Barnes & Noble Teacher Appreciation Event

Barnes & Noble in Chandler is putting together another teacher appreciation evening on April 23, 2009. They are looking for someone who would be willing to do a presentation to teachers on grant writing. They have also asked me to provide information on ASSET/PBS resources. This would be a good way to reach teachers from a variety of districts, so I am looking forward to putting together a presentation for them.

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?

Welcome Spring!

I was extremely excited to open Google today and find:



Hats off to Google for highlighting children's authors! I was encouraged to click the logo and find the search results that include a news article about the celebration of the first day of Spring (that happened at 7:44 am today, btw - by the way).

Upon further exploring, I found a wonderful animation of this all time favorite book of mine from my childhood:



Like most authors today, Eric Carle has a wonderful website I would encourage anyone and everyone to explore. He even blogs!

Ok... so this is a PBS local affiliate education blog though... what does it have to all do with PBS? Wellllll I went on over to PBS Teachers Connect, logged in, and did a keyword search in the upper right hand corner for "Eric Carle" and look what I found!



WETA's Reading Rockets is a fantastic resource-rich website that Mary Ann Dillon has shared before on our blog - but you may not know it is a wealth of author links and interviews and resources as well as teaching tool! I hope you will take some time to explore as I did, and remember these as wonderful tools to weave into your rich curriculum.



Happy Spring! Feed that Hungry Caterpillar! Thank you Eric Carle!

Win a $2,000 Production Grant!

How is global climate change affecting your community?

The WGBH Lab and Teachers' Domain want to hear from YOU and YOUR STUDENTS! Send your story ideas and you could be selected to win a $2,000 production grant! Check out http://lab.wgbh.org for more info.

Green Valentines?

I was sifting through my email junk today and found a gem! A welcome diversion that I wanted to share with you all! Have you ever heard of "The Sustainable Sun Devil"?

"The Sustainable Sun Devil" is created for ASU by Grist.org, the nation's leading online source of environmental news. Together with ASU's Global Institute of Sustainability, we will be bringing you sustainability updates from around your campus, your country, and your world.

Something timely in the content caught my eye - "how to be a greener Valentine." I clicked play. What did I have to lose? As I watched, as I hope you will in a few seconds, I thought about all the cool teachable moments embedded within - from discussions with kids about the impact of these valentines traditions on our climate to the ways we could make better use of our classroom time and energy spent on valentines. Why not think up some new spins on time-honors classroom traditions?



AND then, being the good PBS affiliate programming advocate that I am... I jumped to PBS Teachers. I did a quick search in the upper right hand corner for the key word "valentine" and look what I found! Frontline aired a story a year ago - Ecuador: Flower Power - Fair trade roses for Valentine's Day. Make sure to click on the EDUCATOR button on the menu bar toward the right. Aren't these great discussions and timely readings to share with students? Not only do they align with Science Standards but also Social Studies Standards. Explore the related links, stream the 10 minute video. Think about the flat world we live in and how this issue effects us globally, and locally.



Finally, make it really hit home and consider joining Generation Eight for the Generation Eight Goes Green Event - just one week after Valentines! Keep that love going long past the 14th - for the valentines in your life, and the environment that we live in!

Don't Miss Out on "Raising Readers"

The following local courses start March 11, 2009:
Raising Readers: Preparing Preschoolers for Success (RDLA051.54)15 Hours Grades PreK-KCourse Fee for ASSET Educator Members: $45 This course focuses on preparing preschoolers for success by developing their early literacy skills. The theories and strategies presented are based on the latest early literacy research from Susan B. Neuman and Kathleen Roskos (2007). You'll learn to use this research as you plan meaningful early literacy-learning experiences. These activities build on preschoolers' prior knowledge, expand their vocabulary, and strengthen oral language development - providing them with the foundation for reading, writing, and future academic success. The course provides video examples, online interactives, and activities from PBS, and engages you and your colleagues in a collaborative learning experience.
Kingston

A New Spin On A Favorite Song... or two... or more

Sesame Street has long been on the cutting edge for children's television. Weren't they really the first when it comes to educational television? They are well researched and continue to be the longest running children's series. They also seem to have continued their cutting edge trends. You can find other famous people you enjoy teaching standards-required content to our littlest people on their site.

One thing Sesame Street is doing that we didn't have a chance to showcase in the ASSET Stakeholder Meeting Friday were the podcasts they are producing now. Take a moment to explore how you can subscribe to the RSS feed or download these free through iTunes!


Word on the Street

These podcasts are just one way we as adults can turn any time in to learning time with the children we love in our lives. It is a great way to engage our digital natives and put great learning content into their hands using the fun technology tools they love.

I'll leave you with "Don't Know Why" by Nora Jones, enjoying a moment with Elmo. Please remember to contact the ASSET Professional Development Team for workshops on these kinds of resources and embedding them in classrooms and in-home care. We would love a chance to work with you (anywhere throughout the state!).