Funders

The U.S. Department of Education
Created in 2000, PBS TeacherLine is funded by a Ready To Teach grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The grant is provided to help teachers use technology for in-depth professional development, offering more than 100 facilitated online courses across grade levels and subject areas for recertification and/or graduate credit. PBS TeacherLine builds upon the work of a previous professional development project funded by the Department of Education, PBS Mathline.

The U.S. Department of Education also funds the PBS KIDS Ready To Learn project. Ready To Learn provides literacy-focused educational on-air programming for grades preK-8 as well as online content for kids, parents and teachers. Local community outreach and robust research are also components of the Ready To Learn program.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting
CPB has provided funds that enable the relaunch and expansion of a number of our Web sites most visited by K-12 teachers and students, among them Lewis and Clark, The U.S.-Mexican War, and Egypt's Golden Empire.

Additionally, CPB has provided special funding to support web-original content as part of the PBS KIDS GO! online destination for elementary-age students. CPB's funding has enabled the launch of sites like EekoWorld, It's My Life, and News Flash Five.

Collaborators

PBS is pleased to provide digital video content to leading K-12 video-on-demand providers like Discovery's unitedstreaming and Library Video's Safari Montage service.

PBS develops its TeacherLine online professional development courses through collaborations with organizations such as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), and the Concord Consortium.

PBS has also developed promotional alliances with groups like the American Association of School Librarians (AASL), EF Tours, the National Education Association (NEA), the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), National History Day, Parenting magazine's Mom Congress and others. If your organization is interested in promotional exchanges with PBS, please contact us.

PBS Teacher Leaders

The PBS Teachers Community Manager and the PBS Teacher Leaders serve as online ambassadors to welcome new teachers to the online community, lead discussions on various topics and subjects, share ideas and resources with peers, and encourage other PBS Teachers members to get involved. Additionally, educator group members work collaboratively to broaden the reach of public media in teaching and learning through the online community and the PBS Teachers Web site, connect educators with local PBS member stations, and recognize and reward exemplary instructors.

Community Manager: Leticia Barr

Leticia Barr is currently a Technology Magnet Coordinator for Montgomery County Public Schools where she uses her background in early childhood education and teacher development and leadership to integrate technology into classroom instruction and provide professional development to her staff. Leticia is also well-versed in the online environment as a distance learning instructor and blogger. She has taught online classes for University of Maryland, PBS TeacherLine, and Northampton Community College.

Leticia blends her professional career with motherhood through her website, Tech Savvy Mama, a site where she assists parents in locating quality technology resources for their children. Leticia also writes about local resources and activities for children with an educational twist as the City Editor for Being Savvy Washington DC. Leticia graduated from Mount Holyoke College, holds an M.A.T from Tufts University, and an M.S. in Education with focuses in Administration and Supervision and Leadership in Technology Integration.

Teacher Leader: Paul Blankenship
Paul Blankenship teaches gifted social studies at Caddo Middle Magnet School in Shreveport, La. A third generation educator, he has experienced both sides of the teacher's desk in the gifted classroom. After a career change from social work, he started his teaching career at Hamilton Terrace Learning Center, the alternative school for Caddo Parish. He earned three master's degrees in education, counseling and social work, as well as completed dual majors in history and religion/philosophy at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala. An admitted technophile, Blankenship updates students and parents through a course blog, Web site, and links blog.

Teacher Leader: Michelle Bourgeois
During her 20-year teaching career, Michelle Bourgeois has had the opportunity to work with students in grades K-8 as a teacher of math, science, and computer education, and has served as the School Technology Coordinator and District Technology Trainer. Currently, she is the Faculty Professional Growth Specialist at Pensacola Catholic High School in Pensacola, Fla. She has spoken at over a dozen state and national conferences, including the annual conferences of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Northwest Council for Computer Education, National Catholic Education Association, and the Florida Educational Technology Conference. For the past four summers, she has led the Digital Learning Summer Institute, a week-long seminar for private school teachers in northwest Florida. Bourgeois was selected as an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2003, and has been a contributing writer to Scholastic.com since 1995.

