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Student surveys to shine light on teacher effectiveness
0As Teacher Excellence Initiative experts and principal focus groups continue to refine how the district will evaluate teacher effectiveness, another team – the students – are about to have their say. According to at least one study, students, perhaps the ultimate classroom observers, may be better suited to identify effective teaching than administrators who traditionally measure performance based on scheduled observations of teachers’ instruction and classroom management skills. Plans call for students to complete surveys, to be made available in English and Spanish, on paper the week of April 6. In future, the district will administer the survey online. Teachers…
Harry Stone steps into the world of IB
0Michael Smoot’s orchestra ensemble accepted playing second fiddle to Harry Stone Montessori Academy’s big announcement on becoming an International Baccalaureate (IB) World School, one of only two in the district to receive the designation. As his team of strings took center stage in front of a standing-room only audience for a special presentation, Smoot recalled his personal experience there. An orchestra teacher, he has spent the last 25 years teaching at Harry Stone. Throughout the years he’s watched the school evolve from a traditional elementary school to a magnet school and most recently a Montessori academy. Smoot is the only original…
Free viewing of “Selma” to offer unique learning opportunity
0Films on historic events provide a visual glimpse into important periods in time. Approximately 10,000 Dallas Independent School District students will receive the opportunity to view the civil rights movement through that lens when they attend a free screening of the movie “Selma” on Jan. 17-19. A group of local business and community leaders that includes Ron and Matrice Kirk, Ron McCray, Brenda Jackson, Levy and Diane Curry, and Paget and Deborah Alves are donating the free tickets to Dallas ISD students in grades 7-9. The timing of the viewing, during the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend, provides even…
Watch the MLK Oratory Competition via the Dallas ISD website
0Check out The Hub Friday, Jan. 16 to watch fourth- and fifth-grade students deliver their inspirational essays live at the 23rd Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition. The event will be streamed on The Hub beginning at 11 a.m. Eight finalists will present essays to a host of judges on what they believe Dr. King would say in his acceptance speech if he were alive today and won the Nobel Prize. The finalists are: Kywin Brown, fourth grade, Wilmer-Hutchins Elementary Serenity Dugan, fourth grade, Thomas L. Marsalis Elementary Jalien Hedgeman, fifth grade, Clara Oliver Elementary Walker Homan, fifth grade,…