Monthly Archives: February 2015

HISD celebrates a legendary football coach

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Few will argue that one of the finest men to coach an HISD varsity team was Coach Luther Malachi Booker at Yates High School. Coach Booker’s legacy continued Feb. 7 with his posthumous induction into the Texas Black Sports Hall of Fame. The late football coach’s family, friends, and former students will also gather at the Feb. 12 HISD Board of Education meeting to honor Booker.

Booker was head coach at Yates from 1971 to 1988. In those years, his teams won 13 district titles, made it to the state semifinals three times, and won a state championship in 1985. That year, the Lions even beat the favored team, Odessa Permian, 37-0, ending the season with a perfect 16-0 record. Continue reading →

Burbank MS leaders to share best practices at TABSE conference

Campus leaders from HISD’s Burbank Middle School will be sharing the wisdom of their experiences with hundreds of other educators at the Texas Alliance of Black School Educators’ Demonstration Schools Symposium on Feb. 27.

The campus is one of only eight from across the state that will present some of its best practices at the event. Burbank was selected in part because of its success in closing the achievement gap. The school matched or beat both the district’s and the state’s averages on all students’ reading and math scores in every grade on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) in 2013–2014. Continue reading →

Elementary student secures $1,000 donation for USO Houston

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At 9 a.m. on Feb. 12 Lyons ElementarySchool student Samantha Torres will present baskets of candy and other supplies to Ellington Air Force Base personnel in appreciation of their military service. Through her work with the American Legion Auxiliary Unit 77, where she is a junior auxiliary member, she has secured a donation of $1,000 from Houston Community College and is using it to stock USO hospitality rooms at Ellington Air Force Base, Hobby Airport and Bush Intercontinental. USO Houston is a nonprofit organization dedicated to lifting the spirits of the nearly 50,000 troops and military families who visit the USO centers at Houston’s three airports, as well as the 8,000 military personnel based in Greater Houston.

Continue reading →

HISD Superintendent Terry Grier to deliver 2015 State of the Schools address

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Houston ISD Superintendent Terry Grier will deliver his sixth State of the Schools address on Feb. 11 at a gathering that is expected to draw thousands of educators, community partners, and area businesses interested in hearing about the latest initiatives to strengthen the nation’s seventh-largest school district.

The event is sold out, but those interested in watching Dr. Grier’s speech live, streamed courtesy of KPRC Channel 2, can tune into www.houstonisd.org at 12:30 p.m. on Feb. 11. You can also follow along on Twitter using the hashtag #HISDSOTS. Continue reading →

Second-chance athletic showcase turns $5,000 budget into $12 million in scholarships

On Feb. 7, hundreds of graduating seniors from around the Houston area got the opportunity of a lifetime: a chance to go to college for free, and play their sport of choice, too.

The Greater Houston Senior Football Showcase took place at the NRG Stadium’s practice bubble from 8:30 a.m. until noon, and male students from dozens of local campuses—including almost every high school in HISD—had a chance to land an academic scholarship there just by giving a demonstration of their skills on the football field.  Continue reading →

HISD extends its partnership with myON reading website

reading_computerIn support of its Literacy By 3 movement and Read Houston Read initiative, HISD has elected to extend its partnership with myON, a reading website that gives students access to thousands of titles for free.

HISD first joined forces with the myON website’s parent company, Capstone Publishing, last year as a part of the district’s summer reading program. Thousands of students took advantage of this valuable resource, and now, even more children stand to benefit from the partnership, as the contract has been extended through the end of August 2015.  Continue reading →

Digital learning in the spotlight for February

[su_note note_color=”#e4edd0″ radius=”8″]During the month of February, all HISD teachers are being encouraged to try something new in their classrooms, as well as share ideas, resources, and lessons learned by posting their experiences and photos on social media using the hashtag #HISDdigital. Each week during the month, we are profiling a teacher who is using technology to break up the rows in their classrooms, engage their students, and innovate their instructional practice. This week’s profile features Austin High School teacher George Caldwell.[/su_note]

Veteran social studies teacher George Caldwell admits that when he first heard about PowerUp, HISD’s districtwide digital transformation effort, he was a little nervous and scared.

“I wasn’t very comfortable using technology in my classroom, but I decided to grab a laptop cart and let my kids know that we were going to figure this out together. They use technology every day in their lives, and we as teachers need to meet them where they are.”

A year later, all of Caldwell’s students at Austin High School have their own laptops, and he is much more comfortable using technology in his daily instruction. He’s also embraced the PowerUp:HUB, HISD’s online teaching and learning platform, as a way to facilitate student discussion and collaboration in his classroom.

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HISD teachers, campus staff earn $21.9 million for student achievement gains

The Houston Independent School District on Wednesday awarded $21.9 million in bonuses to 5,771 educators whose students made the largest academic gains during the 2013-2014 school year.

The bonuses were distributed as part of the ASPIRE Award Program, which aims to recognize the impact of teachers, administrators and other campus-based employees who are accelerating students’ progress and helping them improve significantly. Continue reading →

Twenty-seven HISD students land 2015 all-state ensemble seats

More than two dozen HISD students earned a spot on a Texas Music Educators Association All-State Ensemble this year.

Trumpeter Esmeralda Sandoval (Waltrip HS) and baritone saxophonist Grace Estrada (Westside HS), as well as five students from Bellaire High School and 20 from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, will perform in various groups during the TMEA’s annual convention in February.

All-State is the highest honor a Texas music student can receive. Approximately 1,750 students were selected through a process that began with more than 64,000 students from around the state vying for the honor to perform in one of 15 ensembles (bands, orchestras, and choirs).

Last year marked the first time a Westside student had ever been selected, and the same student (Grace Estrada, now a senior) is returning this year. You can read more about her achievement in this school-based newsletter.

Where the wild things are: Red ES students get up-close with critters

Anne Eisner from the Nature Discovery Center acquaints Red ES STEM magnet students with wildlife.

Anne Eisner from the Nature Discovery Center acquaints Red ES STEM magnet students with wildlife.

Students at HISD’s Red Elementary School welcomed naturalist Anne Eisner from Bellaire’s Nature Discovery Center on Feb. 4-5 — along with a veritable menagerie of amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.

The creatures helped impart new facts about vertebrates and invertebrates, and students learned a valuable lesson about how to interact safely with wild animals. While all the animals were popular with the students, a black rabbit named Licorice stole the show.

Red ES is a STEM magnet school that emphasizes Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math by providing extra classes and presentations by organizations such as the Nature Discovery Center.