The Houston Symphony is launching its annual series of free summer community family concerts throughout the Houston area, and HISD’s Booker T. Washington High School is on the list of venues.
Symphony musicians will play a program of family-friendly music celebrating composers of diverse backgrounds, ranging from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony to Ravel’s Suite from Mother Goose, conducted by Robert Franz.
From “Go, Dog, Go” for pre-K and kindergartners to “Au Revoir, Crazy European Chick” for 12th-graders, the reading lists for the 2014-2015 Name That Book competition are online — just in time for leisurely summer reading.
There’s an added incentive to tackle the lists now: Books read from the Name That Book selections will count toward HISD students’ summer reading program goals, and if they’re checked out from a local public library, toward the library’s summer reading program levels.
The Name That Book competition is sponsored each spring by HISD’s Department of Library Services. It’s a program designed to familiarize students with classic literature as well as contemporary, award-winning books across a variety of genres. Teams of students are asked questions about books in their reading level that will test their comprehension of characters and plotlines.
If your child needs to attend a summer school program, be sure to apply soon – the deadline is May 19. You may download the application online, but it must be turned in to the main office at your child’s school.
Summer school programs are coordinated at the district level, planned at the campus level, and customized to meet the needs of students. Because each participating campus plans the programs, schools have the flexibility to set the dates and times for classes. Please check with your campus directly for its schedule. No classes will be held on Friday, July 4.
“Summer is about reading anywhere,” says Texas Connections Academy eighth-grader Maggie Martin. That philosophy – and her ability to illustrate it in a compelling design and slogan – has made Martin the winner of HISD’s contest to create a logo for the 2014 “Read Houston Read” district summer reading program for kindergartners through fifth-graders.
Martin’s design, entitled “Every Summer Has a Story,” will appear on all HISD summer reading program materials, including a special parent toolkit that will be sent home in May to encourage summer reading as a family activity.
School library and students with highest participation in Millionaire Club receive more than 3,000 books
Houston Astros catcher Jason Castro and his wife, Maris, pose with prize winners after handing out books and prizes to students at Moreno ES for their participation in the Millionaire Club summer reading program, September 12, 2013.
Students at Moreno Elementary were treated to a special visit from Houston Astros player Jason Castro on September 11. Nearly 300 students not only got to visit with the major-league ball player but also received a bag of four books to add to their home library. Moreno ES had the district’s highest participation in the Millionaire Club summer-reading program. Castro not only congratulated the students but talked about his love of reading and why he and his wife Maris started Castro’s Kids, which encourages children to embrace literacy.
Milby HS sophomore Kenneth Andrus (kneeling, R) poses with fellow Woods Project participants on the trail heading from Vogelsang Pass to Merced Lake in Yosemite National Park.
For a few weeks every summer, The Woods Project shutters its Houston-based office while the entire staff goes backpacking with local teenagers.
At first glance, this might not seem to be a very effective business strategy, but the trips are actually aligned with the non-profit organization’s mission—getting economically disadvantaged urban youth out into the wilderness. The idea is to build their self-confidence by exposing them to unfamiliar people, environments, and challenges, and along the way, teach them the value of teamwork, the need for perseverance, and the reality they can accomplish far more than they ever thought possible.
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 Cindy Dinneen, a librarian at Johnston Middle School.
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 Jo Reed, the librarian at Scroggins Elementary School.
A teacher performs an experiment at the BCM summer institute
As a team of presenters from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) explained the agency’s presence on the International Space Station and described potential future trips to Mars, it quickly became clear that their talk wasn’t solely about reaching past the Earth’s atmosphere and beyond, but was also about setting the foundation here at home to continue their work.
Approximately 250 teachers listened to a speech given by NASA’s Crew and Thermal Systems Division as part of their studies this month at the Baylor College of Medicine Summer Science Institute (SSI). The group is comprised of HISD science teachers in grades 1 through 8.
Jack Yates HS librarian Velda Hunter
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 Velda Hunter, a librarian at Jack Yates High School.
What are you reading right now? What attracted you to those selections?
I never read just one or two books at a time. I am reading a variety of good reads, including high school Name That Book selections. Mystery is my favorite genre, so the mystery-thriller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn is one of the first I chose from the new Name That Book list.