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Travis Mission StatementIn partnership with home and community, it is our mission to create an environment of mutual respect and belonging in which we strive for excellence in both academic and extra-curricular programs.

William B. Travis High School11111 Harlem Rd.

Richmond, TX 77406Fort Bend ISD

Phone: 281.634.7000Fax: 281.634.7010

As hard as it is to believe, this first school semester is fading fast! Our Tigers are anxiously getting ready to tackle the first semester final exams. This is always a stressful time for everyone – parents, students and teachers. Please, help your student get prepared for the final exams by showing an interest in what he/she needs to do in order to finish the semester in a strong positive manner. Are there assignments still to be turned in? Is there a major project or test still to be taken? Assist your student by asking subject content questions from the review materials. A very good way for all students to prepare for the exams is to get enough rest each night. Encourage your child to eat breakfast each morning. Simple as those two things sound, both make a big difference in a student’s ability to handle the mental stress of final exams.

In these past months, we have experienced several successes in our academic contests, athletic programs and performing arts competitions. Inside this newsletter, you will find articles providing information on just how great are Travis Tigers. The second semester will find us working on course selection for 2010-‘11, preparing for college entrance exams, taking TAKS, becoming excited about Prom and our senior graduation plus dozens of other events. There is never a truly “calm” time during the school year. Each week brings different activities, opportunities and challenges.

On behalf of the faculty and staff of William B. Travis High School, I wish each of you an enjoyable holiday season!

J.J. KylePrincipal

Administration

J.J. Kyle – Principal281-634-7004

Karin Grisdale – Senior Principal281-634-7011

Doug Thompson – Assistant Principal (A –Ga)281-634-7082

Bob Banks – Assistant Principal (Gb-Oc)281-634-7080

Kyle Lovetinsky – Assistant Principal (Od-Z)281-634-7081

Counselors:Ronald Monachello - 9th Grade

281-634-7025Jeanne Andrews - 10th Grade

281-634-7016Tiffany Chaney - 11th Grade

281-634-7018Marci Nichols - 12th (A-J)

281-634-7015Crystal Collins - 12th (K-Z)

281-634-7026

Registrar:Cynthia Charles281.634.7020

AttendanceTayma Sheffield281-634-7040

Nurse:Gabriella Lischau

281.634.7057

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Shared Dreams Toiletry Drive To Be Held In February Travis High School will hold its Shared Dreams Toiletry Drive Feb. 1-5. Shared Dreams is a program that provides children in the Fort Bend Independent School District with clothing and items needed to attend school and depends on donations of items to meet student needs. We welcome donations of any of the following “new” items: toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, con-ditioner, combs, hairbrushes, deodorant, bath soap, shower gel and socks (all sizes). Donations can be placed in the Shared Dreams Drop Box, located inside the front entrance doors of the school from 7 a.m.-2 p.m. Feb. 1-5. Volunteers will also be collecting at the car drop off at the front entrance every morning before classes begin. For further information or questions, please contact travisvips@yahoo.com.

Parent Volunteers - Apply Online Parents and community members wanting to volunteer at Travis High School are required to complete the online registration and application on the district’s Web site, http://winocweb.fortbend.k12.tx.us/Ap-pentry/ All previous criminal history checks (paper forms) are no longer valid. This new policy and procedure began on the first day of school. Parents working with the Athletic Booster Club, Travis Band Booster, Travis Belles, Orchestra, Swim Team, Theater Booster, ProGrad and any other groups on-campus and off-campus are responsible for completing this requirement and confirming when they are cleared. You must be approved before working with our students or helping with fundraising. This is essential to the safety of our students and the integrity of our organizations. Please start from this secure Web site: http://winocweb.fortbend.k12.tx.us/Appentry/ If you would like to confirm that you are clear, have any questions or would like detailed instructions, please contact travisvips@yahoo.com.

Eye Of The Tiger Online Check out the happenings at Travis High School on our online newspaper at www.travistigernews.com. The news is updated throughout the day. In addition to the informa-tion that you need to know, the online edition is packed with stories about students and teachers at Travis High School.

