Musings from the PTA corner……

This current year is wrapping up so very quickly, it seems like we just had the first day of school and now we are only a few weeks away from the end of the year! With that will also be the end of my 2^nd term as President of the PTA. I have mixed feelings, some relief as there is such a responsibility to all the children and parents, and sadness as with any passing and stepping down. What an opportunity now for more new ideas, different ways of doing things! Your new president will have the new position enthusiasm and will need all of our ideas and support. Now is a good time to join PTA or renew your membership for the new school year. Your voice, your vote, and your leadership is needed! PTA provides so many things for our school that directly impacts the quality of your children’s education and your involvement drives what is provided.

Some of the PTA accomplishments this year have been:

Programs –

• Teacher/Classroom Supplies Reimbursement
• Science Fair
• Summer School Enrichment Scholarships
• Kick off Water Festival
• Classroom Book Sets
• 8^th grade promotion ceremony funding assistance
• Pride program
• Hospitality/Teacher appreciation
• Boo Hoo Breakfast – first day of school for parents.
• Bi-annual Book Fair
• Spirit Shirts
• K-5 Dances
• Field Trips
• Picnic in the Park
• Yearbook

Gifts –

• Funding the Artist in Residence program for 6-8^th grades for 2009-2010
• Binding Machine
• Library Pack n’ Roll Carts
• Announcement Board
• Art & Science Supplies
• Sand retaining wall for K-1 playground (installing in June 2009)
• Plans to install a Sunshade for K-1 playground (long term goal 2-3 years).

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be of service to you and your children. It has been an honor for me to serve you and the school.

Patti Wade – PTA President

Take a look around. Business, education, politics. If there’s one thing we don’t have enough of, it’s good leaders – men and women who have the vision and ability to change things for the better.Former Air Force general William Cohen wrote a fine book called The Stuff of Heroes in which he identified eight laws of leadership:

1. Maintain absolute integrity.
2. Know your stuff.
3. Declare your expectations.
4. Show uncommon commitment.
5. Expect positive results.
6. Take care of your people.
7. Put duty before self.
8. Get out in front.

His laws embrace important competencies like knowledge, communication skills, commitment, optimism, caring, and a powerful sense of duty. But General Cohen also recognized that the foundation of a successful leader is character, including trustworthiness, honor, and courage.The best leaders draw on these moral qualities to influence others through inspiration, persuasion, trust, and loyalty. They do the right thing despite the costs and risks. They do it not because it will yield approval or advantage but because it’s the right thing.

In these cynical times, it’s easy to think such leadership is unattainable; yet in every walk of life there are countless men and women – parents, teachers, coaches, civic activists – who fit this mold. What’s more important, every one of us could be among them.Reprinted with permission from the Michael Josephson Institute – Character Counts

Happy New Year! Ah the new year – a time for new hope, a rekindling of resolutions, for dreams to be reawakened. It is a time for putting the old behind us and moving forward with our lives. What resolutions have you made this year? Have you made the usual resolutions of eating healthier, losing weight, and exercising more? Well how about some resolutions of PTA involvement, mentoring, tutoring, and giving of yourself. Getting involved with your PTA and your school will help you with all your resolutions, volunteering makes you feel better about yourself; which will make you want to keep all your healthier choices resolutions! So now that I have made the assertion that being involved with PTA will help you lose weight! Everyone will want to join – right? Ok, maybe not, but if you are active and happy about helping your child’s school, maybe you won’t want that second piece of cake….

So join us – lose weight – or at least feel better!

Next meeting – January 15^th, 2009 6:30pm

Patti Wade

PTA President

To find out more about the WTA PTA Silent Auction on February 7th go to:

http://www.wtasilentauction.com/

What if WTA PTA earned a penny every time you searched the Internet? Or how about if a percentage of every purchase you made online went to support our cause? Well, now it can! GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. Use it just as you would any search engine, get quality search results from Yahoo, and watch the donations add up! GoodShop.com is a new online shopping mall which donates up to 37 percent of each purchase to your favorite cause! Hundreds of great stores including Amazon, Target, Gap, Best Buy, ebay, Macy’s and Barnes & Noble have teamed up with GoodShop and every time you place an order, you’ll be supporting your favorite cause.

Musings from the PTA Corner

It’s December and the Winter break is upon us – a time for reflecting on the past year and looking forward with hope for a brighter future. In reflecting over this past year, it has been busy and very rewarding. I love to see our community of families when we all pull together for a common goal; the goal of making Ward Traditional the best school possible for our children. Why do we do this? We want our children to be successful, happy, good citizens, inspiring leaders, honest, trustworthy and an active participant in their community. Not to mention, rich and generous! How do we achieve this? By modeling all the traits we wish for our children; by actively participating in their education and their school; by encouraging and promoting critical thinking, volunteering, and community service. Most of all by being interested in them and their activities, knowing what is important to them and caring enough to say No!

Some things we have accomplished:

Science Fair – an awesome opportunity to encourage critical thinking. Skills they will use throughout their lives.

Art Walk – Art is a critical component of a well rounded and balanced education and the Art walk gave our students an opportunity to be creative and get much deserved recognition. (As well as helping to fund the Artist in Residence position).

Self Defense for Adults – Crusin’ the Community – An opportunity for the adults to get some instruction and to tap into some of the resources available in the community.

Field Trips – an opportunity for our students to have real world experiences.

