Category Archives: Middle Schools

Principals Get Fired Up by Keynote Speaker

Fantastic! Inspirational! Amazing!

These are a few of the comments overheard after keynote speaker Alan Hooker ended the Welcome Back Team HISD event for principals and their staff on Wednesday morning, Aug. 7, at Chavez High School.

Hooker, HISD’s Leadership Development Officer, talked specifically about how to be successful in realizing your dreams. His childhood dreams included becoming a basketball star in high school, even though he was only 5 foot 6 inches at the time. He grew tall and made the team. His college dream was playing football for the Dallas Cowboys, and sure enough, they recruited him.

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North Forest Families Urged to Complete Application for HISD’s Free and Reduced Price Meals Program

Application available online and at all HISD campuses for 2013-2014 academic year

The Houston Independent School District urges all North Forest families to complete an application with HISD’s Food Services Department as soon as possible in order for their children to qualify for free or reduced price meals during the 2013-2014 school year.

“Many of our families may not realize they need to apply each year for meal benefits,” HISD Food Services Senior Manager Brian Giles said. “It‘s important that they submit the application in order to qualify so their children can start the first day of school with healthy meals.”

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HISD Teachers Engaged In Five-Year Study On Science Instruction

A teacher pours water into a tub to examine its flow through a dirt pile.

A teacher pours water into a tub to examine its flow through a dirt pile.

The key to a successful future for children may not come in the answers, but in the questions.

For the third year in a five-year research project known as Investing in Innovation, more than 400 HISD teachers in first through eighth grades are undergoing intense science training to study how children learn with inquiry-based instruction through the Smithsonian Science Education Center’s LASER i3 program.

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Reagan HS and Hogg MS Celebrate IB Authorization

Reagan High School and Hogg Middle School are the two latest HISD campuses to receive official authorization to operate as International Baccalaureate World Schools. The announcement, which came on July 5, creates the first continuous IB feeder pattern in the historic Heights neighborhood. Students now can begin the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) at Harvard Elementary and then progress to Hogg Middle School and Reagan High School for the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP).

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Millionaire Club Spotlight: What Are You Reading This Summer?

HISD’s Millionaire Club is a literacy initiative designed to encourage students to read for pleasure during the summer months. Each week, we’ll catch up with one HISD librarian to find out what’s on his or her reading list. This week, we spoke with Pat Johnson, a librarian at Stevenson Middle School.

So, what are you reading right now?

I’m reading all the books from the “Name That Book” contest to get clues.

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North Forest Families Encouraged to Register for Summer School

Classes to be offered at four campuses in the North Forest community

The Houston Independent School District will offer summer school instruction for students in the North Forest community from July 8 through August 1 at the following schools: Shadydale and Hilliard elementary schools, Forest Brook Middle School, and North Forest High School.

HISD is sending notification letters this week to the households of students who should attend summer school.  The summer school session is intended for students who need to retake portions of the STAAR exam, students who have not met grade-level promotion standards, high school students who need to retake STAAR end-of-course exams, high school students in need of course credit recovery, certain English language learners, and certain students receiving special education services.

Classes will be held Monday through Thursday, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.  Transportation will be provided at eight different locations within the North Forest community.  For more information on bus pickup sites, call 713-613-3040.

Deadline to register for summer school is July 11.  Parents can visit their neighborhood schools to register for summer school or register online at www.houstonisd.org/nfsummer.

Principals Using Dashboard to Drive Decision Making

Much like a winning race-car driver, a successful school principal needs access to data so that he or she can tune, tweak, and make improvements. In a well-designed car, drivers can find most of the data they need by looking at the dashboard. Now HISD principals have their own dashboard to drive decision making on their campus. It’s called Analytics for Education (A4E).

“Not only is A4E saving our principals time, but it is helping them to be more efficient,” said Betty Garcia from HISD’s Information Technology Department. “Principals can go to their dashboard, grab the information they need quickly, make informed decisions, and then communicate it with their staff as they take the next step.”

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Lovett ES Teacher Traveling to Iceland to Study Volcanic Effects on People, Earth

Rhonda Goldmann of Lovett Elementary

Rhonda Goldmann of Lovett Elementary does the "Division Dance" with her students as part of her summer school math instruction.

Those traveling in Europe a little more than three years ago may have bad memories of an Icelandic volcano causing them to be stuck in airports waiting for volcanic ash to clear the skies, but Lovett Elementary School science teacher Rhonda Goldmann has some hope for a repeat performance later this summer.

Goldmann will travel to Iceland to observe active volcanoes in the hopes of learning more about their positive and negative effects to bring back new lessons for students.

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Principals selected, changes proposed for North Forest schools

As the State of Texas moves forward with its order to close North Forest ISD and annex the area into the Houston Independent School District, HISD is making plans to change the purpose of some NFISD buildings and selecting staff for NFISD schools.

In addition, the district plans to recommend attendance zones for the North Forest area to meet the needs of transferred students, and make modest changes to HISD school attendance zones for areas adjoining the North Forest boundary later this summer. Pursuant to the order issued by Texas Education Commissioner Michael Williams, these changes will take effect on July 1, 2013.
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