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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Lesson Plan Feature: Letters to Poets

PBS NewsHour Extra offers this wonderful lesson for grades 7-10 from The Academy of American Poets, which presents a series of activities for the classroom that allow students to explore and interact with poetry by writing letters to poets.  Aligned with the Common Core Standards, activities address the three literacy areas of Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening. You can use the series of activities one right after the other, or separate them as you integrate poetry with other areas of your curriculum. The activities are designed to reach diverse learners, but if you need to adapt them further, you can feel free to do so.

Sections include video, pre-activities, whole class, as well as individual/small group activities, and vocabulary.  Here’s a sample of objectives just for Activity 1:  Selecting Favorite Poems from Historical Poets of Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, Robert Frost, Pablo Neruda and William Carlos Williams

Students will:

Identify poets whose poetic voices speak to them

Select one of these poets and his or her poem to consider more deeply

Provide verbal explanation/evidence about why they have chosen this poem and poet to their peers

As an added bonus, in conjunction with the Academy’s celebration of letter writing and correspondence this National Poetry Month (April 2013), you are invited to submit your students’ letters to the Dear Poet project for a chance to receive handwritten responses from poets.

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PBS LearningMedia: New Content Collections

We hope you like the new look and feel of the PBS LearningMedia site ! You can also view it on your tablet or phone for an optimized experience and explore great new content collections like these:

Freedom Riders

NOVAscienceNow

NOVA: Making Stuff

Between the Lions

Environmental Public Health

Thanks for your patience if you notice bugs with this enhanced site, which PBS is working hard to fix.  And when you find a classroom resource or want to share your experience with PBS LearningMedia,  please leave a comment.  We appreciate hearing from you!

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More PBS Resources for Black History Month

Celebrate Black History Month in your classroom this February by highlighting the African American artists, educators, icons  and influential leaders who have impacted our nation’s history and culture. Use PBS LearningMedia to enhance your lessons with interviews, historic images and videos.  If you’ve yet to do so, remember to register online for free, full access to the library.

Duke  Grades 1-4 | Animated Storybook | Icons in Music:  Introduce young students to the toe-tapping genres of ragtime and jazz through the story of iconic musician, Duke Ellington.

Rosa Parks  Grades 3-12 | Interview | Civil Rights Icons:  Enhance classroom discussion around the Civil Rights Movement with this interview of Rosa Parks, and ask students to examine her role in the struggle for racial equality.

Picturing America – Jacob Lawrence and Martin Puryear  Grades 6-12 | Video | Icons in Art:  Invite students to uncover the driving themes behind the paintings in Jacob Lawrence’s “Migration Series” and the elements influencing Martin Puryear’s sculpture work.

Remembering Civil Rights Leader Dorothy Height  Grades 6-13+ | Video | Civil Rights Icons:  Meet the woman President Obama hailed as the “Godmother of the Civil Rights Movement.” Ask students to consider her impact on the rights of African Americans and women.

Deconstructing the Documentary  Grades 9-12 | Collection:  Invite your class to experience Bordentown, the remarkable all-black boarding school described as a “unique educational utopia.”

Lucy Laney  Grades 9-12 | Video | Icons in Education:  Laney, an influential Jim Crow-era educator, believed it essential to cultivate the minds of her students in order to develop future intellectual leaders. Invite your students to consider her philosophy of education.

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Happy Valentine’s Day from WGBY and PBS KIDS!

Happy Valentine’s Day from WGBY!

Today at 11:00am -11:30am, WGBY will air the national premiere of “You Are Special,” an all-new Valentine’s Day episode on Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, the new, highly rated pre-school series inspired by the original Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.  Known to be a great fan of Fred Rogers, singer-songwriter Jason Mraz will sing the opening and closing songs – “It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” and “It’s Such a Good Feeling” – with their messages of happiness, love and acceptance.  At Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood website you can find games, video and printables, and at the teachers’ site, more about early childhood activities and the show’s learning goals.

At an older and much beloved program, Arthur, what better way to open children’s eyes to a celebration of love than poetry?  There’s a Valentine’s Day poem by Eloise entitled It’s Valentine’s Day at Fern’s Poetry Nook as well as Happy Valentine’s Day episodes and fun activities .  And Arthur’s Poetry Club has even more with poetry videos, poems and activities for writing poems.

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Resources for To Kill a Mockingbird from American Masters

American Masters, public television’s award-winning biography series, explores the lives and creative journeys of our most enduring writers, musicians, visual and performing artists, dramatists and filmmakers. This collection from PBS LearningMedia offers you access to classroom-ready videos and articles drawn from the Series broadcasts and website. Here are video resources for To Kill a Mockingbird from Seasons 25 and 26 of American Masters:

Setting:  A Portrait of a Southern Town in the 1930’s (Grades 7-12) Students learn about Harper Lee’s hometown, the inspiration for the fictional town of Maycomb. Through archival interviews, photographs, and present-day commentary (including an excerpt from an interview with Harper Lee), students see what life was like for people living in the South during the Great Depression.

