Of pride and prejudice, safety and security
Talk about an “effective teacher” — one third-grade class at Scroggins ES has the best bilingual instructor in the U.S.
Maria Elena “Malena” Galan found out last Friday that she had been chosen Bilingual Teacher of the Year by the National Association of Bilingual Educators. She’s worked her way up the ranks – first the Houston honor, then Texas’ best, which put her into the national competition.
Ms. Galan herself had limited English skills when she came to the U.S. 21 years ago and uses her own experiences to help connect to her students and their families. She studied English at HCC and became a HISD teacher through our Alternative Certification Program.
This quote from her final NABE application says so much about her passion for what she does: “Sharing knowledge is powerful, but having the ability to share that knowledge in two languages is twice as powerful.”
She’ll be honored at the NABE national conference in San Diego next month. We’re filled with orgullo – deep pride – that she’s a member of Team HISD.
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Another source of button-bursting pride each year is the MLK Jr. Oratory Competition, in which some breathtakingly eloquent HISD fourth- and fifth-graders compete to honor Dr. King’s legacy.
The 18th annual tournament, sponsored by the law firm of Gardere Wynne Sewell, will have its finals Friday at the historic Antioch Missionary Baptist Church of Christ downtown. The topic is thought-provoking: “If Dr. King were speaking at a March on Washington today, what would he say?”
Where we’re headed in 2014, deep into 21st Century Learning
With our emphasis on “21st Century Learning” at HISD, it’s hard to believe that we’re already 14 years into this century and plunging headlong toward the 22nd. As the Romans said, tempus fugit – time flies, indeed.
The start of the New Year has brought with it a fresh energy that’s palpable among our students and staff – and a whole new crop of challenges and opportunities.
Persistence = success in HISD’s Race to the Top
We received a very welcome holiday present this week — $30 million from the U.S. Department of Education in its coveted and highly competitive Race to the Top funding. That “race” has been a lesson in persistence for us in a number of ways.
When the program was first started, the State of Texas opted out – so we couldn’t even apply. With persuasion, Education Secretary Arne Duncan saw the need for districts like ours to receive funding for innovative, personalized programs that could serve as models for education across the nation, and two years ago, he made funds available directly to districts or groups of school systems.
We applied last year and didn’t make it, but that didn’t stop us. This year, we were one of only five – out of more than 200 – applicants who won funding this week, and the only urban district to win. Now we stand to receive about $6 million a year over the next five years to advance our transformational Linked Learning model.
If you keep score where it matters, HISD’s coaches are always winners
Reagan HS head varsity coach Stephen Dixon (Photo by Michael Sudhalter/The Leader News)
For our coaches in HISD, winning is about a lot more than racking up points and titles. Reagan’s head varsity coach, Stephen Dixon, is a perfect example of that.
Yes, he led the Bulldogs to their first district title in 54 years. Yes, he was in the finals for the Touchdown Club’s Coach of the Year honor for the Houston area this week. But Coach Dixon’s real accomplishment – that of all our coaches – is in creating pride and a spirit of success that can spread throughout an entire school community. Dixon’s boss, HISD Athletic Director Marmion Dambrino, thinks Dixon’s accomplishment at Reagan is a model.
“What’s going on at Reagan High School needs to be going on at each high school,” she says. “When you have 1,101 kids transferring into your school from nine other high schools, there is a reason.”
Reagan’s title after a more than a half-century improves not only the athletic programs, but all other programs at the school, as well, says Dambrino: “Teaching and learning take place in an atmosphere that is positive for kids and one that they enjoy.”
Dixon not only put in overtime at Reagan, but visited and went to games at the middle schools in Reagan’s attendance zone, building relationships with students, parents, and other coaches. He’s received media attention this year, but the Reagan community knows that building a winning team, and an increasingly engaged school community, was a four-year process. “Success” – in the standard definition – actually started in 2012 when the Bulldogs made the playoffs. It was a preview of coming attractions for this season.
HISD knows the importance of our coaches – and we have some of the best around – as teachers, mentors, counselors to our young women and men. They make sure their players meet academic standards, mindful that sometimes, athletics are what’s keeping an at-risk student in school. They impart valuable life lessons about grace in victory and dignity in defeat, about collaboration, dedication and persistence.
The influence of a great coach, like Stephen Dixon, reaches outside the locker room. We all feel it.
‘Tis the season to celebrate HISD’s magnetic appeal
HISD’s “magnetic” personality is on proud display these days. After a series of magnet awareness events – including a packed School Choice Fair and a series of community meetings and campus tours – our magnet school application period is in full swing.
This year, we’ve added an online application process, and at last count, this convenient option has attracted more than 23,000 applications.
You have only until December 20 to fill out the forms and submit them either online or directly to schools. (Remember there’s additional paperwork involved, so you don’t want to wait until the last minute.)
Las Americas Newcomer Thanksgiving About More Than Turkey and Trimmings
Holidays bring out the best in our extended HISD family, with the warmth and generosity we see every day bubbling over this time of year. Thanksgiving is a unique part of our history and cultural traditions, and I was touched last week by how one celebration in HISD especially reflected the holiday’s historic spirit of sharing, gratitude and inclusion.
Las Americas Newcomer School is an HISD middle school in southwest Houston that reminds us that our city — and district — are a gateway for immigrants. Its families – some of them political refugees — come from 32 different countries. For many, this is their first chance to learn English or experience the gift of a formal education that we know as a right. They practice a variety of religions and cultural traditions — but Thanksgiving has not been one of them – until now.
