Houston Independent School District (HISD) and Texas Southern University (TSU) this week launched the Learning Legacy Pact to help aspiring educators become teachers in HISD. Through the partnership, students in TSU’s College of Education will earn their teacher certification while getting paid to work as a Teacher Apprentice in the District’s New Education System (NES) or NES-aligned schools.
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Pro Football Hall of Famer Ken Houston Delivers Motivational Message to HISD Students
Pro Football Hall of Fame safety Ken Houston will deliver a motivational message to Houston Independent School District students about his life experiences and the tools to success that made him great in the game of football. The former Houston Oiler and HISD counselor will speak to Wheatley and Kashmere high school students during a video conference. The event is part of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Heart of a Hall of Famer series. Houston attended Prairie View A&M University and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986.
Who: Pro Football Hall of Fame Safety Ken Houston
What: During a video conference Ken Houston will speak about the traits that made him one of football’s greatest players. The event is the latest in the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s Heart of a Hall of Famer education series.
When: Wednesday; December 5, 2012 at 10 a.m. (Kashmere) and 11:30 a.m.
(Wheatley)
Where: Wheatley High School (4801 Providence) at 10:00 a.m.
Texas Southern University School of Education Auditorium hosts Kashmere students (3100 Cleburne Street) at 11:30 a.m.
HISD Remembers Felix Cook
Houston ISD mourns the loss of former HISD teacher and administrator Felix Cook. Please join us in sharing your memories of this Houston education pioneer by posting in the comments section below.
Felix Cook Jr.
Felix Cook was a teacher and administrator at HISD for 36 years, starting in the 1940s. He served as a teacher and coach at E. O. Smith Junior High and Phillis Wheatley High School and as the principal of Sharpstown High School. Cook also served for 12 years as a deputy superintendent. HISD named a school for him in 2006 on the site of the old James Sanderson Elementary School.
Cook (right), along with HISD trustee Lawrence Marshall (left) and administrator Faye Bryant (center), were honored as HISD’s Living Legends in a ceremony in February 2012.
Felix Cook is a native of Houston and a product of the Houston Independent School District (HISD), having attended Sanderson Elementary School and graduated from Phillis Wheatley High School. He attended Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, received a Masters of Education Degree from Texas Southern University (TSU), and an Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Wiley College.
Mr. Cook’s professional career was devoted to public education at both Houston ISD and Texas Southern. While at HISD, he served as a teacher and coach at E.O Smith Junior High School and Phillis Wheatley High School. He served as principal at Sharpstown High School, superintendent for secondary schools, and deputy superintendent in charge of personnel. In 1986, after 36 years of service with HISD, he retired. He also served as adjunct professor for higher education at TSU from 1974 to 1994.
In 2006, HISD renamed the new replacement school for his alma mater, Sanderson Elementary School, in his honor: Felix Cook, Jr. Elementary School. The new Cook Elementary School was officially dedicated on Sunday, October 15, 2006, with hundreds of Kashmere and Trinity Gardens community members filling the multi-purpose room to honor the school’s namesake.
He has been recognized with many other honors and awards from organizations including the United Negro College Fund, Wiley College, City of Houston Police Department, Texas Children’s Hospital and M.D. Anderson Hospital.
Two HISD Schools Win Chance to Test Projects in Space
Two HISD student science projects are cleared for lift off. Johnston Middle School and Parker Elementary School students will have their microgravity experiments included in Mission One to the International Space Station through the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.
More than 1,000 students submitted proposals and 12 U.S. school communities were given the chance to compete. Johnston and Parker students recently learned that they were among a handful of winning schools whose projects will fly aboard a Soyuz rocket in the spring of 2013.
“The students are just ecstatic,” said Parker science teacher Rebecca Mitchell. “It’s a dream come true. They feel like they can do anything, that any dream can be realized.”
Johnston eighth-grader Emily H. Soice led her school’s winning project. Soice’s experiment explores whether a bioscaffold infused with the TGFB3 protein grows and forms cells faster in microgravity than in normal gravity. Bioscaffold is an artificial structure that can be implanted in the body to serve as a base where tissue can grow.
Soice’s research could lay the groundwork for the growth of replacement tissue, joints, and even organs.
At Parker Elementary School, fifth-grade students Maxx Denning, Michael Prince, and Aaron Stuart will test to see if liquid Vitamin C can preserve bone density in microgravity, which could be helpful to astronauts who stay in space over a long period of time.
Mitchell said the students worked after school, during their lunch break, and even on weekends to create their winning proposal. The students will conduct their Vitamin C experiment using a chicken bone.
“We are splitting a wishbone,” Max said. “Part of it will fly in space and part of it will stay here. It will float in a solution that includes Vitamin C for six weeks.”
Researchers, biologists, physicists and many others from institutions including Baylor College of Medicine, NASA, Rice University, University of Houston and Texas Southern University provided support for the project.
For more information, please visit www.ssep.ncesse.org.