Watson Technology Center has made the TBEC (Texas Business and Education Coalition) Honor Roll for 2006. Is a prestigious award for sustained, academic excellence in Texas. It recongizes schools that have had three years of consistent, high performance in all subjects compared to other schools serving similar student populations. This year, the "bar was raised" even higher and included the percentage of students passing all tests and achieveing commended on all tests. The principal and assistant principal will celebrate with the other Honor Roll schools in Austin, Texas in early December. You may see a complete lists of the other winning schools at www.tbec.org. Way to go Watson MST!

Who Can Enroll

Students in grades 2-5 will be selected from a pool of qualified applicants. To encourage diversity, children in grades K-5 from the surrounding neighborhood are included in the school and also benefit from the math/science/technology concept.
Full current details about qualification and enrollment procedures can be found on the Garland Independent School District (GISD) web site. Also, you may contact our office for more information
Watson Technology Center
Jenny Johnson, Principal
2601 Dairy Road
Garland, TX 75041
972-926-2600

Standardized Dress

Uniforms are required for all students in Kindergarten through Grade 5 at Watson. The uniforms required for Watson students are made by French Toast. The French Toast uniforms can be purchased at Target, Mervyn's, Levines, Sears and Kmart. Uniforms may also be purchased on the Internet at www.frenchtoast.com.

Girls		Boys
Required	Optional	Required	Optional
Red Polo	White Polo	Red Polo	White Polo
Navy pants, shorts or skort	Khaki pants, shorts or skort Plaid skort or jumper	Navy pants or shorts	Khaki pants or shorts
Shirts must be tucked in and a belt must be worn.

Students will need the required uniform for field trips and other special occasions. The students will be notified by their teachers as to the specific days they will need to wear the required uniform. Students may wear any combination of the optional items and the required uniform on regular school days. The only time that students are required to wear the required uniform is on the special occasions as mentioned above.

Shoes, Socks and Belts

Students are required to wear socks. White, navy or red socks or tights are permitted. Shoes must be closed-toe with flat heel and must be rubber soled. No sandals are allowed. All students must wear a belt with the pants or shorts. All shirts must be tucked in.

Free Dress Days

On Fridays, students are allowed to wear blue jeans or jean shorts and any Watson T-shirt or Watson Sweatshirt. The students may also wear their uniform on Friday. Jeans worn to school must be the appropriate length and fit properly. Jean shorts must be fingertip length. No jean shorts with the hem cut off are allowed. Jeans with wide legs such as Pipes or Jncos are not allowed.
Free dress days will be announced throughout the year. Students will be allowed to wear clothes other than their uniform on these days. No pajamas, halter tops, or T-shirts with inappropriate logos will be allowed. Please help your child to choose clothing that is appropriate for school.
Students who participate in Scouts will be allowed to wear their scout uniform on meeting days. Only those cheerleaders designated for the Watson team will be allowed to wear cheerleading uniforms to school on Fridays during football season.

Uniform Scholarships

Uniform scholarships are available for those who feel uniforms are not within their reach financially. The scholarships are granted based on financial need. Watson PTA gives full scholarships and partial scholarships. The full scholarships consist of two tops and two bottoms. The partial scholarship consists of one top and one bottom. All applications are kept confidential. Applications are available in the school office. The application must be filled out and returned to the office. It is the parent's responsibility to provide sizing information should they be granted a scholarship.

Greenhouse

Watson is equipped with a full size greenhouse and an outside garden area with beds for seasonal planting. Students in all grades use the garden/greenhouse area to enhance their curriculum.

STARLAB Portable Planetarium

The STARLAB system is a portable teaching environment that can be brought right into the classroom. It consists of an inflatable dome that seats 35-45 students, a projector and projection cylinders that cover a range of topics from stars and constellations to native american legends. Students and parents alike love the special activities in the STARLAB.

Leapster and LeapPad

Second graders at Watson are equipped with Leapster units on a rotating basis for second graders and the LeapPad for first graders. Students use the hand-held portable learning system with a variety of educational software. The award-winning Leapster offers the core benefits of computer software on a portable device. Its hallmark feature is the Explain function that gives immediate feedback for every answer selection with 6 strategies for giving students extra opportunities to learn. This works especially well when students haven’t succeeded in certain subjects with conventional instructional methods.

Keyboard Instructor

Third grade students work to improve their keyboarding skills with a device called a Keyboard Instructor. At Watson, keyboarding skills are necessary for the proper utilization of computer resources. The goal of the Keyboard Instructor is to provide an easy to use, complete and systematic keyboarding program. The keyboards are checked out to students for use at home. At the end of the week, scores are downloaded and printed for the teacher to review. Lessons are loaded to help the students improve any weaknesses in their keyboarding skills. We feel that this "new" approach to teaching keyboarding skills will create a unique educational opportunity to be shared between home and school.

Lightspan

Fourth grade students at Watson utilize Lightspan. Lightspan will be provided to students to work on at home using Sony Playstations. This program provides educational software in Reading/Language Arts and Mathematics that teach the critical skills and concepts that are currently taught in our classrooms. They also motivate and get students excited about learning, by using characters, stories, and interative games. The Lightspan software is delivered on CD-ROM and runs on Sony's Playstation.

Lego Robolab

Fifth grade students build models and robots using a programmable LEGO brick as the brain of their models/ robots. After being programmed with ROBOLAB, the robots take action in their environment by interacting and making decisions based on the inputs that are around them. Two RCXs can even communicate with each other! The robots are fully autonomous, acting on their own with no support from the computer. If the behavior of the robot does not match the desired behavior, then they can be easily reprogrammed using the ROBOLAB software. Users first build their inventions using the programmable brick and the LEGO pieces. They then create a program for their invention using the ROBOLAB software, an easy to use powerful programming language. Next, they download their program to the brick using a special infrared transmitter. The ROBOLAB System prepares girls and boys of all ages for careers in engineering and science with excitement and enthusiasm. With the ROBOLAB System students will learn about today’s world of robotics, confined only by their imaginations.

Camp Sky Ranch

Fifth graders at Watson are offered a unique, hands-on learning experience at Camp Sky Ranch. Students are provided the opportunity to learn outside the classroom in a new environment under the guidance of the outstanding faculty. Students learn by seeing, touching and discovering the world around them through our innovative courses. And thanks to the highly-trained faculty, the teachers and parent chaperones can participate and learn along with their students.