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This Month's Newsletter | klrn.org

April 2007
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KLRN is celebrating Earth Day all month long with free giveaways from the programs It's a Big Big World and Planet H2O. Click here for details.

KLRN Spotlights

PBS Launches Comprehensive Pre-K-12 Educator WebSite: PBS Teachers
Last month, PBS unveiled one of its most comprehensive Web undertakings in years with the debut of PBS Teachers, PBS’ portal for pre-K-12 educators (www.pbs.org/teachers). Among the most relevant new and enhanced features of PBS Teachers:

  • PBS’ newest blog, “Media Infusion” (www.pbs.org/teachers/mediainfusion), showcasing ideas for and encouraging conversations about using media and technology in the classroom
  • Thousands of free standards-based lesson plans, classroom activities, interactive resources and more.
  • Hundreds of curriculum resources from PBS stations around the country.
  • Dedicated areas for early childhood educators, library media specialists, and technology coordinators.
  • Showcases for public broadcasting’s award-winning video content — including on-demand streaming video from selected PBS programs.
  • Professional development opportunities for graduate credit and recertification, from PBS TeacherLine.

Resources

It's a Big Big World Giveaway
Snook
and his friends from It’s a Big Big World are here to help you teach children about science, nature, geography, and the environment with a free Activities & Learning Resources packet. Everything you need to incorporate this innovative PBS Kids series into your programs for 3-6 year olds is included. Only 30 resource packets are available, so send your e-mail with the subject “It’s a Big Big World Giveaway” to gbrown@klrn.org now! Don’t forget to include your name, phone number, school, and mailing address.


Planet H2O Giveaway
In celebration of Earth Day, KLRN is giving away 40 free teacher's guides from the Planet H2O television program. The activities and lesson plans in this packet, geared for grades 3-12, give teachers the opportunity to engage their students in cost-effective science experiments that explore issues in environmental science such as the essential water cycle, the necessity of conservation and the role agriculture and irrigation play in global water use. The first 40 people to email gbrown@klrn.org with the subject "Planet H2O Giveaway" will receive this free packet. Don't forget to include your name, phone number, school, and mailing address. Supplies are limited, so email us today!

April 15 is Holocaust Remembrance Day
Join KLRN on a chronological exploration of the largest mass murder site in history with the PBS series Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State. Educator resources for the series are included at the program website, including:
  • Teaching Guides related to each one-hour episode of the series developed for high school teachers of social studies, English, and humanities courses
  • Interactive maps, archival maps, blueprints, and photos
  • Timelines
  • Biographies
  • A Glossary
  • Web resources

Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State airs April 13 at 9 p.m. on KLRN, channel 9.

Additional classroom resources are available at the Holocaust Museum Houston website.

Celebrate the Earth with PBS Kids and PBS Kids Go!’s ‘Share the Earth Day’
On April 20, Earth Day-themed episodes from the PBS Kids shows Curious George, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Dragon Tales and It’s a Big Big World will air alongside themed music videos from the award-winning kids' rock band, Milkshake, starting at 7 a.m. on KLRN, channel 9. In addition to the preschool block, PBS Kids Go! celebrates Earth Day with themed programming from Arthur, Maya & Miguel, Cyberchase, and Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman, starting at 4 p.m. on KLRN, channel 9.  Early elementary school kids will find creative ideas to take care of the environment by recycling, cleaning up their neighborhoods and more. Visit pbskidsgo.org for more information.


KLRN’s Planet Patrol Website
April 22 is Earth Day, so get your students thinking in environmentally-friendly ways with our Planet Patrol website. This site is designed to help children between the ages of 6 and 9 learn about the important role they can play in taking care of the earth through an engaging and interactive format that invites children to explore, experiment, and collaborate as they learn about conservation and the environment.

Check out our Teacher’s Section for four lessons, each with objectives, required materials, related KLRN programs, websites, step-by-step activity directions, and handouts. We’ve even included certificates and membership cards for your students! Visit klrn.org/planetpatrol today!

