Special
Ticket Prices for Irving Symphony Orchestra
 (February 13)
Featuring
Andrey Ponochevny: This romantically inspired ISO presentation features
the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition Bronze Medalist in a
production enhanced by a stunning lighting presentation. $10 for
adults, students, and staff. To redeem this Irving ISD
offer, simply phone the ISO office at 972.831.8818 and request the
Irving ISD special offer. Please call Monday-Friday between 8am &
5pm. |
Lone Star
Leadership Academy
 Education
in Action offers spring break and summer Lone Star Leadership
Academy programs for outstanding Texas 5th-8th grade students
(NOMINATED BY TEACHERS). Student participants develop leadership
skills and experience what they are learning in school through visits to
historically, politically and environmentally significant Texas sites.
Program facilitators are Texas teachers. These Monday-Friday,
residential programs are offered during spring break (March 15-19) and
throughout the summer. |
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Click here for Video |
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ICE Awards Promo
Promo video for the Irving ISD ICE Awards (Irving
Celebration of Excellence) to be held Thursday, February 25
at 7:00 pm in the Irving High School Auditorium.
These awards
are designed to recognize excellent achievement by IISD
students, groups of students, campuses, and the district in
general. Trophies are presented in six categories: (1) Humanities,
(2)
Math/Science, (3) Fine
Arts, (4) Athletics/Physical Education, (5) Community
Service/Citizenship, (6)
Special
Campus/District.
Within each category, awards will be presented in three
divisions: elementary, middle school, and high school. |
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Staff
Development Dates and Guidelines
 Staff Development dates and guidelines for
teachers and administrators for the 2010-2011 school year.
Get these important dates reserved on your calendar now. Be
up-to-date on information about District and Campus staff development
requirements, exchange days, and distributed learning credits. |
STAAR to replace TAKS
 (TEA,
AUSTIN) – Commissioner of Education Robert Scott announced today that
the next generation of student tests will be called the State of Texas
Assessments of Academic Readiness or STAAR. STAAR will replace the
Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS), which is the
criterion-reference assessment program that has been in place since
2003. The STAAR name, pronounced the same as star, will be
used for the 12 end-of-course assessments mandated by SB 1031 in 2007
and the new grade 3-8 assessments mandated by HB 3 in the 2009
legislative session. |
|
 MHS
Presents Little Shop of Horrors
(February 4,
5, 6) A down-and out skid row floral assistant becomes an overnight
sensation when he discovers an exotic plant with a mysterious craving
for fresh blood. Soon "Audrey II" grows into an ill-tempered,
foul-mouthed, R&B-singing carnivore who offers him fame and fortune in
exchange for feeding its growing appetite, finally revealing itself to
be an alien creature poised for global domination! |
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Grant for Candidates Seeking Alternative Teacher
Certification
 Irving
ISD and Grand Prairie ISD have entered into a grant partnership with Quality ACT
Alternative Certification Program. If a recommended candidate for a
position in Irving ISD or Grand Prairie ISD is enrolled in the Quality ACT program for
certification, they may qualify for a $1,300 grant to offset
the cost of their certification program. The teacher must be
seeking certification in selected fields. |
Employee Discount List
Updated
 (Updated
Spring '10)
As an employee of Irving ISD, the following businesses are extending
a discount exclusively to you. Discounts are listed for
LASIK eye care, home improvement, travel, restaurants,
retail and entertainment. Discounted services can be found for
telephone services, banking services, medical services, legal
services, apartment leasing, real estate and more. |
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Greeting from the
DATE Committee!
(DATE Teachers) We hope you have gotten off to a great
start in 2010! We have a busy remainder of the year ahead of us.
By now you should have received your “on-campus” DATE trainings. Your
campus DATE Representative and DATE Administrator have been working
extremely hard to make sure that each school receives the necessary
training and information to be successful with DATE Year2. If any
questions remain, please contact your DATE Representative or email your
question to
DATE@irvingisd.net. Many of you have already begun completing
your mentoring hours and lesson plan documentation (if applicable).
