The Mercury News reported on Ellin Klor being the runner up for the 2016 Toyota Teacher of the year!
Here is the full press release:
Santa Clara educator named national Family Teacher of the Year runner-up
$5,000 Toyota Family Teacher of the Year grant will expand family literacy outreach program
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (October 13, 2016) — It can take a creative mind to engage and inspire at-risk families to participate in family literacy activities at first, but that’s exactly what Ellin Klor does. She incorporates crafts with everyday materials so that families see that learning comes in a variety of forms and is fun. Because of her efforts, Toyota and the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) today recognized Klor as 2016 Toyota Family Teacher of the Year runner-up. As runner-up, Klor and the Santa Clara (Calif.) City Library Foundation and Friends will receive a $5,000 grant to expand their literacy outreach efforts through the Read Santa Clara program.
Klor works to reach families struggling with poverty who have limited literacy and/or language skills through the family and adult literacy program at the City of Santa Clara Library. “Teaching parents and caregivers how to nurture the emerging literacy skills of their young children can greatly improve the life of the entire family,” Klor said. She focuses on literacy programs for teen parents, and migrant and homeless families and developed the Santa Clara 0-6 website focusing on early learning, health, nutrition and development, play and parenting.
“Ellin’s innovative strategy and website are helping develop a community of readers,” said Dr. Joshua Cramer, NCFL vice president. “Her efforts empower parents and give them the tools to improve the future academic success of their children. Research is clear that when parents are engaged in their child’s education, student achievement is increased.”
The Toyota Family Teacher of the Year award, a national honor now in its 20th year, recognizes that families play a crucial role in the success of children and salutes educators who are exceptional at using intergenerational approaches to engage students and their families in education. Klor and winner Jean Ciborowski Fahey, Ph.D., of Weymouth, Mass., will be recognized for their accomplishments at the annual Families Learning Summit in Detroit on October 18. The Summit convenes the nation’s most progressive experts in education, policy, and family and parent engagement to discuss and share the latest information regarding multigenerational approaches to learning.
“The extraordinary work of both Ellin and Jean in engaging families in their children’s education will pay dividends for these students, their families, their schools and their communities for generations to come,” said Mike Goss, general manager, social innovation, Toyota Motor North America. “Toyota is committed to supporting efforts that help people gain the literacy and language skills needed for upward mobility and future success.”
“It is an extraordinary honor that Ellin was selected and the program received the grant funding,” said Hilary Keith, City librarian. “We are proud to have Read Santa Clara as a service of the Santa Clara City Library.”
“It is estimated that one in six adults in Santa Clara County lack basic literacy skills,” said Shanti Bhaskaran, Read Santa Clara’s literacy program supervisor. “Ellin has helped us reach out to families in need in our community, many of whom haven’t used libraries before. We are excited to receive this grant to expand our family literacy outreach to where it is needed the most.”
In addition to creating the website, Klor has created a tutorial showing volunteers how to record themselves reading books to expand access to adaptive reading. She also co-authored a book “From Literacy to Live Skills: Library Services for Teen Parents, which published in 2011.
ABOUT NATIONAL CENTER FOR FAMILIES LEARNING
The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) is a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing our nation’s literacy challenges by engaging all family members in learning, with a primary focus on parents and children living in poverty. Pioneered by NCFL, the two-generation family literacy approach harnesses the power of parent-child bonds to help those who are most at risk of failing economically, emotionally, and socially reach their full potential. NCFL creates and deploys innovative two-generation programs, strategies, and online learning solutions that support learning, literacy, and family engagement in education. From the classroom to the community to the digital frontier, NCFL collaborates with educators, advocates, and policy-makers to help families construct hotspots for learning wherever they go.
For more information on NCFL’s 27-year track record, visit familieslearning.org.
ABOUT TOYOTA
Toyota (NYSE:TM), the world’s top automaker and creator of the Prius and the Mirai fuel cell vehicle, is committed to advancing mobility through our Toyota and Lexus brands. Over the past 50 years, we’ve produced more than 30 million cars and trucks in North America, where we operate 14 manufacturing plants (10 in the U.S.) and directly employ more than 44,000 people (more than 34,000 in the U.S.). Our 1,800 North American dealerships (1,500 in the U.S.) sold more than 2.8 million cars and trucks (nearly 2.5 million in the U.S.) in 2015 – and about 80 percent of all Toyota vehicles sold over the past 20 years are still on the road today.
Toyota partners with community, civic, academic, and governmental organizations to address our society’s most pressing mobility challenges. We share company resources and extensive know-how to support non-profits to help expand their ability to assist more people move more places. For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyotanewsroom.com.
ABOUT READ SANTA CLARA
Read Santa Clara provides free literacy instruction and support for English-speaking adults in the City of Santa Clara, to improve their basic reading, writing, and math skills, enabling them to reach their goals and realize their full potential . The literacy program is an integrated service of the Santa Clara City Library. Other funding for Read Santa Clara is provided by California Library Literacy Services, and the Santa Clara City Library Foundation & Friends, with grants from SuperBowl 50 Fund, Mission City Community Fund, Intel Corporation and individual donors. Community partners include the Santa Clara Unified School District, the Bill Wilson Center, NextDoor Solutions and Refugee Transitions.