Inside Dallas ISD

Hundreds of Dallas ISD students gathered at Fair Park recently where they took on instant challenges with the Star Wars theme: May the Creative Force Be with You. Destination Imagination is an educational program in which students solve open-ended challenges and present their solutions at tournament competitions. Sponsored by the Student Activities Department, elementary and secondary students – in Star Wars costumes – worked in teams and on deadline with tasks and performance-based, hands-on activities throughout the day. Dallas ISD has more than 160 teams from 74 schools competing in Destination Imagination. The 2016 Dallas Regional Tournament is scheduled for Feb. 20…

The H. Grady Spruce High School staff kicked off the new semester by visiting homes of 116 students who had at least 99-percent attendance for the first semester. More than 100 teachers, counselors, administrators, coaches, and City Year Corps members split into teams and spent the morning of Tuesday, Jan. 6 surprising students with “All-Star Attendance” certificates and getting to know them and their families. Students shared with staff why they made it a point to be at school each day and their thoughts on how the school could encourage others to do the same. Family members welcomed staff into their homes…

“I will use each day to the fullest. I promise that each day shall be gained, not lost, used, not thrown away.” That affirmation is an excerpt from the school creed recited by students each day at the O.W. Holmes Humanities/Communications Academy. The brainchild of Holmes’ Principal Sharron Jackson, the creed is meant to set the tone for a positive day of study and academic progress for the school’s 750 students. Schools often employ creeds as a sort of mission statement that builds students’ sense of self-worth and shapes their attitudes toward school and learning. Members of the Holmes’ student…

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…