Soon the DATE online database will be up and running. You will then ... |
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Walk Across Texas
 As
a part of the District’s Wellness Program we will be sponsoring a Walk
Across Texas program. This is an eight-week walking program for teams
of eight people. Team Captains will track the distance walked by each
member during the 8 weeks. Participants can walk/exercise together or
on their own and turn in their mileage to the Team Captain each week.
Everything will be posted online so that participants can see how their
team is doing compared to other district teams. The wellness program is
providing
free
pedometers to the first 225
people that sign up to be on a team. (You must be a District Employee to
be on a team). |
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Notice Regarding
Over the Counter Flex System Debit Card Claims
 Due
to guidelines by the IRS, beginning January 2010, non-medical discount
merchants (such as Wal-Mart, Walgreen’s, Target, grocery-stores, etc.)
must be IIAS certified in order for over-the-counter medical expenses to
be deemed eligible for purchase via the Claim Card. If the merchant is
IIAS certified the purchase (using the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) number)
will be checked against a list of eligible 213 expenses and, if
eligible, the item will be allowed to be paid with the card and will
automatically be marked ‘Substantiated’ by FlexSystem. (read
more)
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 New
Teacher Tool - Technology Work Orders
Remember that when you are having
problems with the technology in your classroom or school
that you can submit your work order online to your
campus CT for faster response. Select the type of
equipment you are having a problem with, provide
details, and recommend the best time for service.
Click on the teacher tool "Technology Work Order'
in the menu in the upper right-hand corner. |
Playground Committee Report to the Board
 Our
Board of Trustees recognizes the value of play in the
life of a student. Truly, playgrounds have been a
functional component of education for many, many years.
We seek to improve the condition of our play areas such
that every child has room to play in a safe and
functional environment. The committee’s charge, then, is
to develop a plan to address district playgrounds, so
that the outcome will be functional, uniform play areas
throughout the district. |
 Highly Qualified
Status of Irving ISD
NCLB requires that the LEA
publicly report the annual progress of the LEA and each campus served by
the LEA in meeting the state’s measurable highly qualified teacher
objectives. The annual targets of these objectives are as follows along
with the district percentages for the 2009-2010 school year. All
eligible campuses reported 100% Highly Qualified status. |
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Downloadable i-Safe Videos
©
 The18
videos that are part of the i-Safe curriculum are now in downloadable
WMV format. This will allow teachers to download the videos to
their computer and then incorporate them into their instructional
presentations. The i-Safe videos cover topics in personal safety,
social networking, cyber bullying, intellectual property, and cyber
security. Length of videos vary from 1 minute to 7 minutes. |
DRAFT 2010-2011
School Calendar
 Attached
for review, distribution and discussion with staff, parents and
community members is a proposed DRAFT 2010-2011 school calendar.
The calendar is a result of preliminary discussion with the Board of
Trustees during Noon Work Sessions and is to be release for additional
input. All comments
and/or suggestions are welcomed and should be submitted to: Ralph
Diaz, Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent at
rdiaz@irvingisd.net.
Other acceptable options include voicemail at 972.600.5005 or fax
comments to 972.215.5003.
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Click here for Video |
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1:1 Laptop Symposium
Laptops in the classroom ... Irving ISD and a number of
other districts across the nation have doing it for a few
years now. For two days these technological trend
setters got together to discuss what is next for our digital
students. This year Irving ISD was the host of the 1:1
Symposium at Singley Academy. |
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Retirement Planning Seminar
 (February
4 or May 3, 2010)
Region 10 Education Service Center is
hosting FREE Retirement Planning Seminars to any employee of a
Region 10 District. We are pleased to have highly respected TCG Advisors
leading the seminar. TCG has specialized in advising education
professionals and is the Investment Advisor to Region 10 ESC’s Retirement
Asset Management Services (RAMS). |
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 Submit
Working with Mr. Singley Stories
If you would like to submit your favorite story about working with Jack
Singley, former superintendent of schools, please complete the
online form.
