We recently launched a subscription box for educators, school counselors, and families. I’d like to share with readers the “about us” content from the ScholaBox website.
ScholaBox got its beginning two decades ago. I was a kindergarten teacher at the time and had six students in my boisterous group of learners who were celebrating Ramadan. The whole class needed to know more about the observance of the holy month, but after weeks of searching, I was able to find only one book for children that I could share with my class. That experience prompted me to take a closer look at my classroom library. I found that my collection of books was woefully wanting of titles that represented the culture and daily experiences of the students in my class. Across the grade levels I taught in public education and the teachers I collaborated with in my role as literacy coach, I continued the search for books that promote inclusion, community-building, and perspective-taking, developing companion resources that supported students talking and writing to accelerate learning.
Fast-forward twenty years and my search for books is still a top priority. Now, as a literacy consultant, I work with teachers, librarians, counselors, and administrators in districts across the U.S. Educators are constantly on the hunt for texts that foster discussion and writing opportunities for kids to learn more about the world and its people, explore and come to understand current events, and offer insight into social and emotional learning that supports kids’ unique needs.
Thanks to the input and feedback from educators and our advisory board members, ScholaBox is launching its service in September 2019. Subscribers can count on ScholaBox to deliver carefully selected books, curated instructional resources, and a supportive community sharing their stories of literacy in practice. ScholaBox offers not only high-quality books, but also a collection of aligned texts in multiple genres and a variety of modes to engage kids’ hearts and minds. The instructional resources delivered each month include media, poetry, excerpts from kidlit novels, art, interviews, and news articles. These sources are matched to the picture books to extend students’ understanding and foster awareness and empathy.
We are grateful to our team of supporters for helping us create this unique resource for educators. This project would not have been possible without the guidance from educator peers and our advisory board that consists of teachers, artists, counselors, parents, and corporate leaders. We have a long list of ideas we’ll unveil in the coming months, all in an effort to make your ScholaBox experience extraordinary.
Join us! Together we’ll make sure kids read their world.
Valinda
Founder and CEO of ScholaBox
