Inside Dallas ISD

Due to the generosity of school adopter Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church, every student at Lee A. McShan Elementary School received high school shirts last week. Senior leaders from Conrad High School personally delivered the shirts to students and described the high school experience. The “I will graduate” schools shirt program has the goal of reaching all 80,000 elementary students in Dallas ISD. Approximately 30,000 students have received shirts thus far for at least one grade level at 150 campuses. This small gesture is intended to make a lasting impression by giving elementary students a shirt representing their high school on the front with colleges…

Camp M&M Reloaded – no, that’s not the name of a teen movie sequel. That’s the recently completed spring break extravaganza between Marsh Preparatory Academy and Medrano Middle School. The two schools got together to enjoy a four-day Metroplex excursion that took 60 students, all part of Big Thought’s Thriving Minds program, to a variety of destinations that provided a perfect combo of learning and fun. The camp included four parent volunteers as well as our own Shianne Patrick, Thriving Minds Program Manager at Marsh Preparatory Academy. Social media was always part of the plan – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram…

Dana Clark, a Dallas ISD Teacher of the Year, has taught science at Irma Lerma Rangel Young Women’s Leadership School since 2004. During that time, she has fired up the imaginations of her students and others around the country as she blogged from such far-flung locations as Mount Kilimanjaro as part of an international team studying climate change. She has also visited Alaska as a member of a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientific delegation mapping the Alaskan seafloor. Clark says such experiences are meant to excite her students about the study of science. “My hope is that my enthusiasm…

A record number of students at Carter High School have received full-ride scholarships to attend Texas Christian University. Six seniors at Carter were awarded the TCU Community Scholarships, each valued at more than $250,000, at a ceremony on Thursday. Tissues were passed out freely as the scholarship recipients, their families, classmates, teachers and staff cried in joy throughout the ceremony. Trustee Joyce Foreman also attended the event and looked on proudly. “This is one of the opportunities that you do not get but once in a lifetime,” Principal Fred Davis told the scholarship recipients. “And we know you will make…