Featured Lesson: Parents, Teens and Texting

Texting is a part of daily life for most teens.  In this PBS LearningMedia online lesson for blended learning, students watch videos by teens about texting.  They then evaluate statistics about texting, and use these data to form and support their opinions.  This lesson covers a topic that is engaging to students while covering some key literacy strategies: comparing and contrasting information; determining important information; understanding fact vs. opinion; and making inferences. 

To launch this lesson, determine what students already know about texting and about the debate between parents and teens over how much texting is too much. The Teacher’s Guide accompanying this lesson provides specific questions you can use to start the discussion.  Assignments in which students write opinion pieces supported by facts from the video, charts, and lesson text are an important component of this lesson.

Visit the lesson  from the Walmart Middle School Literacy Initiative to learn more.

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DonorsChoose.org for Support & Supplies for Schools

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with other organizations, donates to DonorsChoose.org  to support teachers from math and science to the humanities with resources for their specific ideas. In the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine, Melinda Gates writes her first Spotlight on this organization that provides support and supplies to American schools, saying it’s “such a smart, simple concept.  Every student deserves a great education, and DonorsChoose helps teachers deliver on that promise.’

DonorsChoose.org lets you share the needs of your classroom with a generous community eager to help.   According to the site, supporters have brought teachers’ ideas to life in more than half of all U.S. public schools. The site provides information about how DonorsChoose works and how teachers can get started, asking “What change do you want in your classroom?”

A great question –We hope you’ll check out DonorsChoose.org and let us know what you think!

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Featured Resources: The Science of Movement and Importance of Exercise

Springtime offers the perfect backdrop for promoting physical activity and engaging students in immersive learning experiences. Use these resources from PBS LearningMedia to explore the science of movement and to highlight the importance of exercise in their daily lives:

Mixie’s Boogie Buffet  (Grades 1-4) What better way to kick off a lesson on exercise than to get students up on their feet with this “Fizzy’s Lunch Lab” interactive?

Power Your Body with Exercise  (Grades 5-8) Invite students to examine the changes that occur in the body in response to physical activity.

Increasing Physical Activity in Schools (Grades 13+)  High levels of physical activity  support learning on-task behavior and the development of life-long wellness.  Learn how to increase the activity level at your school using this self-paced lesson.

Titanium Chairs & Cheetah Legs  (Grades 6-12) Introduce students to the specialized wheelchairs, prosthetics and other high-tech tools that allow Paralympic athletes to compete.

The Truth About Exercise (Grades 6-13+) An obesity expert proposes that the best way to lose weight and improve health is to increase your “NEAT” level.  Ask students to investigate his theory.

PBS LearningMedia is honored to be counted among this year’s recipients of the 2013 SIIA CODiE Award for both “Best Education Reference Solution” and “Best K12 Solution” in the Education Technology category!

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Hispanic History, Culture & Spanish Speaking Skills

Expand  students’ understanding of Hispanic history and culture while helping to develop their Spanish language skills with resources from PBS Learning Media.   These  featured interactive games, video clips, and lesson plans  are designed to engage learners and enhance curriculum.  If you’ve  yet to do so, you can  create a free account on PBS LearningMedia to search, save, and share your favorite resources.

The Storm that Swept Mexico: Revolutionary Art
Grades 9-12 | Video | Visual Art and History
Explore the Mexican Muralist Movement and consider the role of art as social commentary using this video resource from Latino Public Broadcasting.

Rough Riders
Grads 6-12 | Video | Spanish American War
Use this resource to enhance lessons on the Spanish American War, Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, and New Mexico’s path toward statehood.

Baseball and Social Change: The Story of Roberto Clemente
Grades: 5-8 | Blended Lesson | Literacy Skill Development
Invite students to examine the relationship between culture and identity through the story of baseball legend Roberto Clemente.

Hispanic Exploration in America
Grades: 4-12 | Media Gallery | Teaching with Primary Resources
Gain insight into the Hispanic exploration, colonization, and conquests in North America by examining a collection of primary sources from the Library of Congress.
*If you like this resource – you might like this online course.

The Red Balloon
Grades K-2 | Lesson Plan, Games | Spanish Vocabulary
¡Pruébalo! Develop your students’ Spanish language skills using this collection of videos and interactive games from “Oh Noah!”

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Frontline: The Holocaust’s Last Living Survivors

In the most recent of his critically-lauded autobiographical films, Never Forget to Lie,  Marian Marzynski explores for the first time his own wartime childhood and the experiences of other child survivors.  The filmmaker teases out their feelings about Poland, the Catholic Church, and the ramifications of identities forged under circumstances where survival began with the directive “never forget to lie.”

Airing on WGBY on Tuesday, May 14 at 10:00pm, Never Forget to Lie chronicles the poignant, painful recollections of other child survivors. The film rescues haunting pieces of the past while exploring the conflicting feelings about national, cultural, and religious identity that mark many survivors.

