Inside Dallas ISD

The SOLAR Preparatory School for Girls has turned lemons into a Project Based Learning experience. All students participated in the longterm project that taught them a variety of skills. The students helped build and paint lemonade stands and developed advertisements and sales techniques. Students also read fiction texts in which the main characters are selling lemonade. Parent volunteers helped the girls build the stands form scratch. SOLAR Prep is a Transformation School and part of the Public School Choice Imitative that opened in August 2016. SOLAR Prep also uses a blended learning model, in which lessons are taught in small groups. Students learn from the teacher and each…

Deloitte LLP, The Northern Texas PGA (NTPGA) and United Way have announced the recipients of the 2017 Deloitte/NTPGA Fairway to Success Scholarships. Six students will be awarded and join the 38 previous recipients. They are: Maritza Aguilar, Craig Jackson, Keja Johnson, Adriana Lopez, Tahania Sierra and Stephanie Vargas. Each student will receive a $20,000 scholarship towards his or her continuing education. The recipients were honored at a breakfast on May 1 at Lakewood Country Club. Established in 2007, the Fairway to Success Program annually awards scholarships to students based on academic performance, extracurricular activities, community involvement and financial need. Fairway…

Two elementary schools have danced their way into the ballroom dancing finals in Arlington later this month! Dancing Classrooms is a 20-lesson ballroom dancing program that was open to elementary schools. The ballroom dancing Colors of the Rainbow Semi-Finals saw fifth-graders from seven Dallas ISD elementary schools compete: Brashear, DeGoyler, Dunbar, Foster, Harry Stone, Holland, and Zaragosa elementary schools. Brashear and DeGoyler advanced out of the semifinals to compete in the finals later this month “The purpose of the Dancing Classrooms program is to build social awareness, confidence, and self-esteem through social dance,” said Barbara Johnson, Director of Health and Physical Education…

Students who were eighth-graders at Quintinilla Middle School in 2007 returned to the school May 2 to pick up and read letters they wrote to themselves 10 years ago. Some students cried; some students laughed; and many students did both. Bill Betzen started the School Time-Capsule Project at Quintanilla Middle School in 2005 while working at the school as a teacher. Betzen has since retired but remains active in Dallas ISD. Due to the overwhelmingly strong interest, Betzen said Quintinilla will have a second reunion on May 15 for those who still want to pick up their letters. The reunion will…