Mansfield High School Speech Team Awards

[Updated April 22] Mansfield High School speech team is heading to Nationals! The students competed on Saturday, April 6 at Plano West Senior High and were very successful with Aldean Pearson II placing First in Original Oratory and second in Dramatic Interpretation, he will compete in dramatic at Nationals, Daniel George placing third in Original Oratory and Olivia Soliz placing third in Humorous Interpretation. Over all the team placed third! Also advancing to semi finals were Brittany Davis and Daniel George in dramatic interpretation and in duo semis Brittany Davis and Zach Montou. Congrats to these students on their success they will represent MHS at the National Tournament in Birmingham, AL this summer. (Update and photo via Kristy Thomas)

Back row: Beaven Waller, Aldean Pearson II

Middle: Zach Montou

Front: Daniel George, Olivia Soliz, Brittany Davis

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MHS Speech Team (L-R) Olivia Soliz, Zach Montou, Beaven Waller, Aldean Pearson II,
Brittany Davis, Kristy Thomas (coach), Daniel George

Mansfield High School Speech team represented the district well at state competition March 6-8 at South Grand Prairie High School. Awards are as follows:

• Olivia Soliz & Beaven Waller - Semi finalist in duo interpretation
• Olivia Soliz - semi finalist in dramatic interpretation
• Olivia Soliz & Aldean Pearson II - semi finalist in duet acting
• Beaven Waller - quarter finalist dramatic interpretation
• Daniel George & Beaven Waller - quarter finalist in duet acting
• Zach Montou & Brittany Davis - Semi finalist in duet acting
• Aldean Pearson II - semi finalist in original oratory
• Aldean Pearson II - State champion Dramatic Interpretation

Overall the team placed 14th out of 201 schools from around the state that competed. Congratulations to the team and to their coach, Kristy Thomas.

Mansfield High School senior, Aldean Pearson II won first place at the state speech and debate competition out of 136 entries from all over the state. He's pictured above with his coach, Kristy Thomas.

Anderson Elementary 3rd Grader impressive at Regional Spelling Bee

Perry Elementary students learn about and share with students in Zimbabwe

Earlier this week, Sarah Ewart, a tutor at Annette Perry Elementary School, presented to 2nd - 4th graders at the campus about a special opportunity she'll experience in the coming weeks. Ms. Ewart will travel to a small village in Zimbabwe called Badombe through a nonprofit organization called Buy A Brick to build schools. The village has 320 children between the primary school ages of 6 and 13. Currently 130 students squeeze into a former farmers' warehouse for their schooling, which is unfortunately also a home to a colony of bats. Because there is no room in their current facility, 190 children currently can not attend school.

Badombe Village (Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe)

During March 15-30, the Buy A Brick team will fix their bore hole pump, construct three school blocks, build toilets, an outdoor kitchen, and bath houses for their three teachers.

During the campus presentation, the Annette Perry students compared and contrasted their normal day to a day in the life of a Zimbabwean student. Some of the topics of discussion were breakfast foods, getting to school, school facilities, water availability, local wildlife, and making a positive international impact.

The students ate sugar from sugar cane, saw a normal Zimbabwean outfit, touched a Zimbabwean homemade soccer ball, and enjoyed lots of fun and interesting facts about Zimbabwe. At the end of the presentation the students were encouraged to write letters to the Zimbabwean students that would be placed in supply bags that the Zimbabwean students would receive.

The students asked if they could bring items to put in the supply bags. Within a couple of days the student body donated:

• 40 bars of soap
• 200 tubes of toothpaste
• 70 tooth brushes
• 16 crayon boxes
• 155 small toys
• 120 pens
• 100 washcloths
• 180 handwritten letters

"The excitement on the students faces and the compassion in their hearts was inspiring to behold," wrote Sarah Ewart.

The students look forward to reading letters from the Zimbabwean students and seeing pictures of the trip. Through their letters, compassion, and generosity Annette Perry students will impact families and students in Zimbabwe.

For more information please visit www.buyabrick.com.

Collaborating with TASA and iTunes U for free course content

Four Mansfield ISD teachers are in Austin this week for the SXSWedu Conference and Festival to share presentations and help announce an initiative of the Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) to help train teachers to create course content for iTunes U.


The following Mansfield ISD teachers participated in the project launch with TASA: (pictured above from L-R) Michael Fore, pre-calculus teacher, Summit HS; Chrissy Boydstun, English teacher, Mansfield HS; Catherine McGuinness, social studies teacher, Legacy HS; and Jessica Crain, chemistry teacher, Timberview HS.

TASA joins iTunes U, offering free course content to transform Texas teaching, learning
The Texas Association of School Administrators (TASA) today announced the launch of TASA on iTunes U to help transform Texas teaching and learning by providing course content for classroom teachers in the four core subject areas of mathematics, science, social studies and English language arts.

With more than 1 billion downloads, iTunes U is the world's largest online catalog of free educational content that helps educators create courses, including lectures, assignments, books, quizzes and syllabi. iTunes U is made available at no cost by Apple. The courses created by TASA will be available not only to Texas schools but also to millions of iOS users around the world.

The exponential increase of iPad implementations in Texas school districts (including MISD's high school iPad implementation this year), coupled with the need for educators to redesign instruction that empowers students, facilitates their understanding, and creates engaging experiences, prompted TASA to launch this initiative.

In the first phase of this initiative, to be completed by June 1, TASA on iTunes U will provide course content for a set of 18 high school courses that are fully aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), free and accessible anywhere. This content — designed by teachers, for teachers — will foster creativity, collaboration and critical thinking skills in an engaging, digitally rich learning environment for Texas students, with special emphasis on high priority learning standards.

“I use iTunes U as a platform for teaching my courses and I love the way it offers a road map of what we will be doing in class but also gives students resources at their fingertips to facilitate learning,” said Mansfield High School teacher Chrissy Boydstun.

Last week, Apple announced that their iTunes U content topped one billion downloads. (That's billion with a "b.")

Earlier today, TASA shared a link to course content via Twitter that our teachers helped develop:

Course content is being debuted today at TASA on iTunes U for PreCal, Biology, World Geo & English II at itunes.apple.com/us/institution…
— TASAnet (@tasanet) March 5, 2013

A total of 58 classroom teachers and content specialists, across 14 Texas school districts, are collaborating with TASA in the course and content development. TASA on iTunes U will make it easy for teachers to find and include high quality digital content from the App Store, iBookstore, and iTunes Store, as well as videos and other web based sources that align with the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.

Getting Ready For Kindergarten (Prepararse Para el Kinder)

Kindergarten today is different in many ways than when you attended school. Many children come to Kindergarten with previous preschool or day care experience. Even though your child won’t begin school until the fall, there are many things you can do now to prepare him/her for kindergarten.

Here are some ideas:

• Make sure your child knows as many alphabet letters as possible, both upper and lower case. Practice them in random order.
• Help your child learn the sound for each of the letters. You can visit (www.havefunteaching.com)
• Read with your child on a regular basis. Point out the title, author, front cover, back cover, capital letters.
• Help your child to learn the difference between a letter, a word, and a sentence. Use books, newspapers, and magazines to find letters, words, and sentences. Count the words on a page- the words in the title, etc.
• Be sure your child can write his/her name using a capital letter to start and all lower case for the rest, using a continuous movement.
• Help your child learn his shapes and colors.
• Let your child use scissors and practice cutting both on plain paper and on lines.
• Write to your child. Encourage your child to write back even if what they write is just one letter. Let them try to sound out words themselves. Try not to spell everything for them.
• Please work with your child on self help skills: Help him/her learn to use tissues alone and to practice good hygiene. Work on tying shoes, buckling a belt, buttoning/snapping clothes and zipping a coat.
• Talk about what is more, less, or the same. Use vocabulary such as smaller, larger, longer, shorter, etc.
• Introduce your child to the difference between letters and numbers.
• Help your child learn to recognize numerals at least to 10.

Please remember these are ideas to help your child be more prepared for Kindergarten.

Will your child enter Kindergarten next year? Passport to Kindergarten for NEW Kindergarten Families: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM on Saturday, April 13, 2013


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Prepararse Para el Kinder 
El Kinder de hoy es distinto en muchos aspectos a cuando usted asistió a la escuela. Muchos niños acuden al Kinder con experiencia de guardería o experiencia prescolar anterior. A pesar de que su hijo no comienza la escuela hasta agosto, hay muchas cosas que puede hacer ahora para prepararlo para el Kinder.

Aquí hay algunas ideas:

• Asegúrese de que su hijo sepa tantas letras del alfabeto como sea posible, mayúsculas y minúsculas. Practíquenlas fuera de orden.
• Ayudar a su hijo a aprender el sonido de cada una de las letras. Puede visitar (www.havefunteaching.com) lectura con su hijo seguido. Señale el título, autor, portada, contraportada, letras mayúsculas.
• Ayudar a su hijo a aprender la diferencia entre una letra, una palabra, y una frase. Utilizar libros, periódicos y revistas para encontrar letras, palabras y frases. Contar las palabras en una página - las palabras en el título, etc..
• Asegúrese de que su hijo puede escribir su nombre con una letra mayúscula para iniciar y todas minúsculas para el resto de su nombre.
• Ayúdele a su hijo a aprender las formas y los colores.
• Permita que su hijo utilice tijeras y practique cortando papel.
• Escríbale a su hijo. Anime a su hijo a escribir aunque escriba sólo una letra.
• Déjele a su intentar a leer palabras por sí mismo. No intente explicarle todo.
• Trabaje con su niño en las habilidades que necesita para ayudarse a sí mismo: ayúdelo a aprender a utilizar pañuelo de papel solo y que practique la buena higiene. Enséñele a atarse los zapatos, a abrocharse el cinturón, abotonarse la ropa y a usar un cierre.
• Háblele de lo que tiene más, menos o igual. Utilice el vocabulario apropiado, como menor, mayor, largo, corto, etc.
• Introdúzcale a su hijo la diferencia entre las letras y los números.
• Ayúdele a su hijo a aprender a reconocer los números del 1 al 10.

Por favor, recuerde estas son ideas para ayudar a su hijo a estar más preparado para entrar al Kinder.

¿Entrará su niño al Kinder el próximo año? Passport to Kindergarten para nuevas familias de Kinder: 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM en sábado 13 de abril del 2013.
 

Summit and Legacy High Schools Among Top Teams at State Academic Decathlon

At the Texas Academic Decathlon State competition in San Antonio last weekend, Summit High School placed 11th in the state with a school-record 41,690 points. Earning gold medals for their performance as top honors, scholastic, and varsity team members were Nicholas Toliver, Sina Rahesh, and Ethan Kohner. Additionally James Smith earned a bronze medal for science and a bronze medal for music. Competition team members include James Smith, Victoria Miglets, Nicholas Toliver, Gina Shahidullah, Sina Rahesh, Caroline Rodgers, Ethan Kohner, Felicia Freeman, and Michael Moore. Additionally the team tied for 6th place in super quiz with a score of 2500.

Legacy High School placed 19th at state with a team total of 37,760. State medalists included: Laura Baker (3rd Economics, Legacy’s top Honors student); Amanda Hargett-Granato (3rd Art, Legacy’s top Scholastic student); Sammi Singarella (1st Essay); Austin Bailey (3rd Essay); Nathan Wright (3rd Essay); and Autumn McGaha (Legacy’s top Varsity student).

Congratulations Summit and Legacy Acadec teams.

Related: Acadec Teams Score Big at Regional Competition

About Academic Decathlon
The United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) is a program that provides high school students an opportunity to experience the challenges of rigorous academic competition through participation in team activities. In addition, the Academic Decathlon involves members of the business/industry as active supporters of a program promoting academic excellence.