Yearly Archives: 2014

#EMERGEtour ends at Brown, Stonehill

The final day of a tour of northeast colleges and Universities by HISD EMERGE students meant stops at Stonehill College in Easton, Mass., and historic Brown University in Providence, R.I. The #EMERGEtour is took more than 95 students from 15 HISD high schools to nine top-tier university campuses last week.

Here are the students’ impressions of tour Day 4, in their own words: Continue reading

Board of Education to consider naming new elementary school after former governor

School being built under 2012 bond program would be named Mark White Elementary

The HISD Board of Education will consider Thursday naming a new elementary school being built in the West Houston area after former Texas Gov. Mark W. White Jr., who served in office from 1983 to 1987. Continue reading

K9 unit within HISD’s patrol division sniffs out trouble

Sasha spends most of her work day sniffing around HISD schools, searching for anything that doesn’t belong – drugs, weapons or suspects.

[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000h6vxu7tmL2E” g_name=”K9-gallery” width=”600″ f_fullscreen=”t” bgtrans=”t” pho_credit=”iptc” twoup=”f” f_bbar=”t” f_bbarbig=”f” fsvis=”f” f_show_caption=”t” crop=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_l=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_show_slidenum=”t” f_topbar=”f” f_show_watermark=”t” img_title=”casc” linkdest=”c” trans=”xfade” target=”_self” tbs=”5000″ f_link=”t” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”t” f_ap=”t” f_up=”f” height=”400″ btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” ]

Continue reading

Eastwood Academy design develops with collegiate model in mind

Eastwood Academy students want their new building to feel more like a college campus with learning commons where students can study independently and lounge with friends.

“Many school buildings look plain and boring,” said Eastwood student Rosemary Lugo. “I would like to see them bridge our building together almost like a mini-college with learning commons for students to hang out or read books by themselves.”

[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G0000AVYmFMjjUZg” g_name=”20140605-Eastwood-Charrette” width=”600″ f_fullscreen=”t” bgtrans=”t” pho_credit=”iptc” twoup=”f” f_bbar=”t” f_bbarbig=”f” fsvis=”f” f_show_caption=”t” crop=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”t” f_htmllinks=”t” f_l=”t” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_show_slidenum=”t” f_topbar=”f” f_show_watermark=”t” img_title=”casc” linkdest=”c” trans=”xfade” target=”_self” tbs=”5000″ f_link=”t” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”t” f_ap=”t” f_up=”f” height=”400″ btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” ]

Continue reading

Liberal arts colleges are focus of #EMERGEtour Day 3

Day 3 of four-day tour by HISD EMERGE students highlighted three of the northeast’s strongest liberal arts schools — Brandeis, Clark, and Boston College. The two private colleges and one private university consistently rank high on various higher education listings, including U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges.

The #EMERGEtour is taking more than 95 students from 15 HISD high schools to nine top-tier university campuses this week.

Here are the students’ impressions of tour Day 3, in their own words: Continue reading

Burbank MS student named national finalist in ‘Do the Write Thing Challenge’

Fatima Menendez

Burbank Middle School student Fatima Menendez has her own ideas about what violence means.

“It’s everything from being impatient in morning traffic, [to] talking back to your elders, and not knowing how to simply apologize,” she says in an essay she submitted to the Do the Write Thing Challenge essay contest.

But the eighth-grader understands the importance of resisting the urge to lash out physically. “Violence is…like poison, it dominates and destroys,” she writes. “We are the United States of America, [and] we need to live up to that name. Stereotypes keep us from flipping the page and seeing past the cover and into the content. We need to looking past stereotypes and really…understand each other.” Continue reading

Ortíz MS campus leader named regional Principal of the Year by TASSP

 (Houston Independent School District)

Noelia Longoria

Noelia Longoria, who is one of HISD’s Principals of the Year for 2014, is now one step closer to being recognized at the state level for her exemplary campus leadership, after recently being named the Region 4 Principal of the Year by the Texas Association of Secondary School Principals (TASSP).

Longoria, who has led Ortíz Middle School since 2009, is a veteran educator with more than 30 years’ of experience. She serves as the lead principal for two other campuses, and her school was one of those selected to showcase the district’s best practices during the Broad Prize selection committee’s site visit in 2012. Continue reading

HISD librarians code for literacy at ‘hackathon’

HISD librarians are participating in a new twist on the usual computer codefest this Saturday, from 12-7 p.m. when they take part in a “literacy hackathon” at the Houston Public Library.

At least six librarians, representing Lovett ES, Colter ES, Bonner ES, Scroggins ES, Johnston Middle School and the Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion School, have signed up to participate in Literacy Hack – a free, collaborative event where designers, writers, educators, software developers and other citizens work together on projects to help the literacy community. The event is sponsored by the Houston Center for Literacy.
Continue reading

Children’s book inspires River Oaks ES teacher’s trip to Japan

Each year, students in Pia De Leon’s fourth-grade class at River Oaks Elementary School study Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, a children’s book about a girl who died from leukemia as a result of radiation poisoning during World War II.

This summer, De Leon will be traveling to the very Japanese city in which that story is set, Hiroshima, where she will visit the Children’s Peace Memorial in honor of the child for whom the book was named, Sadako Sasaki.
Continue reading