Category Archives: Elementary Schools

Register now to attend May 13 teacher job fair

District seeking highly effective educators to produce global graduates

Join Team HISD and help us produce global graduates. The district is hosting a job fair on Wednesday, May 13, 2015, and we’re seeking effective teachers to join our team.

Please note: You must first apply for a teaching position using our online application system by clicking here.

  • If you are a Texas certified teacher, please be prepared to provide evidence of your credentials
  • If you are an Alternative Certification Program candidate, please upload your Letter of Acceptance, Statement of Eligibility, and university transcripts

Interested teachers who have completed the online application and been approved by the Talent Acquisition team will receive additional details about the job fair, including its time and location.

Principals will be on hand to interview highly qualified candidates and will be prepared to extend on-the-spot job offers.

The district strongly encourages bilingual, secondary math and science, and special education candidates to apply and attend.

If you have any questions, please email teacherselection@houstonisd.org.

HISD Board of Education to again consider plan to reduce classroom overcrowding

The Houston Independent School District Board of Education next week will consider adjusting neighborhood attendance boundaries at certain elementary schools in an effort to reduce classroom overcrowding.

The plan calls for boundary adjustments at 26 elementary schools, as well as grade reconfigurations at two elementary campuses: Ashford and Shadowbriar, both of which would become comprehensive elementary schools offering pre-kindergarten through fifth grade.

Currently, the two schools share an attendance zone — Ashford offers pre-kindergarten through second grade, and Shadowbriar offers third through fifth grades. Under the proposal, Ashford would retain an attendance zone, but Shadowbriar would not. Instead, it would offer special programming designed to draw students.

The HISD Board of Education is expected to consider the proposals during their regular monthly meeting on May 14. If approved, the changes would go into effect for the 2015-2016 school year and would apply to new, incoming students. Students who are already enrolled — as well as incoming kindergartners — still would be allowed to attend the school to which they are currently zoned.

The attendance boundary proposals were created in response to state law, which requires kindergarten through fourth-grade classes to have no more than 22 students per classroom. Classes that exceed that number must request a state waiver. This school year, HISD had to submit nearly 1,500 class-size waiver requests.

The proposed attendance boundary maps were originally submitted to the school board in March. All remain the same with the exception of the northline area, where the boundary between Lyons and Burbank elementary schools has shifted northward.

Parents whose children attend Lyons, Burbank or Northline elementary schools had an opportunity to discuss this change during a community meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. Thursday, May 7 at Sam Houston Math, Science & Technology Center, 9400 Irvington.

For a full list of schools impacted by the proposals, go online: http://www.houstonisd.org/Page/126823.

Read the notes from that meeting here (.pdf).

Spring Visual Arts Showcase displays talent of HISD student artists

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Stroll through the halls of HISD’s Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center (4400 W. 18th St, 77092) over the next few days, and you could see a lion, a wolf, or even a cheetah.

All of these and more are represented in original artworks created by HISD students as part of the 2015 Spring Visual Arts Showcase, which is organized annually to display the talent of student artists from across the district.

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Support budding entrepreneurs on Lemonade Day, Sunday, May 3

It’s been almost a decade since Lemonade Day first came to the Bayou City, and over the years, thousands of HISD students have participated in this annual exercise in learning how to start and run a business.

Lemonade Day is scheduled for Sunday, May 3, 2015, and the competition for Houston’s Best-Tasting Lemonade will take place from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. at four locations that day:

In addition to the Best-Tasting Lemonade contest, this year’s event will offer students a few more opportunities to earn recognition, including a Best Stand contest determined in part by “likes” on social media. Other contests for young people include competitions for the Most Innovative Business Plan, Most Charitable Entrepreneur, and Best Social Media Campaign.

“Judges will give their opinion of the best-tasting, of course, but in the other categories, we really want to reward the children who are putting in the work and getting creative,” said Lemonade Day Houston Associate Director Gabrielle Gunn. “These competitions will be based in part on the stories that are shared by teachers, principals, students, and customers, so we encourage everyone to come out and support Houston’s young people.”

For a full list of lemonade stands and their locations, please visit the Lemonade Day website.

Mobile literacy outreach program helps foster love of reading

Bess the Book Bus, a national mobile literacy outreach program, stopped in Houston recently to promote literacy and share a little story time with HISD students.

A student at Barrick ES shows off her selection. Photos courtesy Anthony Amirante.

A student at Barrick ES shows off her selection. Photos courtesy Anthony Amirante.

The bus, which makes its way across the U.S. every year, visited Barrick and Grissom Elementary schools on April 22. Jennifer Frances, the bus’ founder, read aloud to students at Grissom, and afterwards the children got to explore the bus and pick out a book to keep. More than 430 Pre-K and kindergarten students received a free book that day to start their at-home libraries.

“Many of our students come from low-income homes where books—particularly children’s books—are considered a luxury,” said HISD Literacy Director Cindy Puryear. “So it’s really exciting when children get to have a book of their very own to keep, especially when it’s one that they picked out themselves. We are very grateful to organizations like Bess the Book Bus for giving our students this experience.”

Bess the Book Bus is dedicated to sharing the joy of reading with underprivileged children. It was founded in Tampa, Fla., in 2002, and named in honor of Frances’ grandmother, Bess. The bus has traveled to all 48 contiguous states in the U.S. and is funded solely by generous donors, including CITGO Petroleum, which offsets the cost of gasoline.

In 2015, Bess the Book Bus served more than 25,000 kids in 25 states.

Sanchez Elementary dancers win first place in San Antonio

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Congratulations to Sanchez Elementary’s ballet folklorico dancers, who took first place in the Pre-Junior Elementary and Duet categories at the ACADEZ dance competition on April 18, 2015, in San Antonio. They competed against schools from across the country.

ACADEZ is an acronym for the Academia de la Danza Amalia Hernández. Hernández (1917-2000) was a Mexican ballet choreographer and founder of the renowned Ballet Folklorica de Mexico in 1952.

Magnet Spotlight: Carrillo ES serving gifted and talented students on Houston’s east side

IMG_5051HISD has 10 elementary schools that serve gifted and talented students though the Vanguard magnet program, and one of those is Carrillo, located just east of downtown.

In addition to a rigorous Vanguard curriculum, Carrillo offers a host of enrichment class options, such as band, music, and art. After-school choir and orchestra programs also give students an exceptional opportunity to learn how to play the flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, guitar, or percussion instruments.

For children whose first language is not English, Carrillo’s bilingual program provides intensive instruction and support in all subjects, with a special focus on developing listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills using English as a Second language methodology.

Students may also participate in Gifted and Talented Expos, the annual Name That Book competition, and Odyssey of the Mind activities.

“The Carrillo faculty is caring and dedicated to the success of every single student,” said Principal Mary Hallinan. “We are committed to ensuring that each child reaches his/her potential by setting high expectations and providing the best quality education to help students reach those standards.”

HISD will be holding its annual School Choice Fair on Saturday, April 25, for parents and students who have not yet decided on a school for the coming academic year. Carrillo is one of several schools that still has space available in its magnet program. For more information about Carrillo or other magnet campuses, please visit the School Choice website.

HISD elementary school receives $50,000 grant for smart boards, books

Bruce Elementary School was selected this week to receive a $50,000 grant from the Leonore Annenberg School Fund for Children, an organization that provides educational resources to underfunded schools in urban and rural communities.

Bruce Elementary was one of nine schools from across the country to receive the grant, which will be used to purchase interactive whiteboards and nonfiction books for existing classroom libraries to boost literacy through student engagement and teacher effectiveness.

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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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New ‘Caught in the Act’ video series to showcase great instruction

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HISD is kicking off a new video campaign to recognize highly effective teachers delivering great instruction.

It’s called “Caught in the Act” (CIA), and its goal is to demonstrate what high-quality teaching looks like by spotlighting instructors from across the district. Every month, the HISD video team, along with Chief Elementary Curriculum and Instruction Officer Lance Menster and Chief Secondary Curriculum and Instruction Annie Wolfe, will be dropping in on classrooms to observe and point out examples of great instruction.

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