WordGirl, My Hero!

 

One of my favorite super heroes of all time has entered the scene just in the last decade -- WORD GIRL!  She battles horrible grammar but in the form of ugly crime ridden punks like Lady Redundancy Woman and Nocan the Contrarian.   She knows EVERY word in the dictionary and appears out of no where to save the day by pausing the clock, wreaking havoc to crusade for justice and save the day!

This holiday season, WORDGIRL premieres a new It's a Wonderful Life-inspired episode "A World Without WordGirl" on PBS KIDS GO!.  Blowing out her birthday candles after one too many superhero interruptions, Becky wishes for a world without WordGirl. She realizes her wish has come true and Chuck has become a king who has imposed strange rules. Will Becky find the last piece of enchanted birthday cake so that she can wish for the return of WordGirl and make things go back to how they were before? "A World Without WordGirl" premieres on Friday, December 16 at 3:30 pm on Channel 8!

Dig deeper with your students in PBS Learning Media by searching for national and common core state standards based activities to support your curriculum to continue to the good fight!  WordGirl and Captain Huggie Face will be ready and armed with fantastic resources to assist. 

Create your FREE account on PBS Learning Media and do a keyword search for wordgirl to find various interactives and videos similar to the one  above designed to reinforce definitions, pronunciations, syllabications and parts of speech of the vocabulary words used in the show in sentences.   

Contact asset@asu.edu for more information and free professional development on on this online collection of over 17,000 videos, lesson plans, interactives, and other resources for educators with local outreach efforts generously supported in Arizona by CenturyLink.

Remembering Arizona Veterans - Capture Stories

Happy Veterans Day, Arizona! Make sure you take time to remember a Veteran, thank them, thank their family members for their sacrifices as well, and show your support.  Last night, Wednesday, November 10, Horizon's Host Ted Simons conducted 2 interviews with Arizona Veterans.  The video will be posted before noon tomorrow!  I encourage you to take time to share a brief segment from at least one with your students in discussion tomorrow.  Both were touching conversations with men who were proud to have served their country and be a part of history.(Check for Horizon's interview of Korean veteran as soon as it gets posted on azpbs.org/horizon) 

The clip above showcases Arizonans -- and Arizona communities -- that were forever changed by the Second World War. Eight presents back-to-back stories exploring the struggles and conflict, the sacrifice and the bravery. Explore the resources Eight- Arizona PBS has to offer locally from the World War II story collection.

Explore ways to capture stories from this local link... or better yet... we encourage you to tell your story... share your story as a veteran or a family member with a service member on active duty or proudly now at home to share his or her memories either in writing, in pictures, in video, or all three through the StoryCorps.

Eight -Arizona PBS and Eight Educational Outreach-ASSET will be working throughout the next few weeks to actively collect stories from friends and family across the state.  We encourage you to help us!  As you gather for the holidays, this is a wonderful time to begin to uncover the stories and pictures and memories so often shared this time of year.

Watch the full episode. See more Independent Lens.

The wait is almost over... the Cat will be here to celebrate Labor Day!

The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! on Monday, September 6 at 9:30 a.m.

Voiced by award-winning actor Martin Short, Dr. Seuss's The Cat in the Hat guides friends Sally and Nick — with a little help from the Fish, Thing 1 and Thing 2 (my personal favorites :) )— on fun-filled adventures where they make natural-science discoveries, from how bees make honey to why owls sleep during the day.

The show is based on the acclaimed The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library book series. Filled with both adventure and silliness, it appeals to preschoolers' natural curiosity and engages them in the process of scientific exploration and discovery.  Is there any doubt? Eight delivers children's programming you can trust!

Use it as an active viewing opportunity and explore the Parents & Teachers information online!  Get excited about digging deeper into the activities and reading aloud the stories with your children after the show is over.  THEN.... reserve your seat for the OCTOBER 2, 2010... CAT in the HAT KNOWS A Lot ABOUT THAT... BREAKFAST with KIM STOREY... Experience PBS ASSET Educator Institute 2010.  Space is Limited and we want you to have a spot at the table with the red & white striped hats!

Cheers to GREEN EGGS & HAM! and of course, Happy Labor Day!

Bullying... something on everyone's minds

The media is full of tragic tales of bullying taken to extremes these days. It isn't that kids have changed, but rather, the technology has given them access to bullying at any time of day. As a parent, and an educator, I am all too familiar with how damaging bullying can be, but thankfully not to the extremes of recent day. We need to tackle this issue head on and open up dialog with our kids to make sure they do not find themselves on either side of the experience.

