Monday, July 7, 2014

Youth Preparedness Camp Teaches Students Valuable Safety Skills

Three Academy of Choice (AOC) seniors are using a portion of their summer to make their campus the safest in Spring Branch ISD.

On June 23, the three AOC students — Christopher Chatman, Yancey Elguezabal and Anthony Ortega —  began a five-day Youth Preparedness camp at the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University in San Marcos.

They were joined at the special camp by AOC’s Joel Smith, a Virtual High School coordinator and math teacher, and Nicole Harris, who leads the Social Studies Dept. and is a leadership teacher. Ms. Harris is also SBISD’s Secondary Teacher of the Year.

The Texas School Safety Center has developed a statewide approach to individual and community preparedness that includes emergency response training, community specific action planning, and leadership development for teenagers.

Students and adult-sponsors who attended the Texas School Safety Center’s Youth Preparedness camp received a basic Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) certification and training in community-focused action planning and leadership development.  

Chatman, Elguezabal and Ortega aim to create a student-led environment of greater safety and security on their campus, and to inspire greater student collaboration and community throughout the district. 

For more information on the Youth Preparedness Camp visit:


http://txssc.txstate.edu/events/youth-preparedness-camp/

Related Youth Preparedness Camp Media Coverage:
"Youth Camp Focuses On Emergency Preps" - Keye TV

SBISD Graduates Exceed Expectations at Debate Nationals


Bottom row includes finalists Avery Reinhart, Christopher Rice, and Nicole Jackson (left to right).

Four recent Spring Branch ISD graduates from Spring Woods and Northbrook high schools rank among the nation’s best debaters, having placed in the final rounds of the 2014 National Forensic League (NFL) National Speech and Debate Tournament recently.

The NFL National Speech and Debate Tournament is generally understood to be the largest speech and debate tournament in the nation, encompassing more than 130,000 students across the United States who are active participants in NFL events.

This year, the tournament was held on June 15-20 at the Parkview Convention Center in Parkview, Kan. To qualify, students must have placed among the best competitors in their event at one of the 110 NFL District Tournaments held across the nation.

Three of the finalists—Avery Reinhart, Christian Rice, and Nicole Jackson— represented the Spring Woods High School award-winning debate team under the direction of debate coach Victoria Beard.

Avery Reinhart, a two-time qualifier for the NFL National Tournament, placed 10th out of 270 students in the Senate portion of Congressional Debate. Reinhart will pursue a dual bachelor’s degree in political science and business at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas this fall. 

Finalists Avery Reinhart and Isaiah Rodriguez are both seated in the front row of the senate portion of Congresional Debate finals picture. Reinhart is second from the left and Rodriguez is sixth, or last from the left. 
Christian Rice, who will attend Yale University in New Haven, Conn., placed 16th out of 275 students in the House of Representatives portion of congressional debate. This was Rice’s third trip to the NFL National Speech and Debate Tournament. He served as president of the debate team this past year at Spring Woods High.

Both Reinhart and Rice have said that they may pursue political careers.

Nicole Jackson, a first-time qualifier for the NFL National Tournament, placed 14th out of 150 students in Prose Interpretation. Jackson will attend Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y.

Northbrook High School graduate Isaiah Rodriguez also ranked exceptionally well at the Tournament; he placed 23th out of 270 students in the Senate portion of Congressional Debate. His debate coach at Northbrook High was Cecilia Smith. This fall, Rodriguez will begin his freshman year at Rice University in Houston.  

In separate but related news, the Spring Woods High debate team received the “School of Honor” award at the NFL National Tournament, which recognized it as one of the top 21-40 high schools for outstanding debate.


This story was compiled and written by Communications Dept.  Intern Kali Venable

Students Earn Gifted & Talented Summer Scholarships

Four Spring Branch ISD students identified as Gifted and Talented (GT) recently won Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented (TAGT) Summer Scholarships to help fund academic camps they will attend throughout the summer.

