First-year school nurse revives campus club to encourage STEM careers

HISD’s Booker T. Washington High School is usually known for its magnet engineering program, but some students there have an interest in healthcare—and one first-year school nurse is helping them to explore it.

Members of the Booker T. Washington High School health club examine a sheep’s heart during a field trip to the Houston Health Museum.

Members of the Booker T. Washington High School health club examine a sheep’s heart during a field trip to the Houston Health Museum.

Worthing High School alumna Shara Fontaine, who joined Team HISD in 2014 after nine years as a labor and delivery nurse and a stint in the U.S. Air Force, resurrected the student health club at Washington last fall to better serve students with career aspirations in healthcare. The club now has about 15 members, and Fontaine has been coordinating special activities to further stoke their interest in that field. Continue reading →

DeBakey wins $7,500 grant in national H&R Block budget challenge

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The DeBakey High School for Health Professions recently received a $7,500 grant from the H&R Block Budget Challenge, a teen financial literacy program that rewards high school classes for mastering real-world budgeting and personal finance decision-making. H&R Block representatives presented campus leaders with a check at a special gathering held in December.

High school students and educators nationwide are competing this year to win a portion of $3 million in classroom grants, college scholarships, and cash prizes through the Challenge, which was created to help students learn to manage their money and become financially responsible adults. Continue reading →

Two alternative certification grads discuss what makes HISD’s program superior

Physics teacher Adeeb Barqawi works with his students at Kashmere High School.

Physics teacher Adeeb Barqawi works with his students at Kashmere High School.

The one thing most participants in HISD’s Alternative Certification Program have in common is that they did not originally plan to pursue a career in education. However, the desire to be a positive influence on children and the greater Houston community eventually brought them to the classroom, and to HISD.

Recently, we sat down with Cory Bates, a bilingual Pre-K teacher at Stevens Elementary School, and Adeeb Barqawi, a physics teacher at Kashmere High School, to reflect on their experiences in the district’s Alternative Certification Program, also known as the Effective Teacher Fellowship (ETF), and why they feel HISD’s program is superior to others. The deadline to apply to the next Effective Teacher Fellowship cohort is Saturday, Jan. 31, 2015.  Continue reading →

Student Congress giving high school kids a voice in their own education

Speaker of the Congress Zaakir Tameez (lower left) poses with members of the Student Congress at the Dec. 11 Board of Education meeting.

Speaker of the Congress Zaakir Tameez (lower left) poses with members of the Student Congress at the Dec. 11 Board of Education meeting.

A group of juniors and seniors from four HISD campuses is on a mission to give their peers a voice in public education—and they have created a new Student Congress to do it.

More than a dozen students from Bellaire, Carnegie Vanguard, Lamar, and Yates high schools founded the congress last spring, after participating in senior Zaakir Tameez’s Texas Performance Standards Project at Carnegie Vanguard.

“We were originally called ‘Our Shared Future’ and talked about current events,” explains Outreach Chair Amy Fan, now a junior at Bellaire High School. “But as we met with city leaders from all over Houston, our conversations would constantly lead back to education. Yet the only people with whom we could share our critiques was each other.” Continue reading →

Teachers: Turn your professional development dreams into reality

Garden Oaks Montessori teacher Shana Steinhardt milks a camel (or a yak) while on a trip to Mongolia this summer. The trip was underwritten by a grant from Fund for Teachers.

Garden Oaks Montessori teacher Shana Steinhardt milks a camel (or a yak) while on a trip to Mongolia this summer. The trip was underwritten by a grant from Fund for Teachers.

If you could design your ideal professional development opportunity, what might that look like?

Would you be studying volcanoes in Iceland, exploring nomadic life on the steppes of Mongolia, steeping yourself in the art of Salvador Dalí in Spain, or visiting the Children’s Peace Memorial in Japan that inspired a beloved children’s book?

Whatever your interest or passion might be, now is the time to flesh out your fantasy, as the Fund For Teachers is in the business of turning dream professional development opportunities into reality, and time is running out to make your dream come true.  Continue reading →

School secretary Karen Reed is HISD Employee of the Month for January

Karen Reed, left, is recognized as the January 2015 Employee of the Month at the HISD Board Meeting in December.

Karen Reed, Employee of the Month for January, is a Special Education secretary at Hogg Middle School, a position she has held since 2012. She walked away from a lucrative career in commercial real estate to join Team HISD, after realizing that her job wasn’t meaningful enough.

“As a research analyst, I did all this work so brokers could go home with big commissions,” said Reed. “I was padding someone else’s pocketbook, but not making a difference. I wanted somewhere for my stamp to be. These kids provide me with what I need: a purpose.”

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.

Continue reading →

Carnegie Vanguard HS Interact Club, HISD PD partner for holiday toy drive

A group of students from Carnegie Vanguard High School’s Interact Club teamed up with the Houston Independent School District Police Department for its annual holiday Toy Drive on Thursday.

Members of HISD PD and Carnegie Vanguard High School's Interact Club

Members of HISD PD and Carnegie Vanguard High School’s Interact Club.

For the second year in a row, the club collected boxes and gave from their own personal pockets to create about 30 gift boxes filled with items such as T-shirts, shorts, soap, pencils and other items for boys and girls.

In a written memo to the Interact Club, HISD Chief of Police Robert Mock thanked the student organization for their kindness.

“You have certainly set a fine example of defining your mission through your thoughts and actions,” Mock said. “Not only did your organization donate gifts for less fortunate children, but you went the extra mile of wrapping the presents and labeling the boxes for easy distribution.”

The mission of the Interact Club aims to show students how to overcome obstacles, such as distance and cultural barriers, while learning to embrace other kids like themselves around the world.

New year, new hope: Volunteer for Read Houston Read

Read Houston Read Sutton

If you’re still deciding on a New Year’s resolution, look no further because we have a great one for you that will change a child’s life.

You can help a first-grader learn to read by spending at least 30 minutes reading to a child per week as part of HISD’s Read Houston Read program. Volunteers can become a Read Houston Read mentor, in person or over the Internet, by reading to a child at their school or by logging onto the web. Volunteers also  listen to the child read, help the child learn new words, and play fun games to reinforce what he/she has learned.

Houston is in a literacy crisis, and it will take everyone – schools, families, communities — to help provide this basic skill that can make the difference between lifelong learning and achievement or frustration and failure.

For a listing and map of participating schools, click here.