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KLRN Educator Resources | September 2024

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by
Ian Cruz
• Published on
KLRN Education

Dear Friends,

The school year is starting strong! We know it is a busy time of year. KLRN PBS is happy to be a free, trusted educational resource for you! As an awesome new resource, we invite you to check out FREE, fun professional development from PBS KIDS! From PBS KIDS, this self-paced professional development for PK3-2nd grade teachers highlights new tools to engage young minds. A fun chance to expand your toolkit, the training provides a certificate that may fulfill required hours for continuing education!

This month, we continue our focus on the importance of community, civic engagement, and sharing our voices. Everyone is important, and is a valuable part of our community. From September 15-October 15, we celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and the amazing people of the past and present, and look ahead to the future pioneers of positive change!  KLRN offers a great variety of programs both on-air and online. This month on KLRN, check out these fun educational programs:

  • Cyberchase (6:00 am - weekdays on KLRN 9.1)
  • Alma’s Way (6:30 am - weekdays on KLRN 9.1)
  • Lyla in the Loop (7:00 am - weekdays on KLRN 9.1)
  • Rosie’s Rules (8:30 am - weekdays on KLRN 9.1)
  • Sesame Street (9:00 am - weekdays on KLRN 9.1)
  • Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum (12:30 pm - weekdays on  KLRN 9.1)

 

Please see the KLRN Schedule for details on these and even more great shows for the whole family!

Our friends at Texas PBS have built a collection of resources about conservation for Texas teachers.Check out the collection of Texas Conservation Lesson Plans Available Now in PBS LearningMedia. Texas is home to some of the most unique wildlife, people and places in the nation. A new partnership between Texas PBS stations and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) showcases what we can all do to Take Care of Texas. Teachers are invited to take the pledge to make our state's unique resources available to the next generation. Texas PBS and TCEQ are teaming up to build more awareness of important ways we can all protect and conserve what’s unique about Texas. This new collection of free lesson plans and student worksheets designed to spark activities, lessons and discussions about conservation. Topics include air, water, and waste conservation tactics and strategies. The collection will use insights and data from TCEQ researchers and science experts. The Texas environmental collection is intended for K-12 classroom teachers, informal educators, and parents who are looking for science-based educational learning materials.

 

Free Professional Development Training Sessions:

We at KLRN invite you to join us for our virtual educator sessions which, as always, are free of charge and offer continuing education credit. 

VIRTUAL: Saturday, 9/07 from 8:30am-12pm: KLRN Back-to-School Emotional Wellness Summit: Join KLRN for a special Back-to-School Emotional Wellness Summit. This free, virtual, 3.5-hour session will offer professional development continuing education credit upon completion of the session and accompanying post survey. Special guest speakers are professionals in the mental health field. We hope to see you there! Please register here

VIRTUAL: Tuesday, 9/10 from 6pm-7pm: KLRN Educator Session: Hispanic Heritage Month Teaching Resources with PBS Learning Media: Join KLRN to learn about teaching resources for celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. This session is open to educators of all grade levels. Thank you to Firstmark for supporting this event. 1 hour of continuing education credit will be awarded upon completion of the session and accompanying post survey. Please register here

VIRTUAL: Thursday, 9/12 from 6pm-7pm: KLRN Educator and Family Session: Financial Literacy: Join KLRN and Diane Bacon of Firstmark Credit Union to learn about financial literacy resources for use in your classroom and at home. This session is open to the community and educators of all grade levels. Thank you to Firstmark for supporting this event. 1 hour of continuing education credit will be awarded upon completion of the session and accompanying post survey. Please register here

VIRTUAL: Thursday, 9/26 from 6pm-8pm: KLRN Educator Session: The Healthy Kids Project: Health Awareness and Food Safety: Join KLRN to learn about health awareness and food safety. Our special guest will be Chef Asantewaa. This session is geared toward early childhood and elementary educators, but all are welcome to attend. Thank you to the San Antonio Medical Foundation and Firstmark for supporting this event. 2 hours of continuing education credit will be awarded upon completion of the session and accompanying post survey. Please register here

 

Please visit https://www.klrn.org/events/ to learn more and to register for any (or all!) of these sessions. Thank you to the San Antonio Medical Foundation and Firstmark Credit Union for generously supporting KLRN’s Educator Sessions. 

