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.
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.
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.
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.
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?”
Architect Christian Sheridan had a simple strategy for making sure he remembered what’s important while designing the new $29.5 million Parker Elementary.
He kept a list of more than two dozen must-haves for the new campus, authored by Parker students two years ago during a special workshop hosted by his firm, Brave Architecture, to gather input on everything from paint colors to windows.
On Saturday, in front of nearly 400 people who turned out to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new school, Sheridan’s two young daughters presented the list, matted and framed, to Parker Principal Lori Frodine as a reminder that the new school reflects the needs of the people who will use it. Continue reading →
The competition was fierce down to the final buzzer, but Dogan ES came out victorious after scoring a whopping 922,464 minutes in reading time during the NCAA Read to the Final Four Literacy competition.
Dogan ES Principal Tarrieck Rideaux beamed with pride Friday amid cheering, hand-waving, and fanfare at NRG Stadium, where 10,000 HISD students, some representing the Final Four schools – Browning ES, Carrillo ES, Dogan ES and Janowski ES, gathered for the announcement of the winner. Rideaux said six months of intensive reading had paid off for his third-graders.
“It has actually helped their reading growth,” said Rideaux. “Stronger growth over the last few months – more than we’ve ever had.”
The top four schools read a total of 2,695,728 minutes since the competition began in September, and all schools netted 9,128,176 minutes read.
Dogan ES was awarded a Final Four trophy and a $5,000 cash prize. On Monday, there will be a celebration at the campus.
“I was excited when they announced our name, and I screamed.” said Dogan fourth-grader Luigi Marquez. “I was proud that we won.”
Courtside VIPS on hand to celebrate the students’ accomplishments included HISD Board of Education Trustees Wanda Adams, Diana Dávila, and Anna Eastman, as well as HISD Chief Academic Officer Andrew Houlihan and Houston Final Four Local Organizing Committee Chairman Tony Chase.
“I am so excited to be here and to rock the ‘Road to the Final Four.’ I want to personally thank all 68 schools for reading over 9 million minutes. You all need to be applauded,” said Trustee Adams. “And congratulations to Dogan Elementary School for reading all those hours. So again, congratulations Team HISD.”
Early in the program, Team HISD enjoyed performances by the Waltrip HS band and the Atherton ES drum line, as well as a quick game between the Cancer Hardwood Heroes and their coaches.
The NCAA Read to the Final Four Literacy competition, which supported the HISD Literacy By 3 initiative, challenged HISD third-graders to read more books than other competing schools and started with 68 schools. Nearly 6,800 third-graders helped kick off the bracket-themed reading contest that encouraged students to read at least 30 minutes a day.
HISD Nutrition Services was recently recognized with the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Perfect Peach Award for offering locally sourced products such as summer squash, apples and watermelon on school menus.
The state’s Local Products Challenge, which asked districts to use more Texas products in their schools, is in line with Nutrition Services’ commitment to use locally grown products on its menus so students become familiar with the agricultural diversity of the Lone Star State.
At Stevens Elementary School, HISD Chef Brittany Jones recently demonstrated how to use summer squash in a variety of fun and tasty ways. “The students enjoyed learning about spaghetti squash,” said Jones. “They never imagined they could use a vegetable in place of noodles.”
Besides fruits and vegetables, HISD also serves milk and fresh bread from Texas.
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of articles designed to highlight the work of HISD students, particularly as it relates to developingglobal graduateskills, connectinglearning to careers, or preparing forhigher education. In this entry, we see members of the communications program at Yates High School participating in a CBS Sports Symposium, one of the many Final Four events benefiting HISD students.
Representatives from CBS, Turner Sports, and the NCAA held a symposium with Yates HS students on March 30 as part of the lead-up to the Final Four showdown.
Scarborough High School parents, staff, and community members on Wednesday evening heard an update on plans to renovate the nearly 50-year-old campus in northwest Houston – an effort the school hopes will attract neighborhood families.