Coming up:

Ward Family Skate party – at Skateland Mesa – Friday Jan 23

Ward - Silent Auction – at Shalimar Country Club – Saturday Feb 7

Next PTA meeting – Thursday Jan 15^th 6:30-8:00   childcare available

Come and join us – we need your voice and leadership.

Contact Greta Olson – membership@wtapta.org

Patti Wade

PTA President

From PTA Today – reprinted with permission

10 Truths About Parent Involvement

Research shows that regardless of income or background, when parents are involved, students are more likely to earn higher grades, enroll in higher-level programs, attend school regularly, have better social skills, graduate, and go on to postsecondary education. Here are some truths about parent involvement that you can use to gauge your involvement level and the relationship you have with your child’s school. After reviewing these truths, check out PTA’s resources for parent involvement for ways to get more involved:

1. All parents have hopes and goals for their children.
2. Parents differ in their abilities and/or resources to help their children reach those goals.
3. The parent is the central contributor to a child’s education.
4. Parent involvement must be seen as a legitimate element of education and deserves equal emphasis with elements such as school improvement and evaluation.
5. Parent involvement is an ongoing process, not a series of events.
6. Parent involvement requires a shared vision, policy, and framework for planning programs and practices that are connected to student learning.
7. Many barriers to parent involvement are found within school practices, attitudes, and assumptions.
8. Successful parent involvement programs help families guide their children’s learning from preschool through high school.
9. Families from diverse backgrounds have their own sets of norms and experiences that often influence their relationship with schools.
10. Parents are more likely to become involved when they understand that they should be involved, they feel capable of making a contribution, and they feel invited by the school and their children.

The first annual WTA Art Walk is coming up on Thursday, December 11th.

Every student will have art they’ve created especially for this event on display and ready for purchase.

Volunteers and donations are still needed.  Please check in at the parent center for more details.

Additionally, there will be art from local artists on display and some artists in person creating art.  All professional art will be included in the silent auction fundraiser on February 7th at Shalimar Golf Course in Tempe.

Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to see your child’s art on display and remember to bring $10 to purchase it!

We have several events coming up very quickly - please post on your calendars and plan on attending! Better yet - plan on volunteering!

Next PTA meeting - November 13th 6:30pm in the library

Cruisin’ the Community - Self Defense Workshop for adults only - November 12th 6:30 - 7:30

Science Fair - November 18th - 21st - need many more volunteers

Art Walk - December 11th 5:30 - 7:00 - need volunteers

Silent Auction - February 7th 2009 - need lots of volunteers

We need you! We need your expertise, we need your ideas. Come and help - we are all working to make our school a better place for our children!

Patti Wade

President

Musings from the PTA Corner…

Whew! It has been a busy year, and another school year comes to a close I want to take this time to thank all the PTA parents that have made our school a really great place for our kids! Your hard work through PTA has made so many things possible:

v  Water Festival Kick Off - such a fun way to start the school year

v  “Boo Hoo Breakfast” - for new Kindergarten parents to help ease the transition on the first day of school

v  A new drinking fountain and hand washing trough – being installed at the end of May.

v  Your hard work assisted in making teacher classroom time more effective

v  Through your assistance Field Day was tons of fun with your helping readying water balloons and providing additional supervision

v  Teacher Appreciation Week - a resounding success with the teachers really feeling appreciated by all the goodies and treats you sent in.

v  Teacher Reimbursement Program – provided additional educational materials that helped our kids in the classroom by making materials available that normally the teachers would have to pay for out of pocket.

v  Summer School Scholarship – we made it possible for several students to attend the summer school program that might not have been able to go.

v  Advanced band, choir, and orchestra - we assisted in sending these students to Disneyland to participate in an inspiring real world musical activity.

v  Library Grant Assistance - we helped steer our librarian to a $1000.00 PTA grant application for Readers are Leaders which we were awarded and will go towards new books for our library.

v  Classroom Literature Sets - we provided $1500 to purchase literature sets

v  Kidzweyes Presenter – we brought in a special presentation called “Alert Parents, Safer Kids” to help all of us keep our kids safe from predators

v  PTA Website - we created a new website for all parents to keep up with PTA activities – www.wtapta.org and it is a central location for Ward info beyond what is available through the district.

v  End of year celebrations - we assist with end of school year celebrations including the beginning band, orchestra and choir, the athletics luncheon, and the 8^th grade promotion, making memories of Ward some of the best.

v  Childcare at PTA Meetings - we provide child care at the PTA meetings to make it easier for parents to attend and get important information.

v  Book fair - we assist and coordinate the bi-annual book fair to help raise voucher monies for the teachers and the library to obtain much needed books.

v  School Wide Fundraisers - we coordinate two major fundraisers a year (this year Cookie Dough and Silent Auction and this year we raised close to $18,000)

v  Yearbook – we take the pictures, plan and coordinate the yearbook

v  Many family orientated activities were sponsored:

                  - Picnic in the Park                  - Dining for Dollars

                  - Skateland                              - Family Dance

                  - Science Fair                          - Multi-Cultural Fair.

Thank you again for your hard work and your commitment to quality for our kids! Without you this would not be possible!  As you can see we do a lot and we need you – if you haven’t joined PTA yet – this would be a good time to sign up!

Patti Wade, PTA President

Synergism - the interaction of elements that when combined produce a total effect that is greater than the sum of the individual elements, contributions, etc.

PTA promotes synergism by defining goals of the organization – how we help our children and our school. By working together to realize those dreams we make our school the best possible for our children.

Join PTA today! Attend the meetings! Next Meeting Jan 17^th 6:30pm in the WTA library.
Patti Wade
PTA President