A fifth grade class in New Brunswick's Roosevelt Elementary School and its teachers are being honored on Wednesday, June 4, with the first annual Classroom Teacher Award, to be presented by the New Jersey Unit of Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic's (RFB&D®) Learning Through Listening™, Educational Outreach Center.
The class and its teachers, Mikheal Bonett, Gail Jackson-Monroe,and the classroom paraprofessional, Mildred Mendoza of New Brunswick, will be recognized for their success in implementing RFB&D's digital AudioPlus™ textbooks into its curriculum at a ceremony at the school. New Jersey Unit Educational Outreach Director Christine Ranaghan says, "This classroom was the first in the state to embrace our new digital textbooks through RFB&D's digital pilot program that started in 2001. I am so appreciative to Superintendent Ronald Larkin, his administration and the Principal of the school, Mr. Hector Villafane, for their wonderful support. After seeing their success, RFB&D's digital textbooks rolled out statewide last January. I look forward to upgrading and implementing our digital audio textbooks in all the district's schools in the upcoming year."
RFB&D, a nonprofit volunteer organization, is the nation's educational library serving people who cannot effectively read standard print because of visual impairment, dyslexia or other physical disability. Its mission is to create opportunities for individual success by providing and promoting the effective use of accessible educational materials. RFB&D members include students in all grade levels, across all academic disciplines. It serves more than 100,000 individuals nationally and over 5,000 in New Jersey alone, who struggle with print disabilities like dyslexia. Over 500 volunteers donate their time and talent to record textbooks, which are distributed through the CV Starr Learning Through Listening® Library at the organization's national headquarters in Princeton, as well as assisting with the New Jersey Unit's statewide educational outreach efforts.
Rutgers University and the New Jersey Unit conducted a collaborative educational study during the 2001-2002 school year. The findings of this preliminary study suggest that RFB&D's Learning Through Listening audio textbooks have the potential to positively effect student reading skills and achievement.
RFB&D's Learning Through Listening Tools for Success are used in school districts throughout the state, but Ranaghan notes, "For me, it started with New Brunswick! I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with all the schools in the district. I am so thankful to the principals, especially Rosauro Valerenzo-Lorente of Lord Stirling Elementary School, and their teachers that they are all so supportive of our program."