Watch a preview, where you can also learn the latest about Marzynski’s documentary.  At the Frontline Teacher Center you’ll find new classroom activities with streaming video, downloadable lesson plans, and web-exclusive resources to accompany FRONTLINE programs in the classroom.

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Constitution USA

On Tuesdays on WGBY at 9:00pm, starting May 7,  you can breathe new life into the traditional civics lesson with Constitution USA with Peter Segal.  Traveling across the country on a Harley Davidson to find out where the U.S. Constitution lives, Peter Segal looks at how it works and doesn’t work, how it unites us as a nation, and how it has nearly torn us apart.  Watch a preview.

A vast digital library of classroom resources, PBS LearningMedia is continuing to add new content from Constitution USA.  Here are just a few highlights for grades 9-12:

Separation of Powers The framers of the Constitution feared too much centralized power, adopting the philosophy of divide and conquer.

Federalism Federalism is one of the most important and innovative concepts in the U.S. Constitution, although the word never appears there. Federalism is the sharing of power between national and state governments

Rights What is a right, and where does it come from? A right is a power or privilege that is recognized by tradition or law.

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TED Talks Education – The High School Dropout Crisis

TED Talks Education, hosted by John Legend, premieres May 7, 2013 at 10:00pm on WGBY.  PBS and TED, the non-profit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, share a deep commitment to addressing the high school dropout crisis. The TED Talks Education one-hour program brings together a diverse group of teachers and education advocates delivering short, high-impact talks on the theme of teaching and learning.

These original TED Talks are given by educational leaders including Geoffrey Canada, Bill Gates, Rita F. Pierson and Sir Ken Robinson. TED Talks Education is part of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s American Graduate initiative. See all speakers and performers.

For more TED talks on a wide range of ideas worth spreading from innovative, influence thinkers around the world, you’ll want to explore the TED site for yourself http://www.ted.com/talks. You can search by subject and speakers as well as look for those talks with descriptions such as “inspiring,” “jaw-dropping” and courageous.

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New PBS TeacherLine Spring Courses — Starting May 1st

PBS TeacherLine professional development offers graduate-level courses in a supportive, online environment that makes learning flexible and accessible. Join us for a new term beginning on Wednesday, May 1^st that features a special lineup of courses designed to enhance your technology and teaching skills. Register today to reserve your spot.

You’ll find more than 80 high-quality, facilitated PBS TeacherLine online courses in reading and language arts, math, science, technology integration, instructional strategies/technology and STEM.  Here are just a few:

o   TECHNOLOGY: Leveraging Smart and Social Digital Media in the Classroom (TECH575)
Grades K-12 | 30 credit hours | Enroll Today

o   READING/LANGUAGE ARTS: Teaching Phonemic Awareness and Phonics (RDLA157)
Grades PreK-3 | 45 credit hours | Enroll Today

o   READING/LANGUAGE ARTS: Teaching Reading in the Content Areas (RDLA340)
Grades 3-12 | 30 credit hours | Enroll Today

o   MATH: Understanding Numbers and Operations: Addition and Subtraction (MATH250)
Grades PreK-3 | 30 credit hours | Enroll Today

o   NSTRUCTION: Teaching with Primary Sources from the Library of Congress (INST342)
Grades 3-12 | 45 credit hours | Enroll Today

Full Spring Catalog • Common Core Alignment  • School & District Solutions • Annual Schedule • Grad Credit 

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Native Americans: Rural Poverty & Cultural Heritage

There’s still time to watch the second of a two-part series, Kind Hearted Woman on WGBY tonight, April 2, at 9:00pm.  This unforgettable portrait follows Robin Charboneau, a 32-year-old divorced single mother and Oglala Sioux woman living on North Dakota’s Spirit Lake Reservation.  Watch a Preview.

Here are other classroom resources on Native Americans from  PBS LearningMedia:

Miss Navajo  (Grades 6-12) This video segment from Independent Lens documents a young woman’s experiences as she competes in the Miss Navajo Nation beauty pageant.  Instead of concentrating on a young woman’s outer beauty, the pageant’s focus is on her knowledge and understanding of Navajo culture and her ability to spread this culture as an ambassador of the Navajo Nation.

La’ona DeWilde:  Environmental Biologist (Grades 5-12) This video profiles an Athabascan and doctoral student who chose her career because of her traditional belief in respecting animals and caring for the environment. Her work involves helping local villagers record observations that can be used collaboratively with Western science to help solve problems that affect Alaska Native peoples.

Native American Culture: Little Deer and Mother Earth Marilou Awiakta, of Cherokee/Appalachian heritage, tells a traditional Cherokee story in which humans are killing too many of their animal relatives, threatening the delicate balance of nature. Little Deer leads the animals in taking action, teaching the lesson that people should take “only what you need with respect and gratitude.”  Support materials include Native American Culture: Cherokee People and Their Stories Lesson Plan (Grades 3-4).

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Video Lending Library back in operation

Good News — WGBY’s video lending library ordering system is back in operation, thanks to the folks in our IT department. You can now order videos following the instructions on the website. We apologize for any inconvenience our temporary ordering process created.

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