On Saturday, Hillcrest High School will compete in the final round of the DISD Mock Trial competition. The Panthers are one of only four teams to advance to the city championship and will face defending champs Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Skyline High School, and Judge Barefoot Sanders School of Law.

The winning team will advance to the state championship in March.

DISD has announced that five of its teachers earned the highest professional credential in the field of teaching, National Board Certification, in 2011, and two of those five teach in the Hollow: Theresa Oriabure of Hillcrest High and Georgianna Wood of Preston Hollow Elementary.

The National Board Certification is a voluntary process established by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. The certification process involves a rigorous performance-based assessment that can take up to three years. Through the assessment process, teachers document knowledge of their subject matter; provide evidence that they know how to teach the content to students most effectively; and demonstrate an ability to manage and measure student learning.

Start out 2012 with a dose of community engagement and attend the Kramer Elementary PTA working meeting at 6:30 p.m. Find out what the association has planned for the new year and get to know fellow parents.

Put in your working hours tonight so you can enjoy the PTA party Jan. 20. All official members will receive an invitation with party details at a later date.

The Franklin girls soccer team defeated Zumwalt Middle School 4-1 on Saturday to win district. The Franklin Falcons will take on Gaston Middle School on Jan. 14 for the City Championship.

Congratulations, and good luck this weekend!

That’s the question DISD is asking and hoping parents will answer. To contribute to the conversation, drop by a community meeting today between 6:30 and 8 p.m. at W.T. White High School (4505 Ridgeside Drive).

It’s not the parking per se that’s been the problem, but the loading and unloading of students at W.T. White that has caused the school to call in the Dallas Transportation Department.

Effective the first day of the spring semester, Jan. 3, parents will not be allowed to drop off, pick up, or park in front of the campus on 4505 Ridgeside Drive. School officials are directing parents to the visitor lot on the west side of campus, near the softball fields.

The district is deciding between two versions of the 2012-2013 school calendar, and it wants your help in choosing the best one. The original survey deadline didn’t yield as many responses as hoped, so you now have until 4 p.m. to weigh in on this change. In a Mission-Impossible-esque-twist, the link will self-destruct at 4:01 p.m. You have been warned.

After you’ve reviewed the differences between the two options (outlined in the above link), vote here.

There’s nothing better than a two-week vacation from school filled with diligent essay writing—or at least that’s what the folks at DISD headquarters are hoping.

The Winter Writing Contest, which uses the same format as the STAAR test, begins Friday and ends Jan. 6. Third through ninth grade students with the best essays will win prizes including movie passes and restaurant gift cards.

Jacob Wizeman is the student on the left.

Jacob Wizeman, a student at Withers Elementary, is one of eight finalists in the 20th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition. The winner, who will be selected Jan. 13 at the Majestic Theatre, will receive a scholarship and opportunities to speak and recite his or her speech before various audiences.

A capacity crowd packed the auditorium of the Dallas ISD Administration Building on Tuesday for the semifinals, which showcased the winners of 19 in-school competitions. Students were challenged to write essays on the topic of what they thought King’s message of hope would be for the world today. Participants were required to research King’s life and speeches, write original essays, memorize them, and present them before a panel of judges.

The other finalists are Kofi Forson, William L. Cabell Elementary; Breyelle Gooden, Robert L. Thornton Elementary; Harper Jones, Charles Rice Learning Center; Tawfiq Mohammad, William Lipscomb Elementary; George Rivera, Urban Park Elementary; Marcel Williams, Ronald E. McNair Elementary; and Michael Jones, Louise Wolff Kahn Elementary.

While professional ball players like Albert Pujols can pull down a cool $250 millon contract, high school players are still scraping by.

You can help send the Hillcrest baseball team to a training camp in Tampa by hiring players to do odd jobs. Duties include, but are not limited to, window washing, errand running, dog walking, and Christmas light hanging. Email your needs to panpaws@gmail.com or call Esther at 214-394-7907