Author: The Hub

Vanessa Sánchez, a fourth-grade student at Martin Weiss Elementary, took home first place in the National Association of Bilingual Educators (NABE) Bilingual Essay contest for grades 3–5. Students who participated in the contest had to be enrolled in a bilingual classroom, have a B average or better, and a 90-percent attendance record. Essays were submitted in English and judged on development of the theme, originality, content and clarity of expression, grammar and mechanics. Sánchez and her family were invited to be honored at the NABE Awards Luncheon held March 6, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Below is Sánchez’ essay: I am Proud…

Gatorade and USA Today High School Sports recently announced that Admon Gilder, a student at James Madison High School, is its 2014–15 Gatorade Texas Boys Basketball Player of the Year. Gilder is the first athlete in his school’s history to be chosen for the award that recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court. “It means a lot to have been named for this honor,” Gilder said. “It’s a big accolade that not many players and athletes get a chance to experience. I’ve been working so…

A Design Your World event for 4th- and 5th-grade girls was conducted Saturday, March 28, at Zan Wesley Holmes Jr. Middle School. The event was coordinated by the Dallas chapter of the Society of Women Engineers, SMU and the Dallas ISD STEM Department. Hands-on activities featured demonstrations of mechanical energy, computer science, biomedical, chemical engineering, aerospace and electrical engineering.

For its “Class Act of the Week,” CW33 selected Jamie Lerman, a junior at Booker T. Washington High School, whose design will be featured on gift wrap packages in this year’s Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. The Christmas Book will be sent to more than 250,000 people. To view the CW33 report, click here

As the Teacher Excellence Initiative continues to become the standard for the way Dallas ISD evaluates how effective a teacher is, one key piece in understanding a teacher’s effectiveness are the students in their classrooms. Fifteen percent of a teacher’s annual evaluation will be derived from their student perception surveys, which are being administered to students in grades 3–12 during the week of April 6–10. In the above video, district teachers weigh in with their opinions on how the survey, which contains grade-appropriate questions, will impact the way in which they are evaluated under TEI. Eric Hale, a teacher at David…

To celebrate that they are ready for the STAAR exams that begin today, students and staff at Martha Turner Reilly Elementary put together a fun “Pass the Test” music video last week. The music video is a take off on the song “Shake it Off” by Taylor Swift. Martha Turner Reilly Elementary is located at 11230 Lippitt Ave. Enjoy the music video above!

Student engagement and an innovative entrepreneurship curriculum is what makes W. E. Greiner Middle School teacher Stephen Thomas’ Principles of Business, Marketing and Finance classroom so effective. Thomas is part of the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship’s North Texas program, which provides business education to young students while earning high school credit. Out of 17 North Texas educators, Thomas was chosen to represent Texas at the 2015 Global Enterprising Educator of the Year Award sponsored by MasterCard. Ernst and Young sponsored a “send-off” party earlier this month for Thomas, who accepted the award March 25 at the NFTE 2015 Global Showcase in New…

Rock STAARs were out in force Friday afternoon at Martin Weiss Elementary. The school at 8601 Willoughby Blvd. held a pep rally to get its third-, fourth-, and fifth-graders excited and motivated for the next week’s STAAR exams. And, since the pep rally’s theme was Be a Rock STAAR, teachers and students wore bright wigs, sunglasses, headbands, and other outfits worthy of a red carpet. “The idea behind the pep rally is that, at this point, we have done a whole lot of work to make sure our students are ready for their STAAR exams,” Weiss Principal Shundra Brown…

The Dallas ISD Board of Trustees honored accomplishments of students and staff at its regular meeting on March 26, 2015. • Seagoville High School’s Academic Decathlon team took first place in the Region XII Medium School Division Academic Decathlon Competition and represented Dallas ISD at the state competition earlier this year in San Antonio. • The School of Science and Engineering’s Academic Decathlon team took first place in the Region XII Large School Division Academic Decathlon Competition and represented Dallas ISD at the state competition earlier this year in San Antonio. • Skyline High School’s Mock Trial team won first place in the 36th…

Superintendent Mike Miles detailed district goals, accomplishments, and challenges during last night’s presentation of the 2015–16 District Action Plan to board members. Citing the positive momentum generated from the district’s major initiatives, Miles told board members that the district plans to largely stay the course in the 2015–16 school year. He said the draft Accelerated Campus Excellence (ACE) Plan, which would incentivize effective teachers to voluntarily relocate and work at struggling district schools, is the main planned new initiative next school year. Miles briefed board members on the top 10 staff accomplishments of the 2014–15 school year. The accomplishments include:…