Morehead Middle School Archives | El Paso Herald-Post

Gallery+Story: Morehead Vows to Fight Off Bullying

October 26, 2018 News

Red Ribbon Week took on a different meaning at Morehead Middle School this week, with presentations focused on acceptance of all students and respect – the real R word.

During each lunch period, students ate cafeteria pizza while listening to videos and anti-bullying presentations about “Spreading the Word to End the Word” – a national campaign to eliminate the word ‘retarded’ from all vocabularies. Morehead kicked off the event with the National Anthem, sung by choir teacher Diana Carney who was accompanied in American Sign Language by the students from the Community Readiness Classroom.

“We’re showing our students how to advocate for themselves so that they can just use their voice and say ‘no, stop’ if they are being bullied,” said CRC teacher Lucy Bejarano. “The kids are just like everybody else. They may have a disability, but they don’t let that get in the way. They want to be treated just like everybody else.”

The presentation included a message from Allen Acuna, a young man with autism who is a recent graduate of EPCC. Fortunately, Acuna never experience bullying but he did see other students with disabilities being bullied as a high school student.

“Students with disabilities are just like everyone else. They like video games. They like pizza and hamburgers and they like to make friends with others,” he said, encouraging students to forge friendships with students of all abilities.

The lunch-time presentation ended with the cheerleaders dancing to Aretha Franklin’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T as the CRC students marched through the maze of cafeteria tables holding up signs representing each letter of the word in the song. Students then lined up to sign an anti-bullying pledge and promise to “Spread the Word to End the Word.”

“It is important that that the people that are around us make sure that nothing ever is harming us,” said Leah Hinojosa, an eighth grader enrolled in Academic Instruction Modified (AIM).

“We all want a very happy, happy life. We don’t want anything ever in our inner world to harm our hearts. And that is the most important thing ever.”

Story by Reneé de Santos \ Photos by Leonel Monroy – EPISD

Eighth-Graders at Morehead Middle Present Community Service Projects

April 27, 2018 News

Eighth-graders at Morehead Middle School who spent all school year developing and implementing community service projects to impact their neighborhoods had a chance to show off their results on Friday.

Morehead had its first Community Project Expo to show parents, teachers and other community members the work they have been doing all year long. The projects focused on community involvement and philanthropy.

Students spoke to community members about volunteer work with animals, service organizations and even blood-donation agencies.

The Community Project at Morehead focuses on community and service among students, encouraging them to explore their responsibility to implement service as action in the neighborhoods in which they live.

All eighth-grade students completed a Community Project that they will now present to the public.

Morehead is an International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme candidate school. Part of the consideration for the IB program is providing students with the opportunity to develop awareness of the needs in their communities, and addressing those needs through service learning.

Story by Gustavo Reveles Acosta | Photos by Leonel Monroy – EPISD

Three El Paso ISD Schools Approved as Candidates for IB Program

June 16, 2016 News

Three middle schools in EPISD have been accepted as candidates for the prestigious International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme.

Morehead, Lincoln and Nolan Richardson middle schools are on the candidate list for the program, which focuses on creating independent thinkers.

“It’s a great feeling to finally be taking steps to implementing this program at our school. We have been working on this all year long,” Morehead IB Coordinator Rebecca Winn said. “I think this program creates the most knowledgeable lifelong learners out of our children.”

Coronado houses El Paso’s original IB program, which has been running for more than 10 years. This year, Andress High School became a candidate school for the IB program as well.

Teachers from three middle schools received IB training last week at Lincoln Middle.

To become an IB World School, campuses must undergo a rigorous authorization process, which involves a request for candidacy, training, consultation process and verification visit.

Texas International Baccalaureate Schools (TIBS) provides training for the schools in Texas, working hand-in-hand with the international organization to implement the program. They are available to offer support to the more than 200 IB schools in Texas, including the schools that are currently in the candidate process.

“You just can’t say ‘I want to be an IB school.’ It’s open to any school that’s interested in going through the application process,” TIBS Executive Director Karen Phillips said. “We have private schools, charter schools and certainly all of our public schools, but it takes three to five years to become a fully authorized school.”

More than 180 teachers participated in the two-day training at Lincoln Middle School. The training is taught by IB workshop leaders and is divided into distinct sessions for each teaching discipline.

“The more the teachers learn about the program the more excited they get about it,” Winn said. “I’m hoping by the end of their training they will feel more comfortable with taking the next steps to implement the program.”

Lincoln, Morehead and Richardson middle schools have been admitted as IB candidate schools.

Global mindedness is one of the driving forces behind the program. Students are encouraged to make connections between their studies and the areal world and learn they can make an impact on a much larger scale.

Principal Haidi Appel is happy to bring the program to Lincoln, which feeds into the existing IB program at Coronado High School.

“We are very excited to be a part of the IB program because we know it’s really going to help us challenge our students,” Appel said. “We love the fact that the opportunity is for all the students, not just a select group.”

In preparation for the program, the journalism and English classes wrote letters to United Nations ambassadors and thus far received an overwhelming response.

“We’ve hear back from many of them,” Appel said. “We received flags from Brazil and Korea, and other countries have sent us music and books and other items.”

Nolan Richardson Middle School principal Joseph Manago feels the program is the perfect fit for the diverse student population at his school.

“We are over 50 percent military, so I have students that come from all over the world,” Manago said. “So for the students that are here in El Paso to be able to collaborate and share those experiences with kids who have actually lived all over the world through the IB program it’s an exciting thing.”

The teachers will take what they learn at the training and incorporate it into their lesson plans. The IB program comprises eight subject groups, which includes language acquisition, literature, individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics, arts, physical and health education and design.

“This is one of those programs that involves the whole child,” Winn said. “We are really incorporating everything that the District is trying to do with our District of Innovation goals, and we get to do it under one roof.”