IAmTXEd

Culinary arts teacher, Matthew Denman from Allen ISD is an excellent example of how, during COVID-19, educators across the state effectively engaged their students and parents through video and social media. So many took learning beyond the classroom…and in this case, into the kitchen!
 
“The challenge for me was to find a way to recreate the direct instruction my students would get while making a dish and working in the restaurant at school,” said Chef Denman. “The best way I could do this was to make instructional cooking videos.” 
 

Lewis Elementary School’s physical education teacher, Stephanie Warner, has always made it her top priority to build relationships with her students and their families. As everyone moved into uncharted territory during this public health crisis, Coach Warner knew she needed to keep Forney ISD’s students, families, and staff motivated and committed to maintaining their personal health and safety on a daily basis. 
 

The night before Splendora ISD officially kicked off its new distance learning program, Apryl Ott recorded herself reading a bedtime story to her Kindergarten students at Greenleaf Elementary and expressed how excited she was for the next day.

Coleman ISD’s Pam Cohea is an innovative STEM teacher that works for Coleman Elementary and the campus’s 21st Century Community Learning Center Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) Program. She is so extraordinary; in fact, in 2017, she was named Coleman Elementary’s Teacher of the Year.

Coppell ISD’s Kelly Clay and her first-grade students at Wilson Elementary School took a field trip to a local landfill and recycling plant and turned it into a campaign to rethink the way their school minimizes waste in the cafeteria.

Connecting content to real-life application is the key to engagement – but in today’s high-tech world, making that connection in the classroom continues to be a challenge. Nevertheless, one Bloomington Middle School teacher is up to the task.

Longview ISD’s Whitney Reardon makes the holiday season memorable for her deaf education students at Johnston-McQueen Elementary School.

Ector County ISD (ECISD) has taken a novel approach to teaching and learning through innovative inquiry and problem-based experiences, as well as authentic educator professional development. Its PICK Education collaborative connects students and teachers with real world experiences through university and institute partnerships.

Three years ago, fourth grade social studies teacher Kevin Hunter saw the need for positive male influences in the lives of the young men at Shive Elementary School in the Vernon ISD. Deciding he would start a group taught by adult men to teach etiquette, leadership, and character to young men, Hunter created t

    When she started teaching in Denton ISD in 2016, Leah Zavala’s passion for teaching students who want to become teachers meshed perfectly with the district’s new Education & Training Internship, known as their “Grow Your Own” teaching initiative. “I love teaching and I have the privilege to teach s

  Army veteran Ross Gragert takes an innovative approach to lesson delivery at Willis High School. “My purpose is to help students with their goal of graduating on time and to have a little fun along the way,” said Gragert. While innovation is not new to Gragert’s classroom, a recent project was just what wa

  San Elizario ISD Career and Technical Education (CTE) teacher Dr. Ana Luna uses her high school classroom to prepare her students for future careers in technology, business, health sciences and engineering. As a forensics and biomedical sciences CTE teacher, Luna exposes her students to techniques used

    After the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, the first day of the 2017-2018 school year for Aransas Pass ISD was seven weeks later than originally scheduled. This delay created a major challenge for teachers. “Are we going to be able to achieve everything we need to for this school year?” asked kinderg

  W imberley ISD summer program attracts students with a wide variety of programs that support academic and career readiness. “It is always busy and fun at the Katherine Anne Porter School and over 20 percent of the students enrolled will expand their career readiness,” said Wimberley High School teacher Peg

    As part of the challenge of inspiring students to think creatively, Hooks High School ACE Coordinator Carrie Moro teaches her students to use a 3D printer to benefit their community. “My goal is to help students explore more of the designing aspects of 3D printing and how to creatively use the outcom

In the northwestern corner of Bee County, at the intersection of FM 673 and FM 798, you will pass through the rural town of Pawnee. With a population of 350 residents, Pawnee ISD is the central location for everything – school, community and family activities.

Helping to launch Alief ISD’s Texas Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) program in 2013, Alief Middle School Math teacher Michael Hachicho created lesson plans that ensure maximum engagement with STEM-related activities.

Knippa ISD may be a small school district just west of San Antonio, but their student achievements are anything but small -- because “it takes a little more to be a Rockcrusher” -- and from day one, every member of the Knippa ISD education staff is committed to building a strong educational foundation for all students. Knippa ISD teachers Michelle Ramsey, Tammie Brown, Crystal Piña, and Adreanna Zamora work tirelessly to build that foundation with a full day pre-kindergarten program.

Before he became a physical education coach and teacher, Tulia ISD’s Rob Patton spent his career as a successful salesman and businessman. Now as a Tulia Junior High Afterschool Center on Education (ACE) instructor, Patton uses his extensive business experiences to teach students about money and budgeting.

