Sian Leah Beilock is a cognitive scientist who is the new president of Dartmouth College, the first woman to hold that position since the school was founded in 1769. An expert in, among other things, the effect of stress on academic performance, she is starting her tenure by putting health and wellness at the center of her leadership agenda with a focus on the country’s youth mental health crisis.  Part of the reason we can’t do this without technology is that we simply don’t have enough mental health professionals. Of the 2.7 million young Americans experiencing severe depression, only about 28 percent are receiving consistent treatment — and that figure is lower among young people of color. What’s more, there are only 14 practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists for every 100,000 children in the United States, so it’s no wonder so many are falling through the cracks. view article

Seguin High School senior Zachary Mica has always liked working with his hands and staying active, which he believes will help him after high school. He received an additional leg up on his future Wednesday through assistance from a new group set up to support the school. The new Seguin High School Construction Trades Booster Club donated new sets of tools to students in the construction trades class including Mica. “When I graduate, I want to go into a trade school,” he said. “I want to go into construction. These tools will help me.” That’s the goal of the new booster club, said Carlos Moreno, president of the fledgling club and owner of Lonestar Home Solutions. view article

The cybersecurity system break-ins this month of casino giants MGM Resorts International and Caesars Entertainment shatter a public perception that casino security requires an “Oceans 11”-level effort to defeat it  A persistent error message greeted Dulce Martinez on Monday as she tried to access her casino rewards account to book accommodations for an upcoming business trip.  That's odd, she thought, then toggled over to Facebook to search for clues about the issue on a group for MGM Resorts International loyalty members. There, she learned that the largest casino owner in Las Vegas had fallen victim to a cybersecurity breach.  Martinez, 45, immediately checked her bank statements for the credit card linked to her loyalty account. Now she was being greeted by four new transactions she did not recognize — charges that she said increased with each transaction, from $9.99 to $46. She canceled the credit card.  Unsettled by the thought of what other information the hackers may have stolen, Martinez, a publicist from Los Angeles, said she signed up for a credit report monitoring program, which will cost her $20 monthly. view article

As construction plans are being worked out on the King Ranch for the world's largest direct air capture facility, Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) is also building new curriculum for its students to go along with it.  With the world's largest direct air capture facility heading to Kleberg County, nearly 3,000 jobs will be brought to the city along with it. TAMUK President Dr. Robert Vela said he hopes their students are the first in line for these new job opportunities.  As construction plans are being worked out on the King Ranch for the world's largest direct air capture facility, Texas A&M University-Kingsville (TAMUK) is also building new curriculum for its students to go along with it.  With the worlds largest direct air capture facility heading to Kleberg County, nearly 3,000 jobs will be brought to the city along with it. TAMUK President Dr. Robert Vela said he hopes their students are the first in line for these new job opportunities. view article

Allen High School's Hannah Bartlett recently joined three other members of her school's robotics team to celebrate receiving a $659,100 grant from BEST of Texas Robotics. Bartlett spoke at a recent press conference, talking about how BEST Robotics helped with her developing a career path. The BEST of Texas Robotics and UIL 2023 Robotics Championship will be held Nov. 30-Dec. 2, in Dallas at the Fair Park Coliseum. Tell our readers about yourself. Hi, my name is Hannah Bartlett and I’m a senior at Allen High School. I’ve lived in Allen with my family for 10-ish years and I’ve been a part of Allen ISD since 2nd grade. view article

Read the full story:  Gone are the “good old days” when the only emails we had to worry about were from a Nigerian prince asking for half a million dollars or an occasional threat of a computer virus. Your tech director has been faced with many new threats to school technology assets– networks, computers, and data security. You can be a big help in keeping your school district and your own personal devices secure by following a few time-honored adages from one of our founding fathers, Ben Franklin. 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