Three leaders of the Alamo's fundraising arm have quit in the wake of the forced resignation of Kate Rogers, president and CEO of the Alamo Trust, the San Antonio Express-News has learned.  Three of the most active fundraisers on the board of Remember the Alamo Foundation - real estate developer Phil Bakke, philanthropist Tracy Wolff and retired Air Force Gen. Don Cook - have stepped down. view article

A Kansas school is shelving Chromebooks for pencil and paper. On Tuesday, McPherson Middle School announced in a letter to families that students will be turning in their Chromebooks at the end of the semester. The school hopes that returning to “paper and pencil tasks” will “promote deeper thinking, handwriting fluency, and less screen fatigue.” view article

Houston ISD will become one of the first school districts in the country to use OpenAI's new education-focused artificial intelligence tool to help manage its special education compliance — a high-stakes area where federal deadlines and privacy are critical and that HISD must improve under the state takeover. view article

High schooler Monroe Farbs didn’t expect a robot to go in for a hug.  The Uplift Summit International Preparatory junior watched a humanoid machine offer three options — fist bump, handshake or hug — and then mirror each move with uncanny timing at a booth inside Esports Stadium Arlington.   “It sparked that inner curiosity to figure out why it works the way it does, and how we could mimic or improve it,” said Farbs, a member of the Arlington charter school’s robotics team.   Uplift Education’s second annual Tech Expo on Oct. 9 drew students from all 13 of the charter network’s high schools for hands-on exhibits, esports matches and panels with more than 50 organizations, including American Airlines, DreamWorks Animation and the U.S. Cyber Command.  view article

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — On a scorching hot Saturday in San Antonio, dozens of teachers traded a day off for a glimpse of the future. The topic of the day’s workshop: enhancing instruction with artificial intelligence.  After marveling as AI graded classwork instantly and turned lesson plans into podcasts or online storybooks, one high school English teacher raised a concern that was on the minds of many: “Are we going to be replaced with AI?”  That remains to be seen. But for the nation’s 4 million teachers to stay relevant and help students use the technology wisely, teachers unions have forged an unlikely partnership with the world’s largest technology companies. The two groups don’t always see eye to eye but say they share a common goal: training the future workforce of America. view article

Proposition 1 would create an $850 million endowment for the college system and its 11 campuses, which are struggling to accommodate a growing student population. view article

Cell phones have officially been banned in classrooms during this legislative session, and all public schools have their own rules on what to do with the phones, like lockers or pouches. While some school districts have funding for pouches for their students, most school districts we spoke with adopt their own rules and disciplinary actions when funding isn’t readily available. view article

A 30-year-old man in Spring is accused of trying to entice a 12-year-old girl by sending messages to her school-issued laptop. Shamone Sanford has been charged with the felony of enticing a child. In court documents reviewed by ABC13, the girl's parents first alerted Klein ISD Police when they noticed messages from an adult to their daughter on the school-issued Chromebook. view article

The U.S. Secret Service has found and is quietly dismantling a massive network of “SIM farms” across the New York area just as world leaders gather for meetings at the United Nations view article

AMARILLO, Texas (KFDA) - The pandemic accelerated how much we all depend on internet access to carry out daily activities. The latest data shows more than 2 million Texas households do not have high speed internet, disproportionately affecting those in rural areas. “What has been revealed by COVID is the fact that many of our students in the city do not have equal access to broadband,” said Amarillo Mayor Ginger Nelson. However, this is not something that can be fixed overnight. view article

Ahead of the spring semester, Spring ISD officials have announced that changes will be implemented in hopes of improving remote and in-person instruction for teachers and students. In a presentation at the Dec. 8 board meeting, Lupita Hinojosa, chief officer of school leadership and student support services, announced that not all teachers will have to teach online and in-person students concurrently in the spring semester, as is currently the case. view article

Cleveland and Liberty ISDs became the latest school districts on the outskirts of the greater Houston area to cancel their online learning options this week, joining Barbers Hill and Navasota ISDs in requiring the majority of their students to return to campuses. Liberty ISD, which educates 2,266 students about 50 minutes northeast of downtown Houston, told parents at the end of October that remote learning would be offered only to medically fragile students, students who have tested positive for COVID-19, students who are quarantining due to COVID-19 exposure and students whose schools temporarily were closed due to positive tests. view article

The deadline has been extended for Fort Bend Independent School District parents deciding if they want their children to continue virtual learning or head back to the classroom. This comes as a special board meeting scheduled for today was canceled. Ft. Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre said board members wanted to give more parents time to decide. view article

The Waco Independent School District and its charter school partner, Transformation Waco, could see more than half of their students start the school year Sept. 8 via remote instruction, according to registration numbers provided by both entities. view article

Alief Independent School District Superintendent HD Chambers says school officials have decided to begin the school year online. Chambers said he doesn’t want any student to lose out on their education because of the pandemic but the thought of how to bring students and teachers back to the classroom safely keeps him up at night. view article

Children with severe disabilities often don’t have the ability to speak up when they are hurt at school, so determining what happened can be difficult. That’s why one Dallas ISD trustee wants to require each special education classroom in the district to have video cameras. Texas public schools are already required to place one in a special education setting if a parent requests it. view article

Robert Bostic, a self-described evangelist for science, technology, engineering and math, really started something when he became the superintendent of the Stafford Municipal School District in 2014. The Stafford High Robotics Program, which began two years ago, competed May 19-20 in Austin as one of 32 teams from the state invited to the 2017 University Interscholastic League Robotics FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Division State Championship based on the points it earned at earlier competitions. view article

A threat was made against Seven Lakes Junior High School via social media Thursday, officials said. view article

On March 11, 2016, the Texas Education Agency Commissioner of Education, Mike Morath, requested an opinion from the Texas Attorney General on the implementation of SB 507. This new law requires video surveillance of certain special education settings upon request beginning in the 2016-2017 school year. In an earlier blog post, I outlined the provisions of SB 507. view article

Schoolhouse bullying is nothing new. It has been going on for decades wherever someone bigger, tougher or meaner believed they could get away with abusing another child. And wherever it's happened, it has been harmful to the person being bullied in degrees ranging from intimidation and fear to causing children to commit suicide, or even murder. view article

School districts have been caught flat-footed in the last two years, facing an onslaught of digital textbook providers who follow no standard data file creation process. This problem is called "user provisioning," (a.k.a. account provisioning) a fancy way of saying that you have to create usernames and passwords in EVERY online system students and staff will need to use. view article

The Beaumont ISD Board of Managers appointed Fred Shafer as executive director of the district's special education department during a special meeting Monday, according to social media reports. view article

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New Braunfels ISD Superintendent Randy Moczygemba is in Washington DC today, joining President Barack Obama for the "ConnectED to the Future" Event, a special conference including superintendents and other educators from across the country, who will lead their schools and districts in the transition to digital learning.  view article

While the staff at TexasISD.com preferrs Google Chrome as our browser of choice, we often use Mozilla Firefox as well.  We aren't huge fans of Microsoft Internet Explorer (MSIE) but the site works on it as well...as long as you are current in your versions, otherwise, well...it's just a mess. Most browsers have an update function and may even notify you that there are updates availible.  In some districts I have been to, the attitude is what I have works, why update. Well, what you have probably doesn't work that well and you just don't realize it. Take a second to check your browser version or look for updates if you haven't in a while. view article