenging and fun for his students. He wrote and received a grant to incorporate technology into his class curriculum. Additionally, he organized a visit with students from Japan, who partnered with his classes for multiple days and allowed for an engaging opportunity to study the culture alongside the Japanese language.
11/23/09	Le Thu Nguyen	Ms. Nguyen provides her class with a productive learning environment on a daily basis. In addition, she works diligently on her free time to plan lessons and labs that promote group responsibility and challenge individual students to truly think and analyze in order to solve problems and respond to questions.
11/16/09	Phil Drasner	Mr. Drasner has embraced the new challenge of continuing as the Student Support Counselor while taking on all 9th grade counseling duties. Additionally, he is willing to support other programs such as the West High Peer Mediators and he recently hosted an elementary school conflict mediation training for an entire day. He is always willing to go the extra mile when preparing for guests to West High School to make them feel truly welcomed.
11/9/09	Anthony Rugnetta	Mr. Rugnetta teaches with passion every minute of each class period. He challenges his students to put forth their best effort every day and he makes it his personal mission to make sure that none of them accept failure. In addition, he is willing to closely evaluate new ideas and bring activities that help his students develop connections with the curriculum.
10/26/09	Tera Black	Mrs. Black challenges her chemistry students to come prepared and ready to learn every moment of each day. Regularly, her students are pushed to explore through innovative lab experiments and they are encouraged to think, analyze and share. She strives to help her students achieve their best through well thought lessons that make learning fun for both the students and the teacher.
10/20/09	Jennifer Haney	Ms. Haney is a very thorough Math teacher who works hard every day to make certain her students are challenged. As a coach, Ms. Haney continues to be an excellent teacher of the game of volleyball. Again, she challenges her athletes to put forth maximum effort and she is able to motivate them all on a daily basis.
10/6/09	Vince Banim	Mr. Banim supervises the enormous and highly decorated West High Entertainment Unit. Recently he coordinated the Annual West High Field Show Tournament and once again, the event was a great success. Mr. Banim regularly sets high standards for his students and he is always willing to provide them with the support they need to be successful.
9/28/09	Jenny Drorbaugh	Mrs. Drorbaugh is an exceptionally dedicated educator. She spends hours of her personal time planning in order to make her instruction in Spanish the very best for her students. Additionally, Mrs. Drorbaugh is a devoted curricular leader for the entire foreign language department and she has organized their collaborative time in a manner that is productive and meaningful.
9/21/09	Greg Holt	One week ago, the new West High football stadium opened with a ribbon cutting ceremony followed by a Warrior victory. In the middle of it all was Mr. Holt, who found the time to prepare his team and honor our nation on Patriot’s Day by uniting the players from both schools together in the end zone for the National Anthem. Mr. Holt is a great teacher, coach and community member and he always represents West High with class.
9/14/09	Becky Cerda, Bekki Marsiglia, Lisa Rulon, Katie Schenkelberg, Mary Secura	During the summer, each of these teachers dedicated many hours and several days to prepare our school’s WASC midterm report. Additionally, they helped to prepare engaging and purposeful staff development and faculty meetings. The enthusiasm present in each of these educators was evident in the meaningful activities and each of their colleagues benefitted in a way that will surely result in even better support for our students.