St. Luke’s United Methodist Church’s Gethsemane Campus, guided by the kind heart of Mireya Ottaviano, provided a traditional turkey feast with stuffing, cranberries and pumpkin pie for 130 students and their families from the HISD newcomer community at Las Americas. The gathering also served as a “Welcome to America” celebration, with welcome bags full of goodies for each guest.
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The celebration was more than just a shared feast to broaden their palates. It was a reminder for all of us of the historic reasons for that first Thanksgiving and the opportunity to see our blessings through the fresh vision of others who have known hunger and oppression.
My wish is for each of you to enjoy the warmth and traditions of Thanksgiving. One of the many blessings I hope you’ll consider is the diversity of our HISD family, the breadth of experiences and backgrounds that give us not only a broader understanding of the world but of ourselves, as well.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Engaging parents is a challenge – but its rewards are tangible
Parent involvement, or let’s be honest — “mom” involvement – was pretty routine in bygone days. There were one or two solemn report card conferences each year, clapping hands at pageants and performances, attending an occasional PTA or PTO meeting, and sending a platter of freshly baked cookies on special occasions.
Across the nation, school districts marked National Parent Involvement Day Thursday because engaging parents is no longer such a simple matter. Single parent households, both parents working long hours, language and cultural differences, and other daily challenges make connecting with children and their schools a much tougher proposition for most moms and dads.
HISD’s School Choices are Great All Over, from Academics to Extracurriculars
There’s an impressive “school choice” story to share with you today from Sharpstown International School, which is a grade 6-12 HISD magnet that emphasizes global citizenship. More than 130 countries are represented in the student body, and they speak more than 90 languages – with the majority fluent in Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, Arabic, Urdu or Farsi.
For student musicians and their advisers from Sharpstown International School, the trip to a band competition in Sealy was worth it. Fifteen SIS musicians earned seats in the regional band, and ninth-grader Loi Lao, fifth from left, moved on to state competition.
SIS is one of those shining examples that HISD is able to use when we talk to parents grappling with the decision to choose between public and private schools, worrying about the notion that maybe that a school with a specific focus doesn’t offer enrichment programs up to the levels that they would find elsewhere.
It’s not often that our schools go head-to-head with private schools, but recently, the stellar student musicians from SIS competed with their counterparts from about 20 of the Houston area’s finest private schools at the Association of Texas Small School Bands regional audition in Sealy. The result: 15 SIS musicians earned seats in the regional band – the highest number from any school — and performed in concert last weekend at Houston’s Kinkaid School (which, incidentally, placed 14 musicians in the band). Loi Lao, an SIS ninth-grader who has been playing the clarinet for only two years, has been chosen to compete at the state level in January in Waco.
Congratulations to all these young people and to their band directors, Kelly Brunson and Troy Morris. And thanks to SIS for adding another example to our bragging rights about the overall excellence of our focused school options. That’s music to our ears.
Honoring Our Veterans Brings History To Life
For teachable moments, living history is the best kind. We must turn to books and other media to learn about the rise and fall of great civilizations and our own Revolutionary forefathers. But each year, Veterans Day reminds us how much history we have in our own midst.
It’s wonderful today to see how HISD schools are making the most of this chance to learn about patriotism and sacrifice from those in their own families and school communities who have served our country in uniform.
The array is touching: Lyons ES hosting veterans on campus from as far back as the Korean Conflict and staging their own USO-style show, our JROTC stalwarts performing flag ceremonies, youngsters from Windsor Village ES reading letters they’d written to veterans as part of a special salute sponsored by the Houston Astros, a concert scheduled tonight at Lovett Elementary – to name a few.
We hope you’ll use lessons from this very teachable holiday in your own home today, too, and every day – to share reminders about love of country – and that freedom must be earned and treasured through commitment and sacrifice.
PowerUp Revolution Gathering Speed
If you’re like I am, even if you were a dreamer as a young person, your vision of where technology would take us in our lifetimes was probably limited to the gadgets of science-fiction movies or the promises of two-way wrist radios and picture phones from the comics.
That’s what makes our rollout of PowerUp so exciting. Youngsters you might imagine to be jaded by smart phones, video games and the ability to watch movies and TV on their computers at will – along with their teachers and parents – are truly embracing this program that will bring every student at 11 high schools their own laptop to use in class and take home to continue their learning. In all, 17,000 students’ learning will be transformed by mid-January, and eventually, every student will be part of PowerUp.
For three of the schools – the Young Men’s and Women’s College Preparatory Academies and Energy Institute High School – Christmas came in October, as they received their laptops, forming the pilot for the one-to-one laptop initiative that’s a key component of our commitment to 21st Century Learning and digital transformation.
Nearly 1,000 parents came to Sam Houston High School recently to learn about good digital citizenship, and additional meetings are going on at participating high schools. That’s parental involvement!
HISD’s Curriculum Department is developing planning guides, online resources, and digital strategies that will increase student engagement and encourage collaboration. Outside the classroom, students will be actively researching, evaluating, and interpreting information, as well as connecting with other students and staying in touch with their teachers.
HISD will continue to collaborate with Mooresville Graded School District in North Carolina, which saw their graduation rate jump 33 percent when they gave a laptop to every student in grades 4 through 12. They also saw end-of-course exam scores rise 20 points. HISD leaders from all 11 PowerUp schools will visit Mooresville later this month, and in December, Mooresville representatives will come to Houston to work with the three HISD high schools that already have their laptops.
PowerUp is about more than a new tool – it’s about changing the learning environment. Teachers become facilitators rather than presenters, and students have access to real-time knowledge. This is a districtwide effort with far-reaching effects for every student in HISD. I’m in awe, and you will be, too. It’s way cooler than a two-way wrist radio.
