Reach Potential Movement » Literacy

Día del Niño & Día del Libro Celebration!

Rob — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 17:02:47 +0000

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon (4/25), Castro Elementary, Open Door Church (Mountain View) and Reach Potential Movement celebrated Día del Niño (Day of the Child), a holiday celebrated around the world, especially in Latin countries and a newer holiday: Día del Libro (World Book Day).

Approximately 1000 kids, youth and adults enjoyed a ”Reading Brings You the World” Carnival, free books, Castro’s Folkloric Dancers, amazing food, music, piñatas, and the Stanford Mariachi Band! The literacy carnival promoted the joy and importance of reading within a Latino cultural celebration.

Thank you to all the Castro Elementary parents, Open Door Church members and Reach Potential volunteers for all your hard work and preparation. It appears that our collaborative effort will turn into a much anticipated annual celebration in Mountain View!

Literacy festival

Reading Volunteers Needed!

Rob — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 23:36:38 +0000

“30 hours of tutoring helps the typical student advance one grade level in their reading… what a difference you can make!” (readingpartners.org)

San Miguel Elementary in Sunnyvale is looking for members in our community who can devote ONE HOUR a week to assist teachers in improving the early literacy skills of 1st grade students who are a year behind in their ability to begin reading. Reading volunteers will work with a small group of children (5-6) and will receive step by step lesson plans, training and support from a teacher each week.

Help a child read!
·     No experience necessary
·     Tues, Weds & Thurs mornings – 8:15-9:15 or 9-10am
·     Weekly commitment through May preferable
·     Join a team environment that’s impacting kids

For specific questions and more information, please email
Rob Schulze at our CONTACT US PAGE. Thank you!

The Gift of Time

Rob — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:17:25 +0000

A few days ago I (Rob) was given a huge gift by three principals of three Title One (over 50% low income students) elementary schools in Northern California. Despite the challenges they each experience in educating more students with limited resources, each principal gave me the costly gift of their time which allowed me to better understand the strengths and needs of our California public schools.

Two of the principals lead schools in Woodland (near Sacramento) where the school district has recently made the difficult choice to close two of their ten elementary schools due to state budget cuts. The impact on the remaining schools is larger classroom sizes— from 20 to 32 students per classroom at the 1^st through 3^rd grade levels. The challenge and pinch they feel is adding so many students and yet having to decrease their resource staff numbers this past year. No longer can they call upon an adequate number of specialists and aids that can provide additional support to their teachers and students.

One principal shared his concern is not only for his school but also for the youth in his community. He sees his students and older students hanging out after school with not a lot to do. He and others see a growing gang problem in Woodland, partly because there are not enough affordable and constructive activities for kids and youth to pursue when they are not in class. He highlighted a couple of churches have recently provided some free activities but they’re only once or twice a week. His dream? “Youth intramural leagues around town,” he said with enthusiasm.

When asked what their greatest “felt need” was, they each had a similar response. Without hesitation, one principal replied, “The gift of time. These kids need more adults, whether they are paid or volunteers, to give these kids the gift of their time.”

Our early literacy projects and classroom adoption programs are a direct result from listening to principals and teachers. They exist to provide children with needed resources and attention from caring youth and adults. RPM hosted our second Bookshelf in Every Home early literacy project in Mountain View yesterday. Abundant Life Christian Fellowship members turned out in force and brought with them nine students from Eastside Prep in East Palo Alto. Watching these youth laugh and pour into the 1^st graders from Castro Elementary along with adults of all ages was a beautiful picture of the “gift of time” at work.

To all our amazing friends who have volunteered or given to Reach Potential Movement this year— we want you to know how thankful we are for each of you this Thanksgiving! Thank you for giving kids and youth your most costly gift—your gift of time. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

“Bookshelf in Every Home” Project

Rob — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:42:41 +0000

“Bookshelf in Every Home” Project Launch!

Bookshelf in Every Home

As we have listened to educators in local low income schools, the need we have heard most dramatically is literacy… especially early literacy efforts to empower parents before their children fall one to two grades behind in reading. RPM’s response is our “Bookshelf in Every Home” Project, in which low income kindergarten and first grade families in Mountain View will:

decorate a bookshelf with their child to take home as his/her own

select books for a home book collection to support reading at home

participate in a Parent Workshop on how to help their child read, even if they don’t read (or read English) themselves.

develop parent attitudes and expectations for the importance of supporting reading at home

We are excited about the community support that is enabling us to launch this project. We partnered with Open Door Church to hold our first Bookshelf Event for 40 kindergarten families in October, and we’re partnering with Abundant Life Christian Fellowship to equip 40 first grade families November 22nd. Our Bookshelf in Every Home project is an example of one of the simple, scalable and sustainable ways we’re responding to educators to empower people to reach their potential. Let us know if you would be interested in connecting a community group you’re a part of (work, Rotary, church, etc.) with a low income school in or near your community. We would love to talk!

If you would like to provide a child with a bookshelf, books and school supplies while providing their parent(s) a parent education workshop, 100% of your donation will go to our project through our on-line donation partner: RPM Bookshelf in Every Home at Razoo.com