Teacher Leader: Jacqueline Derby
Jacqueline Derby is a professor and researcher in the field of educational technology and teacher professional development. She is an instructor for several universities, as well as for PBS TeacherLine, a premier provider of online professional development courses for preK-12 educators. Prior to teaching graduate and undergraduate classes, Dr. Derby was a middle school art teacher for Carlsbad Municipal Schools in Carlsbad, N.M. and an instructor for the Intel Teach to the Future program. She is a co-founder of the Teacher Networking Center, which focuses on teacher professional development in the virtual world Second Life, and is a docent for the International Society for Technology in Education, also in Second Life. She will be presenting on how educators can use Second Life for professional development purposes at the National Education Computing Conference (NECC) in Washington, D.C. this summer.

Teacher Leader: Michael Hutchison
Michael Hutchison is a social studies teacher at Lincoln High School in Vincennes, Ind. He also serves as a faculty member for Connected University and adjunct faculty at Vincennes University. He is president of the Indiana Computer Educators association, and is a past member of the Indiana Council for the Social Studies Board of Directors. He and his students have been honored on the state and national level for their use of classroom technology. Hutchison has contributed lessons and articles for various print and broadcast media, including C-SPAN, Social Studies School Service, "Tech & Learning" magazine, and "Cable in the Classroom Magazine." He has written curriculum for several PBS films, including "The War," "The Civil War," "Horatio's Drive," and "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson."

Teacher Leader: Sarah McMane
Now in her 12th year at Tappan Zee High School in Orangeburg, N.Y., Sarah McMane teaches English to students in grades 9-12. In addition, she has taught Public Speaking, Poetry, Writer's Workshop, American Popular Culture, and Senior Seminar, a course that allows seniors to explore career interests through local internships. A grant recipient of the Southampton Writers Conference, McMane studied poetry with U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, and maintains an interest in creative writing. She has been the advisor to the school's literary magazine, Tones, for the past seven years, during which the magazine won numerous awards from Syracuse University's Empire State School Press Association. In addition, McMane founded the Tappan Zee High School English Honor Society as well as her school's Peer Leadership Program. Through student nominations, she has been recognized as a Tufts University Teacher of Excellence and a Teen Ink National Educator of the Year (Honorable Mention).

PBS Teachers Advisory Group, 2008-2009

Anthony J. Augustin
Now in his 25th year of teaching, Anthony Augustin has spent more than half of his life serving the students of his rural Tennessee school system. During his tenure with the Lawrence County school system, Anthony has taught students in grades 7-12. He holds a Master of Arts in Education degree from the University of North Alabama and is currently working toward an Educational Specialist degree in Educational Leadership. Throughout his career as an educator, Anthony has focused on putting technology into the hands of his students. He has been recognized at local, state, and national levels for his excellence in teaching, and in 2006, he was named a Joseph B. Whitehead Educator of Distinction by the Coca-Cola Scholars Foundation and honored with the Foundation for Rural Education and Development's Rural Teacher of the Year Award. He currently teaches physical, earth and environmental sciences at Loretto High School in Loretto, Tennessee.

Babs L. Bengtson, Ph.D.
Babs L. Bengtson, Ph.D., is the Director of Educational Services at Penn State Public Broadcasting (PSPB). Bengtson comes to PSPB with 20 years experience in education, winning national awards in instructional design and one national award for her research. She has worked for a variety of companies, including US Airways and Ford Motor Company, where she gained international instructional design experience. Bengtson created and managed her own company, Bridge Builders, for several years before joining Penn State University full time. After joining Penn State in 1998, Bengtson developed professional development programs for K-12 teachers, and has taught several courses for pre-service teachers, helping them learn how to incorporate multimedia in the classroom. Bengtson earned her Ph.D. in Workforce Education/Training and Development from Penn State in 1994 and a Masters of Education in Adult Education, also from Penn State. Her Bachelors of Arts degree in History and English is from Geneva College, a small, liberal arts college in Beaver Falls, PA.