Follow Us On Twitter Look for Travismediateam on Twitter. We tweet the important stuff as it happens.

Travis High School“Tiger Tales”

December 2009 Published Four Times Per Year

11111 Harlem Rd.Richmond, TX 77406

Issue # 2

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Countdown To CollegeSenior Year (From WellsFargo.com/collegeready)December

Gather the data needed for the Free Application for Federal Student • Aid (FAFSA).Attend the financial aid night at Austin High School on Dec. 8.•

JanuarySubmit your completed FAFSA as soon after Jan. 1 as possible.•

FebruaryCheck to see if mid-year transcripts have been sent to schools to • which you have applied.Plan to sign up for AP exams.•

MarchLook for your Student Aid Report (SAR) in the mail. Pay attention • to the Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and discuss it with your parents.

AprilWatch the mail for acceptance letters and financial aid award letters. • Compare financial aid packages. Bring a copy of any letters you get to the counselors’ office so that we can include the information on the Senior Awards Night Program.Choose a school and send in a deposit by the deadline.• Contact the financial aid office at your chosen school to make certain • your application is complete.

MayTake AP exams.• Write thank you’s to the people who wrote you letters of recom-• mendation.

June 5, 2010 11 a.m.Celebrate your high school graduation.•

Junior Year (FromWellsFargo.com/collegeready)December

Learn about eligibility requirements for federal and private student loans.• Talk as a family about how much you can afford to spend for your education.• Attend the financial aid night at Austin High School on Dec. 8.•

JanuaryPlan for the next round of tests: the SAT and the ACT.•

FebruaryInvestigate private scholarships and other aid programs. Check with your parent’s employers, • local membership organizations or programs related to your intended course of study.Plan to sign up for AP exams.•

March Use spring break to visit colleges on your list.• Register for the SAT or ACT. Take an exam prep course to help you succeed.•

AprilVisit the three to six schools on your final list. Schedule an admissions interview and an • overnight stay. Take time at each school’s financial aid office to collect information.Begin preparing essays for admission and scholarship applications.•

May Take AP exams.• Take the SAT and/or the ACT.•

June Continue researching organizations that award scholarships to graduating seniors.• Review scholarships that are listed on the THS Web site.• Check admissions application deadlines for the schools for which you are applying.•

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Gaggle Net Arrives At THS Every school year students and their parents must sign an Authorized Use Policy (AUP), granting students permission to appropriately use the school computers. The AUP extensively outlines student expectations for educational computer use during their school day. In our world full of web-based tools and electronic resources the students may be tempted to use their home e-mail accounts at school. This is one of our most frequent AUP violations when a student attempts to retrieve or send a document via their home e-mail. If you have been reading our past newsletters, you already know that Gaggle Net is a new e-mail tool purchased for all FBISD high school students. Gaggle Net provides students with a business-like e-mail ac-count so they can formally communicate with their teachers, business, college and peers. In addition, this web-based service also provides a 200 MB Digital Locker where students can store their files electronically. A teacher Blog and Homework Drop Box are also available if teachers choose to use them. Gaggle is the only approved e-mail client that students are allowed to use when at school. Why? Gaggle Net is CIPA compliant. (Children’s Internet Protection Act). This act states that schools must have a filter in place to protect our children from pictures that are obscene, pornographic or harmful to minors. Gaggle Net has multiple filters for inappropriate language, images, etc. When messages or items are questionable they will be blocked until an educational administrator can screen them. We’re also concerned about our students’ privacy. Because we are providing Gaggle and administering this service for our students, all of their information is kept confidential. Other e-mail accounts require and collect personal information in order to create the account. We are us-ing Gaggle because it is COPPA compliant. (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act). Gaggle blocks other outside e-mail addresses such as Yahoo, Gmail, AOL and Hotmail. That means if kids try to e-mail from their Yahoo account to their Gaggle account, it will be blocked. Currently all THS teacher and student accounts have been loaded into the system. We are now in the process of training teachers in Gaggle Net use and monitoring procedures. Once teacher training is completed, students will then receive their login information and be trained within their history classes. We hope that this application will solve some of the electronic communication roadblocks that we have seen in the past. If you would like to know more about this tool, visit GoogleGaggle.Net. If you register for a free account (includes advertising) you can watch the free tutorials which are available to all users.