Coleman Independent School District art instructor Stacci Hamilton encourages her students to look at the world around them before designing their art projects. After learning about the many difficulties that fellow students may be experiencing outside the classroom -- topics that include poverty, homelessness, immigration, dating violence and addiction -- Hamilton encourages her students at Coleman High School to express their concerns about these issues through art.

Fun, Excellence, Excitement, Togetherness, Discipline, Intensity, Pride, Potential (FEETDIPP) is the inspirational mantra all Sulphur Springs High School band students learned from their great leader, the late Sulphur Springs ISD Fine Arts Administrator, Director of Bands and High School Band Director Charlie McCauley.

Holliday Independent School District teachers Karen Craig and Jacki Dowdy use their passion for teaching to create strong readers and writers. Craig and Dowdy have spent the past school year collaborating through the Texas Lesson Study program on how to use engaging books for teaching foundational writing skills to young children.

“As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a teacher,” said Slaton Junior High School TAP master teacher Katie Negen. Wanting to make a difference in the classroom, Negen selected Slaton Independent School District to begin her teaching career in 2007 as a Language Arts instructor.

Nestled in the vast curve of Big Bend National Park, the Chihuahuan Desert, and the Rio Grande River, Terlingua Common School District has a rich culture and pioneering history in Texas. To celebrate its history, an annual Spring Fiesta Day is held at Big Bend High School during the last days of school.

Everyone counts at Myatt Elementary School in the El Campo Independent School District, even the parents. To help them become more involved with their child’s school, Kinder Reading Interventionist Sherry Pietsch invited parents to read to her class.

Anderson-Shiro High School Biology and Anatomy teacher Brittany Wade has a talent of relating biology and science to real-world examples, like when her students recently obtained a better understanding of mitosis by using Oreos during biology class.

Van High School students have been brewing up some astonishing ideas with the recent opening of the Bold School Coffee Shop. Van ISD Director of Instructional Technology Jason Johnson challenged the iTeam students, a group formed to bring a student voice to innovation, engagement and technology, to find new ways to bring students into the school library. 

Plains ISD librarian Kim Gass combines her love of young children and reading in her small library at Plains Elementary School in Yoakum County, Texas. Every morning during the school week, young elementary kids eagerly walk from their classroom to the library to show Gass the books they have read the night before. 

Arlington ISD English teacher Jennifer Fuller received a wonderful surprise last October when she was honored with the Milken Educator Award – known as the “Oscars of Teaching” – at a district assembly. ”This was a complete surprise,” said Fuller. “It is really special to be a teacher and the students have changed my life.” 

Galveston Independent School District eighth grade math teacher Bryan Curran has transformed his math students into winners. As the Central Middle School boys’ basketball coach and mathematics instructor, Coach Curran listens intently to his students and works hard on and off the court to provide rigorous instruction to his Algebra I classes and mentor his athletes in the basketball program.

Laredo ISD’s Adaptive Physical Education coach Olga Gutierrez was named the 2017 Special Olympics Texas (SOTX) Female Coach of the Year. This award recognizes the coach who best demonstrates a positive influence on his or her athletes, helping them to succeed in competition as well as in life.

Fruitvale ISD coach and teacher Troy Walker designs big challenges that engage his small class of seven junior high students so that they are constantly faced with new and exciting methods of thinking, designing, and building products. 

Scott Hagedorn, Sabine Pass ISD’s Director of Instructional Technology, wanted his students to learn the valuable lesson of giving for the holidays by using the skills acquired during their 3D Printing class to create special toys for the local Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) Services team.

Garland ISD fifth-grade teacher John Caldarera believes in igniting excellence in a nurturing and challenging school environment by making math fun and engaging for his students at Julius Dorsey Elementary School. While utilizing the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program, Caldarera began preparing his fifth-grade students for the STAAR test.

Liberty Hill ISD kindergarten teacher Marsha Hood came into the teaching profession a little later than others, but with an enthusiasm that inspires her colleagues daily. After being a local volunteer for more than 20 years in the Liberty Hill ISD, Mrs. Hood discovered her true passion was in the classroom and used an alternative certification program to obtain her teaching certificate. She has been a teacher since 2007.

Realizing that new advances in technology enable students to imagine new ideas in the classroom, Joshua ISD’s Gifted and Talented (GT) Coordinator Christal Bookhamer has pushed to find innovative ways to prepare her students for the future. With that spirit, Bookhamer leverages technology to connect her students with others around the globe so they can collaborate on project-based learning activities aligned with STEAM Education to bring real-world application to life.