Suggestion: Type your story in Word, then paste it into the attached
form. |
 Notice of Unclaimed Property
(Updated October 30, 2009)
The following property is presumed abandoned and subject to Chapter 76
of the Texas Property Code. Any person possessing a legal or beneficial
interest in the following property may obtain information concerning the
amount of the property and establish your right to receive the property
by presenting proof of the claim. |
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Internet Safety Education with i-SAFE
We
are pleased to announce that the Irving ISD has partnered with i-SAFE to
provide Internet safety education for students. An i-SAFE account has
been created for teachers who will receive an email from i-SAFE with
instructions for accessing their accounts. This district subscription to
i-SAFE will allow all teachers access to i-SAFE’s Internet Safety
curriculum.
i-SAFE is the worldwide leader in Internet
safety education. Founded in 1998 and endorsed by the U.S. Congress, i-SAFE
is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting the online
experiences of youth everywhere. i-SAFE incorporates classroom
curriculum with dynamic community outreach to empower students,
teachers, parents, law enforcement, and concerned adults to make the
Internet a safer place. |
New "Getting
Started Guides" for OpenOffice Posted
 New
guides that give helpful steps and instructions for formatting,
shortcuts, toolbars, transitions, drawing/graphics, formulas,
customizations and other basics have been posted on the Irving ISD
website. These helpful guides and other online tutorials are
posted for student, teachers, and staff to assist with mastering
OpenOffice, the districts standard office applications software.
These can be helpful at home also since OpenOffice can be downloaded on
personal computers for free also. |
Soundzabound Royalty Free Music
 Looking
for music to use with student or teacher multimedia and PowerPoint?
Irving ISD has a new district subscription to Soundzabound for royalty
free music. Passwords are available for each campus for home
access. |
Online
Meal Payments for Staff
 Manage your meal account with ease ...
Irving ISD is proud to offer a safe and secure way for you to make online
payments for school meals and view meal account activity from home or
work.
To setup your online
account you will need to follow the steps listed. |
 FREE
Panda AntiVirus Software for Irving ISD Staff
Yes, free Panda
AntiVirus Software for your home or personal computer. Panda
AntiVirus
currently has Irving ISD on record to receive 800 matching
copies of Panda AntiVirus Software to distribute among Irving ISD
employees for personal use.
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|
 Interested
in Teaching or Developing ONLINE Courses?
Are you interested in teaching or developing an ONLINE course? In an
effort to give students more flexibility in scheduling, Irving ISD is
currently working to develop and teach a limited number of online
courses. If you would like to join a cutting edge group of teachers in
this new and exciting endeavor, please fill out the interest form
attached. . |
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Academic Vocabulary
Word Lists
The Curriculum and Instruction
Department of the Region 10 Education Service System has provided a list of
Academic Vocabulary words. The vocabulary list is organized by content area,
offering approximately 30 essential vocabulary words per grade level or course.
Region 10 developed these 30-word Academic Vocabulary lists as per Marzano and
Pickering. These would be those absolutely100% mastery words. You might want to
compare some of the many word lists floating around our district to theirs. |
Nominations for Outstanding Teacher or Employee of the Month
Administrators and Staff: It is never too late to nominate
outstanding teachers and employees for the Outstanding Teacher or
Employee of the Month Award. Committees select one from each
category to honor at a school board meeting each month and we are
always in need of new nominations! Thank you for your input!
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Got a Project That You Would Like to Get
Funded?
Have you looked at the Grant Services Web site
lately? A variety of grant announcements has been posted to the
Grant Services website. Take a look at
the Irving ISD Grant Services website ... |
 Tutorials
& Guides for the New Phone System
Provided with this article are some
helpful tutorials and guides that you can use to learn the new Verizon Voice
Polycom SIP phones. During the summer months, Irving ISD will be
installing a new telephone system in all schools and support facilities, and
creating a common exchange of 600. All of the new school phone numbers
will be effective by August 24, 2009. |
 Free
Online Training Videos for School Districts
Free, online training at your convenience! You can watch these
tutorial videos from any computer connected to the internet that has
the free QuickTime plug-in installed.
Their library contains
hundreds of tutorial videos for multiple software applications.
Their content is created by certified teachers, for teachers and
students. |
