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PBS Educator Resources | May 2023

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by
Ian Cruz
• Published on
An image from the PBS Kids show CYBERCHASE - a villain looks up at a large plant with a menacing face.
KLRN Education

Dear Friends,

This May, we celebrate and learn more about Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Military Appreciation Month, and Mental Health Awareness Month, and Mother’s Day. Using our monthly Educator Blog Posts, you can find free, accessible, and engaging resources for all grade levels, which are aligned to state standards and complement PBS programs. 

We invite you to join us for our May educator sessions which, as always, are free of charge and offer continuing education credit. Please know that if you are not a classroom educator, but would like to join the educator sessions, you are more than welcome to join us. Below are the upcoming virtual sessions and links to register. Thank you to Firstmark Credit Union for their generous support of educator training sessions. Please learn more about upcoming sessions and events at https://www.klrn.org/events/

Here are May's Educator sessions: 


Summertime is right around the corner! You may be thinking about or even preparing for the upcoming school year. Go Public has created an Education Timeline with tips for Pre-K through 12th grade - it even includes helpful tips for planning for college. 

Our friends at Go Public have created a free, easy-to-use Education Timeline with tips for Pre-K through 12th grade - it even includes helpful tips for planning for college. Please visit Go Public’s Education Timeline page to learn more at https://www.wegopublic.com/education-timeline/. Check out this helpful video to learn more: https://youtu.be/hoJGiapBFPM

On PBS Learning Media, 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 of the outstanding PBS shows featured this month, along with engaging PBS Learning Media collections and resources we recommend are: 

Cyberchase: Mother's Day Special Holiday Episode!" It's Mother's Day in cyberspace - and Hacker is determined to ruin it for everyone, especially Motherboard, by derailing the train that picks up the rare and colorful Madre Bonitas. This beautiful flower symbolizes Mother's Day, and it must be harvested on this one day only. It's a race against time, as the kids and Digit try to repair the breaks in the line and save Mother's Day. The Big Idea: Use a decimal point to join tenths with whole numbers and you have a decimal system you can use to easily record, compare and combine whole numbers with fractions. Make a sweet Mother’s Day gift for Mom with this Cyberchase activity: A Gift for Mother’s Day! Make a Madre Bonita Card. Find more Cyberchase resources on PBS Learning Media: Cyberchase Collection (Grades K-8). 

Asian Americans Film and Resource Collection on PBS Learning Media (Grades 6-12) Asian Americans is a five-hour film series that delivers a bold, fresh perspective on a history that matters today, more than ever. As America becomes more diverse, and more divided, while facing unimaginable challenges, how do we move forward together? Told through intimate and personal lives, the series will cast a new lens on U.S. history and the ongoing role that Asian Americans have played in shaping the nation’s story. We're pleased to present over thirty lesson plans based on the Asian American series. You'll find this collection to include the stories behind the Chinese Exclusion Act, the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, Southeast Asian refugees after the Vietnam War, Filipino American Farmworkers, the fight for civil rights and much more. Teachers may utilize these lesson plans which are drawn from the series to explore the ways that Asian Americans have shaped our nation's history. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

Memorial Day | All About the Holidays (Grades K-5) Learn about Memorial Day with this look back at the holiday's history.

Hiding in Plain Sight: Full Film and Resources on PBS Learning Media (Grades 9-12) This two-part, four hour series follows the journeys of more than 20 young Americans from all over the country and all walks of life, who have struggled with thoughts and feelings that have troubled—and, at times—overwhelmed them. Hiding in Plain Sight presents an unstinting look at both the seemingly insurmountable obstacles faced by those who live with mental disorders and the hope that many have found after that storm. The included discussion guide is intended to foster meaningful conversations in your classrooms and wider communities about topics covered in Hiding in Plain Sight and to deepen educator and student understanding. The guide is filled with tools to help you plan for teaching about the mental health topics explored in the film, plan screening events for your students, and spark discussion. The guide overviews educational materials made in association with the film for middle and high school educators and students. The lessons and activities described are available in Ken Burns' Classroom. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.

Rosie's Rules Rosie's Rules is an 11-minute preschool family sitcom about a little girl just beginning to learn about the fascinating, baffling, thrilling world beyond her family walls. And it doesn't always go smoothly. In her resilient quest to make sense of the world's most mystifying concepts, she often plows her way into comic chaos. It's "learning-by-doing" and she usually does it a little bit wrong before she gets it right. Find more resources from Rosie’s Rules here: Rosie's Rules Collection on PBS Learning Media (Grades PreK-2)

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 matter and that you are uniquely, wonderfully you. As Mr. Rogers reminds us in this song, “I Like You as You Are”. 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