Author Archives: HISD Communications

Five HISD student-created cars win prizes at the Art Car Parade

Five HISD schools won prizes in Saturday’s 29th annual Art Car Parade in downtown Houston, with district-created student art cars snagging two of the four “first-place” winning categories in overall competition.

The Reagan High School Art Car Club, led by teacher Rebecca Bass, won first place with “Bohemian Rhapsody,” and the Lovett Elementary Visual Arts Program, with  teacher Rickey Polidore Jr., won first place with “ ‘OWL’ways in the ARTISTIC FRAME of Mind.” Both schools received a grand trophy and $1,500.

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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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Student spotlight: Yates HS communications students participate in CBS Sports Symposium

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 developing global graduate skills, connecting learning to careers, or preparing for higher 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.

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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.

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Codwell ES students celebrate renovation of Morefield Boys & Girls Club

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The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is committed to making a lasting impact on each Final-Four city, and in Houston, that meant working with Lowe’s to complete a total renovation of the Morefield Boys & Girls Club on Selinsky Road near Codwell Elementary School. Thanks to NCAA Legacy Restorations presented by Lowe’s, Morefield was refurbished with a new basketball court, library, state-of-the-art computer lab, and garden.

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‘Light It Up Blue’ April 1 and 2 in honor of Autism Awareness Month

Light It Up Blue is the annual kick-off event for Autism Awareness Month, and members of the HISD community are encouraged to wear blue on Friday, April 1, and Saturday, April 2 (Autism Awareness Day), to help spread the word.

Members of Team HISD will observe the month in different ways across the district, including adding blue accents to the Special Education Field Office (SFO). Supporters can also participate by lighting up their homes, campuses, or offices with the color blue.

The Office of Special Education will also be hosting an autism parent meeting at that location (4040 W. Fuqua St., Room 204) from 9–11 a.m. on Friday, April 1.

Parents and campuses can find additional autism resources by clicking here or by following @HISDSPED on Twitter.

HISD to announce winning school of NCAA Read to the Final Four literacy challenge

Carillo ES learn they are in the lead

Carrillo Elementary School students learn they are in the lead for the Read to the Final Four challenge in November 2015.

Nearly 10,000 HISD elementary school students will fill NRG Stadium (Reliant Parkway, 77054) on Friday, April 1 for the district’s announcement of the winner of the NCAA Team Works Read to the Final Four Literacy Program at Reese’s Final Four Friday event.

The program begins at 11 a.m., but prior to that, Waltrip HS’s band will play as students arrive, and Atherton ES’s drum line will perform before the announcement of the winning school at 11:40 a.m., which will receive a $5,000 cash prize, Final Four trophy, and campus celebration. The final four elementary schools in the competition are Browning, Carrillo, Dogan, and Janowski. Additionally, the top readers from each of the 68 schools will receive a bike from CYCLE. Attendees are welcome to stay for the remainder of the day and watch special practice games and tributes. The day’s activities are free and open to the public, including parking in the stadium’s Blue Lot beginning at 9 a.m. Anything brought into the stadium during all Final Four events must be in a clear bag, due to security. Some 125,000 clear bags are being given away at Houston hotels and the George R. Brown Convention Center, as well as on METRORail platforms. Find full details here.

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Teachers, students thank basketball star for providing them with #BestSchoolDay ever

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Thanksgiving isn’t for another eight months, but dozens of Houston-area teachers and their students have been expressing their gratitude recently, after Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard came through on a promise to support literacy.

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Planetarium renovation gives HISD fourth-graders the best cosmic view in the house

The Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) unveiled its newly renovated Burke Baker Planetarium on March 11, and roughly 75 of HISD’s Southmayd Elementary School’s fourth-graders were the first to experience it.

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Through a long-standing partnership with the museum, all 14,000 HISD fourth-graders take a field trip there each year, but the planetarium now boasts a new seamless inner surface on the dome and a high-resolution, digital-laser projection system so powerful only astronauts will have a better view of celestial objects.

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HISD, Arts Access Initiative partnership to expand arts education to 25 schools

Last spring, HISD, Young Audiences of Houston, the City of Houston, and more than 30 community arts organizations announced a new partnership — the Arts Access Initiative (AAI) — that has been providing additional arts-education programming to 10 elementary schools and one middle school. In late March, the AAI will announce 14 new HISD schools selected from around 40 applicants that will join the existing AAI cohort in 2016–2017.

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The first district schools to benefit from AAI are: Atherton, Benbrook, Eliot, Hartsfield, Hines-Caldwell, Kashmere Gardens, Memorial, Mitchell, Scarborough, and Whittier elementary schools, as well as Hamilton Middle School.

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Barbara and Neil Bush visit Walnut Bend ES to kick off ‘National Read Aloud Month’

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March is National Read Aloud Month, and Barbara Bush and her son Neil were at Walnut Bend Elementary School on March 2, 2016, to bring attention to the annual observance. The Barbara Bush Houston Literacy Foundation has joined forces with HISD and 14 other Houston literacy organizations to increase awareness of the importance of reading to children so that they can learn, grow, and succeed.

“It’s so great to see people coming together around literacy,” said Neil Bush. “We shamelessly use my mother to draw attention to the importance of literacy.”

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