Tag Archives: education

 Is Your Heart In It?

The expression “love what you do, and do what you love” is a powerful lesson. What is really satisfying is the enjoyment of our careers. Personal reward should be equivalent to earning a living. Does our job truly make us happy? It is truly important that teachers and counselors advise students to pursue an education toward a career best suited to their liking. By junior high, students are thinking of…

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Teachers Find Sweet Spot With Supply Store

Patrick and Rebecca Alvarez are teachers/owners of Super Teachers Supply.

Patrick Alvarez walks into big-box stores and their rows of school supplies and his trained teacher eye makes an astute observation. “A lot of the inventory doesn’t move,” said Alvarez, a social studies teacher at a Brownsville charter school. “It’s not what teachers really need.” The dollar stores offer discounts on inexpensive items like glitter and markers, but what about the more specific supplies and decorations teachers commonly need to…

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Have Your Employees Quit Their JOB

JOB

A few weeks ago, I walked into my high school alma mater to talk with member of the Jobs for America’s Graduates program. The JAG program is designed for young adults going through tough times in high school and seeing that college is not in their immediate plans. JAG teaches these students about life outside of high school without a college path. Courses are taught on budgeting, interviewing and other…

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Uniting the Valley for a Better VIDA

Oct. 1 at the South Texas College Library Rainbow Room in McAllen, VIDA career counselor Leslly Blancas discusses with VIDA students the importance of managing stress. .

In Spanish, the word vida means “life.” In the Rio Grande Valley, VIDA means a much better life for individuals and families and a stronger economy for communities across Deep South Texas. The Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1995 by Valley Interfaith and a group of local business leaders. They realized providing people with education, training and support to obtain higher-paying jobs would…

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McAllen School Honored as Blue Ribbon

Sam Houston Elementary Principal Debra Thomas holds up a blue ribbon emblem as students celebrate in the background. Sam Houston is one of just 26 schools in the state to earn a national Blue Ribbon award.

McAllen ISD’s Sam Houston Elementary is now a national Blue Ribbon School. The announcement came Sept. 26 with recognition of 362 school nationally by U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos as National Blue Ribbon Schools for 2019. Only 26 schools in Texas were nominated for the prestigious Blue Ribbon. Houston was nominated as an Exemplary High-Performing School in January. It then became official with this announcement. “This is like winning the…

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Education Key to Real Estate

Buyers agent Jessica Marroquin helped her clients find the perfect home for their family.

Last week we met Ryan Peterson and Brian Reed of the Ryan & Brian Real Estate Team in Part 1 of “Local Business Gets Real (Estate).” They have been working hard since 2006 to build their business and team. But what they feel is more important than that is building the relationships with their clients and community. They feel that education is one of the most important parts of their…

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TSTC Instructors Present at National Conference

Two Education and Training program instructors from Texas State Technical College in Harlingen recently garnered some national attention in Washington, D.C. Here, they made a presentation at the National Association for the Education of Young Children conference on classroom play centers. TSTC Education and Training Department Chair Myriam Aguila and instructor Mary Elizabeth Hollmann were chosen from among hundreds submitting presentation proposals. They are also the only ones presenting from the…

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Free Financial Workshops Grow Small Businesses

Free financial education, which includes both small business and personal finance, starts Oct. 19 in Edinburg with PeopleFund’s “Financial Education Friday.” The series of free classes take also takes place Oct. 26 and Nov. 16. Held under BBVA Compass Center’s Pilot Program, the series is held at PeopleFund offices in Edinburg, Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston. The Edinburg office is located at 300 S. Closner Blvd. Ste. 1. Session topics and…

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STEP UP Expands Teacher Training in Area

On Aug. 9, STEP UP and McAllen ISD celebrated the new partnership with a meet-and-greet function. (Courtesy photo)

Teacher candidates from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley now have a two new homes for training with experienced cooperating teachers, With the upcoming fall semester, those in the university’s Student Teacher Education Preparation University Partnership will be joining classrooms in both McAllen and Los Fresnos ISD. As part of STEP UP‘s goal in expanding and assisting future teachers in the Valley, teacher candidates will work with experienced teachers also to learn and…

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Mission EDC Teams Up for Educator Training

computer science professional development

More than 100 teachers and counselors in Mission will receive computer science professional development this summer thanks to a local partnership. Mission EDC, Code/Interactive and the Mission Consolidated Independent School District are joining forces with Google to offer the training to 100 teachers and 20 counselors in elementary and junior high schools. One teacher from every grade level in Mission CISD’s 14 elementary and four middle schools will receive training.…

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