Jane Ching Fung
Jane Ching Fung has over 24 years of experience in the field of teaching and learning. She is in her 21st year of teaching for the Los Angeles Unified School District and currently teaches full-day kindergarten at the Alexander Science Center School in Exposition Park. She has facilitated professional development in Early Literacy at the school, district, and state level. Jane is an active member of the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning (www.cftl.org), serves on the board of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (www.nctaf.org) and The Larchmont Charter School in Los Angeles (www.larchmontcharter.org). She is a 2002 Milken Educator, National Board Certified, and holds a Masters Degree in Curriculum and Instruction (Reading and Language Arts). In 2001, Jane served on Governor Guinn's Education Commission of the States' Early Literacy Council and was a member of the Independent Citizens for California's Children Committee. Her research with Teachers Network Leadership Institute (www.teachersnetwork.org/tnli/index.htm) on new teacher collaboration is included in TNLI's book: Taking Action with Teacher Research.

Leah Clapman
Leah Clapman, Managing Editor- Education, has been with the Online NewsHour since its inception in 1995, and created NewsHour Extra, the award-winning current events web site for students and teachers. Leah and NewsHour Extra have produced some of the most popular news-related education materials on PBS.org, including Iraq War lesson plans that were the focus of articles in the New York Times and the Philadelphia Inquirer. Leah has overseen partnerships with Knight-Ridder to produce youth-oriented features in education newspaper sections and Global Kids to produce online dialogues about current events that involved over 100,000 youth from around the world. She currently advises News Flash Five, a Channel Thirteen news web site for elementary school students. Leah worked on the television side of "The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour," CNN's "Headline News" and CNN Interactive in Atlanta.p>

Heather Dzikiy
Heather Dzikiy is now in her fifth year of teaching at Sykesville Elementary School, a National Blue Ribbon Award winner in DuBois, Pennsylvania. She has taught third, fourth and a multi-age class of both grades. Heather has a B.A. in Criminology and Spanish from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, as well as a B.S. in Elementary Education from Clarion University. In addition to teaching in her district, she also serves as a mentor teacher as well as a teacher trainer in the areas of technology integration, differentiated instruction, and data interpretation. Heather is a recipient of the Keystone Technology Integrator Award and was featured in the 2006-2007 edition of Who's Who Among America's Teachers. In 2006, Heather participated in the creation of professional development materials for the PA Department of Education, and she has been a presenter at the National Value-Added Conference for the past three years. Heather has collaborated with her local PBS station, WPSU, on their Blue Ribbon Readers Project.

Traci Feldhousen
Traci Feldhousen is beginning her 6th year homeschooling her two children, currently a 5th grader and a 2nd grader. She graduated from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia with a double degree in history and Russian language. Over the past few years, she has been a participant in several educational cooperatives and has just completed a 2-year term as one of the leaders of her local homeschool support group.p>

Dennis Grice
Dennis Grice is the Technology Coordinator at St. John's Lutheran School in Orange, CA, where he spends his time helping teachers integrate technology into their lessons, training them to use new technology tools, and assisting them in teaching with the school's computer lab and mobile lab carts. He is a STAR Discovery Educator and serves on the School Technology Advisory Team for Lutheran Schools in Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada. Dennis has presented at teacher in-services, workshops, and conferences including Days of Discovery in Orange & LA County, Lutheran Educators Conference, CAPSO, and OCCUE. He has a passion for digital storytelling and encouraging students to be creative and innovative. Dennis has a Bachelor of Arts in Math from Concordia University and a Master of Arts in Instructional Technology from Long Beach State. Dennis attended the Discovery National Teacher Institute and was a 2008 recipient of an Inspired Teacher Best Project Scholarship from Inspiration Software, but these accomplishments are not as important as seeing teachers that he has trained successfully and enthusiastically using technology with their students.

