Tag Archives: Chavez HS

Linked Learning crafts new pathways for college and career

Educators from eight HISD high schools — Chavez, Eastwood Academy, Furr, Lee, Milby, Reagan, Sterling, and Westside — are spending their summer designing industry-themed programs of study intended to make learning exciting, challenging and relevant to real-world experiences. The program, known as Linked Learning, will help students build a strong foundation that leads to fulfilling and successful college and career experiences.

“It’s amazing. It’s awesome,” said Linked Learning superintendent Adam Stephens.

Linked Learning pathways differ from Texas House Bill 5’s mandated pathways. Continue reading →

Computer simulation is helping teachers refine instructional methods

Teachers at eight different HISD schools have been spending more time with avatars this spring—but it’s not because they’re playing on FarmVille, The Sims, or Second Life.

Instead, these educators have been fine-tuning their instructional skills using TeachLivE, a pilot program in which flesh-and-blood teachers deliver actual lessons to virtual students in a computer-simulated classroom. The students are programmed to respond in real time to the actions of the teacher, so instructors can identify ways to improve their lessons almost immediately.
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11-school CASEY Club introduces HISD students to career as firefighter/EMT

Students from Chavez, Westbury, Yates and Sharpstown high schools spent a sunny day completing a 24-foot ladder extension, hoisting equipment and rescuing a dummy named Randy. The exercises were part of the CASEY Club’s physical ability test for students interested in becoming firefighters. The Houston Fire Department’s CASEY Club — which stands for cultivate, advise, support, empower and youth — creates and fosters a career path to become a firefighter/EMT for high school sophomores, juniors , and seniors.

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Chávez HS health professional named top Houston-area nurse

(Houston Independent School District) Violet Clarke, who serves as the school nurse at Chávez High School, has been named one of the area’s “Top 10 Nurses” by the Houston Chronicle for 2014.

She was selected from among hundreds of nominees who come from all fields of nursing in the greater Houston area, including local hospitals, schools, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and home health workers.

“The job of a school nurse is unique,” wrote former Principal Dan De Leon about Clarke on his nomination form. “Unless you have done it, you do not realize the fast pace and varied extremes of this profession. One minute, a student walks in with a sore throat, and the next, you get a call about another who is having a severe allergic reaction in another part of the building. Before the hour is up, you have dealt with three parents, a teenager who is afraid to (confess) she is pregnant, another who is being abused at home, and a student who needs his daily medication to control his bipolar disorder…but Nurse Clarke makes it look easy.”

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Chávez HS embraces its namesake’s Sí, se puede (Yes, we can) spirit to mark his birthday

César E. Chávez

If César Chávez were still alive, he would be 81 on Monday, March 31. To honor his memory and recognize his birthday, César E. Chávez High School is spending seven days honoring the man and teaching students more about him. Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers (UFW).

“Bearing his name carries great responsibility,” said Chávez Principal Rene Sanchez. “As the only comprehensive high school in the state of Texas and one of only four in the entire country named for César Chávez, we need to teach and inspire our students with the words and deeds of our namesake.”

Chávez was a well known Latino American activist who used nonviolent protests – including fasting in 1968 — to bring draw national attention to the harsh working conditions of farm workers. The organizations he helped found ultimately resulted in better working conditions for farmers.

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HISD students, staff join national school choice celebration at Union Station

Clifton MS sixth-grader Victoria Lopez and her mom got to know HISD School Support Officer Lupita Hinojosa, left, at Saturday’s National School Choice Week kick-off event.

HISD students and staff were among the thousands who attended the National School Choice Week kick-off at Houston’s Union Station Saturday, Jan. 25. The celebration brought together Democrats and Republicans, home-schoolers, public school districts, charters, and even a few virtual learners around a common cause: school choice.

Superintendent Terry Grier, introduced by KIPP Co-founder Mike Feinberg, pointed out to a sea of yellow scarves and signs advocating school choice. Nearly 70,000 students in HISD are exercising their right to choose the school that meets their unique needs. Contingents from Elrod,Garden Oaks, Parker, Poe Red, and Roberts elementary schools; Clifton, Fleming, Johnston and Revere middle schools; and Chavez, Challenge Early College and South Early College high schools were there.

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Students share their vision of the Bayou City in ‘Eye on Houston’ exhibit

This photo, taken by Bellaire High School student Maggie Dib and entitled “Limitless,” is one of dozens captured by students from three HISD campuses that will be in the Eye on Houston display at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, through April 20. (Image courtesy MFAH)

For almost two decades, students at HISD’s Jack Yates High School have been chronicling the rhythm of life in Houston’s historic Third Ward.

Under the leadership of photography teacher Ray Carrington III, teens learned the basics of photography, film development, and print-making, then used their developing artistic eye to record interesting images of their neighborhood.

The photographs were displayed each year in an exhibit called “Eye on Third Ward” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston—and now, that program has expanded to include the work of students from two other campuses: Bellaire and Chávez high schools.

Now known as “Eye on Houston,” the exhibit opened on Jan. 11 in the museum’s Audrey Jones Beck Building (5601 Main St.). It will stay there through April 20.

Student laptop distribution underway as part of PowerUp initiative

Almost 19,000 HISD students are receiving laptops this month as part of the district’s one-to-one initiative that will eventually give every high school student a computer. The initiative – PowerUp – will not only give students 24-hour access to a laptop and a variety of software but to digital-age instruction that will transform teaching and learning both inside and outside the classroom.

“PowerUp is not about the device,” said Superintendent Terry Grier. “This is about creating anytime-anywhere learning for our students so they can have the world at their fingertips. We want to make sure they learn skills that complement technology so they won’t be replaced by technology.”

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More students headed to college this fall as members of 2014 ‘Posse’

Last year, almost two dozen HISD students became members of the city’s inaugural group of “Posse Scholars,” after a national non-profit called The Posse Foundation expanded its programming to Houston.

That organization will be sending its second group of students off to higher education this fall—and the majority (70 percent)—come from HISD.

The Houston branch of the Posse Foundation announced the 61 members of its Class of 2014 at a special celebration held on Jan. 6, and 43 of those students will be graduating from 18 HISD high schools this spring.

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