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PBS Educator Resources | October 2022

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by
Ian Cruz
• Published on
KLRN Education

Dear Friends,

This month, we are focused on learning from and taking care of each other. There are some amazing programs on this theme for a variety of ages that you can see starting this month, right here on KLRN. We invite you to watch these incredible programs to learn, grow, and be inspired: Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom  ¡Salud! Celebrating San Antonio's Latina Leaders, Latino Americans: Pride and Prejudice, Finding Your Roots with Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Special Guests, Alma's Way, and the brand new PBS KIDS series premiering on October 3, Rosie's Rules, which will air daily on KLRN Channel 9.1 at 9AM.

KLRN offers teacher training sessions each month. You can learn more about these upcoming sessions and events at klrn.org/events. Thank you to Firstmark Credit Union for their support of educator training sessions in our community. 

On PBS LearningMedia, you can find excellent resources for all grade levels and a wide variety of topics! Setting up an account is easy to do (and completely free!) Visit https://klrn.pbslearningmedia.org/signup/ and you can sign up with your email in just a few easy steps: enter your first and last name, email address, and create a password, and you are all set to access any of the over  30,000 state standards-aligned educational resources for free! Some highlighted collections we recommend this month are: 

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 of Texas 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 of Texas is an updated resource that builds upon the original beloved program and provides a modern look at energy, sustainability and conservation.

 

Rosie's Rules on pbskids.org: Rosie’s Rules is an animated preschool comedy series that follows the adventures of Rosie Fuentes, an inquisitive and hilarious 5-year-old girl just starting to learn about the wow-mazing world beyond her family walls. And she is ready to learn it all…by figuring it out herself. Series premieres on October 3 and resources coming soon to PBS Learning Media! 

Alma's Way: 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.

 

Latino Americans: (Grades 3-12) What are the stories of U.S. Latinos and how do they inform the broader American narrative? From southern Florida to the San Juan Islands of Washington state, from the pre-history of the nation through today's most contentious issues, Latino experiences illuminate our country’s history and its struggle to live up to its ideals. This collection of lesson plans, videos and classroom resources invites teachers and students to explore the history, people and issues chronicled in the PBS series, Latino Americans. 

Harriet Tubman | Abolition Activist: (Grades 3-8) Harriet Tubman escaped slavery to become a so-called “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, leading or assisting more than 300 enslaved people to freedom, despite great personal risk. After aiding the Union Army as a spy during the Civil War, she continued a life of service, dedicated to formerly enslaved people. In this lesson, by examining two primary sources and watching a short video, students will become familiar with the remarkable bravery and extraordinary accomplishments of the “Moses of her people,” Harriet Tubman. In this lesson, students will learn about Harriet Tubman’s extraordinary courage in the face of enormous risks. After watching a biographical video, they will examine a photograph of Tubman and read a letter written to her by Frederick Douglass. The lesson culminates with students comparing Harriet Tubman to modern-day women and girls who have similarly confronted huge risks to help others.

DPLA Primary Source Sets: (Grades 6-12) Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop critical thinking skills by exploring topics in history, literature, and culture through primary sources. Drawing online materials from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States, the sets use letters, photographs, posters, oral histories, video clips, sheet music, and more. Each set includes a topic overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.

 

Benjamin Franklin: (Grades 3-12) This two-part, four-hour documentary explores the revolutionary life of one of the 18th Century’s most consequential and compelling personalities, whose work and words unlocked the mystery of electricity and helped create the United States. This collection includes nine media galleries and nine videos. 

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.: (Grades 3-12) The basic drive to discover who we are and where we come from is at the core of the PBS series Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research. Today's most compelling personalities discover the surprising stories buried within their own families in Finding Your Roots. In sharing their stories, Finding Your Roots uses every tool available, from cutting- edge DNA research to old-school genealogical sleuthing, to reveal long-buried secrets about our guests' ancestors. Each episode, audiences learn about guests’ ancestors. Together, the arc of each guest’s family personalizes history while emphasizing the human connections that unite everyone. 

 

The U.S. and the Holocaust: (Grades 6-12) This three-part, six hour series examines America’s response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises of the twentieth century. Americans consider themselves a “nation of immigrants,” but as the Holocaust unfolded in Europe, the U.S. proved unwilling to open its doors to more than a fraction of the hundreds of thousands of desperate people seeking refuge. Through firsthand testimony of witnesses and survivors, the series delves into the tragic human consequences of public indifference, bureaucratic red tape, and quota laws. The collection includes six media galleries and eight videos. Join us on 10/25/22 for a virtual session with special guest Dr. Hanshaw of the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio.Register here.

U.S. History: This Collection is growing all the time! Expand students’ understanding of U.S. History with culturally inclusive resources that bring the major people, events, and trends in history alive, while integrating often untold stories into the curriculum. Curated clips of trusted PBS programs and a diverse array of other media and interactive resources develop students’ historical thinking skills while broadening their appreciation of history’s multiple perspectives and complexity. The Collection is being added to and will include resources in all Eras and Skills by November 2022. Please come back to see the Collection grow! 

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 what a positive difference you make in the world. 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

IDRA SEEN: Intercultural Development Research Association Southern Education Equity Network: https://idraseen.org/