Newsletter: May 2024
Quarterly Update
2024 has been chock-full of Readeezy news!
Our biggest announcement is that we have been named finalists in the Tools Competition, an international competition in EdTech innovation. There were over 1,900 entries and we’re one of 30 teams to make it to the finals! This competition is sponsored by some of the biggest names in grant funding: Gates Foundation, Walton Family Foundation, Open AI, Schmidt Futures, and many more. Great exposure for Readeezy no matter what the outcome (but keep all your fingers crossed, please, that we win!). 🤞
We’re working on two big innovations to the Readeezy library. |
The first is our AI Reading Companion. Taking advantage of the AI revolution, we’re creating a “conversational agent” (as it’s called in AI circles) to dialogue with our readers. The Companion will help them in an “Alexa-like” fashion to understand vocabulary, sentence meaning and plot lines. It will even allow them to express their feelings about a story (e.g. “I feel bad for that boy because he was bullied.”) and the Companion will respond. |
The second is a dashboard to record readers’ progress on the Readeezy books. Although this wasn’t part of the original design for our library, we’ve had requests from teachers for progress reports. We’re keeping the dashboard streamlined so there won’t be much data entry to burden teachers, tutors or parents, but there will be enough so they can track data like how many books readers have completed, their performance on the “checks for understanding,” and how many times they accessed the “I’m stuck” button. Later on, the Reading Companion will be able to give us much more information.
We're Growing!
This semester, we had a record number of interns helping us grow our library. Nineteen students from universities all over the country have worked as writers, illustrators and marketing assistants. We already have a waiting list for the summer! This resource will go a long way to helping us meet our goal of 25 books by September, 2024. |
Additionally, we have users! West Milford, NJ would like to start Readeezy right away, and we’re waiting news from the following: Learning Resource Centers of NJ (located throughout the state); Montclair Public Library; Parsippany Public School District; Perth Amboy Public School District. More to come! |
Our resources also continue to grow. We have received a generous grant from the Steven Strobert Foundation (Dr. Barbara Strobert is on our Board.) This grant is specifically targeted at school districts populated by the poor and the marginalized. We are working with the NJ Center for the Inclusive Classroom to identify districts that fit that criterion. Thank you Dr. Strobert! |
Coming Soon: Four New Books
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All of this is due to your continuous generosity. Without your support, none of this could happen. We send our most sincere thanks to you and ask that you keep positive thoughts coming Readeezy’s way so we can all continue to be of service to our most needy young readers. |
Warmest regards, Maria |
