A Gold Star for PBS Public television has always had a very special relationship with educators, who know that PBS shows can be an important part of their classroom. Consider these facts: • Nearly all PBS programs come with learning materials such as lesson plans and teachers’ guides. Teachers can find more than 4,000 free lesson plans from PBS at tpt.org/education • More than 90% of teachers use video their classrooms, according to a 2003 study, and the most popular channel for recording programs is PBS. • Of the top 10 TV shows that teachers say are the best to use in the classroom, six are from PBS: Reading Rainbow, National Geographic specials, Arthur, Sesame Street, NOVA, and Between the Lions. • Teachers become members of their local PBS stations at a rate nearly seven times higher than the general population.

Twin Cities Public Television devotes one of every three hours on the air to educational programs for kids, reaching nearly 300,000 children a day in Minnesota. But tpt ’s commitment to education goes far beyond the television screen.

In fact, tpt has an Education Department specifically devoted to developing relationships with teachers and schools, so that its TV programs can also become valuable classroom tools. Under a multifaceted program called Partners in Learning, the department works in many ways to enhance children’s education. Here are just a few:

Ready to Learn: This tpt program is designed to improve the school readiness of young children. The station conducts more than 100 workshops a year for parents, teachers, and childcare providers, showing them how to use television, computers, and books as springboards for powerful learning activities. Ready to Learn also distributes special publications, plus more than 6,000 books a year to low-income children. The programs goal is to train caregivers in how to use television carefully, encourage interactive learning, increase parental involvement, and enhance early childhood development and school readiness. Ready to Learn is funded by the U.S. Department of Education through PBS.

Program Outreach: Many shows on tpt are the target of special outreach to schools during the year. PBS and tpt often create lesson plans, workshops, and projects for teachers that can spark classroom discussion and enhance learning opportunities. For the recent PBS series The New Americans, for example, tpt created several community projects on the subject of immigration, including screenings of the documentary at college teacher education programs, so that teachers-in-training can better understand the issues facing their immigrant students. For tpt ’s original production of North Star: Minnesota’s Black Pioneers, the station created extensive lesson plans and teaching tools that met Minnesota standards in social studies and language arts.

Teacherline is a collection of online courses that offers professional development for teachers throughout Minnesota in math, effective use of technology, literacy, and more. Studying online at their own pace helps teachers stay current with the latest teaching methods and improve teaching skills. The program can reach many more educators than face-to-face workshops. Teacherline is a national PBS service available throughout the country. Learn more at the PBS TeacherLine of Minnesota & the Dakotas web site. Teacherline is a partnership between tpt and the North Branch School District. Educators receive a certificate for passing the course and can even get graduate credit through Augsburg College.

Teaching Fractions is a ground-breaking math workshop that shows teachers a research-proven way to teach fractions to their fourth- and fifth-grade students. Twin Cities Public Television was one of just two PBS affiliates to receive federal funding to explore new digital technologies in the professional development of teachers. The Teaching Fractions methods were developed over many years by the University of Minnesota. The job of tpt is to translate the university’s face-to-face workshop into an online course, using video and interactive media. The online workshop is now being created and tested by teachers in the classroom. If it proves effective, it could be made available to teachers throughout Minnesota.