Weekly Teacher Download for April 29

ALL TEACHERS

Fan Favorite-Round 2: Over the past week, HISD staff, students, and alumni have voted for their “Fan Favorite” Teacher of the Year. The votes are now tallied, and the top four elementary and secondary teachers are moving on to round two. Support your colleagues and help HISD determine the district’s “Fan Favorite,” who will be announced on Friday, May 17, at the Educators of the Year banquet. Anyone can vote—including colleagues, parents, students, and former students. Vote here through Friday, May 3, and be sure to share your favorite on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media channels to get the word out. 

Student-Teacher Linkage: Teachers of STAAR- and EOC-tested subjects in grades 4 or higher and TELPAS Reading content in grades 3–8 must submit their linkage rosters on the AIM Portal by May 10. Linkage will be used to calculate Comparative Growth, which will be included in TADS. If teachers need any assistance with this process, they can attend an in-person workgroup. A schedule of the remaining workgroups can be found here. Teachers can also refer to the User Guides, Powerpoint slides, and other useful documents posted here. Questions can also be emailed to research@houstonisd.org.

Metro Summer of Fun: METRO will again provide free rides this summer for all students as part of its third annual METRO Summer of Fun Program. The free rides will be offered from June 1 through August 31, and include the bus and light-rail network, as well as the “Park & Ride” service. Students must have a Student METRO Q^® Fare Card to participate. If they do not have a card, they can register online here.

Modified TADS Coming Soon: On April 11, the HISD Board approved a modified version of TADS, known as M-TADS. This change allows teachers who achieve a rating of Effective or Highly Effective in all categories of the appraisal system, along with earning a Summative Rating of Effective or Highly Effective, to opt-in to receiving a minimum of one observation and one walkthrough rather than the standard requirement of two of each. To qualify, a teacher must also have: at least three years of teaching experience overall, a term or continuing contract, and at least one full year of teaching experience in HISD. Be on the lookout for additional information at the start of the 2019-2020 school year.

2019-2020 TSL Teacher Transfer: 2019-2020 TSL Teacher Transfer: The Teacher and School Leader (TSL) Incentive Program grant is offering a $10,000 teacher recruitment bonus to effective and highly effective teachers, who transfer from an HISD campus that is not funded through the grant to one of the 88 high-needs campuses identified as part of the TSL grant cohort. Teachers who transfer to one of the 88 campuses will be expected to make a three-year commitment. For details on the criteria to apply, click here.

SECONDARY

Close-Up Austin Academy: The Multilingual Programs Department will fund an all-expenses paid trip to Austin for 20 middle school english learner (EL) students to attend the Close-Up Austin Academy on June 12-14. The Close-Up Austin Academy is designed to bring the democratic process alive for students by providing hands-on opportunities to examine the history and government of the state of Texas. Students and three HISD chaperones will travel to/from Austin by Coach bus and stay at the Marriott Austin South during this program. Teachers and/or principals are asked to select two EL students from your campus to participate in the program. Once you’ve identified the students, please complete and send this form to Terrie Armstrong by May 3. For more info on the program, click here.

Multilingual Symposium: The Multilingual Programs Department will be hosting the Inaugural Multilingual Symposium on June 26-27 at Kingdom Builders Center (6011 W. Orem Dr., 77085) from 7:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Participants will have the opportunity to attend a key note session and up to four additional sessions of their choice on each day. There will be more than 25 different sessions available focused on content specific sheltered instruction sessions provided by Seidlitz Education, foundation courses for teachers of English Learners (ELs) provided by Multilingual Programs, an overview of the new elementary reading adoption, and a dive into the Learning A-Z online resources available to bilingual and dual language teachers. For more information on the event and to view sessions, click here.