Hackberry Howl
Love-Serve-Care
Vol.5 No.1
Welcome Back!
Here it is, almost August – the summer has flown by! I hope that you had time to relax and rejuvenate, and are as excited as I am to be back. I am already looking forward the best school year ever!
The summer has brought last minute staff changes as always, and we have scoured the metroplex area (and beyond!) to find the most awesome new Lobo's ever. Here is run down of the newest Lobos for you to welcome to the pack:
Gloria Geisler-2nd Grade
Hello! My name is Gloria Geisler. I will be teaching second grade here at Hackberry Elementary School, and am so excited to be joining the HBE family.
I graduated Cum Laude at the University of North Texas with a B.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies EC- 6 with a certification in English as a Second Language (ESL). I am a first year teacher, but for the last 4 years I have worked with early childhood education through a tutor learning center. I was fortunate enough to complete my student teaching at Hackberry my last year in college, and fell in love with the campus and the culture.
Outside of my teaching career, I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but was raised here in Texas. I have lived in the DFW area for the last 15 years. Just recently me and my fur baby, Basie moved from Lewisville, Texas to the Little Elm area to be closer to Hackberry. In my spare time, I enjoy doing any and all summer outdoor activities from hiking to surfing, and everything in-between.
I am passionate about my teaching career and am so excited for this opportunity to work with some amazing teachers and students.
Erika Finch-5th Grade
Jennifer Cox-Pre-K
My name is Jennifer Cox. I will be teaching the blended 3’s Pre-k class. I am so
excited to be part of the HBE family!!!
This will be my first year as a certified teacher, but I have been working in early
childhood education for the last 17 years. I have extensive experience in early
intervention and I absolutely love working with the littles!!
I have a B.S. in Communication Science & Disorders from Texas Woman’s
University and I am licensed speech-language pathologist assistant (SLP-A), I am a
certified teacher in EC-6 and Special Education, and I am in the final stages of
completing a Master’s degree in Teaching from Texas Woman’s University.
I have been married for 23 years to my husband Chad. We have two boys,
Carson who is 19 and plays baseball at Henderson State University and Connor who is
18 and will be attending University of Texas at Dallas in the fall. We have lived in Little
Elm for 16 years and both of my boys are graduates of LEISD.
Stephanie Cervantes-2nd Grade
I was born in Richardson, TX but I was mostly raised in El Paso, TX and moved to Denton to go to the University of North Texas. Since then my husband and I have lived in the DFW area. We have two amazing fur babies Onyx our 12 year old puppy and Evee our 11 year old kitty.
I can't wait to meet you all and be part of the family!!!
Cristina Vieira-1st Grade
Hello! My name is Cristina Vieira and I am so excited to be teaching 1st grade this year at Hackberry Elementary!
I recently graduated from the University of North Texas in May. I spent this past year student teaching at HBE and feel so lucky to start my teaching career here!
I grew up on the Jersey shore and love spending any time at the beach. When I’m not working you might find me at Hobby Lobby working on my next craft!
I can’t wait to work with my amazing team and meet all of my students!
David Bloom-4th Grade
ello all and welcome to fourth grade. I am extremely excited to be joining the Hackberry family. This will be my twelfth year teaching, and now seven of those years in fourth grade. I cannot wait to begin and work within the exciting and engaging learning community that has been created thanks to all of the wonderful staff and students here at Hackberry.
I was born and raised in New York, which is where I began my teaching career after completing my Master of Science in Teaching degree from The College of Saint Rose. Beyond my career as a grade school educator I have been performing on the drum set since I was eight years old, two thirds of that time I added the job of drum and percussion instruction. My wife and I have an adorably energetic one year old son and two fur babies, all of which as a family we picked up and moved to Little Elm from Phoenix, Arizona. We are so excited to be here and it is a pleasure to be teaching in the community we will be raising our son in.
Remi Connolly-1st Grade
Required Trainings:
1. SafeSchools, the annual required compliance training, is now available. Due to current nationwide issues, some additional trainings are required this year. You will find training videos dealing with health emergencies, child nutrition, bullying, human trafficking, copyright infringement, and more. The deadline to complete the SafeSchools training is August 31, 2019. If you do not receive the email from SafeSchools, please check your Spam folder. Last year, many of the emails from SafeSchools were filtered to employee’s Spam boxes. If you do not receive an email at all, please contact Erik Lokken (elokken@leisd.ws) so that he can verify the email and resend the information.
2. Hackberry Back to School CANVAS Courses https://leisd.instructure.com/courses/11291
Back to School Courses can be found in the Hackberry Faculty and Staff Course in CANVAS. To access the courses simply click on the Back to school button on the hope page. You will need to watch each video and take the required quiz. These need to be completed by August 13th @ 3:00PM. If you need help or have questions, see Stephen Richardson srichardson@leisd.ws
3. Little Elm ISD T-TESS teacher overview.
The purpose of this course is to learn about the Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System, also known as T-TESS. The orientation course is designed to ensure that you develop a clear understanding of the system, its implications for teacher evaluations, and its role in enhancing teaching and learning in every classroom in Little Elm ISD.
This course has enabled open enrollment. Students can self-enroll in the course:URL: https://leisd.instructure.com/enroll/G63BH4. Alternatively, they can sign up at https://leisd.instructure.com/register and use the following join code: G63BH4
Please note the following:
- Due Date for ALL New Teachers is August 31st
- Due Date for Late Hires (Those who start after August 5th) have 10 "classroom" days after their start date to complete the course.
Building Access
Week of July 22nd-26th
7:30-5:30
Weekend July 27th-28th
8:00-6:00
Week of July 29th-August 2nd
7:30-7:30
Weekend
August 3rd-4th
7:30-7:30
Week of August 5th-9th
7:00-9:00
Weekend of August 10th-11th
7:00-9:00
Week of 12th-13th
7:00-9:00
Fill out the google form below
Contact Information:
Email: Srichardson@littleelmisd.net
Cell Phone: (940) 391-3864
Jill Whitehead
Email: Jwhitehead@littleelmisd.net
Cell Phone: (903) 456-4004
Sandra Garces
Email: Sgarces@littleelmisd.net
Cell Phone:(214) 682-6339