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Howe ISD teachers receive technology training to provide high quality instruction to remote learners for the upcoming school year.

Most teachers would much rather be in the classroom with their students, but in the upcoming unusual year of education, teachers are already preparing for a different kind of year. Last week, they spent training sessions at Summit Hill Elementary learning how to educate their students through online instruction. As of now, about 85 percent of students will be in attendance at school while 15 percent will be staying home and learning through online instruction.

Bryan Brandon, the director of technology at Howe ISD has had a very busy summer trying to work out the bugs and prepare for a much different fall than the makeshift situation that COVID-19 forced upon the district last spring.

“Unlike the spring, remote learners will engage in online activities and assignments on a daily basis,” said Brandon. “Paper packets will not be sent home, all assignments will be accessed and submitted through the Canvas learning management system.” Canvas is a learning management system often used by universities. It allows for teachers to post content and assignments in a single location for both their in-person and remote learners. In addition, the ISD purchased document cameras for every classroom that are able to record and upload classroom lessons directly to Canvas, thus closing any divide in instructional quality between online and traditional learners. The content and instruction in any classroom will be the same as those taking the class online.

Brandon says the IT Department developed targeted professional development for their teachers and instructional staff to train them specifically on how to get the most out of online learning management system. This included teaching staff how to record and upload video lessons, transforming traditional assignments into digital content, and more.

“The IT Department has worked diligently this summer to ensure student devices are ready for the new school year,” said Brandon. “On Wednesday, over 300 devices were deployed to high school students, and later this month we will be deploying the remaining 600plus (devices) to our middle and intermediate school students. Additionally, we are working with TEA on Operation Connectivity to purchase additional iPads to expand our 1:1 program so that every student in grades PreK - 12 will have a mobile device and access to internet at home if needed.”

While the 2020-2021 school year will be most likely be the most difficult year since the first graduating class 112 years ago, Howe ISD and their technology department have prepared their staff for the rigorous challenges that lay ahead.

Job Title CUSTODIAL STAFF workintexas.com Post-

ing ID 14151909 Location Van Alstyne

Posting Close Date

09/30/2020 Posting Link https:// bit.ly/2PsqSJa Description A local company is looking for CUSTODIAL STAFF. Experience preferred, but not required. Willing to train. Description This position requires a High School Diploma or Equivalent.

Job Title DELIVERY DRIVER workintexas.com Posting

ID 14147206 Location Sherman

Posting Close Date

08/27/2020 Posting Link https:// bit.ly/2XA6OZE Description A local company is looking for a DELIVERY DRIVER who will deliver flowers in Denison, Sherman and Howe. Must have a good driving record. Description This position requires a High School Diploma or Equivalent and a minimum of 6 months of related experience.

Varsity Football

• Per UIL guidelines, attendance at all athletic events will be limited to 50% capacity, which for us is about 525 seats on the home side.

Considering that we have a number of fans stand along the fence, we will sell a maximum of 550 tickets. • All tickets will be sold prior to the games. There will be no tickets sold at the gate. • Tickets may be purchased at the

Howe High School office, and ticket sales will end at noon on Fridays. • All tickets will be $5 – adults and students. • A maximum of 4 tickets will be available to families of players, band members and cheerleaders on Mondays and Tuesdays. Tickets will go on sale to the general public and students on Wednesday.

Participants can purchase additional tickets for family members on

Wednesday. • Reserved seating will be available and may be expanded into the adjacent sections if necessary to accommodate social distancing requirements. Preference will be given to past reserve seating holders and parents of HS players, band and cheerleaders. Contact Heidi

Debner at 903.745.4406 or debner.heidi@howeisd.net to reserve your seats. • Reserved seats are $25 per seat for the season. However, please note – you are still required to purchase a ticket for each game. • Everyone must have a ticket to enter the stadium - including reserved seating, district pass, and senior citizen pass holders. • Tickets for away games will also be pre-sale only. The same purchasing protocols will apply for home and away games, but limits may be adjusted up or down based on stadium seating capacities. • Only adults will be allowed to stand along the fence. Students/ children will be required to sit in the stands.

