by Donelle Blubaugh Next year, the drama series, MASTERPIECE, will be celebrating its 40th anniversary. The series is dear to the hearts of many language arts and literature teachers. The beautiful productions often help pave the way for students who may not otherwise connect to classic literature and they provide educators with new ways of interpreting and presenting beloved favorites. We would love to hear stories about how educators have integrated MASTERPIECE programs, teaching guides,…
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by Donelle Blubaugh On this sunny, first day of spring I am attending a fascinating meeting designed to bring chief state school officers and public broadcasting station executives together to discuss how state departments of education and local or state public media organizations can work together to create interoperable systems of student achievement data, rich content and professional development services to improve education. We are seeing lots of examples of best practices. All of our…
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by Donelle Blubaugh Janet’s most recent post provides me with a great opening for encouraging our readers to share your innovative teaching experiences with us and win some very cool prizes. Last week we launched the PBS Teachers Innovation Awards initiative. The entry process is pretty easy–shouldn’t take you longer than composing a thoughtful response to this blog post. You’ll find most everything you need to know at http://www.pbs.org/teachers/innovators/. Why are we doing this? Because…
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by Donelle Blubaugh I just watched President Obama’s announcement of his administration’s challenge for improved Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM or METS) education. Over the next several months you’ll hear about the many ways that PBS and local public media stations are embracing this challenge. Today I’ll just point out a few. First, check out the PBS Teachers STEM Education Resource Center. Here, the PBS Teachers Team has assembled samples of free preK-12 STEM education…
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by Donelle Blubaugh One of the chief pleasures of working for PBS is being in a position to help Big Bird, Elmo, Grover and the rest of the gang find their way from Sesame Street to homes and preschools. I was 13 when the series launched 40 years ago and I was more conscious of Batman and the Beatles than of Joan Ganz Cooney’s television miracle, but in the course of time the show and its characters took up residence in my heart and mind as if they had always been there–just as they did…
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by Donelle Blubaugh A new adaptation of The Diary of Anne Frank will premiere this spring on MASTERPIECE Classic on PBS. The two-hour film will air on April 11, 2010, which is Holocaust Remembrance Day. And, of course, the MASTERPIECE Classic team at WGBH will be creating resources to help educators introduce this timeless and timely story to students. I’d like to invite you to lend them a hand. Whether you have been teaching The Diary of Anne Frank as part of your curriculum for years or…
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