Access, Analyze and Act

This has been an exciting and ground breaking election season and the teachable moments for your classroom aren’t over yet. PBS has created an incredible collection of online resources for your classroom that will help your students access, analyze and act using the power of social media. The Access, Analyze and Act resources provide you with the tools that will engage your students’ interest in the election process and guide them in using social media to actively explore and comment on what they see happening all around them. Along they way, they will develop and sharpen critical information and media literacy skills.

The resources and tools within Access, Analyze and Act were developed for use all across the grade bands. While the vast majority of these students can’t yet participate in the voting process, it is never too early to begin teaching them how to be actively engaged in the civic process. Visit Access, Analyze and Act to learn more.

- Diane

Reading Rainbow lives on

“Butterfly in the sky, I can go twice as high
Take a look, it's in a book - Reading Rainbow.”

These lyrics from the theme song of the long-running PBS program Reading Rainbow are bright reminders of the joy of reading to millions of us who have watched the program over the years. Each program, hosted by LeVar Burton, introduces children to a wonderful story in a book and then connects it to real-life experiences for children.

Teachers have used this program for years to help get their students excited about reading. To assist teachers, Reading Rainbow provides them with high-quality lesson plans and other instructional resources. Reading Rainbow can be found each weekday on Time Warner Cable channel 17 at 12:30pm.

- Diane

Education under our next president

There are issues aplenty to judge our presidential candidates on in these waning days of the 2008 election season. The economy, energy, and experience are topics that you often hear the pundits discussing. But what about the other big “E” topic? Where do the candidates stand on education?

Like many educators around the country, I want to know how the candidates plan to support teachers and students with adequate funding. I want to know how they will allocate resources to failing schools without shortchanging successful schools. I want to know how they will keep highly qualified teachers in the classroom and remove ineffective teachers. I want to know how they will encourage schools to teach 21st Century Skills so our students can complete in this increasingly global workplace.

There are many places to learn more. The National Education Association, Edutopia, and of course, McCain’s and Obama’s own websites are just a few.

Where We Stand re-airs tomorrow night

Because most of our local viewers were without power during the original broadcast back on September 15th, Where We Stand: America's Schools in the 21st Century, will re-air this Friday night at 10pm.

As mentioned in Diane's entry a few weeks back, this documentary features Cincinnati Public School's Pleasant Hills Academy. You can also view an interview with CPS leaders here.


-Brian