WGBH This Emotional Life offers some fantastic insights and resources to help us as adults, parents, and educators learn more and find some words to start these kinds of conversations. I encourage you to explore and learn more.

More importantly, use the Resource Finder on the site to get help.  If you feel your situation is one that is bigger than you are comfortable dealing with alone, take advantage of the 24/7  crisis hotline.  Enter in your zip code and use the keyword "Bullying" - just make sure to include a wide distance in your search.  I was really pleased to see there are pages of resources locally I can turn to for help, if I find I need it. 

As a parent of 4 children, two in middle school and two in elementary school, friendships and drama is part of the landscape.  We talk every morning on their way to the bus about what kind of day they plan to have and what they are looking forward to.  We talk after school and in the evening about what happened during the day and who they enjoyed or played with on the playground.  We ask the older two about lunch and hanging out.  We pay attention to who is talking with them on Facebook.  They want to be a part of an online community and what better way for them to do that, then with our support and guidance.  Our 6 year old daughter piped up last weekend to remind her big brother that "saying something online is like putting up a billboard and is there forever."  I was thrilled she could offer such profound advice.  We talked more about it and all agreed words can be very very hurtful.  It isn't fair any longer to brush them off with the "sticks and stones" phrase we grew up with. 

Most importantly, we must teach our children to be resilient.  People will hurt our feelings, intentionally and unintentionally.  Have conversations about how to handle it.  When do you respond? When do you say nothing?  Share some ways you wish you would have handled a situation differently or openly discuss a situation that happened to you at that age.  Our children need to connect with us as parents and as teachers and be reminded that these situations happen because we are all human.  We don't always do the right thing the first time, but we can eventually make the situation right.  Apologies are hard at any age but something we have to practice and model for our kids.

Take the time to explore This Emotional Life.  It is a wealth of resources on a wide variety of subjects.  It offers insights from famous personalities and average people like you and I.  It houses some wonderful video segments and tools that go deeper in specific topics.  It reminds us of how fragile we are as humans and how important it is to acknowledge our mental health is just as important as our physical health.  This is the time of year we are all tired and stressed over testing and year end grades.  Find support.  Offer support.  And most importantly, keep your eyes open to those kids and colleagues in your life who need extra support as well.

Emma... all a twitter?

Join the party on Twitter if you watch as it premieres. PBSTeachers "tweets" the latest: A reminder that @masterpiecepbs "Emma" Live Twitter party is this Sunday! http://bit.ly/7W4itS #emma_pbs Since other timezones have already started the party... you can jump in at any time and see what others had to say!



The Jane Austen series continues in PBS Masterpiece Theater! Watch a trailer and set your DVR! Emma will also be available for viewing online through March 2010. Explore this classic in depth and watch episode by episode on demand.

Rediscover the ASSET eNewsletter that highlighted this series and learn more about this literary legend. Find resources tied to Arizona Academic Standards and look for other resources to embed in your curriculum with these timeless classics.

The most beautiful thing in the world is a match well made.
~ Emma Woodhouse

Just for fun take a compatibility quiz and see which of Emma's men are right for you!

Learn what makes Emma a literary classic with background essays from the Clawton House Library:

In more recent times, however, Emma has been recognized as the best example of Jane Austen's technical perfection — it shows an author at the height of her literary skills. As an example of a novel that can be read and reread while finding something new in each rereading, Emma is hard to beat. It should certainly be included in any list of reading for a twenty-first century wannabe heroine or hero!

Make this timeless classic relevant to your 21st Century learners and share highlights from the website, from the twitter feed, and comments from viewers across the United States right into your literary classroom discussion. Emma offers messages for today just as she did all those years ago when first imagined by Jane Austen.

Vote for YOUR choice!

The Human Spark Digital Photography Contest has closed and the judges have made their decisions. Now we need YOU to vote! Please take a look and choose your favorite.

The top choice will be awarded at the Red Carpet Premiere Party for THE HUMAN SPARK at Arizona Science Center on Tuesday, January 5, 2010 at 5:30 pm. Admission to Arizona Science Center is free for this event (ages 12 and up only please). For location and parking details click here.



We will announce the winners of "What's Your Spark Arizona" Digital Photography Contest. You will get to see the winning photographs in addition to the top ten from each category. Plus Jared Lipworth, Thirteen/WNET's Director of Science Programs will show clips from the series and offer a behind the scenes look at the show.

Please pre-register for The Human Spark Red Carpet Premiere Party. By pre-registering, you are eligible to be in a drawing for special items from Eight Educational Outreach including DVDs, complimentary passes to Arizona Science Center, and other gifts from Eight - Arizona PBS. To pre-register click here.