April is Child Abuse Prevention Month
Join KLRN in helping to protect our community’s children. April is Child Abuse Awareness month, and your 2007 Promoting Healthy Families in Your Community Resource Packet is available online at www.itsuptoyou.org. You’ll find information to distribute to parents and helpful information for educators. Child Abuse Prevention is stopping child abuse and neglect before it happens. This resource gives you the information you need to help detect and report child abuse and help keep our children safe.

Take action!
1,745 children in San Antonio were removed from their homes because of abuse and neglect in 2004. This is a 39% increase in removals over 2003. Find out how you can help by volunteering with CASA.

PBS TeacherLine of Texas

Tune in During March to See These Programs

classroom use - content knowledge - professional growth - current events - instructional television - community awareness

DESIGN SQUAD
Sunday, April 1 (airs Sundays at 2:30 PM)

Watch two teams of teens battling it out engineering-style in this entertaining reality competition.


NATURE: UNFORGETTABLE ELEPHANTS
Sunday, April 1 at 7 p.m.

Wildlife cameraman Martyn Colbeck has filmed African elephants for 15 years, learning to anticipate their every move as he follows them across plains and deserts and into jungles. He shares his spectacular footage and unique insights about these unforgettable elephants, including his conviction that they are just as intelligent as the higher primates.


INDEPENDENT LENS: CHINA BLUE
Tu
esday, April 3 at 10 p.m.

Jasmine left her village in a remote part of China to get a job and help her family. Now she and her teenage friends at the blue jeans factory are trying to survive in a brutal work environment. Shot clandestinely, the program takes a rare and poignant look at the individuals who toil day-to-day to make the clothes we buy.


NOVEL REFLECTIONS ON THE AMERICAN DREAM
Wednesday, April 4 at 9 p.m.

Presented in a dynamic visual style this program examines these themes reflected through universal characters found in Theodore Dreiser's "Sister Carrie," Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth," F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" and John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath." Passages from each book are dramatized through haunting still photography and woven together with original and archival footage to evoke the American spirit.


STORY OF 1
T
hursday, April 5 at 10 p.m.

The story of the number one is the story of Western civilization. Terry Jones goes on a humor-filled journey to discover just what an amazing tale lies behind the world's simplest number. Its story reveals how celebrated civilizations were achieved, where our modern numbers came from and how the invention of zero changed the world forever - and saved us from having to use Roman numerals today.


AUSCHWITZ: INSIDE THE NAZI STATE
Airs April 6, 13, and 20 at 9:00 PM

“SURPRISING BEGINNINGS”--The first segment of this telling series details why Auschwitz was chosen as a concentration camp site.

”ORDERS AND INITIATIVES”--The second examines how the Nazis formulated a system that

would mechanize mass exterminations.


MASTERPIECE THEATRE: THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
Su
nday, April 8 at 8 p.m.

MASTERPIECE THEATRE presents a delightful new adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's classic children's book "The Wind in the Willows." The 90-minute film follows the adventurous and wealthy Toad as he ignores cleaning his house and begins on a path of trouble.


FAT: WHAT NO ONE IS TELLING YOU
W
ednesday, April 11 at 9 p.m.

Open abuse of fat people is the last accepted prejudice. Obesity experts have a growing awareness of the complex human puzzle that is driving this epidemic and creating so much personal pain in a society that worships "thin." FAT: WHAT NO ONE IS TELLING YOU gives viewers a window into the intense human dramas that rage inside people who have been labeled obese and the difficulty of solving their weight problem.


HIDDEN CHILD
Th
ursday, April 12 at 10 p.m.

Of the 1.6 million Jewish children who lived in Europe before WWII, only 100,000 survived the Holocaust. Most were hidden, shuttered away in attics, cellars, convents or in villages and farms. This program chronicles the wartime experiences of Maud Dahme, one of an estimated 5,000 Jewish children hidden from the Nazis by righteous gentiles in the Netherlands.


