HISD opened a Sunrise Center at the Morefield Boys & Girls Club over the weekend with an open house and resource fair. Eventgoers were greeted by the Sterling High School drumline and cheerleaders who hyped up the crowd ahead of their big homecoming game.
HISD’s fourth Sunrise Center will serve the Sterling and Thomas Middle School communities, focusing on support during critical after-school hours between 3-6 p.m.
Continue readingNFL veteran and philanthropist Whitney Mercilus is once again giving back to HISD students by expanding his WithMerci Foundation’s life-skills program to Thomas Middle School.
Continue readingDozens of HISD middle school students were given the opportunity to participate in a crash-course on menstruation literacy as part of Impact100 Houston’s “Girls Should Be in School…Period!” initiative.
Continue readingSterling Aviation Early College High School opened its on-campus hangar to welcome students from nine HISD middle schools for the Discover United Airlines Expo and career fair.
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Thomas Middle School is getting a facelift this summer thanks to the help of the Houston Independent School District Facilities Services team.
The school is being updated to accommodate incoming middle school students from Woodson, which is transitioning this summer from a prekindergarten through eighth-grade campus to a prekindergarten through fifth-grade academy.
“I am excited for the students,” newly appointed Principal Vernitra Shivers said, noting that she was excited to see the dated campus get an update. “We will be growing in numbers over the summer, so this is needed.”
Vernitra Shivers has been selected as the new principal of Thomas Middle School. Shivers has more than 15 years of experience in public education. She began her career as an elementary teacher in Orleans Parish Schools in New Orleans. In 2004, Shivers joined Team HISD as an ELA teacher at Williams Middle School. Shivers has worked as a literacy coach at Jane Long Middle School and assistant principal at Patrick Henry and Deady middle schools. For the past three years, Shivers has served as assistant principal and dean of instruction at Madison High School. Shivers earned her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Xavier University of Louisiana and master’s degree in Educational Administration from Prairie View A&M University.
Connie Smith has been selected as the new principal of Thomas Middle School. She brings to the position more than 18 years of experience in secondary schools. She began her career as a high school biology teacher in the New Orleans Parish School System before moving to Houston and becoming a science teacher at Jackson Middle School. In 2010, Smith became assistant principal, and later she was the dean of instruction at Ortiz Middle School. In 2014, she was promoted to the principal of Kelso Elementary School, where she served the district for two years. Smith has a bachelor of science in biology from Dillard University and a masters in educational mid-management from Prairie View A&M University.
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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Martial arts champion and actor Chuck Norris visited Revere and Thomas middle schools for a belt ceremony last week to congratulate hundreds of students who have excelled in martial arts. Continue reading
Annual survey inspires campuses to use valuable feedback
HISD campus administrators have been busy using the feedback from the district’s Your Voice survey to improve their schools and relationships with students and parents.
“After we realized the valuable data we would receive from the survey, we advertised it better,” said Neff Elementary Principal Amanda Wingard. “We did call outs to our parents to remind them to turn it in.”