Category Archives: Elementary Schools

Engineers, college professor, and even a cowboy share love of reading with elementary students

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Reading aloud to students is widely recognized as the single most important activity for developing literacy. And if that reader also can serve as a positive male role model, even better.

This past fall, Anderson Elementary Dual Language School launched M.A.L.E. (Men and Literacy Evolving), an initiative in which male members of the community come to the school to read to students on the last Monday of each month. Anderson Principal Roslyn Stiles Vaughn envisioned the program after a member of her church expressed his desire to make a difference by reading to students. Continue reading →

HISD student wins grand prize worth $25K in Microsoft’s Bing Summer Story Challenge

Park Place students won big in the national Bing Summer Story Challenge. From left to right are Adrian Pizarro, Johana Contreras Castillo, and grand prize winner Shaun Toliao.

Park Place students won big in the national Bing Summer Story Challenge. From left to right are Adrian Pizarro, Johana Contreras Castillo, and grand prize winner Shaun Toliao.

Third-grader Shaun Toliao will be taking his family to Hawaii, just for writing a story about what he did last summer. The Park Place Elementary School student was the grand prize winner of the Bing in the Classroom Summer Story Challenge, a digital storytelling contest sponsored by Microsoft.

He also won a Surface Pro Tablet and other tech prizes, as well as the opportunity to take classes in digital literacy while in Hawaii. Toliao’s prize is worth a grand total of $25,000. Continue reading →

Two children’s authors visit HISD elementary schools this week

Red ES student Brian Mejia poses for a photo with children author Don Tate and the school librarian, Melissa Buron.

Red ES student Brian Mejia poses for a photo with children author Don Tate and the school librarian, Melissa Buron.

Red Elementary School students welcomed two children’s authors to their school this week. On Monday, Dec. 1, the HISD science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) magnet school celebrated the love of fairy tales with author Liesl Shurtliff. Shurtliff is the author of the Bluebonnet Nominated book “RUMP: The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin.”  Author and illustrator Don Tate, who’s written more than 50 books for children, also stopped by Red ES. On Wednesday, Dec. 3, Shurtliff made another visit to a HISD school by reading to students at Patterson Elementary School.

Author Liesl Shurtliff and Red Elementary Students

Red ES students pose for a photo with children’s author Liesl Shurtliff on Dec. 3, 2014.

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Patterson ES students get a visit from children’s author Liesl Shurtliff on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014.

Houston Police Department’s K-9 unit inspires students to ‘be a better you’

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Foerster Elementary School students were treated to a visit from the Houston Police Department’s K-9 Unit on Thursday, Dec. 4 while learning the importance of making positive decisions every day.

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Elementary students take art ‘on the road’ to promote fine arts magnet program

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The lobby of Spring Hill Suites by Marriott will be transformed into an art gallery from 4 to 7 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 4, thanks to the creativity of 30 Crespo Elementary School students.The event will help raise public awareness of HISD’s outstanding magnet programs, and Crespo is honored to represent the fine arts programs in particular.

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Hour of Code registration pays off with $10,000 prize for one school

Kolter ES one of 51 campuses across the country to win in random drawingStudents work on a worldwide computer security legal hacking challenge at Clifton Middle School, November 6, 2014. (Houston ISD/Dave Einsel)

Kolter Elementary School is the lucky school from Texas to win $10,000 worth of laptops for registering to participate in the Hour of Code, through which millions of students will spend at least one hour learning about computer science next week.

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Strong classroom support promotes success for HISD dual language expansion

When Houston ISD doubled its dual language programs to include 28 schools this August, that was just the beginning of district’s commitment to making sure students on those campuses become bilingual and biliterate.

Representatives of HISD’s Multilingual Programs Department have visited each school to evaluate instructional practices and to offer support for principals and teachers to embed language instruction into strong academic content. Native Spanish-speakers learn English, and English speakers gain a second language through immersion. Continue reading →

High school students lend a helping hand to Literacy by 3

Scheduling conflicts usually prevent high school students from volunteering with younger students during the school day, but two district campuses figured out a clever way to work around that obstacle in order to take part in the district’s Literacy by 3 movement.

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Members of the National Honor Society at Davis High School have been using their early release day every month to spend time reading to students at Pugh Elementary. On Nov. 19, about 20 seniors spent the afternoon at Pugh, mentoring and working close to 30 students. Continue reading →