Summer Institute 2009 Plans

We met this morning at ASSET to continue our work on plans for the ASSET Educator Summer Institute 2009 "Think Upstream." I am getting so excited! It is so important you become an ASSET Educator - join as an individual teacher member, so you can reserve your spot at the conference! For $60 membership, you not only get all the great Eight member benefits, but you also get additional educator-only benefits and FREE conference registration!

The featured speakers are set. Austin Vickers will be our morning speaker. He is the author of Stepping Up: to a Life of Vision, Passion and Authentic Power and will focus his talk on Business & Industry Leadership Strategy for Educators. He has worked with corporations like 3M and Intel. We are very excited about the renewed energy and new vision he can bring to Arizona classroom teachers.

"Great teachers can guide us in this process by providing us with enlightened principles and solutions for dealing with the frailties of the human mind and experience. On rare occasions, when inspiration, creativity and purpose conspire, certain teachings told in just the right way can alter our lives forever. They do so when they provide us with an association to wisdom, passion and courage, and help us create our own paths for achieving the same." ~ Austin Vickers

The lunch speaker will be Lisa Henson. Lisa is the daughter of Jim Henson and one of the imaginations behind the new addition to PBS children's programs from KCET and The Jim Henson Company, Sid the Science Kid! Her talk will focus not only on science for preschoolers but also the efforts behind the production and the proprietary Henson Digital Puppetry that goes into the show creation. Institute participants will also have a special visit from Sid the Science Kid himself!

The session strands are designed to have a little of something for any kind of educator. The Project Based Learning strand will include Digital Storytelling, highlights from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism High School Stardust Program, highlights of educational resources from PBS from programs like "We Shall Remain," and hands on workshops with software from Tech4Learning.

The STEM (Science Technology Engineering Math) strand will include highlights from WGBH's Teachers Domain, WNET's Nature, and KCET's Sid the Science Kid, as well as Arizona State University's School of Sustainability, Adaptive Curriculum, and the Challenger Center of Arizona's mobile science explorer van.

The Early Childhood strand will also feature KCET’s Sid the Science Kid as well as A Place of Our own. Presentations will include PBS Kids Raising Readers—and PBS Kids Island and ASSET/Eight’s Kindergartener In Progress (KIP) online interactive environment.

All the exhibitors will be non-profits who have resources to offer educators, in addition to those for-profit businesses who are ASSET Education Partners. A special wine and cheese reception will be held the evening before, June 5, 2009, hosted by the Challenger Center of Arizona.

So... how can you make sure you reserve your seat at this incredible day? Join ASSET! Become a member and your conference registration is automatically included free of charge! Summer is right around the corner! Professional development certificates will be issued for this day, breakfast and lunch are complimentary, you can have your picture taken with Sid the Science Kid... really... how can you say no?

An Invitation to ALL Arizona Educators

ASSET would like to invite Arizona educators to invigorate yourself as a professional and collaborate with your 21st Century learners in new ways. Let PBS support your daily teaching efforts with standards and research based broadcast and online resources. Let ASSET provide the means to connect you with professionals across Arizona, and across the nation with PBS TeacherLine online professional development.

Starting in September, educators will have the ability to become an ASSET Educator. This is a new membership opportunity for Eight Public Television. Why become a member? Well the list of member benefits includes all the attributes of an Eight membership, but also a whole collection of services, discounts, and resources we know Arizona educators will find valuable. Take a sneak peek at what membership includes: Become an ASSET Educator.

ASSET honors the efforts of the individual educator. Classroom Innovators are exemplary educators from across Arizona who applied to assist ASSET with reaching the mission of Eight-ASSET into their PreK - 20 school and community. Because we know home is a child's first classroom, ASSET also honors in-home care providers, and those considered family, friends and neighbors who care for Arizona's youngest students birth to age 5. In the coming days, weeks, and months, you will be able to find glimpses into those Arizona classrooms here in this blog. Our Classroom Innovators will contribute stories of their students and teaching challenges here in this blog. This will be a collection of what efforts are taking place at the most critical level of education - the classroom and the home.

I invite you to check back often. I invite you to respond and pose questions and dig deeper. I encourage you to become involved in the community that is ASSET Educators! Cheers to innovation and the passion that lies at the heart of all good teachers.  And to anyone who thinks teaching might be easy... and integrating technology just isn't all that hard... I encourage you to consider this analogy graciously provided to us via You Tube by a creative commerical team: