The Ion is in the center of the innovation district in downtown Houston. During our upcoming field trip our students will have the opportunity to tour a building that houses a prototyping lab, companies such as Microsoft, Chevron, Rice University, Start-up incubators and accelerators, flexible workspaces, soon to be NASA, and even cafes.

They will also be listening in on an event that is held monthly at the Ion called Poptarts and Pitches that will help them see the Design thinking process in action as they get to listen to entrepreneurs pitch their business ideas and hear live feedback.

There is no doubt our students will benefit from visiting such an innovative space. Click the link below to read more about it.

The cost to attend the field trip is $37. The deadline to pay is JANUARY 7th. This unfortunately is a hard deadline. The link to pay is below. Field trip forms will go home after the December break.

We will need chaperones for this field trip, so save the date...I hope to see many of you there!

Learn more about AVID from our students by checking out the video below and reading about AVID program benefits:

• AVID Student Video and AVID Community Video

• Benefits of joining AVID:

• AVID students are tutored by college students every week in class!

• AVID students attend college field trips twice a year!

• AVID students develop a peer group with common post-secondary goals!

• AVID students build leadership and academic skills!

• AVID students experience a student-centered classroom focused on developing college readiness skills!

• AVID students are provided transitional support as they move from elementary to middle school, and engage in their first advanced academic classes!

If you are interested in this program for your student, please fill out the appropriate AVID Interest form based on your feeder pattern. Please let me know if you have any questions about this amazing program.

The Free Time Tracker is an activity tracker that encourages your child to measure how they spend their free time by coloring the lines of their activity cups.

If you’re also interested in building awareness of how you spend your free time, we included an adult version too!

All students who are identified as gifted/ talented will participate in services designed for gifted/talented students will demonstrate skills in self-directed learning, thinking, research, and communication as evidenced by the development of innovative products and performances that reflect individuality and creativity and are advanced in relation to students of similar age, experience, or environment.

They will accomplish this by:

• Classroom teachers provide differentiated instruction in the core subjects.
• Receiving weekly pull-outs/ push-ins by G/T ELT Teacher
• Students are clustered in classes with a teacher who has met the state G/T training requirements.
• Students participate in G/T Expo, which highlights their completed independent study projects.
• G/T students are met with each week to work on research instruction, independent project work, and other group activities.
• Classroom teachers are supported with strategies and training specific for G/T students.