Wilchester Elementary School’s John Paul Le received the Carole Vermillion Scholar scholarship, issued to the highest scoring elementary applicant. Le reportedly will use the $500 award to attend a Western Academy Science Trebuchet Camp.

The Houston-based Western Academy’s Trebuchet Camp provides hands-on activities to study energy conversion, levers, trajectories, ratios, rotational motion, inertia, forces and other science topics.

The TAGT Summer Scholarships are based solely on merit and are open to GT identified students who are enrolled in kindergarten through high school. In all, 37 students were awarded TAGT scholarships this year, each worth up to $400 with the exception of highest scoring applicants.

Additional Spring Branch ISD TAGT Scholarship Winners:

Kendrick Foster - Memorial Middle School, Duke TIP Summer Studies
Jordan Kennedy - Pine Shadows Elementary, The Health Museum’s Summer Program

Jesus Silva - Cedar Brook Elementary, Engineering Camp

Writing Institute helps teachers – and students, too!


Forty elementary and secondary Spring Branch ISD teachers spent three weeks in June learning how to be better writing instructors as part of a unique, professional development workshop that included a companion writing camp for students.

SBISD teachers who attended the three-week Abydos Institute, formerly known as the New Jersey Writing Project in Texas, focused on writing, reading and literacy. The institute was held from June 9-27 at Treasure Forest Elementary School, 7635 Amelia Road.

Nearby, many of the teacher’ sons and daughters worked on their own writing and literacy skills during the Camp Karl Kolbe Workshop, which was conducted at the elementary school concurrent to the teacher writing sessions.

Camp Karl Kolbe was named after an early Spring Branch founder. The Kolbes were one of the area’s original farming families.

The combined children’s camp and teacher writing workshop followed a series of discussions on literacy and professional development. Patti Pace, district Associate Superintendent of Teaching and Learning, and Diane Fanning, the district’s Lead I-Coach for Elementary Language Arts and Social Studies, helped organize and then run the workshop and camp. Literacy Instructional Specialist Alana Morris led the workshop for teachers.

High school volunteers and teachers helped Fanning run the summer program on writing and reading for students in kindergarten through sixth grade. In all, about 100 elementary school and educators’ children attended Camp Kolbe.

The free childcare option boosted teacher enrollments for the summer institute by more than fourfold over previous years, organizers said.


Teachers enrolled in the Abydos three-week institute for educators were ecstatic about what they learned and how happy their children were in the writing camp held in the school library and in several nearby classrooms.

“My youngest daughter, who didn’t like to write, in just three days has not only written an article, but now sees herself as a writer and is begging to stay here all summer,” said Michelle Grant-Arastu, a Memorial Middle School teacher and a former SBISD Teacher of the Year.

“I am truly honored to work in a district where they respect me enough to give back in a most important way to me – through my [own] kids and Camp Kolbe,” she also said.

Carol Salva, a Bilingual Dept. teacher on special assignment who is also a former SBISD Teacher of the Year, had similar praise for the joint programs. While Carol attended Abydos sessions, her two children, Angelica and Nicholas, took part in camp activities. Her oldest, Tony, a seventh-grader, was a junior counselor.

“My own kids love the camp. They talk about it nonstop on the way home, and not just the fun crafts and games they do. They are super proud of their writing. That is what they talk about most. And my son is a reluctant writer!” Carol said.

For teachers, the Abydos/NJWPT sessions offer a high quality program in writing, reading and literacy. Writing theory and pedagogy, or the art and science involved in teaching writing, are essential foundations of the well-known institute.

Teachers write for up to an hour or more daily, resulting in the publication of their own reflexive essays or narratives. Research-based topics included prewriting strategies, genre, grammar and punctuation, reading/writing connections, time management and brain theory, to name just a few.

During the institute, teachers worked in small groups when not writing on their own. “I like the atmosphere created in this room – collaborative, professional and inquisitive,” Michelle Grant-Arastu said.