AUSCHWITZ: INSIDE THE NAZI STATE
Airs April 6, 13, and 20 at 9:00 PM


“FACTORIES OF DEATH”—This continuing story includes in its first hour an examination of the complexity of the Nazi extermination plan, with Auschwitz as its hub.

“CORRUPTION”-- The second hour shows that Auschwitz, unique as both a concentration and extermination camp, made money for the Nazis.

WHEN PARENTS ARE DEPLOYED
Sunday, April 15 at 5:30 a.m.

This program is the story of young American military families struggling with the sacrifices of long-term deployment. Hosted by Cuba Gooding Jr., it captures the courage and vulnerability of both parents and children.


AUSCHWITZ: INSIDE THE NAZI STATE
Airs April 6, 13, and 20 at 9:00 PM

“MURDER AND INTRIGUE”--Examine the international complexities involved in the reasons why the Allies never bombed the railways leading to the gas chambers, even though they knew of the camp's existence.

”LIBERATION AND REVENGE”--In the second hour, the Nazis force thousands to march west as the Red Army advances. The Russians liberate the camp on February 27, discovering only 7,600 survivors. The search for the perpetrators begins.


Share the Earth Day with PBS Kids Go!
Friday, April 20 beginning at 4 p.m.

Kids can learn helpful ways to take care of the Earth by watching "Share the Earth on PBS KIDS GO!" This two-hour "Earth-friendly" themed block of programming will air on Friday, April 20th and feature the following episodes:

Arthur - "Buster's Green Thumb/My Fair Tommy"
Cyberchase - "Ecohaven Ooze"
Fetch! - "That Doesn't Float My Boat"
Maya & Miguel - "Everyday is Earth Day"


NATURE: DOGS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, PT. 1
Sunday, April 22 at 7 p.m.

From the tiniest Chihuahua to the largest St. Bernard, all dogs claim the wolf as their ancestor. Using DNA analysis and other research, scientists have now pieced together the puzzle of canine evolution, creating a fascinating picture of some of the essential dogs vital to the canine population. Part one chronicles the evolution of dogs and how they infiltrated human society.


MASTERPIECE THEATRE BLEAK HOUSE - PART 1
Sundays at 8 p.m. beginning April 22

The wards of the notorious lawsuit of Jarndyce and Jarndyce come to Bleak House to live with John Jarndyce, together with orphan Esther Summerson. Nemo, a destitute copyist in the case, dies, but not before attracting the intense interest of Lady Dedlock and her husband's malevolent lawyer, Tulkinghorn.


NOVA: SAVED BY THE SUN
Tuesday, April 24 at 8 p.m.

NOVA examines problems and possible solutions to global warming in this program. The most promising renewable energy has always been solar power. However, even with decades of solar power research, scientists still don't know if it's a reliable source of electricity.


FRONTLINE: HOT POLITICS
Tuesday, April 24 at 9 p.m.

Go behind the scenes to explore how bi-partisan political and economic forces prevented the U.S. government from confronting what may be one of the most serious problems facing humanity today. The film examines some of the key moments that have shaped the politics of global warming, and how local and state governments and the private sector are now taking bold steps in the absence of federal leadership.


NATURE: DOGS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD, PT. 2 - DOGS BY DESIGN
Sunday, April 29 at 7 p.m.

Some working dogs are able to use their skills to perform tasks they were bred for; there are still jobs today for herders, hunters and guard dogs. But as we multiply and transform the many breeds of dogs, honing their looks and their sizes, we also change our relationship with them, and theirs with us. How can we learn to cope with the hard-wired instincts of our pets, and what roles can they play in a world their ancestors would hardly recognize?



Visit our complete online programming guide for current listings.

Some programs may be available to purchase at www.shoppbs.org, or for video taping and copyright information, click here.

COMMUNITY HAPPENINGS

San Antonio Children’s Museum
Kids can be like the cast of the PBS show ZOOM by participating in hands-on science experiments.Visit the Museum's ZOOMzone every Saturday (12-4 pm). http://www.sakids.org/exhibits.html

 Talk To Us

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