Mary Henton
Since joining National Middle School Association in 1999, Mary Henton has had several positions with the association, from Director of Professional Development to Director of Integrated Media Initiatives (current). Mary is responsible for providing direction about leveraging technology and media to benefit the association and its stakeholders. Mary's entire career has been in education. She has been an English teacher, outdoor education teacher, adventure and experiential education trainer and curriculum developer, and consultant in team development and learning. She has a B.A. in English (Gordon College) and an Ed.M. (Harvard University, Graduate School of Education).

Don Jepsen-Minyard
Don Jepsen-Minyard has taught at Crescent Valley High School in Corvallis, Oregon since 1990. Currently, he designs and teaches courses relating to images: Graphic Design, Interactive Design, Photography and a new, team taught English course, Story and Film. Throughout his career, He has maintained an interest both in designing instruction and in personal development. He created a video class for high school students in conjunction with the Journalism department at Oregon State University and the Northwest Film Center. He completed the Film Center's Media Arts for Teachers program. For two academic years, he collaborated with Bob Madar, winner of the Christine McAuliffe grant, to design and implement project-based curriculum. Two of his students produced "People of the Walamala," a video about the ethnobotany of the Kalapuya Indians, which has been added to many University library collections in the Pacific Northwest. He worked briefly as a consultant for JD Hoye, formerly the national director of the Federal School to Work program, to design video- based training materials.

Gregg Legutki
Gregg Legutki is currently a Lead Project Specialist for California Technology Assistance Project (CTAP) in Southern California, covering Riverside, Inyo, Mono, and San Bernardino Counties. Prior to working for CTAP, Gregg was a classroom teacher for over 25 years, mostly in special education. Gregg started out using technology in the classroom with the original Apple for the Teacher Program in the early '80s. He was a technology mentor both at the district and school site level. Gregg has been involved with technology integration for classroom use for well over 20 years. In his current position, Gregg works with schools and districts developing workshops for teachers and site administrators on effective classroom technology integration. He also teaches a teacher prep class for Chapman University on technology integration.

Marnie Lewis
Marnie Lewis received a B.S. in elementary education from Northeastern University in 1994 and in 2002 completed graduate work in instructional technology through George Mason University. She has taught in third, fifth and eighth grade classrooms over the past 10 years. She is currently entering her third year as an Instructional Technology Coordinator for Arlington Public Schools in Virginia. Her role affords her the opportunity to review and evaluate educational sites and software to enhance instruction. She works directly with staff on a daily basis designing and teaching technology infused lessons.

Malinda McCormick
Malinda McCormick is starting her second year at KLRN in San Antonio, Texas as Director of School Services. Malinda comes to PBS with an extensive knowledge and background in K-12 educational technology. Having worked for years in the schools, from integrating technology to writing grants and building computers, Malinda pushed progress for her schools to embrace technology in everyday practice. In her first year at KLRN, she managed a full-day onsite ed tech conference, successfully implemented marketing strategies through several social media Web 2.0 tools, produced several local shows on education topics, attended and presented at local and national conferences, and was recognized for her volunteer work for the International Society for Technology in Education. Malinda graduated from Oklahoma State University with two degrees in Business Management and Management Information Systems.

Dan McDowell
Dan McDowell has spent the last eleven years teaching social studies at West Hills. During that time, he has actively been involved in technology integration at the local, state, and national levels, giving numerous workshops and presentations on variety of topics including WebQuests, blogs, wikis, and digital video. Most recently McDowell presented at the National Education Computing Conference in San Diego. In 2002 he was named Classroom Connect's Internet Educator for the Year for the Western United States. In Spring 2006, he completed his MA in Educational Technology at San Diego State University and was award the privilege of representing the graduating class as the honor graduate for the department. This fall he was hired by SDSU to teach a graduate level seminar on digital video. At http://www.ahistoryteacher.com/wordpress, McDowell blogs about issues related to his day-to-day experiences as a classroom teacher and educational technologist. His online portfolio may be accessed at http://ahistoryteacher.com/.

