Category Archives: District IV – Patricia Allen

Student Congress using literacy to cultivate readers, leaders

Students from North Houston Early College High School read to second-graders at Roosevelt Elementary School.

Students from North Houston Early College High School read to second-graders at Roosevelt Elementary School.

Literacy is so important to HISD’s newly formed Student Congress that the organization has already created its own mentoring program.

“Bring a Book” got its start last September, when Congress members began brainstorming ideas for possible service projects. After agreeing to focus on literacy, the group decided to pair high-school students with second-graders to develop the younger children’s reading comprehension skills.

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Scholars Banquet recognizes 90-plus high school seniors at top of their class

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The Houston Independent School District paid tribute to the top students from each high school’s graduating class during the annual Scholars Banquet on April 7.

In addition to their outstanding academic achievements, these 96 valedictorians and salutatorians have garnered more than $2 million year-to-date in scholarship and financial aid offers.

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Interactive bus to help students learn more about health, science, tech careers

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HISD’s completely revamped career bus is hitting the road.

The district’s Career Readiness Department unveiled the newly remodeled vehicle—known as the Career Ready Wagon—on March 26, when it made its inaugural visit to Atherton Elementary School.

The bus is designed to allow elementary school students in third, fourth, and fifth grades the chance to explore possible career interests before advancing to middle school. It features a robotics station, a flight simulator, and a welding simulator, as well as an electric station that allows students to build their own electrical circuits. Also inside are four touchscreen monitors where students can test their career knowledge with a short quiz and watch a career-related video.

The bus will visit another 10 elementary schools — Anderson, Dávila, Emerson, Field, Garcia, Helms, Jefferson, Mading, Mandarin Chinese Language Immersion Magnet School, and T.H. Rogers — throughout April and May.

The bus is sponsored by HISD and CenterPoint Energy.

Also see this related story on HISD’s one and only Career Cowboy, Jake Breier, who was the subject of an “I Am HISD” profile last October.

Second annual career day at Foster Elementary

More than a dozen careers were represented by attendees at the second annual Career Day at Foster Elementary recently. Attending the event were engineers, police officers, a sheriff, an attorney, a counselor, insurance agents, dental representatives, and even a snake-handler from Texas Snakes.

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HAIS students travel halfway around the world to give back

For many students, spring break usually means vacation on the beach, a road trip across the country, or simply rest and relaxation at home. But students from the Houston Academy for International Studies spent their time away from school performing hands-on service learning projects in another country.

Twelve students and two teacher chaperones participated in the Rekha & Sudhir Puranik Foundation’s Impact India program. The program is based at the Puranik Foundation’s Vision International Learning Center, a rural English school that serves more than 80 impoverished primary and secondary students from villages around Pune, India.

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“Impact India is designed to teach students about India’s rich history and culture, and give them insight into how different cultures address social and political challenges,” said Rekha & Sudhir Puranik Foundation Executive Director Revati Puranik. “The school and the foundation are fully sustainable without electricity and running water, an ideal environment for students to participate in service-learning activities focused on alternative energy, agriculture, and education.”

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‘Roses and Knights’ take first place in robotics tournament

Students from Young Women’s College Preparatory Academy and Mickey Leland College Preparatory Academy won the National Society of Black Engineers’ inaugural National VEX Robotics Championship this past weekend in Anaheim, California.

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Fourth-graders visit Texas A&M and University of Texas at Austin

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It’s never too early to get students excited about college. Shadowbriar and Mading elementary schools took fourth-grade students on college visits recently. Close to 150 Shadowbriar students, teachers, and staff, as well as some alumni parents, traveled to Texas A&M University (TAMU), and 55 Mading students went to University of Texas at Austin (UT).

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Yates HS communications students begin massive video archiving project

Students in the magnet communications program at Yates High School recently launched a massive archiving project that will one day result in the digitization of more than 30 years of video footage.

Phase one entails the ingestion of hundreds of video tapes from the Yates magnet program dating back to 1980, containing footage of the school and its history, events, faculty, and students.

The ultimate goal of the project is to produce a digital archive on Blu-Ray discs that can be displayed at the school’s new facility and will be ready in time for the 40th anniversary of the School of Communications in 2018.

Yates’ new chapter of the Student Television Network is using the latest in digital content acquisition technology to ingest the legacy analog video into an updated iMac system. Students involved are acquiring skills that can be used in the media archiving industry, film and television non-linear video editing, and metadata management, which is an introduction to meta-tagging and understanding aggregate data for social media careers.

Student Congress members share their concerns with state legislators

Nine HISD students travel to Austin over spring break to make their voices heard

Nine students from various HISD high schools got a chance to influence Texas law last week when they traveled to Austin on March 17 for a visit to the state capitol.

The trip offered high-schoolers a behind-the-scenes look at the law-making process and a chance to express their concerns about various issues to state legislators.

Carnegie Vanguard High School seniors Raquel Douglas and David Valerio spoke with the staff of almost 20 representatives, focusing particular attention on members of the Public Education Committee.

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Yates HS students receive practical training for health services careers

Students at Yates High School are getting practical experience in the health services arena. The Health Science Program at Yates HS is in its first year, and the new Jack Yates Community Clinic opened at the beginning of March. Services provided in the Community Clinic include blood pressure screenings for faculty, staff and students, height and weight measurements, and patient education. Continue reading →