Beaumont ISD Principal Melanie Pharis had big plans for the 127 freshmen and sophomores starting the school year at the two-year-old Beaumont Early College High School (ECHS) – but when Hurricane Harvey hit, her students missed more than two weeks of school and then had to be relocated to the Lamar Institute of Technology (LIT) to make room for another school whose building had to be closed.

Snyder ISD fifth-grade teacher Katherine McCurdy was one of 99 reading teachers selected during the summer of 2017 to participate in the inaugural State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Teacher Institute, a week-long retreat in which teachers from across Texas came together to develop interim and formative assessment items that align to STAAR assessments.

Snook ISD English teacher Annette Kirk started the LIT (Leaders In Training) Club for eighth grade girls because she wanted to do something outside the classroom that would make a positive impact on some of her most vulnerable students. “An opportunity presented itself when I intercepted one of my girls storming out of a class,” Kirk remembered. “We talked, and I pitched the idea of a club just for girls like her.”

“If you give a kindergartner a Chromebook, he will happily surprise you,” says Wichita Falls ISD’s Talented and Gifted Coordinator Jamie Jo Morgan. Morgan was among the district’s first teachers to take a full classroom set of Chromebooks and give them to Wichita Falls’ littlest –kindergartners – as part of WFISD’s Digital Pilot Program. She incorporated the computers into daily lessons and was astounded at the results.

San Benito CISD second-grade teacher Lilia Nezzer has long volunteered as an after-school tutor to help prepare students for academic excellence. But once Sullivan Elementary School’s Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) program was established in 2014, Mrs. Nezzer has helped to develop several specific student programs on the campus – including chess.

When Lampasas ISD curriculum team members, librarians and district leaders launched “Read On Lampasas” in 2016, the goal wasn’t just to improve a student’s reading performance. “Our team members realized that to improve reading performance, you must first foster a student’s love of reading,” said superintendent Chane Rascoe.

Laura Davis, a fifth-grade math teacher at Kiker Elementary School in the Austin ISD, was one of 99 mathematics teachers selected this summer to participate in the inaugural State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) Teacher Institute, a week-long retreat where teachers from across Texas came together to develop interim and formative assessment items that align to STAAR assessments.

While those who escaped Hurricane Harvey’s ravages have reason to be thankful, there are those like Judson ISD teacher Marcie Stowell who have turned that gratitude into action. Via her social media contacts with nearby Madison High School of North East ISD in San Antonio, Stowell learned about a sports equipment drive for some Southeast Texas students whose facilities and resources have been decimated.

Lockney ISD’s Lori Hooten spent her summer teaching “Write Brain,” a program in which students learn to write and publish their own books, through the Communities in School (CIS) of the South Plains’ Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) program.

After the lessons have been reviewed, mariachi music soon fills the classroom as students begin rehearsal. Students are practicing the dance steps to “El Jarabe Tapatio” as part of the enrichment component of the Weslaco ISD Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) program. At the head of the class is ACE instructor Angelica Cardoza and her assistant Adrian Garcia, who together team up to create a fun and exciting environment for their students.

After working 30 years as a software engineer, Kim Henry Pries embarked on a new career: teaching Career and Technology classes – including pre-engineering, biotechnology and computer science – at Parkland High School in the Ysleta ISD.

Dyess Elementary School teachers in the Abilene ISD have jumped on the Texas Lesson Study train, and principal Michael Newton and fifth grade teacher Rosemary Abila are seeing the rewards. Like many great school leaders, Mr. Newton wanted his staff to have teacher-driven professional development.

Itasca ISD’s Stephanie Salinas spent 17 years as a social worker before starting a second career as an elementary school music teacher. “Music has always been my passion,” Salinas said, “so getting my alternative teaching certification in 2012 has allowed me to share my passion with students.”

Paul McWhorter spent more than 15 years at Sandia National Labs before returning to his hometown of Eldorado, Texas to become a teacher. McWhorter has also helped the school develop its own Space Program.

“I aspire to inspire by making learning fun.” These words have fueled Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD (PSJA) math teacher Fabian Quintana for 27 years. From teaching various math dual-enrollment classes to connecting with students outside the classroom, Mr. Quintana has influenced generations of students at PSJA Early College High School.

In conjunction with Dr. Valerie Segovia and the Nuclear Power Institute at Texas A&M University, Palacios High School principal Stephanie Garcia and teacher Leslie Gerberman sponsor POWER SET – Powerful Opportunities for Women Eager and Ready in Science, Engineering, and Technology.

Magnolia ISD's Coach Lundin Matthews teaches web design and coding at Magnolia Junior High School. Earlier this year, he challenged his students to develop an online campus reward system that would allow administrators and teachers to add and remove dollars and students to track reward balances.