PBS LearningMedia Resources:

On PBS LearningMedia, you can find thousands of high-quality educational resources for all grade levels for free! Setting up an account is easy to do (and completely free!) Visit https://klrn.pbslearningmedia.org/ to sign up today to get access to any of the over 30,000 state standards-aligned educational resources for free! Here is a short video tutorial that explains how in a few quick steps, you can create an account and create class rosters, too. Some highlighted PBS Learning Media collections and resources we recommend this month are: 

  • Cyberchase (Grades PreK-2) This collection features a variety of resources designed to spark curiosity and boost math & problem-solving skills. Each resource integrates the fun and adventure of the animated series Cyberchase with practical math strategies for elementary and middle school students. Students will join the CyberSquad in exploring mathematical concepts, from basic numbers and operations to more complex topics like algebra and data analysis.
  • Alma’s Way (Grades PreK-2) ALMA’S WAY follows 6-year-old Alma Rivera, a proud, confident Puerto Rican girl who lives in the Bronx with her family among a diverse group of close-knit friends and community members. In every episode, ALMA’S WAY aims to model self-awareness, self-advocacy, social awareness, cultural competency and responsible decision-making—encouraging kids to generate and value their own ideas and questions. ALMA’S WAY celebrates and explores the thinking process—Alma’s “way” is to think things through! As she shares her observations and feelings and works through challenges, she speaks directly to young viewers, offering them a window into her everyday life.
  • Lyla in the Loop (Grades K-2) Lyla in the Loop is a PBS KIDS animated series for kids ages 4-8. The show stars Lyla, a dynamic 7-year-old girl, her close-knit family, fantastical blue sidekick Stu, and a host of relatable and quirky characters living in her city community, who together spotlight creative problem-solving and critical thinking skills while working collaboratively with others. In every adventure, Lyla collaborates with family and friends to help others in her community while introducing the audience to foundational computational thinking concepts. The series supports a wide range of learners, modeling creative expression and flexible step-by-step approaches to problem-solving.
  • Rosie's Rules (Grades PreK-2) Rosie’s Rules is a new PBS KIDS® animated comedy series for preschoolers starring 5-year-old Rosie Fuentes, a Mexican-American girl just beginning to learn about the wow-mazing world. Rosie’s Rules aims to teach children concrete social studies lessons about how a community works, helping them develop an awareness of themselves as individuals and as part of a broader society. Like many children across the country, Rosie is part of a blended, multicultural family; Papá is from Mexico City and Mom is from rural Wisconsin. Rosie has a little brother, Iggy, and an older sister, Crystal, who is Mom’s child from her first marriage. The Fuentes family lives together in suburban Texas with their cat (and Rosie’s partner-in-crime), Gatita. Rosie is bilingual in English and Spanish and loves to celebrate her multicultural identity. Throughout the series, she joyfully introduces viewers to the art, traditions and foods of the Southwest, Midwest and Mexico.
  • Sesame Street (Grades PreK-2) Do you know how to get to Sesame Street? This collection is designed to engage preschoolers in everyday learning by teaching core skills in Math, Literacy, STEM, and Social and Emotional Development. Here you'll find hundreds of videos, games, and printable materials to help you to excite even the youngest learners. Plus, check out more from Sesame Street, including cross-platform educational games spanning wide-ranging curricular topics and STEM educator guides - just browse through this collection page!
  • Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum (Grades K-2) Engage students with Xavier Riddle and the Secret Museum, a PBS KIDS series based on the Ordinary People Change the World books by Brad Meltzer and Christopher Eliopoulos. The show follows the adventures of Xavier Riddle, his sister Yadina, and their friend Brad as they travel back in time to meet real life historical figures when they were kids. These video clips, teaching tips, and historical figure biosketches can support students’ social-emotional, literacy, and social studies skills.
  • KLRN’s The Healthy Kids Project (Grades PreK-2): The Healthy Kids Project uses song, movement, and animation in ten engaging lessons that support healthy choices and attitudes--teaching not only successful actions (limiting refined sugar, choosing water as a beverage, choosing fresh foods over processed foods), but also successful strategies (valuing the body, not letting past mistakes impede future success, taking one step at a time toward a goal, helping others to make good choices.) Each lesson contains a 60-second video and is accompanied by an overview, lesson plan and student activity. It’s a turnkey kit for teachers to impart critical life lessons about health, without taking time away from core subjects.
  • Watt Watchers (All Grades): Watt Watchers is a state-sponsored STEM program to help boost energy literacy for K-12 students and help schools save money by saving energy. Through the program, students, teachers, and families will have access to energy saving tips, activities, and lessons. Launched in 1985, Watt Watchers is an updated resource that builds upon the original beloved program and provides a modern look at energy, sustainability and conservation.


As always, at the bottom of this post, you will find a list of links of organizations, both local and nationally, that provide mental health resources. Please know that you are important and you make the world a nicer place. Thank you for being you. Reach out to us anytime at education@klrn.org.

With appreciation,

KLRN Education Team

 

Mental Health Resources

If you or someone you know is hurting or in crisis, call or text 988 or visit 988lifeline.org to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline