Inside Dallas ISD

More than 300 teachers and staff at the seven Dallas ISD ACE schools were surprised with $400 Target gift cards at assemblies at each campus on Wednesday. An anonymous donor provided the gifts to the staff in recognition of their efforts and success at improving extraordinary student educational outcomes. The seven campuses are part of the district’s Accelerating Campus Excellence (ACE) program, an effort to incentivize the top teachers and principals to relocate and work at some of the districts lowest-performing schools. Six of the seven campuses were removed from the state’s ‘Improvement Required’ list after the first school year the…

A handful of students at Dallas ISD’s John W. Carpenter Elementary School got a firsthand look of the school’s rejuvenated library on Thursday, Dec. 15, thanks to Behr and the Heart of America Foundation. The paint company and nonprofit organization teamed up to conduct six projects across the country to support literacy in 2016. The library now features brightly colored walls, inspirational signs and famous quotes and also new beanbags to help boost a love of reading, along with newly donated books. The school’s computer lab also got some sprucing up. A ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the project.

Every student at Lida Hooe Elementary got two free books to take home for good thanks to Mike Thrasher of Books Are the Beginning. Books Are the Beginning will this year will give a total of six books to students at Hooe, Stevens Park, and James Hogg elementary schools to take home as their own. The goal is to help the students start growing their own home library, Thrasher said. “Children need books at home to enhance their reading skills,” Thrasher said. Learn more in the above video.

Terry Stotts’ students at Dallas ISD’s Multiple Careers Magnet Center leave his class with much more than woodworking skills. “It’s more than subject matter,” Stotts said. “It’s how to have fun. You can’t learn if you’re not having fun.” With more than 30 years of teaching experience – the last 12 at Multiple Careers – it’s obvious he practices what he teaches in his Construction Technology classes. On Tuesday, Dec. 13, Stotts and his students delivered colorful wooden rocking horses they built to the Ronald McDonald House in Dallas, something they have done the past five years before Christmas. Amy…