Tag Archives: Hamilton MS

After-school club encourages girls to pursue STEM

Girls Who Code is an organization that provides free coding curriculum to school clubs with a few core goals: coding, teamwork, and sisterhood. Girls Who Code exists to inspire students to see themselves as computer scientists—not just girls, but especially girls—who historically have been afforded less exposure to STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) learning and fewer opportunities in technical and engineering fields.

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HISD receives high ranks from Children at Risk for being pandemic resilient

HISD is home to some of Houston’s most pandemic resilient schools according to Children at Risk’s annual list of best public schools.

The research and advocacy organization evaluated 1,347 schools in the Houston area to identify those that were most resilient during the pandemic. This year’s rankings focused on analysis comparing academic performance during the 2020-21 school year with the 2018-19 school year to identify the impact of the pandemic on children in Houston.

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Twelve additional HISD middle schools join Verizon Innovative Learning Schools program

Twelve Houston Independent School District middle schools are among the latest campuses to be selected for participation in the Verizon Innovative Learning Schools program, which addresses barriers to digital inclusion.

In addition to free mobile devices and data plans, participating schools will be assigned a full-time coach to train teachers in effectively integrating technology into their lessons.

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Robert Michaels-Johnson named new principal of Hamilton Middle School

Robert Michaels-Johnson has been named principal of Hamilton Middle School. He began his career in public education as a theater and American History teacher at Eli Whitney Middle School in the Tulsa Public Schools district. Following a brief tenure at a small classical school teaching theater and history, he moved to Houston and began teaching social studies at what is now HISD’s Heights High School. After serving in several teacher leader roles, he became an instructional coordinator and then was named the dean of instruction. He served as dean until being named principal at Hamilton. Michaels-Johnson is pursuing his doctorate in Educational Leadership at Sam Houston State University.

Student creativity to be on mobile display at Art Car Parade April 9

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The Orange Show’s 29th annual Art Car Parade will be rolling through downtown Houston on Saturday, April 9, and almost a dozen of the mobile artworks on display will be the work of HISD students.

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Table centerpieces put ‘a world of learning’ on display

Their subjects ranged from starry nights and galaxies to water lilies and sunflowers, but the one thing all the orbs had in common was their inspiration: a desire to show how HISD is putting a “global” spin on education for all of its 215,000 students.

Children from 28 different campuses decorated Styrofoam balls this year to serve as the table centerpieces at the State of the Schools luncheon, and participating students were eager to share their artistic visions with guests.

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AVID program supports low-income students’ quest for college

The desks in seventh-grade teacher Zachary Cummings’ AVID classroom at Hamilton Middle School are arranged so that students can work in groups. Collaboration is one of the five hallmarks of AVID, along with reading, writing, inquiry, and organization.

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Cummings’ students recently quizzed each other on Cornell notes they took on a PowerPoint presentation about the history of Apple Inc. Cornell notes are just one example of college-level study techniques students learn in AVID, a global nonprofit organization directed at students who are capable of completing a college-preparatory path if they receive the proper support. The focus is on low-income students whose families don’t traditionally attend college.

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Pin Oak MS wins first UIL middle school tournament of year

More than 500 middle school students spent their Saturday at Hamilton Middle School on Oct. 25, competing in the first University Interscholastic League (UIL) Middle School tournament of the 2014–2015 season.

Students from 15 schools competed: Attucks, Baylor College of Medicine Academy at Ryan, Black, Burbank, Clifton, Cullen, Fondren, Hamilton, Johnston, Pershing, Pin Oak, Revere and Mickey Leland College Preparatory Academy for Young Men.

Pin Oak Middle School was declared the sweepstakes champion, with Mickey Leland College Prep winning second place and Black MS taking home third.

Here are the individual results: Continue reading

Countdown to 2014-2015: What’s new in HISD #6 — Mascot makeover at four campuses

This is the fifth in a series of stories counting down to the start of school, spotlighting what is new in HISD in the coming year.

Two HISD middle schools and two high schools will be sporting new mascots when fall sports launch, in a historic move that saw outdated and culturally offensive symbols replaced in an orderly months-long process.

The Board of Education approved a policy change earlier this year after Superintendent Terry Grier sought new guidelines that would “respect cultural differences, values, and attitudes” by placing a ban on mascots or nicknames using race or ethnicity.

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Summer program gives rising sixth-graders a taste of middle school life

Incoming sixth-grader Taylor, 10, believes it’s important to protect the bee population, and she thinks she knows ways to do so. “Planting flowers will help attract bees so they can make more honey,” she said as she put marigold seeds into a small decorated pot.

This was only one of the many lessons she and several other soon-to-be sixth-graders learned during their two weeks in the Summer Bridge program, made possible by the federally-funded Race to the Top grant the district received, at Holland Middle School.

Students planted flowers as one way to help improve the bee population, discussing the reasons bees were threatened, and ways they could help save them. It was all part of a day’s work that integrated the mini-ecology lesson into other areas such as mathematics, reading, improving critical thinking skills, leading discussions, and other subjects. Continue reading