Next Tests To Be Held In January Mock PSAT, SAT and ACT tests will be given at Travis on Jan. 30 starting at 7:30 a.m. Students need to bring a No. 2 pencil, identifica-tion and a calculator. Eighty-four students participated in the “practice without penalty” tests Nov.14. It was so successful that requests have been made for an additional one. Please mark your calendars for this important date. Students who take the mock test provided by TestMasters get to see a score on all questions (even the essay portion). Students get to keep a copy of the test to take home for further review. Junior Riju Agrawal, who recently had a perfect score on the SAT, took the mock SAT test. Agrawal gives this advice to his peers: “I think the SAT is less about how much you know and more about how you take the test.” The TestMasters SAT course was the only one he took prior to the test. For achieving a perfect score, TestMasters also awarded him a $1,000 scholarship. Students who take the mock test also receive a discounted coupon towards tutorials. For more information on the mock tests, you may e-mail melissa.paul@fortbend.k12.tx.us, pamela.dishberger@fortbend.k12.tx.us or carolyn.moses@fortbend.k12.tx.us. The cost is $10. Checks should be made payable to Travis Activity Fund. Checks may also be brought to the high school library. Please put your child’s name and test name in the memo line of the check. Sign-ups will take place during all three lunches each day two weeks prior to the test date.

2010 AP Exams ScheduleWeek 1 Morning Session 8 a.m. Afternoon Session 12 noonMonday, May 3 United States Government and Politics Comparative Government and Politics

French LanguageTuesday, May 4 Computer Science A

Spanish LanguageStatistics

Wednesday, May 5 Calculus ABCalculus BC

Chinese Language and Culture

Thursday, May 6 English Literature and CompositionGerman Language

Japanese Language and Culture

Friday, May 7 United States History European HistoryStudio Art (portfolios due)

Week 2 Morning Session 8 a.m. Afternoon Session 12 noon Afternoon Session 2 p.m.

Monday, May 10 BiologyMusic Theory

Physics B Physics C: Mechanics

Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism

Tuesday, May 11 ChemistryEnvironmental Science

Psychology

Wednesday, May 12 English Language and Composition

Art History

Thursday, May 13 MacroeconomicsWorld History

Microeconomics

Friday, May 14 Human GeographySpanish Literature

Latin: Vergil

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Dec. 8 Financial Aid Night - Austin High School Auditorium at 7 p.m. All you need to know about the FAFSA form and more. All parents and students are invited – junior and senior parents and students are strongly encouraged to attend.Jan. 9 Annual Career and Education Day – 8 a.m.–3 p.m. at the George R. Brown Convention CenterJan. 19 Junior Assembly - 8:30 a.m. in the THS Auditorium - Mak-ing Your College Search Count Jan. 21 Eighth grade parent night - 6:30 p.m. in the THS Com-mons and AuditoriumJan. 30 College Preparatory Conference – 8a.m.-3 p.m. at the George R. Brown Convention CenterMarch 3 Senior Assembly - 10 a.m. in the THS Auditorium – Making College and Careers Count AP Exams Please check the Web site second semester for information on registration for AP exams.

Upcoming Dates From The Counselors

News From The Math Department What an exciting school year we have had so far. Our first nine weeks of content and learning have come and gone and successes have been achieved. Again, the Algebra 1 team has set up an enriched curriculum for the second and third nine weeks. The major topics are graphing and solv-ing Linear Functions, graphing and solving Linear inequalities, all for the second nine weeks and we will be solving and writing systems, exploring monomials and polynomials (including adding, subtracting, multiplying them), and Exponents in the third nine weeks. Your child will be met with some academic challenge in their classroom on a daily basis, whether to learn new material, try a more difficult problem, try applying what they are learning to a real world situation or striving to do better. Every day, there should be some type of practice of previously learned material. Your child, therefore, will have homework daily in Algebra 1. The Algebra staff are here to help your child grow in mathematics ability and skills and therefore have created an after school tutorial session on Mondays that covers topics that students will need to know before the unit is taught. It is called “Ready Skills Tutorials.” These tutorials review content specific to what your child will be learning in the coming unit of learning. So for example, when students are to learn about systems, they will review graphing and writing equations of lines before the unit starts. That review will be done in the Ready Skills Tutorials on the Monday before the unit begins.

