Inside Dallas ISD

Walking into Rodney Dittmar’s Modern Band classroom at Seagoville High School, you will find his students fully engaged in their work—discovering and honing their musical talents as composers, songwriters, sound engineers, musicians—and developing all types of skills that will prepare them to find their voices as artists. In fact, they are the only school in the district, and only one of three in the nation to receive the Hometown to Hometown grant, which provided $45,000 worth of instruments and training through the Save the Music Foundation. Dittmar, who is the Fine Arts Department chair for the school, applied for the…

The Beat has interviewed Master Teachers across the district to share their stories and introspections about their careers, including tips for teaching. Meet Master Teacher Bob Adams. Adams, a Master Teacher at Rufus C. Burleson Elementary School first came to Dallas ISD in 2007 after spending six years teaching at an international school in China. Originally from Marlin, Texas, a small town near Waco, Adams said his plan was always to teach at Dallas ISD. Out of the 28 years in education,17 of those have been at Dallas ISD, not counting the three years in the U.S. Peace Corps working with…

In the more than 20 years Yatta Johnson—a licensed mental health clinician—has worked as a school psychologist, she has played many roles but perhaps none more crucial as the one she has now at Emmett J. Conrad High School. Every day, she connects with students, guides them through difficult times and helps them better understand themselves and others. Johnson is one of several school psychologists in Dallas ISD, and thousands throughout the country, whose work is celebrated and highlighted through Nov. 10 during National School Psychology Week. “I’m a non-traditional school psychologist because my degree is in mental health counseling psychology and…

For the past 19 years, Terry Stotts, has been teaching his students how to make wooden rocking horses, first at the Multiple Careers Magnet Center and now at Career Institute South, where he became a construction teacher this year. The students who worked on the rocking horses to develop skills will donate them to the Ronald McDonald House, an organization that provides resources to families with sick children. Stotts says that this process of making the wooden horses teaches his students to give back to the community, while learning a new skill. Students spend the semester cutting, sanding, staining, and…