Alta Vista Technology Celebrates Giving
Tis’ the season of giving. Each year Alta Vista Technology looks for new ways to give back to the less fortunate or underfunded in our community. Our goal is to enable higher-level learning in classrooms through literacy and technology, 2 extremely important pillars as education continues to evolve.
This year we funded 2 projects that have affected 3 different schools. Alta Vista donated 10 Lego Technic kits to be used by 4th and 5th graders across 2 schools. Lego Technic helps kids learn about science, technology, engineering, and math through circuitry, construction, trial and error, and creativity. The purpose of Lego’s Technic line is to create more advanced models with more complex technical functions, compared to the simpler brick-building properties of normal Lego. In a world that is run by technology, getting an early jump and understanding how things are built and what makes them function is key.
The second project was to further literacy among less-fortunate students. Reading is so fundamental to a child’s development. It not only provides children with an absolutely necessary life skill but it also provides time to interact with others and form social connections. There are fewer greater joys that my one and a half-year-old daughter has than bringing a book to me (sometimes several) and sitting on my lap to read. Every child and caregiver deserves that opportunity.
Alta Vista Technology, working closely with Walt Whitman Elementary was able to provide a first-grade book fair where each student was able to pick out a book to take home. Also funded was a year of Raz Kids for the classroom. Raz-Kids delivers hundreds of interactive, leveled eBooks spanning 29 levels
- 400+ eBooks and open-book eQuizzes, with new books added every month
- Corresponding eQuizzes test comprehension, providing teachers with skill reports for data-driven instruction
- Online running records let teachers digitally assess each student, saving valuable classroom time
- The motivational “Raz Rocket” gets students excited about reading and strengthens the school-to-home connection
- A winner of numerous awards, including CODiE and EDDIE Awards and a Teachers’ Choice Award for the Classroom
Along with Raz Kids, Alta Vista’s own Hollie Murray participated in March is Reading Month as a guest speaker, taking the time to read to the classroom.
