La Joya ISD Awards Classroom Grants Through our Educational Excellence Foundation.
On Friday March 10, 2023 central office administration made their way through the halls of three of our campuses at La Joya ISD to award classroom grants to three of our amazing teachers.
Our Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gisela Saenz lead our central office administration along with our Educational Excellence Foundation Board of Trustees through our amazing campuses to surprise three of our teachers and their students in their classroom with classroom grants.
Our first stop was at John F. Kennedy Elementary where we visited Ms. Rita Saenz Robotics Teacher. Her grant consists of coding with dash robots. With this grant she will be acquiring twelve Dash Robots and accessories to create a Robotics Club for students that are interested in robotics and coding. The robots will also serve as a motivational tool for reluctant or struggling learners.
Our second stop was at La Joya High School where we visited Ms. Amylyn Borja-Freese Environmental Science Teacher. Her grant will consist of a campus butterfly garden. With this grant she will achieve the following objectives: To provide the students with a venue to explore biodiversity, ecological citizenship, and nurturing nature in alignment with the TEKS standards and AP College Board expectations. To provide a venue for the students to reconnect with nature and prompts them to be curious, develop observational skills, and be able to conduct scientific investigations that will enhance students\' mathematical, scientific, reading, writing, and speaking skills. To provide our special education students a safe venue to play and explore nature. To provide a venue for the students to become involved in providing shelter and resources for the endangered migratory butterflies. To provide students with campus beautification and an environment conducive to learning.
Our final stop was at the Academy of Health Science Professions & STEM where we visited Mr. Waleed Ebrahim Engineering Teacher. His grant will consist of a FTC Robotics where he will acquire FTC Robots to use for trainings prior to their competitions. As a teacher of the Robotics Club, Mr. Ebrahim’s students will need to learn how to code to allow their robot to operate. This requires writing comprehension skills to master, and while this doesn't provide as much reading connection, rules and objective given to members virtually will. As they try to become more efficient in their communication, virtual meets have been introduced to allow them to have more time to be in contact. With this, their reading ability will be at use to communicate better than before.
Congratulations to all the recipients’ teachers and students for their plan to help our district SHINE BRIGHT. We encourage all teachers to apply for classroom grants through our La Joya ISD Educational Excellence Foundation. For more information or to apply for grants please visit our website at www.lajoyaisd.com/page/grant-application-guidelines-information.
