District in Pictures

Congratulations to the September Teacher Spotlight Award winner, Joyce McCurdy. This monthly award is sponsored by First Bank and News Channel 6 KAUZ and recognizes a teacher who goes above and beyond in the classroom. Mrs. McCurdy is an English teacher at Kirby Middle School. Thank you to our PIE partners River Bend Nature Center, Star Brite Cleaners, Frank & Joe's Coffee House and Market Street United for providing gifts to our monthly winners!

WFISD Executive Director of Operations Scot Hafley and McNiel Assistant Principal Jackie McCartney lent a helping hand during the Rider football game last Friday night when the Rider Band souvenir trailer got a flat tire during the game. "A WFISD OFOT moment," said band director, Loy Studer.

On Friday, September 1, the 2nd grade classrooms at Franklin Elementary were turned into Book Tasting Cafés. Students sampled different types of books at each café table and used "menus" to record their thoughts on each book. They also partnered up for a "dinner discussion" to answer questions such as, "Why would someone read this book? What do you think about when you read? Would you want to read this again?" In the afternoon, students read the book "Enemy Pie" by Derek Munson and then created their own Friendship Pies using kindness (wafer cookies), empathy (vanilla pudding), being a bucket filler (whipped cream), and treating others better than yourself (cherry). The Franklin Elementary second grade teachers are Mrs. Maggy Anderson, Mrs. Natalie Bodkin, Mrs. Christi Bultena and Ms. Emily Perez.

The Hirschi High School cheerleaders and mascot were invited to cheer at the Baby Bowl event that was held by The Burn Shop during Thursday night's After Hours Art Walk.

On Saturday, September 2, the Rider High School JROTC took 32 student cadets to the Caprock Field Meet in Amarillo, TX to compete against 6 other schools that have the JROTC program. Some of the programs had two teams and there were a total of eleven teams that competed. The schools that competed were Caprock, Hereford, Hirschi, Palo Duro, Plainview, and Tascosa. The events included a dodgeball tournament, 4x100 male and female races, Dizzy Izzy Race, 4x400 male and female races, food relay, and tug-of-war. Rider's "Team A" won the overall championship, scoring 62 points. They won all four races, the food relay, took 4th in dodgeball, 3rd in the Dizzy Race, and 2nd in tug-of-war. This was the most points scored by a team in the four years the event has been hosted.

This week's Staff Spotlight shines on Shera Rasmussen, Secondary English Curriculum Coordinator.

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Cunningham Elementary celebrated one of their most beloved substitutes this week, Mrs. Jane Minniear. Mrs. Minniear is one of Cunningham's centralized programs' most regular substitute teachers and was celebrated by having a "Mrs. Jane" parade. Mrs. Minniear is a retired teacher from Jefferson Elementary and was Cunningham principal Amy Simmons' mentor teacher. "Cunningham is blessed to have Mrs. Jane," said Mrs. Simmons.

On Thursday morning, the staff members at Haynes Head Start received their pop-up breakfast. The staff members enjoyed breakfast pizza from Market Street, sponsored by Jacksboro National Bank. Scones, hot chocolate and coffee were also supplied by Chartwells.

WFISD Superintendent, Dr. Donny Lee, speaks with Southern Hills 1st grade teacher, Elena Martinez, about her first grade bilingual students using the Amplify reading curriculum.

At Rider High School, the administrators are focused on celebrating the students in a new way with "Raiders of the Week." Each week, four students - one from each grade level - will be selected. The chosen students must show commitment to their education and self-discipline at school by having no tardies, no unexcused absences, and no referrals for the school year. The first group of Raiders of the Week were selected last Friday and were showered with goodies by Rider administrative assistant, Jessica Garcia. The students that were selected are Madeline Acosta (9th grade), Mario Zarate-Romero (10th grade), Gavin Aday (11th grade) and Gabriel Dominguez (12th grade). "We are looking forward to celebrating students this way each Friday this school year and hope that you will congratulate our Rider Raiders of the week," said assistant principal, Michael Forney.

This week's Teacher Tuesday is on Madison Marsh, ELAR and Social Studies teacher at Fain Elementary.

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The Burgess Elementary 1st graders celebrated the end of Unit 1, Folktales and Fables, in Amplify. Amplify is the WFISD reading curriculum that is used in a handful of the elementary campuses to help improve student reading levels starting at a low grade level to set students up for success in the future. In honor of reading "Aesop's Fables," first grade teachers Ms. Newberry, Ms. Lucas and Ms. Hutchins brought Greek Salad, Greek yogurt, olives and grape juice. Ms. Newberry's sister brought candy and Greece flags for each class from her trip to Greece.

This week's First Year Teacher Friday spotlight is on Javen Banks, SPED and Inclusion teacher at Hirschi High School. Welcome to #teamWFISD!

The first grade students at Jefferson Elementary enjoyed "Popsicles with the Principal" earlier this week in honor of having the highest attendance percentage on campus for the month of August.

This morning, Franklin Elementary hosted a Grandparents Breakfast. Grandparents of students were invited to enjoy coffee, juice, and pastries in the cafeteria with their grandchildren. "There was a huge response and the cafeteria was filled to capacity with excited students and family members," said Franklin instructional coach, Laura Garcia. Thank you to City Hope Church for providing and setting up the breakfast items.

This week's Coach's Corner is on Jason Reynolds, Off Coordinator & Head Boys Track coach at WFHS.

Hirschi High School cheerleaders and football players welcomed Burgess Elementary students to school this morning. The Hirschi students opened car doors, walked students to class and stopped for photos. "It was a great way to start our day," said instructional coach, Lacey Davis.

This week's Fine Arts Feature is on Nicole Paslay, Band Director at McNiel Middle School.

Southern Hills Elementary wanted to celebrate the students' grandparents by hosting a game of bingo in the cafeteria for them! The students and their grandparents enjoyed playing bingo together, won prizes and enjoyed snacks.

Sheppard Elementary celebrated another week of having 98% attendance by having some extra recess time this week! Great job, Jets!

It's that time of the year again for teachers to be able to apply for an IDEA grant! Teacher IDEA grants fund programs that encourage innovative, developmental and educational activities (IDEA). The IDEA grant application can be found online by clicking here or scan the QR code below. The WFISD Foundation is expected to award over $18,000 in IDEA Grant funding this year.

District in Pictures is a weekly publication developed by the WFISD Community Relations department. If you have events, recognitions or classroom activities taking place on your campus that you would like us to feature, please let us know by completing the form at the following link: www.wfisd.net/dip. We would love to include you in our weekly district news.