Inside Dallas ISD

Michael Ruiz, a Dallas ISD 2015 Teacher of the Year, caught the educator bug in the 11th grade when his teacher asked him to act as the substitute for a class. After teaching trigonometry to his peers and friends, one of his classmates came up and told him he did an awesome job. “After that day, I was hooked,” Ruiz said. Later in life, Ruiz gave up a job as a business development manager at a tech company to become a teacher. Today he teaches fourth-grade at W.B. Travis Vanguard for the Academically Talented and Gifted. While he might have made…

Forget the clichéd erupting volcano – this year’s Dallas ISD Science Fair ignited passion in students that went well beyond baking-soda lava. This year’s fair was conducted Jan. 9 at UT-Southwestern Medical Center. Winning entries will be showcased at STEM Day, which is Feb. 6 a Skyline High School. Science fair judge Tyler Liang said that it’s important for students to be involved in science fairs because science is a big part of life. Shelly Goel, a ninth-grader at the School of Science and Engineering, said that the projects go beyond science. “It doesn’t matter what you do for science fair,…

“I need you to look at your neighbor and tell your neighbor if it is to be, then it is up to me,” said a speaker at a symposium for girls held Jan. 8 at Franklin D. Roosevelt High School. Such messages were the order of the day at the symposium, which was geared toward the more than 312 young women at the school. The goal was to address and encourage young women to employ the positive attitudes and thoughtful decision-making skills needed to be successful as they matriculate to college and career opportunities. In addition to positive affirmations, the…

Ashley Fortner-Dominguez always had a love for education, but never thought she’d make a career out of it. She was more intrigued by Middle Eastern studies and international relations. While studying abroad in Jordan, she picked up a job teaching English as a foreign language to first-graders at a private school. Though she didn’t fully realize it at the time, that experience would change the course of her life. “When I dipped my feet it, I didn’t want to leave,” she says. “I just forced myself to leave [the classroom]and get my master’s, but there was an unfulfilled part…