How can we help make our teachers’ jobs easier and more fulfilling and our students’ learning more adequate to face the challenges of the 21st century? These children will have to be creative thinkers, comfortable and savvy with technology, knowledgeable of the world and effective communicators.
The San Jose Education Foundation was created to serve as a voice for education in this growing and complex metropolis. We bring the city’s families, educators and industry leaders together to identify the key issues that affect the growth and development of the education system and then find opportunities to help schools prepare for our children’s full participation in this knowledge-based economy.
These strong partnerships facilitate the easy flow of resources, from our community and the broader world, into our schools to help match these resources with the needs of educators.
SJEF resides in the hot bed of fresh ideas and innovative business ventures. We have adopted the venture capitalist’s insight and passion, but unlike the average venture capitalist who invests in business, science or technology, SJEF invests in our most valuable resource – people.
SJEF advocates for the needs of all 297 schools in the 19 districts of San Jose area. We carry the concerns and needs of over 9,000 teachers and 194,000 students. Morgan Hill is one of our foundation’s family of school districts.
Morgan Hill’s children will be the engine of 21st-century organizations.
Responsive to the fact that Morgan Hill is geographically in the heart of Silicon Valley, the Morgan Hill Unified School District has the mission of preparing its student population to become valuable members of this creative and innovative community. Superintendent Alan Nishino has stressed the need to eliminate the gap between the available technology and what is accessible to students, teachers, parents and educators. The SJEF seeks to complement the work that the Live Oak Foundation is doing locally to provide programs and tools that can help support the district’s efforts in creating tomorrow’s entrepreneurs, scientists, employees, professionals, and social workers.
For example, the SJEF is researching tools that we will adapt to help teachers easily access additional course content, student management tools, create class Web sites and other exciting tools.
In partnership with FIRST 5 Santa Clara County, SJEF provides support and advocacy to identified families with children of prenatal through five years of age; helping to identify the family’s strengths and needs, and assisting in securing appropriate services to insure school readiness for each student.
- For teachers, we offer Teacher Innovation Grants which give them the opportunity to create memorable, interactive and enhanced learning experiences for their students. Innovation Grants provide our teachers the ability to maximize our youths’ experiences in the classroom and on field trips. Needless to say, these Innovation Grants will be beneficial to our youth and their families while supporting our teachers.
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SJEF’s Teacher Resource pages have over 125 links to some of the most valuable resources for teachers you will ever find. Resources include professional sites for credentials and information, general teacher sites for lesson plans and standards/frameworks, federal government sites with thousands of classroom materials, subject area sites and organizations and the teacher sites keyed to all of California’s state adopted texts. These resources have been hand-selected by our education experts
n- For our corporate community, SJEF provides a single conduit for donors and volunteers to reach all the schools in the San Jose Area.
- Through our Center of Innovation, SJEF and our corporate sponsors provide education solutions that enhance the learning experience of students in school and address challenges identified by superintendents, principals, and teachers.
Finally, SJEF continues to bring together leaders from education and industry. In monthly education forums, we invite experts in various education fields to discuss challenges and innovative solutions that can be implemented. These Forums are intended to be idea-generators to help participants go back to their schools, communities, and companies with a newfound energy focused on moving toward future needs within education and our workforce.
Join us in supporting education in San Jose. For more information on the San Jose Education Foundation, call (408) 283-6153 or e-mail
in**@SJ***********.com
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Muhammed Chaudhry serves as president and CEO for the San Jose Education Foundation. Reach him at
mu******@sj***********.org
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