Each of the hearts, made with students' handprints and crayons, include a message of thanks to the staff at the Hill Country Children's Advocacy Center.
By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula
Giving cards and candy is one way to celebrate Valentine’s Day, but showing love with meaningful actions is another matter.
At least that’s what the staff at Tierra Vista Montessori School in Marble Falls has discovered.
“We’ve done the traditional Valentine’s Day party with cards and candy in the past, but it seemed the kids just tossed the cards aside to get to the candy,” said Shellie Houck, TVMS administrator.
Falls Career High School (FCHS) students will be offering another way to recognize Valentine’s Day. Okay, the day after Valentine’s Day.
The blood drive scheduled for Feb. 15 from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. will be the last of the school year. The Bloodmobile from the Blood Center of Central Texas will be parked in the parking lot across from the Marble Falls Independent School District (MFISD) central offices on Colt Circle, behind Super Taco.
“Impress your Valentine and save a life,” said Mike Saenz, FCHS teacher. “You can keep the romance alive at least one day past Valentine’s Day by participating in this community service project.”
Students experiment with stethoscopes after the Heart Lab, Friday, Feb. 5.
By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula
It takes some students longer than others to warm to the cold heart on the lab table in front of them. Eventually, though, they all just have to touch it.
“Ew, this is so gross...Let me feel that one,” said Melissa Resendiz, fourth grader at Spicewood Elementary. She was the first to touch the two pig hearts at her table of three girls. It was Resendiz’s fourth Heart Lab experience.
She was one of plenty of Heart Lab veterans at Spicewood Elementary on Friday, Feb. 5, because kindergartners have their turn exploring the pig heart specimens. Still, even though the Heart Lab is an annual occurance, every year the students learn something new.
Monty's Dilemma is one way to learn probability concepts, as MFHS junior Avery Marshall discovers.
By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula
Everyone has memories of math class. Some folks recall a sense of wonder in the beauty of mathematics; others lived in fear of the teacher’s red pen constantly correcting calculations.
However, teachers these days confront the subject differently by incorporating a “growth mentality” encouraging for students, keeping it as fun as possible, and using a variety of teaching styles to ensure students develop “number sense” and keen understanding of math’s real world applications.
“Math is NOT hard for me!” is a mantra that is written prominently on the board in fourth-grade math teacher Julie Kimmel’s class at Highland Lakes Elementary.
Volunteer Donna Heffington reads to a second-grader at Colt Elementary, which she says is a 'bright spot in her day.'
By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula
When it comes to making a difference in children’s lives, it's often the little things that can help the most.
Colt Elementary administrators are seeking volunteers to read with students as part of the REACH (Reading Excellence and Community Help) program.
“We’re always looking for ways to involve our community, and we want folks to be part of our literacy push, which this year is kindergarten, first and second grades,” said Phyllis Campbell, Colt Elementary assistant principal.
The district is immersed in a 3-year literacy program, divided into grade levels.
One of the new education laws signed by the governor in May, 2015 gives current high school seniors another option besides passing all five end-of-course (EOC) State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exams. Senate Bill 149 allows students who fail one or two EOC exams to graduate after unanimous approval by an "individual graduation committee" (IGC).
Before the law took effect last May, Texas high school graduates were required to pass exams in English I and II, algebra, U.S. history and biology.
Marble Falls Independent School District (MFISD) administrators started preparing procedures for IGCs last spring in anticipation of the bill passing, said Melissa Fields, Ph.D., MFISD testing and accountability coordinator.
Michael Stribling, U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class, quizzes students on what they learned on the STEM bus after their interactive experience, Monday, Jan. 11.
By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula
Marble Falls High School and Falls Career High School students got a peek at the technological future of the military when the U.S. Army’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Experience Bus stopped on campus, Monday, Jan. 11.
“We want students to see there’s more to the Army than infantry combat,” said Michael Stribling, Sgt. 1st Class, U.S. Army. “They’re getting a look at the future of technology we’re developing.”
After Stribling’s introduction, students boarded the tractor-trailer into a high-tech world of Army technology. Students started in the “situation room,” where they viewed news coverage of a terrorist attack in Europe in 2032. In the next room they learned about the capabilities of two futuristic robots.
Students in theater tech at Marble Falls High School use a variety of tools and skills to build sets for student productions.
By Emily Hilley-Sierzchula
Many folks might not be aware of what went into the set on which Marble Falls High School (MFHS) thespians perform their fall show “Harvey” on opening night, tonight, Thursday, Oct. 22.
“We’ve gotten many scrapes, cuts, bruises and busted lips, mostly on me,” said Stephanie Ellis, MFHS theater tech paraprofessional, Oct. 15. She was sporting, well, a busted lip as a souvenir from a morning trip to the lumber yard.
“This is the most challenging set I’ve ever built,” Ellis said. She’s had a hand in close to 100 sets since college. “And this is the one that’s been giving me fits.”
It takes a crew of renaissance men and women wielding a virtually endless variety of tools and skills, from designing and drawing the set, using a circular saw to cut the lumber, to painting and puzzling through problems.
Six Marble Falls Independent School District (MFISD) campuses received a total of 17 Distinctions from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for the 2014-2015 school year, according to preliminary results released by the TEA Aug. 7. Last year, MFISD campuses earned 12 Distinctions.
Highland Lakes Elementary was the only campus to earn all Distinctions possible (or five out of five).
Schools can earn Distinctions in 7 areas, for outstanding achievement in academic subjects as well as by showing student progress and closing performance gaps. To earn Distinctions, schools must perform at the top of their comparison group of schools with similar demographics and economic factors. Graduation rates, ACT/SAT participation and performance, Career and Technical Education (CTE) graduates, and dual credit course completion rates are also factors taken into account.
Building and racing soapboxes is an endeavor chock full of lessons: academic, social and even emotional.
Colt Elementary fourth and fifth-graders gathered Wednesday, May 27, to race soapboxes down 688 feet of Manzano Mile in Marble Falls, in what has become a school tradition at least five years old.
Twelve fourth graders raced soapboxes they had built with the help of family and friends.
Students admired and critiqued each other’s rigs before the race that pitted pairs of students against each other for a chance at one of three trophies, as well as bragging rights in fifth grade next year.
The soapbox tradition involves fifth graders who participated the previous year. The “helpers” stand on the sideline ready to assist the fourth-grade daredevils with a push.
The helpers watch the races with the keen eyes of soapbox veterans.