Harper Lee:  Hey, Boo_do not publish (Grades 7-12) Students examine archival photos, interviews, and the novel to gain an understanding of Harper Lee, the writer and the private citizen. Commentators ranging from memoirist James McBride to novelist Anna Quindlen speculate on why Harper Lee chose to write only one novel and compare her to Boo Radley, the novel’s neighborhood recluse.

Is To Kill A Mockingbird Still Relevant Today? (Grades: 8-11) This video highlights the social climate in the South when the novel was published and when the film premiered, as well as reactions to issues presented in the story. The account by Diane McWhorter, a classmate of Mary Badham (the actress who played Scout in the movie), is given special attention.

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Opportunity: Pathways Within Roads to Reading Initiative

The Pathways Within Roads to Reading Initiative donates books to literacy programs in small and rural low-income communities. Maximum award: 200 books appropriate for readers age 0 to young adult; English only

Eligibility: 501(c)(3) organizations that run school, after-school, summer, community, day-care, and library reading and literacy programs; must have an annual operating budget of less than $95,000 (schools and libraries are exempt from this budget requirement) and be located in an under-served community with a population of less than 50,000

Deadline: March 30, 2013.

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Resources for Universal Human Rights Month

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes the inherent dignity and equal rights of all members of the human family.  While human rights need to be vigilantly protected every day, December is the month dedicated to reminding us of their importance.

If you want students to grow in their awareness and practice of human rights in their worlds and around the globe, PBS LearningMedia is a great resource. For example, exploring the price of truth in times of war, No More Tears Sister is a story of love, revolution and betrayal.  Set during the violent ethnic conflict that has enveloped Sri Lanka over decades, the film recreates the courageous and vibrant life of renowned human rights activist Dr. Rajani Thiranagama. Mother, anatomy professor, author and symbol of hope, Thiranagama’s commitment to truth and human rights led to her assassination at the age of 35.   Supporting materials include learning objectives, discussion guide and a lesson plan from Point of View (POV), award-winning, independent documentaries on PBS.

Among many other PBS LearningMedia resources, Elie Wiesel: First Person Singular: Making a Difference offers students the chance to discuss the impact individuals/leaders can have on communities, research tolerance and human rights activists, and undertake a project that will make a difference in the community.

If you have a resource for teaching human rights or a story about how a particular PBS program works well in your teaching, we’d be happy to hear from you and share a lovely gift in return.

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From American Masters: Carl Sandburg

American Masters’ website  provides you with WGBY’s recent broadcast film, The Day Carl Sandburg Died, along with  rich classroom resources.  You can:  watch the film and see extended video interviews with the likes of Pete Seeger and the late and great Studs Terkel; hear Sandburg perform and sing in video and audio web features; read curated selections of his writing; plus more – Sandburg’s words and world visualized in a series of digital posters, essays, and a photo exploration of the Sandburg archives.  Here’s a glimpse of the trailer from the film:

Just a few of the many links you’ll find to connect students to this great American poet:

Studs Terkel: Sandburg Packs a Wallop  Author of Hard Times, Working, and The Good War, Terkel offers his last thoughts on Carl Sandburg and the America Terkel documented and recorded his whole life.

Pete Seeger: Little Teaspoons  Bringing the song “We Shall Overcome” to the forefront of causes for American workers in the 1940s and later to the Civil Rights Movement in the 50s and 60s, Seeger and his songs have always been about we, the people.  He remembers Sandburg’s poetic anthem, The People, Yes and what it means to the American underdog even today.

Education: Last Thoughts on Carl Sandburg  In a series of filmed interviews,  Dr. Penelope Niven, author of Carl Sandburg: A Biography and Carl Sandburg: Adventures of a Poet, talks about the life and times of Sandburg.

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Join WGBY for LittleFest This Saturday!

WGBY has once again partnered with the Springfield Museums and the Springfield City Library to host “LittleFest” on Saturday, September 15, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Join us at this day-long event that will foster a love of reading in children of all ages.  Super Why and Princess Presto from the hit PBS Kids show, Super Why, will be available for meet and greets throughout the day.  Performances for families from Steve Wronker and Robert Rivest are scheduled in the morning and afternoon.   Additional activities include hands-on demonstrations and arts and crafts. For a full schedule of activities, download the LittleFest flyer.

Thanks to a partnership with the WGBH Educational Foundation and the Krueger Charitable Foundation, WGBY will be on hand to giveaway a free book, Lola at the Library, to the first 350 young readers in attendance (while supplies last).

LittleFest activities are free, but non-Springfield residents and non-WGBY members must pay museum admission to participate in indoor activities held in the Museum galleries.  Visit the Museums website formore Information.  The event is supported in part by the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation.

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