Alicia Narvaez
Alicia Narvaez is Creator/Director of the "Virtual Pre-K & K" program, a national multimedia parent involvement initiative based out of the Chicago Public Schools Office of Early Childhood Education. She is responsible for overall program development and implementation in Chicago and with school districts in Illinois, Texas, California, Colorado and Nevada. In May 2006, the Virtual K program was awarded the Codie Award for "Best Instructional Solution: Students at Home." Prior to her current work in public education, Alicia spent a decade in educational television and media production. Her credits include work for the Discovery Channel, National Geographic Television, CBS News, NOVA, and the BBC.

Sara Reibman
Sara Reibman is a librarian at Biblioteca Las Américas where she works with the staff and students of the Science Academy and the South Texas High School for Health Professions, both magnet schools in the Rio Grande Valley. Sara works on the BLA web site (http://bla.stisd.net), the ¡VIVA! Peer Tutor Program (http://bla.stisd.net/viva.htm), online services, and photo classes. In 2006, her library won the National School Library Media Program of the Year award from the American Association of School Librarians and she received the Information Technology Pathfinder of the Year award from the same institution. Sara received her B.A. from the University of Maryland in 1975 and her M.L.I.S. from Texas Woman's University in 2000.

Angela Santomero
Angela Santomero is a founding partner of Out of the Blue Enterprises LLC, and the creator, executive producer and head writer of the new PBS literacy series - Super Why! For the past 10 years, Angela has been the production and creative head of Nick Jr.'s landmark series, Blue's Clues. Angela's ability to integrate education, entertainment and active participation has helped make Blue's Clues a breakthrough educational program. Under her guidance, Blue's Clues has forever changed the way in which preschoolers watch television, by presenting them with a unique, challenging program than enables them to learn through play. Angela's newest creation, Super Why, is a literacy series for kids 3-6 year old which is the only preschool property created to help kids learn the fundamentals of reading through interactive storybook adventures. Super Why received a prestigious Ready to Learn grant from the Department of Education. Angela earned a Master's degree in Child Developmental Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University and a B.A. from Catholic University.

Sandy St. Louis
Sandy St. Louis is educational outreach manager for FRONTLINE where she develops content for the FRONTLINE Teacher Center, an online destination that offers lesson plans and activities to teachers. Prior to joining FRONTLINE, she worked for nearly a decade in documentary film and video distribution to the educational marketplace.

Tonya Wright
Tonya Wright has over twenty years of experience in the field of early childhood education. She has taught preschool, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten. Tonya has helped child care programs achieve national accreditation is now an administrator for a federal child care program. She mentors early childhood teachers and Child Development Association (CDA) candidates. Tonya has professional interests in Reggio Emilia, the project approach and the RIE approach and has a deep passion for early learning with a special interest in language and literacy. Tonya's undergraduate work is in Early Childhood Education and Psychology and received her Masters Degree in Educational Technology. Tonya has been published in various national, state, and local teacher magazines and newsletters. She is a member of the Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi and the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Recently Tonya began her Room to Grow blog and she also writes for Literacy Connections. Tonya wants to help parents and teachers expand their use of literacy activities and age-appropriate technology-related learning with young children.

Ceit Zweil
Ceit Zweil is a producer of kids' Web sites at WGBH in Boston. After five years at the helm of the highly-acclaimed ARTHUR Web site, she is currently producing the companion site for the new kids engineering series DESIGN SQUAD. She has worked with PBS to pilot new Parents & Teachers editorial guidelines on ARTHUR (and continued efforts to deliver rich supporting online content for grown-ups as producer of the CURIOUS GEORGE Parents & Teachers area. Ceit has served as project manager and content producer for several other WGBH-produced sites, including ZOOM, TIME WARP TRIO, AMERICAN EXPERIENCE's WAYBACK, and the ARTHUR/Children's Hospital Boston portal for kids. She has a BA in European History from Smith College, and a MA in Theatre Education (with a focus on interdisciplinary education through the arts) from Emerson College. Prior to WGBH, Ceit developed an interdisciplinary arts/science curriculum for a local education company. She is a performer and dance teacher in the Boston area.