Heather Perkins, Moody ISD’s Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) teacher, strives to create meaningful learning experiences each day for her students. 

Every year, Northside ISD ESL teacher Kelly Allen coordinates a Saturday Field Trip to a San Antonio Public Library for her Glenoaks Elementary third graders. She works in conjunction with the school librarian, Linda Moore, and a city librarian, Gladis Martinez, to make this special day at the Forest Hills Public Library a reality.

Daniel Trevino’s journey to teaching began in 2008 when he enrolled at a local university and began his trek toward obtaining a college degree.

Students in Jordan Burrell's class begin each day by singing and playing instruments together – but this is no ordinary music class. Burrell teaches specialized support at Lincoln Middle School in the San Angelo ISD. One of the main goals of the program is fostering communication in students with special needs and intellectual disabilities, and Burrell has found music to be a natural and genuine way to teach that.

Fun. Engaging. Challenging. Hands-on. Interactive. These are the words used to describe Mrs. Morgan’s sixth grade science class at Nebbie Williams Elementary School in the Rockwall Independent School District.

New Braunfels ISD teachers Stacey Roff, Angie Hoenes and Lanette Nash aren’t charged with teaching their first and second graders how to read and write. “In our classroom, we strive to teach that you don’t need to hit, kick, scream or cry to express what you need or want,” Roff says.

Athens ISD’s Erin York preaches her message like an old-time tent revivalist. As an Instructional Technologist, she insists that kids today learn differently than their parents did. That means educators must learn to teach differently or miss out on connecting with all their students.

Sixth grade science students at Wilson Middle School in Northwest ISD were challenged by teachers Jason Deardorff and Lindsey Warren to digitally build a civilization on Mars.

Kristen Campbell, a 20-year ELAR teacher and Regional Teacher of the Year at J.T. Hutchinson Middle School, wanted a way to engage her students with the realities of life for our veterans and soldiers – so she created the Wounded Warrior classroom project.

Reed Middle School band director Michelle Hanegan doesn’t allow anything to come between her students and a quality educational experience. Student Angel Nuncio is one of the best musicians in the Reed Middle School band. In 2015, he was the only seventh-grade saxophonist to make the All-Region band.

Four years ago, Presidio ISD engineering teacher Rolando Gloria was encouraged to sponsor a “F1 In Schools” Technology Challenge team. Though he knew nothing about F1, he saw the challenge as an opportunity to model a new learning process for his students.

Thanks to teachers like special ed instructor Anderson Thompson III and blind/deaf intervener Gloria See, Harris County Department of Education’s Academic and Behavior Schools are able to provide trusted and enriching learning experiences for students with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

It’s easy for teachers to love the high-achieving students, but sometimes the most special teachers bond with students who simply achieve, against all odds. Carolyn Davis, a reading intervention specialist at Decatur ISD, says that one of her third-grade students, Josh Carter, is an Achiever with a capital "A".

As Palo Duro High School sophomore Linh Vo will tell you, painting teacher Rebecca Chandler has taught her a lot about art – and so much more. Ms. Chandler is a big part of the reason why her art skills have grown exceedingly this year.“Last year, as a freshman, I was not very serious about art,” says Linh.

Twelve years ago, Ryan Piwetz made a huge career change that continues to benefit the students of Port Aransas ISD. Previously an engineer, Piwetz brings experience and expertise to his physics, environmental science and engineering students.

Meet Sam. Sam is on the autism spectrum and has cerebral palsy. When he entered the ninth grade at Floresville High School in Floresville ISD, he was mostly non-verbal, but after four years of hard work Sam has made remarkable progress.

When Dr. José Espinoza became Socorro ISD’s new Superintendent in 2012, he knew his work would be cut out for him. Socorro ISD lagged behind other districts across Texas in nine out of the 17 STAAR exams administered to students in grades 3-8.

Operium Baldwin, a fifth-year kindergarten teacher in Crosby ISD, has noticed that her kindergarten students are more engaged and more likely to complete reading assignments when they involve fictional text. 

Kara Keeling, a third-grade science and social studies teacher at Phillips Elementary in Kaufman ISD, makes learning exciting and fun for her students and hopes to leave a lasting impact on their lives.“One of my top priorities is to build relationships with my students,” Ms. Keating said.

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD’s Power Up Café has a unique approach to promoting positive nutritional information to students, staff and parents.

Comstock School teacher Kamye Tims co-teaches a Scientific Research class in conjunction with archaeologists at the Shumla Archaeological Research & Education Center, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Comstock, allowing the small district’s high school students to gain real-world experience.

Roel Peña spent more than 20 years as an aeronautical engineer at Lockheed Martin before beginning a second career as a science teacher.