Who you are and what is your mission? POV is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. POV premieres 14-16 of the best, boldest and most innovative programs every year on PBS. Since 1988, POV has presented over 300 films to public television audiences across the country. POV films are known for their intimacy, their unforgettable storytelling and their timeliness, putting a human face on contemporary social issues. POV films can be seen at more than 650 events nationwide every year. Together with schools, organizations and local PBS stations, POV facilitates free community screenings and produces free resources to accompany our films, including discussion guides and curriculum-based lesson plans. With our community partners, we inspire dialogue around the most important social issues of our time. Who is your target audience? POV lesson plans are designed for middle and high school students and adhere to national standards (Common Core and McREL). They provide an alternative to common teaching tools by presenting real life stories that humanize complex social issues and connect them to students’ own lived experiences. How can your resources be helpful to educators? POV offers free resources for educators, including over 200 online streaming film clips connected to over 100 Common Core and McREL standards-aligned lesson plans, discussion guides and reading lists. Teachers can sort lesson plans by grade level or subject matter. By registering in our Community Network, educators gain access to over 80 full-length films for use in the classroom for free through our documentary lending library . It is no secret that students today live and learn in a visual world. While much of media has been blamed for student disengagement and disconnection, documentary film can excite and engage students. Students can “read” documentaries just as they would read a text - they engage critically, analyze arguments and synthesize complex ideas. Media literacy is therefore becoming a more and more important part of school curriculum, to the point that eight states have introduced a Media Literacy education bill. Our Behind the Lens lesson plan, Introducing Documentaries to Your Students , helps students understand that documentaries are a type of storytelling that explores factual stories and issues. By the end of the lesson students should know the difference between fact, fiction and opinion. Do you have enrichment and differentiation tools within your resources? Each lesson plan includes extensions that educators can choose to implement in the classroom. These might be homework assignments, or ways to extend the lesson over multiple classes. Many activities within our lesson plans provide activity options to tailor the lesson to the needs of individual classrooms. Is there anything coming up that you would like to encourage teachers to check out? On our For Educators page, teachers can search for standards-aligned lesson plans by subject, grade or featured themes.  The midterm elections and Veteran’s Day are right around the corner. Check out our Veteran’s Day and The Politics of Elections Featured Themes to find all of our related resources in one place, including lesson plans, online features and video, discussion guides and reading lists.