Monthly Archives: April 2016

Milby HS takes shape as bond construction moves forward

As concrete walls go up and steel framing is erected, the Milby High School community can now see the future of their new campus beginning to take shape.

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The 267,000-square-foot project along Broadway Street in Houston’s East End is a combination of new construction and renovation, allowing the school to maintain its historical structure while also creating a modern learning environment for up to 2,000 students.

“All of the tilt walls and concrete walls have now been completed,” said HISD’s Project Manager Mark Crippen. ”It seems as if it takes forever to complete, but once construction starts, it moves pretty quickly.”

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‘Caught in the Act’ spotlights Furr HS teacher

Creativity, costumes, and nature used to engage students 

HISD “Caught in the Act” cameras, along with Chief Secondary Curriculum and Instruction Officer Annie Wolfe, recently captured an out-of-the-box and creative instructional lesson during a visit to the classroom of Furr High School teacher David de Hoyos Salazar.

During the 40 minute lesson, students in Salazar’s environmental sciences class left the school building and traveled to a nearby park to take part in an interactive activity that required critical thinking, collaboration, and adaptability. Watch the video below to see how Salazar, dressed as the movie character Indiana Jones, uses some creative teaching techniques to engage his students.

[su_vimeo url=”https://vimeo.com/161942676″ width=”500″ height=”280″ responsive=”no”] Continue reading →

55 HISD students from seven schools named National Merit finalists

Fifty-five seniors from seven Houston Independent School District high schools have qualified as finalists in the 61st annual National Merit Scholarship Program and will now vie for more than $32 million in college scholarships.

The students are among about 15,000 from across the country to advance to the finalist level, allowing them the opportunity to continue in the academic competition. Continue reading →

Pilgrim Academy community gets more information on planned addition

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Pilgrim Academy held the second of three community meetings to inform stakeholders about plans to build a new addition for the school. About 50 students and parents attended the event, heard a presentation from the project architect, and had the opportunity to ask questions.

“I’m very pleased with the turnout,” said Diana Castillo, principal of the K-8 school. “It’s a beautiful design, and I’m excited about the new gym, all the natural light, and a longer parent drive.”

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College Readiness surprises two high school seniors with FAFSA scholarships

Completing this year’s FAFSA on time paid off big time for two high school seniors who were the surprise recipients of a $500 scholarship on Friday.

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The HISD College Readiness department made two surprise visits to award checks to Belen Mendoza of Austin High School and Ashley Guzman of Energized for STEM Academy, Inc. High School West Campus. As a part of this year’s HISD FAFSA Initiative to increase TASFA or FASFA application submissions, names of every student who completed their TASFA/FASFA by HISD FASFA Day on March 3 were randomly selected from a drawing.

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Student creativity to be on mobile display at Art Car Parade April 9

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The Orange Show’s 29th annual Art Car Parade will be rolling through downtown Houston on Saturday, April 9, and almost a dozen of the mobile artworks on display will be the work of HISD students.

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Pilgrim Academy students use fresh ideas to earn top marks at water competition

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Two teams of fifth-grade students from Pilgrim Academy used fresh and creative thinking to walk away with two top prizes at a recent water-project competition.

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Booker T. Washington High School breaks ground on new building

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Booker T. Washington High School celebrated a big milestone Tuesday morning with a festive groundbreaking ceremony to mark the start of construction on a new $51.7 million campus.

More than 100 parents, students, staff, alumni, and community members attended the event and were joined by HISD Trustee Rhonda Skillern-Jones, State Sen. John Whitmire and Houston City Councilwoman Karla Cisneros.

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‘Games Robots Play’ event at Lamar HS tests strength of student-built robots

More than 150 students from 17 elementary and middle schools, along with teachers and parents, gathered Saturday at Lamar High School for Games Robots Play, a real-time Robotics Challenge Day.

Games Robots Play is designed, built, and managed as a semester-long project by Waltrip HS students, who also serve as mentors and referees during the event and are overseen by the CTE teacher, Stephanie Witherspoon.

This educational real-time robotics challenge is not a contest, but a format for students to grow in robotics skills, problem-solving, computational thinking and teamwork. The event challenges student teams to test their robotic mettle in a series of games modeled after real athletic events such as hurdles, discus, football and golf. Participants are given hints about the games prior to the event, but only see them for the first time when they arrive. After an introduction to each game, students spend time strategizing, building, programming, and playing the games. Certificates are awarded for many categories such as creative solutions, brainstorming, teamwork, innovative robot design, and robotic performance.

New this year was a teacher division, which provided robotics professional development for teachers in the STEM TIF4 grant schools. STEM teacher development specialists were on hand to serve as teacher mentors and “walk around judges” during the day.

The invitational event was co-sponsored by Waltrip High School and the Innovative Curriculum Department for the TIF4 STEM grant schools and others that have traditionally participated for the past seven years.

Click through the photo gallery to see the students and their robots in action.

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Read to Final Four literacy champs enjoy special celebration

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Students at Dogan Elementary School enjoyed a special celebration held just for them on April 4, after winning HISD’s Read to the Final Four literacy challenge last week. The students logged more than 922,464 minutes of reading over the past six months to cement their victory, and the reward for their perseverance was sweet.

The multi-purpose room thumped to the sounds of hip hop music, provided courtesy of DJ GT Mayne and 97.9 The Box radio station, as students showed off their dribbling skills, shot hoops at the portable basketball nets, and challenged each other with the latest dance moves. A lunch of chicken fettuccine, fresh fruit, and garlic bread was served by HISD Nutrition Services.

Third-grader Karla Gonzalez received a brand new bicycle from CYCLE Houston for having read the more than any of her classmates at Dogan. CYCLE donated the bikes to every top reader in each of the 68 participating schools.

Her favorite book during the competition? “I really liked ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’,” said Karla, grinning.

The NCAA Read to the Final Four Literacy competition, which supported the HISD Literacy By 3 initiative, challenged HISD third-graders to read at least 30 minutes a day and attempt to read more books than other competing schools. Nearly 6,800 third-graders participating in the literacy competition logged a total of 9,128,176 minutes of reading time.

“This group of third-graders has worked extremely hard. And for many of them at home, reading wasn’t always a priority,” said Dogan coordinator/teacher specialist Ben Gibb. “But they really teamed up together to work hard and win the competition.”

Dogan students were also presented with t-shirts, pencil cases, cups, notepads and other goodies thanks to sponsors NCAA Final Four, and the Houston Public Library.

“We really wanted to give them a chance to enjoy their win,” said Gibb. “How often in life do you get a chance to have hard work pay off in such a concrete way as what they’re getting right now?”