“This class is highly engaging because I feel like I am learning, and it is worth my time,” she added. “My students will benefit from my time spent here. Most importantly, this course and its presenters coincide with my beliefs about what constitutes great writing instruction – real writing that prepares kids for ‘the test,’ but, most importantly, for college and beyond.”

Writing – even for adult teachers employed in the field – can be difficult work.

“Teachers will go through the experience of remembering what the process of putting words on a blank piece of paper looks and feels like. . . . And it can be emotional. We help many teachers find their own writing voice, which in turn helps our students find their own writing voice,” district Specialist Alana Morris reports.

Several newly hired teachers praised their June learning sessions, too.

 “I knew that the intensity would be high, and that writing for an hour a day was anxiety making for me,” said Jennifer Mireles, who will teach fourth-grade science at Pine Shadows Elementary this fall.

“But when we talked about what we wrote, and our fears about writing, it set me at ease. By the second day, I felt like I could write about anything. I believe that just by having [my students] write, and then having them go back over their writings, I will see fourth-grade students say, ‘Hey, I can write. I can do it.’”

Today’s students are encouraged to read and to write deeply in technical areas like science, which will be included in state and national assessments.

Patricia Mendez will teach third graders in the One-Way Dual Language Arts and Social Studies programs at Cedar Brook Elementary School this fall. It will be her first full year of teaching, and she feels confident as a writing instructor.

“I feel very prepared with hands-on activities and strategies through this program,” she said. “I’m a better writer today. The Abydos Institute taught us how to write with meaning. So often, we don’t know the questions to ask in order to communicate properly through our writing.”

Her published writing focused on personal issues dear to her own heart, including domestic violence and abusive relationships. Abydos-trained teachers publish one or more works in the anthologies that are given to participants, principals and area school libraries.  

“It was three weeks, but I would love to do it again. It’s that good!” Patricia adds.
Her two daughters attended the children’s camp, and she believes that it changed them, too. “They are more open to communicating what they feel now, I think.”


Separately, Diane Fanning and other district specialists have created a summertime children’s newsletter called Branching Out, which is being mailed out to students enrolled at several elementary schools as part of a separate literacy outreach effort.

Shadow Oaks Students Make a Literary Splash



Summer brings a wave of new activities for all Spring Branch ISD students, including those taking part in Shadow Oaks Elementary’s first-ever summer reading program, “Make a Splash at the SOE Library.”

More than 108 students showed up to the first Shadow Oaks library event, “Flip Flop Fun” on June 11.

Motivated by research that shows substantial correlation between daily independent reading and success on standardized tests, Shadow Oaks teachers, staff and students embarked on an initiative last fall to place new focus on independent student reading.

As part of this initiative, the “Make a Splash at the SOE Library” program invites Shadow Oaks students to attend fun and exciting reading-related events every Wednesday from 1-3 p.m. for seven weeks of the summer. Upcoming library days are scheduled for three weeks this month, beginning on July 16.

The Shadow Oaks Library will be open for students to check out books during these events. In addition, faculty has partnered with MetroNational and the surrounding community to collect books that will be distributed to students.

“Our faculty and staff have volunteered their time to allow our children to attend a two hour period, participate in a fun literacy experience, and have the opportunity to check out new books,” Shadow Oaks Principal Julie Baggerly said.

The daytime library events include bookmark making, reading by the pool, book character visits, a summer reading picnic, and more.

The Literacy Launch team at Shadow Oaks has created a challenge for students to read 40 books during the summer months. Students who complete the challenge will be awarded prizes in the fall.

Shadow Oaks Library dates are as follows:

June 11th - Flip Flop Fun
June 18th - Camping in the Library
June 25th - Bookmark Bash
July 16th - Read by the Pool
June 23th - Book Character Visit
July 30th - Book Talks

August 6th - Summer Reading Picnic

Communications Intern Kali Venable complied and wrote this story.