Tutorial Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday FridayAM (6:45—7:25) Desta (Room C110) NONE

Math Duty DayJoseph (Room C108) All Alg. I Teachers By appointment only!

PM (2:45—3:45) Canton(Room C112) Hodge (Room C108) Canton (Room C112) Norfleet (Room J200) NONE

If you or your child has a question on what their homework is for Algebra 1, please go to the school’s Web site, http://www.fortbend.k12.tx.us/cam-puses/ths/default.cfm. Once there, you will be able to click on “courses,” to see a list of all the available classes that the school offers. If you then click on Mathematics, you will see all the math classes provided by our school. You will be able to look up your child’s specific homework assignment by either clicking on “homework” or “calendar.” If you have any questions regarding the Algebra Web site, please contact your child’s Algebra 1 teacher. To contact your child’s teacher click on “Faculty” at the top of the Web page and a list of teachers with e-mail addresses will be shown.

Computer Science Team Places In First

Competition For the first contest of the year, the Travis Computer Science team participated in the Texas A&M Critical Thinking competition and placed second place in a field of 15 teams from around the state. They took home a HP Pho-toSmart Premium wireless/Bluetooth printer/fax/scanner/copier for the school and $50 Best Buy gift certificates for each contestant, a total value of $550 worth of prizes. The team consisted of seniors Parth Upad-hyay, Vikram Sripadam, Eric Ekholm, and sopho-mores Charles George and Brandon Tang.

Students Excel At Meets For the first contest of the year, the Travis Computer Science team participated in the Texas A&M Critical Thinking competition and placed second place in a field of 15 teams from around the state. They took home a HP PhotoSmart Premium wireless/Bluetooth printer/fax/scanner/copier for the school and $50 Best Buy gift certificates for each contestant, a total value of $550 worth of prizes. The team consisted of seniors Parth Upadhyay, Vikram Sripadam, Eric Ekholm, and sopho-mores Charles George and Brandon Tang. In the UIL Computer Science meet at Waller High School, junior Bryan Nguyen placed second in the Novice individual competition. At the UIL Katy Taylor HS Computer Science contest, Upadhyay placed fifth in the Advanced individual competition and the Advanced team of Upadhyay and senior James Turner placed sixth. The next computer science competition will be held at Clements Dec. 12. The Accounting Team won first place at the Westfield Tournament on Nov. 7. The team also took the top four individual places. Winners include: seniors Jose Ayala (first) and Katie Strang (second) and juniors Michael Rappold (third) and Karah Machicek (fourth). Several students took top honors at the UIL Invitational Klein Meet. Winners include: Paul Bernard in 11th-grade number sense (eighth), Paul Bernard (fourth) and James Bernard (eighth) in 11th-grade math, David Fabian (seventh) and Trey Duggar (ninth) in 12th-grade science, Paul Bernard (second), Meesha Khatker (fifth) and Shirinidhi Rao (sixth) in 11th-grade science and junior Archana Bhat (first) and senior Brian Carrion (second) in spelling. Thirty-one students will be travelling to the Bryan High School Invitational Meet to compete. There are sure to be many winners. The District UIL Meet will be held at Elkins High School in March.

