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Sometimes you just need to dance to a Taylor Swift song. Special Education students and staff at Halpin Early Childhood Center acted on such an urge last week. During their Special Education Awards Day on May 22, they debuted a video of the whole community dancing to Swift’s single “Shake It Off.”
Nathan Brunell, a junior at HISD’s Westside High School, will be immersing himself in deaf culture this summer after being selected to attend an exclusive American Sign Language (ASL) program at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.
Nathan is one of only 48 high-school students chosen from across the country to participate in the 10-day program, which is for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing students. Gallaudet is the only university in the world designed specifically to serve deaf and hard-of-hearing students, and only experienced signers at the intermediate level or higher were considered for the workshop.
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.
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.
Athletes come in all shapes and sizes, and that’s why the Houston Independent School District played host to the third annual Special Olympics field days April 29–May 1 at Barnett Stadium.
Field days give students with intellectual disabilities a chance to take part in fun and friendly athletic contests. The games kicked off on Wednesday morning with an opening ceremony that included a parade for athletes and the official passing of the torch. Continue reading
This week marks the end of Autism Awareness Month, so we asked some of our parents of students with autism about their families’ experiences with HISD, to find out what they felt contributed the most to their students’ successes.
Noah poses with a trophy he won in a robotics competition.
Kristi Anders, the parent of a 12-year-old who is finishing up his last year in elementary school, says her son has flourished at two different campuses due to the inclusive environments created there by caring staff members.
“Noah’s teachers and principal at Garden Oaks Montessori were so accepting and supportive of him,” she said. “He has had to learn his limits and figure out what works for him and what doesn’t, but we bought him noise-reducing headphones and he learned to tell people when they were in his personal space. His teacher would also send him on errands or to get a drink of water when she could see he was getting frustrated. In the third grade, Noah’s friends voted him class president.”
Makaila Maniscalco, a seventh-grade student at Johnston Middle School, has been named the winner of an art contest sponsored by the Office of Special Education Services.
Makaila created a mask that won first place out of 21 entries from across the district. Judging took place April 14–17 at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center, and the theme of the contest was “Who Am I?”
Makaila relies upon her memory of color, and used her tactile senses to color different parts of the piece. She likes the mask because it “keeps the viewer’s eye moving and guessing about who the mask might represent.”
As the winner of the contest, Makaila’s artwork will become the logo for the 2015 Special Education Conference, which will take place July 21–23 at Westbury High School.
Finalists were Tatum Brooks (Westside HS), Javier Gutierrez (Lamar HS), Jonathan Reyna (T.H. Rogers), and Hailey Hernandez (Wainwright ES).
The Office of Special Education Services will be hosting a meeting for parents of students with autism on Wednesday, April 22, 2015.
The meeting will take place in Room 3C10 at the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center (440 W. 18th St, 77092) from 9-10 a.m., and participants will have an opportunity to network with other parents and meet the HISD autism team.
Light refreshments will be provided. Please let us know if you will be attending by calling or sending a text message to 281-826-9131.
April is Autism Awareness Month, and in recognition of World Autism Awareness Day, communities across the globe are being asked to “Light It Up Blue” on April 2.
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People will be lighting up their homes, schools, offices, and iconic landmarks with the color blue, and HISD will observe the month in different ways across the district, including adding blue accents to the cafeteria of the Hattie Mae White Educational Support Center (HMWESC) and even changing up the appearance of the main district website.
There are endless ways for individuals to participate—you can swap out a blue light bulb on your front porch, get folks to wear something blue at work, or turn your Facebook profile picture blue to show support.
This is our chance to shine a light on autism, so please join us.
The Office of Special Education will also be hosting an autism parent support meeting on Wednesday, April 22, 2015, at the HMWESC (4400 W. 18th, 77092) from 9–10 a.m.
ReelAbilities, the Houston Disabilities Film Festival, will be coming to the Bayou City Feb. 9–12, 2015, and all secondary teachers are invited to take advantage of it by scheduling free movie screenings on their campuses or at local movie theaters. Teachers can begin signing up for a screening on Jan. 15. Continue reading
Students in Bellaire High School teacher Charles Sanders’ structured learning class (for children with autism spectrum disorders) got a peek behind the scenes of a real television show recently, when they served as audience members on Great Day Houston, hosted by Deborah Duncan.
The students visited the set to learn more about the different types of work that go into producing and taping a live performance.
“A few of our students have technical theatre or theatre arts for an elective,” explained Sanders. “They have helped with the preparation of a few performances of the Bellaire Belles (the school’s dance team) and various plays this school year. So we wanted to see an actual live performance put on and we had an awesome time.”