Inside Dallas ISD

Shareefah Mason, a twelfth-grade government teacher at New Tech High School at B.F. Darrell, was named a national 2018-2019 LifeChanger of the Year winner during a surprise ceremony held at a school-wide assembly. Mason was selected as one of 15 award winners out of 830 nominations from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Mason received a $3,000 prize, which was awarded as a $1,500 individual prize and a $1,500 donation to a non-profit of her choice. The award was presented by National Life Group representatives Clare Ronaghan and Gabriel Kelly, as well as Principal Jameile Choice and Assistant…

John Ireland Elementary School teacher Eboni Jones-Davis got the surprise of a lifetime at a school-wide pep-rally: all new materials for her classroom, including furniture and flexible seating, speakers and headphones. The North Texas Honda Dealers and Helpful Honda surprised Jones-Davis with the supplies as part of its Random Acts of Helpfulness campaign on May 10. The campaign honors the efforts of deserving local school teachers who double as role models for their students. Around Ireland Elementary School, Jones-Davis is known for integrating innovative, real-world applications when teaching math and reading to her students. For example, during a volume lesson,…

A Dallas ISD high school student will spend next school year living in Germany with a host family, attending a German high school, and participating in a four-week language and cultural immersion camp to gain a better understanding of German culture, language, and everyday life. Alina McSpadden, a rising junior at Booker T. Washington For the Visual & Performing Arts, is one of 250 American high school students from across the United States to be awarded the prestigious Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange (CBYX) Scholarship for the 2019-2020 academic year. CBYX is a bi-lateral exchange program co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of…

At the age of 15, Joshua Suarez went from being an ordinary kid worrying about school to fighting for his life against stage four testicular cancer. Suarez, who will graduate from Woodrow Wilson High School later this month, still vividly remembers the day he received the diagnosis. “My heart sunk to the bottom of my chest when I heard the word ‘cancer.’ I didn’t know what to think, what to feel, or what to do,” Suarez said. “It was really heartbreaking to hear, and all I could ask was ‘why me?’” The cancer spread to his lungs, with approximately 22…