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Travis Volleyball Has Great Season The Travis Tigers ended their volleyball season in the semi-finals of the Regional tournament. They lost to Cinco Ranch 26-24, 24-26, 17-25, 20-25. Cinco Ranch went on to defeat Stratford and will repre-sent Region 3 at the state tournament. The Tigers finished the season as district champs with a 16-2 district record, and season record of 27-16 which concluded with the team finishing as bi-district and area champs. Three seniors will continue their volleyball careers at Division I colleges. Ashley Bannister will attend University of Texas on a full scholarship, Megan McStravick will attend Lamar University on a full scholarship and Taylor Szypulski will attend Arkansas State on a full scholarship.District award winners include:MVP was awarded to Taylor SzypulskiRookie of the Year was given to MacKenzie Hail1st team All-District: Ashley Bannister MacKenzie Hail Megan McStravick Taylor Szypulski2nd team All-District: Marissa Maas Danielle Waybright

Honorable Mention All-District: Amber Cunningham Jordan HittAcademic All-District: Emily Hobbs Taylor Szypulski

Top: Sara Witmer, Emily Hobbs, MacKenzie Hail, middle: Sammy Jones, Samantha Strother, Taylor Szypulski, Megan McStravick, Marissa Maas, Ashley Bannister, kneeling: Danielle Waybright , Sara Tobin, sitting: Jordan Hitt, Sarah Johnston and Amber Cunningham.

Order Yearbooks Now Through Smart-Pay

The 2010 Stripes yearbook is on sale now through Jan. 15 for $77 at www.smart-pay.com. We are very excited this year to have some out-standing photographers who are capturing the memorable moments at school, games and other events to make this yearbook a special keepsake for your student. Smart-Pay will no longer accept orders after midnight, Jan. 15. We will order a few extra books to be sold at the end of the year when we distribute, but the price will go up to $90. Be sure to reserve your student’s copy now. Christmas stocking stuffer idea: Let us know by Dec. 15 and we can send you a “stocking stuffer certificate” to let your special student know that one of his or her Christmas presents is a 2010 Stripes yearbook! Another idea: Do you have pictures of events that you’d like to see in the book? While our photographers are out there snapping photos like crazy, sometimes you capture those special moments in a way no one else could. If you’d like to share your photos with the rest of the school, you can upload them to our working space. Go to www.travistigernews.com, click on”Stripes” at the top, then click on “submit a photo.” All submitted photos must be high resolution (300 ppi) and no more than 5 mb in size. We can also take submissions on CD at school and handle the sizing for you. We will need sports-related photos during or immediately following the season, and organization pictures must be in by Feb. 15.

Non-Profit OrganizationU.S. Postage Paid

Permit #27Sugarland, TX

William B. Travis High School11111 Harlem Rd.

Richmond, TX 77406Fort Bend ISD

Business Students Earn Certifications

The students in the Business Department have been working hard on their Microsoft Certified Application Specialist (MCAS) certifications. The following students have passed their MCAS Word exam and earned their certifications. They should be congratulated for their efforts:

Sagar Ali Lindsey Gutierrez Katherine RappoldMichael Anyanwu Christian Hallman Bria RaySaqib Arfan Evan Hammons Randy RhodesSavannah Ballard Said Jalajal Ricardo RiascosTyler Barzilla Azar Khanjee Aryn RiederCandela Beistegui Meesha Khatker Camden RiederVictoria Betz Kelly King Sahil SahebaChaz Burch Nick Lassiter Joseph SampsonErin Butler Salmon Momin Amanda SpinksTaylor Cossey Brian Nwaneti Sarah ThinChad Dempster Krupesh Patel Rebecca ThomasHelen Docherty Markus Pettersson Chris UhligEdward Ehirim Kayla Posey Alejandro VelaChuck Fix Urooj Qazi Danielle WaybrightHaley Fountain Kristin Ranson Conner Yorloff

Life Skills Class Selling Cards The Life Skills class is making and selling holiday greeting cards. Three cards may be purchased for $5, or six cards may be purchased for $5. For more information or to order, please e-mail michelle.gardner@fortbendisd.com.

Travis Chess Club Travis Chess Club meets in room P223 every Wednesday from 2:30-5 p.m. See Mr. Householder for more details.

Musicians Rising To The Top Senior Chris Hsu, cellist, made All-State Orchestra after audi-tioning Oct. 31. Senior A’mon Johnson, tenor, has made fourth chair in the Region XIII choir. He will be auditioning for All-State Choir in January.