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Flexible PBS TeacherLine Courses Start October 9

PBS TeacherLine online courses for Pre-K – 12 educators are flexible, collaborative and designed for a teacher’s busy schedule.  They can help you earn PD credits and offer a way to stay on top of your teaching career.

Of his experience Charles Besancon, Computer Instruction Specialist, said, “The course I took exceeded my expectations both in quality of content and communication with both peers and facilitators.”

You can explore PBS fall courses and can even try a free 3-hour course entitled Continue reading →

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Empowering Students with New NOVA Curriculum on Algorithms

“Children today are growing up in a world surrounded by AI: algorithms determine what information they see, help select the videos they watch, and shape how they learn to talk,” Karen Hao writes for MIT Technology Review.

With the power of algorithms in young lives, it’s vital that they know how artificial intelligence works.  According to Hao, new curriculum developed at MIT’s Media Lab, Continue reading →

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New Pre-K – 12 Resources for the New School Year

In addition to thousands of existing free resources, PBS Learning Media has new ones for your new school year.

These sample resources for grades Pre-K – 12 include support materials and standards:

ARTHUR All About Community activities help children understand themselves and those around them. Topics include self-esteem, understanding others, and cultural diversity.

Continue reading →

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Still Time to Register | Media and Digital Tool Resources for the New School Year Webinar

As schools across Massachusetts open for a brand new year, many educators are thinking about new ways to add technology in a meaningful way to their classrooms and create a media-rich environment for all students.

In the free webinar, Media and Digital Tool Resources for the New School Year, you’ll hear from three WGBH Educator Ambassadors, in collaboration with WGBY, as they discuss how to create opportunities for leveraging a diverse array of technology tools and seamlessly integrating them with media resources on PBS LearningMedia.

During this webinar — Wednesday, September 4, at 7:00pm — you’ll Continue reading →

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Molly of Denali — PBS KIDS Newest Show Is Also A Podcast

Molly of Denali, which premiered earlier this month, is the first nationally distributed children’s series with a Native American as its lead character.  This latest PBS KIDS production from WGBH Boston is earning high marks, including first-hand praise from a Springfield Head Start class of migrant children. Continue reading →

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Great Assets for WGBY’s Summer of Fun & Learning

WGBY’s 2019 Summer of Fun & Learning is off to a great start, thanks to 4 dedicated student interns who help create engaging activities for Pre-K children at Springfield’s Head Start and YMCA.

Interns are part of New England Farm Workers’ YouthWorks Summer Program, with one who recently graduated from the Springfield High School of Science and Technology and three who will be juniors at Roger L. Putnam Vocational-Technical Academy in the Early Education and Care program.

These interns have expressed an interest in education, and their affinity for children and love of learning are great assets for WGBY’s summer program.  Another great asset are the beloved PBS KIDS characters like Curious George, Daniel Tiger and Elmo, who make children happy to learn during our weekly visits.

We bring books as well as resources from PBS KIDS and PBS for Parents for children, staff and families.  (There are also great classroom resources at PBS LearningMedia.)  In addition, children play PBS KIDS learning games on Playtime Pads and receive their own books to read at home with family and friends.

Can you imagine how many smiles and thank you’s we give and receive each week of WGBY’s Summer of Fun and Learning? (Too many to count!)

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Project-Based Learning Webinars for Your Summer

Summer can offer educators a chance to slow down in their schedules as well as catch up on professional development that’s important to them. This balance of ease and energy allows teachers to return to the classroom refreshed and more confident.

Based on the number of Massachusetts K-12 teachers who registered for two Project-Based Learning (PBL) webinars this past spring, PBL is important to them.  This engaging and Continue reading →

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From Viewers Like You, Thank You

As I write this post, it is my last day here at WGBY, and it is quite bittersweet. On the one hand, I’m about to graduate and move out to the West Coast. On the other hand, I have cherished my time here and have felt I have become a member of the organization. Nevertheless, it is time to say goodbye.

Thank you to Bess, for your guidance and leadership this semester. I truly felt like I was contributing and that I was a vital member of WGBY. Thank you to WGBY as a whole, for giving me such a welcoming place. Thank you to Peter Pan Bus Lines, for without you, I would not have been able to commute from UMass to give everyone their posts.

And lastly, thank you, for reading. Thank you for taking the time to tune into the blog, for using the resources we provided, and for doing what you do. This blog is geared towards education, and so for all you educators, teachers, curriculum makers, etc., thank you. Thank you for inspiring young minds, thank you for teaching children about our world, thank you for ushering in the next generation of brilliance.

Thank you.

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Lest We Forget

This panoramic image from Yad Vashem’s Hall of Names in Jerusalem is said to be Israel’s most important Holocaust memorial.  Its space suggests the magnitude of lives lost during a nightmare from which six million Jews would not awake.

Holocaust Remembrance Day is this Thursday on the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and PBS has many resources for viewers and students to learn and remember.

On Tuesday, April 30, at 10 p.m. WGBY airs the FRONTLINE documentary “The Last Survivors” about Britain’s living survivors, who were children during the nightmare. The film shares intimate interviews about how they have dealt with Holocaust memories and what it’s like to think about dying at a time when acts of anti-Semitism are rising.

For the classroom Continue reading →

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There’s a reason we do this: Teach Poetry

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

These famous words written by acclaimed poet Robert Frost from “The Road Not Taken” are from a poem taught to virtually every child in school. There’s a reason we do this: teach poetry.  It’s because the written word can be an avenue for creative expression.  Words can move us and change us through books, stories, plays, and, of course, poems.

This month is National Poetry Month, originally created in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets.  Throughout the month of April, poets and poetry become the forefront of creative teaching, but just because the month is almost over doesn’t mean this form of art should no longer be taught.  We’re here to help make sure you can bring poetry to your students, wherever and whenever.  Continue reading →