About 50 students, teachers, and community members turned out on July 14 to celebrate the opening of the new Fondren Baseball Field at Key Middle School.
Construction of the field began in October 2014 through a partnership between the Fondren Foundation and the Stacey and Bo Porter SELF Foundation. The new field will provide middle-school athletes with a high-quality space on which to practice their skills and compete. Continue reading
Mentors for Mentors gives educators direct access to medical, energy, and space professionals
Whether you’re a cardiologist trying to clear a blocked artery or an engineer trying to drill for oil more efficiently, the mechanics and physics at play are the same.
That’s why 15 educators from seven different HISD campuses attended a “Pumps & Pipes” externship recently to learn how to apply concepts from engineering to medicine and vice-versa.
Pumps & Pipes was founded in 2007 to allow medical, energy, and aerospace professionals to learn from on another by comparing notes on common systems and processes. At the “Mentors for Mentors” symposium, they shared insights they had gained with HISD teachers, so that they, in turn, could get students excited about studying science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
April Williams has been named the new principal of Oak Forest Elementary School. She previously served as an assistant principal at Lanier Middle School. Williams began her 12-year career with HISD as a fifth-grade teacher at Law Elementary School, and has served as a classroom teacher at both Peck Elementary and Ryan Middle School. She also held the role of high school graduation coach. While at both Peck and Ryan, she received the Classroom Teacher of the Year and the English as a Second Language Teacher of the Year awards.
Williams received a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Houston and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Lamar University. She received her doctorate of education in professional leadership from the University of Houston.
Linda Bellard has been named the new principal of Garcia Elementary School. She began her education career in Aldine ISD as an elementary school teacher, where she was voted campus Teacher of the Year. She went on to serve as a reading specialist and an assistant principal at the elementary and intermediate levels. In 2007, she joined HISD as the principal of Blackshear Elementary, and later served at Elrod Elementary in the same capacity.
Bellard holds a bachelor’s degree in elementary education with a concentration in reading and a master’s degree in educational administration from Texas Southern University.
LaShonda Bilbo-Ervin has been selected as the new principal of Holland Middle School. Bilbo-Ervin, who has 14 years of experience in education, began her career as an English and science teacher at Peck Elementary School. She also served as an instructional coordinator at that same campus, and as an assistant principal at Washington High School. She most recently served as the principal at Washington.
Bilbo-Ervin earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe and a master’s degree in school administration from Prairie View A&M University.
Dozens of HISD elementary and middle school students spent the first month of the summer break at a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) camp at M.C. Williams Middle School.
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Campers, who are in grades 2–8, had daily team-building sessions during the program, which ran from June 2–26. They also learned how to code video games, and built rockets that they launched on the last day of camp. Continue reading
Rising sophomores get tips from former Futures Academy students and EMERGE fellows
The journey from high school to college to a career can be challenging, but HISD’s Futures Academy is helping students develop the skills they’ll need to get there.
The Summer Bridge Program is arming rising high school sophomores with critical knowledge in the areas of time management, team building, communication, and money management. Four sessions are scheduled for June and feature classes taught by Futures Academy and EMERGE alumni.
“One way we thought this message would resonate with students is by having former HISD Futures Academy and EMERGE students returning from their first year in college lead the sessions,” said Michael Love, assistant superintendent of the Futures Academy. “This allows the students to learn directly from peers who recently walked the same hallways as them.”
Librarians Alice Hedstrom (Almeda ES), Cheryl Hensley (MacGregor ES), and Jo Ann Reed (Scroggins ES) and Library Specialist Gloria Dennis get ready to take the bookmobile on the road. Photo courtesy Muses3 LLC.
Children living on the far north and south sides of Houston have a new reading resource this summer—and it will be coming to them.
HISD’s brand-new bookmobile will be visiting city parks in the North Forest and Sunnyside communities on alternating Fridays to provide children with a chance to pick out their own reading materials without having to visit a library.
Middle school can be a tough time for many children, especially overage students who are one or two grades behind their peers. That’s why HISD offers a special school to get these youngsters back on track.
It’s called High School Ahead and it is essentially a campus for over-age middle-school students that provides an accelerated curriculum, compressing two years of instruction into one.
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All year long, caring volunteers from across Houston have been helping HISD students read by simply going online. But on May 29, students at Paige Elementary School got to meet their mentors in the flesh.
TutorMate is a web tool that allows mentors to tutor students via the internet. It was incorporated into HISD’s Read Houston Read program as a part of its Literacy By 3 initiative, which aims to have every child reading well by the end of Grade 3.