Category Archives: PowerUp

Yates HS students create video for PowerUp persuasion

Students at Yates High School are encouraging their classmates to join the digital revolution by creating a video touting the benefits of the district’s one-to-one initiative which provides every high school student with a laptop. Yates, and over a dozen other HISD high schools have distributed nearly 18,000 student laptops over the last five weeks. The distribution is part of the district’s digital transformation known as PowerUp.

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Digital learning in the spotlight for February

[su_note note_color=”#e4edd0″ radius=”8″]During the month of February, all HISD teachers are being encouraged to try something new in their classrooms, as well as share ideas, resources, and lessons learned by posting their experiences and photos on social media using the hashtag #HISDdigital. Each week during the month, we are profiling a teacher who is using technology to break up the rows in their classrooms, engage their students, and innovate their instructional practice. This week’s profile features Austin High School teacher George Caldwell.[/su_note]

Veteran social studies teacher George Caldwell admits that when he first heard about PowerUp, HISD’s districtwide digital transformation effort, he was a little nervous and scared.

“I wasn’t very comfortable using technology in my classroom, but I decided to grab a laptop cart and let my kids know that we were going to figure this out together. They use technology every day in their lives, and we as teachers need to meet them where they are.”

A year later, all of Caldwell’s students at Austin High School have their own laptops, and he is much more comfortable using technology in his daily instruction. He’s also embraced the PowerUp:HUB, HISD’s online teaching and learning platform, as a way to facilitate student discussion and collaboration in his classroom.

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Teachers can now use the HUB ‘Library’

As part of HISD’s transition to digital teaching and learning, the PowerUp:HUB is playing an increasingly central role. One key feature of the online teaching and learning platform is the HUB Library, which is designed to hold a comprehensive collection of “learning objects” for use as part of the teaching and learning process. Learning objects in the HUB Library can be anything from adopted instructional materials (i.e., HISD’s adopted digital textbooks) to activities and resources that teachers create and share. One unique feature of learning objects in the HUB Library is that they can be tagged with standards and keywords that allow teachers to search for just the resource they need. Continue reading →

Teachers using HUB to maximize instructional time

Social studies teacher Laura Baumgart had never used an online teaching and learning platform in her daily instruction before coming to work at HISD this school year. Now, the Austin High School educator is actively using the PowerUp:HUB, HISD’s digital platform, in her everyday instruction. Continue reading →

Reagan students excited to receive laptops for school and home use

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All 2,234 students at Reagan High School received laptops on Monday, Jan. 12, as part of the district’s one-to-one plan to give all high school students a digital device to use for learning at school and at home. The one-to-one laptop program is a key component of HISD’s PowerUp initiative, which aims to digitally transform teaching and learning throughout the district.

Reagan is one of 14 HISD high schools distributing laptops to students during the month of January and early February. Others high schools include Davis, Lamar, Milby, Scarborough, South Early College, Waltrip, Westbury, Westside, Wheatley and Yates, as well as the Futures Academies at Jones, Jane Long Academy, and the High School for Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice.  Continue reading →

Phase-two PowerUp schools preparing for 1:1 laptop deployment

14 high schools to distribute more than 18,000 laptops in January

More than 18,000 students at 14 schools will be receiving laptops in January as part of the district’s one-to-one plan to give all high school students a digital device to use for learning at school and at home. The one-to-one laptop program is a key component of HISD’s PowerUp initiative, which aims to digitally transform teaching and learning throughout the district.

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Student videos preparing classmates and teachers for 1:1 laptop initiative

Students at Davis High School are taking an active role in ensuring that their campus is ready this coming January to distribute laptops to all 1,700 of its students. To help with the one-to-one device deployment, the Davis audio/visual production class has made a series of videos for their classmates, as well as for their teachers.   Continue reading →

Chamber of commerce gives laptop case tags for PowerUp schools

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HISD principals accept tags for laptop cases for their schools from the Greater Heights Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Greater Heights Area Chamber of Commerce purchased more than 9,000 luggage tags for five HISD high schools to add to the cases of laptops students are set to receive through the district’s PowerUp program, which will provide every high school student a laptop for use at school and home by 2016. Continue reading →

Special Education expert shares lessons learned during PowerUp

Representatives from school districts as far away as Seattle and Boston sat in on Beth Goodrich’s presentation on the importance of considering the needs of special student populations when giving students access to laptops or tablets.

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The HISD senior manager’s talk was one of many sessions at the fall 2014 meeting of the Urban Special Education Leadership Collaborative, a national network of approximately 100 school districts committed to improving outcomes for students with disabilities. The topic of the gathering hosted by HISD last week was “Designing Learning Environments for all Students: Increasing Access Through Technology.” Continue reading →

Westside teachers putting the HUB to the test

Students at Westside High School won’t be getting their PowerUp laptops until January, but that’s not stopping teachers on campus from using the PowerUp:HUB with their students.

With the help and encouragement of their campus instructional technologist, Westside teachers are starting to use the online teaching and learning platform for various instructional routines with their students including homework assignments and tests.

“Initially I had negative thoughts about the HUB, but now I like it because I and I am not so scared of it,” says Westside Advanced Placement World History Heather Barrow, who is using the HUB for homework assignments that she previously would have assigned to her students to do from a textbook. Continue reading →