JV and Middle School Football

• Tickets for all sub-varsity football games will be sold at the gate as usual. However, the 50% capacity and social distancing guidelines will still be in effect.

Volleyball

• Per UIL guidelines, attendance at all athletic events will be limited to 50% capacity. • For high school non-district games, tickets will be sold at the gate as usual. • For high school and middle school District 11AAA games, all tickets will be sold prior to the games. There will be no tickets sold at the gate. • More detailed protocol for district game ticket sales will be detailed in the near future.

The Howe Ex-Students Association met on Saturday morning to discuss the upcoming Howe All-School Reunion which takes place every five years. Due to the pandemic and the uncertainty of availability of school property use, the group decided to cancel the event and move it to homecoming 2021.

“I was injured in an oil field explosion when I was almost 20 and it nearly took my life,” said Hetrick. “It started a cascading of events to where I became very interested in things of eternal value because I dodged a bullet. I should have died.”

He said the God kept bringing people into his life and at the age of 23, he became a Christian.

“I was a different character,” said Hetrick. “I worked in the oil field during the day and I worked as a bouncer at a bar at night. And then God got ahold of me and people thought that maybe I’d slipped a gear mentally because I was just as committed to my new relationship with God as I was to the life that I once led. A lot of people didn’t comprehend that. It was a true conversion.”

He became involved in youth ministry shortly after becoming a Christian at the Christian Life Center in Marbleton, Wyoming. He then moved to Texas in 1988 to attend bible college where he graduated in 1991. men’s leader in churches. He admits that this first position of being a lead pastor is both exciting and scary all at the same time.

“We’ve been in the pastorate now for seven weeks,” said Hetrick. “Pastor Wallace’s last week was June 8 and we started the following Sunday.” The Hetrick’s are not strangers to Howe. They’ve been here since November of 2018. With Wallace Rains being a bi-vocational pastor, he needed help and Hetrick was willing to help.

“I was perfectly happy sharing the pulpit with him and helping him out to make it successful because we’re both bi-vocational,” said Hetrick. “I worked with him for a year and a half and he finally told me that he thought it was time for him to step down.” Hetrick said he knew due to him being bi-vocational, he wouldn’t be able to handle the church alone so his wife, who had obtained all of her credentials through the Assemblies of God, allowed for the same paradigm with two pastors, but instead of it being Hetrick and Rains, it’s Hetrick and Hetrick.

His wife Deb also serves as pastor at New Beginning Fellowship in Howe. The two grew up in the same town of Big Piney but did not connect until both were in Texas years later.

“She was raised in the church and even in the little tiny town, she knew of me, but she didn’t know me, which was to my advantage,” said Hetrick.

Deb was working for Mobil Oil in Dallas. When he transferred here for school, he contacted her, and they actually met for the first time here in Texas although coming from the same small town.

“It was one of those deals where you couldn’t just put these two types of people together unless there was divine intervention,” said Hetrick.

They were married after he graduation from bible school in December of 1991.

Brett Hetrick has been an associate pastor and youth pastor and a He says his visions for the church are large but stated that the unprecedented situation of COVID19 has halted some of those plans.

“We would like to have a robust children’s ministry and youth ministry and men’s ministry and women’s ministry, but it takes people to do that,” said Hetrick. “It takes being able to assemble to be able to do that. We have to follow the guidelines of our legislatures and the governor as well as senior church leadership as to what is the most prudent thing to do to keep everyone safe. So, it’s really a difficult time taking over a church and trying to build something when you’ve got one hand tied behind your back.” He says that his church is a congregation that likes to be together and people are getting acculturated to keeping their distance.

“We as humans don’t function well in isolation,” said Hetrick. “We function best when we have the companionship of others.”