PBS Teachers Free Webinar (Wed 3/10) & Search for Innovative Educators (ends 3/12)

The PBS we know and love for our kids also has an outstanding site for teachers that offers free webinars and is currently searching for the most innovative educators. PBS Teachers is a web portal designed for preK-12 educators to access PBS’ educational services and a searchable library of more than 9,000 local and national standards-based teaching activities, lesson plans, on-demand video assets and interactive games and simulations. The site hosts a wealth of content that aligns with curriculum areas and includes lesson plans, suggested links for student use, and an online community specifically designed for teacher use.

Before I managed their online community, I taught and participated in affordably priced online courses offered through PBS Teacherline and sought out their other resources for my own professional development. For the past year I’ve been participating in free hour-long PBS Teachers LIVE! webinars which I have loved! The topics are always interesting and I walk away feeling like I have learned so much for free!

On Wednesday, March 10 PBS Teachers LIVE! is presenting another free live webinar called “Copyright & Fair Use in the Art World and the Classroom” beginning at 8 pm EST with PBS producers and curriculum experts.

During this event, participants will have the chance to hear from and interact with filmmaker Kembrew McLeod, whose film “Copyright Criminals” recently aired on PBS’s Independent Lens, law professor Peter Jaszi, and media producers and educators Chris Runde and Joe Fatheree. The four will discuss the implications of copyright and Fair Use laws in the classroom and share best practices in student media production. Annelise Wunderlich, National Community Engagement and Education Manager for ITVS, will be present to share film modules and lesson plans based on the film and developed by ITVS Community Classroom.

At the end of every live Webinar, attendees will have the opportunity to request a Certificate of Participation. Hint: Print this and save it in your professional portfolio!

To Join the Webinar, Click the Link: Online at Elluminate Live! For a list of upcoming and archived webinars, click here.



PBS is also inviting innovative educators to apply for their Innovation Awards and demonstrate how you inspire your students before this Friday, March 12.

Ten of the most innovative teachers will receive a behind-the-scenes trip to the Annual PBS Showcase in Austin, Texas on May 17-20, 2010, to see sneak previews of PBS programs, meet producers, and attend premiere events. Forty winners will receive a bag of PBS gifts that will include best-selling and award-winning PBS programs in digital formats and much more. All of the winners will receive free enrollment in an online facilitated professional development course from PBS TeacherLine, and will be invited to partner with PBS and local stations as leaders in classroom innovation. Teachers will have the opportunity to contribute their ideas and provide feedback on PBS programming and educational services For more information about the grand prize and the many other prizes being awarded, click here.

Don’t delay in getting your entry in or sharing this with an innovative educator at your child’s school since the deadline is this Friday, March 12!

Here’s some more information from the Innovation Awards page on the PBS Teachers site:

From math and science to music and the arts, your inventive thinking continuously fuels, inspires and engages young minds. Whether you teach your students physics with rocket launchers, social studies by re-enacting historical events, or literature by inviting kids to create digital stories, you are innovating and making a difference – and we want to recognize and thank YOU! PBS and local public television stations invite you to enter the PBS Teachers Innovation Awards!

How do I enter? It’s easy — simply…

1. Join PBS Teachers.
2. Tell us why you are an innovative educator in 200 words or less.
3. Submit a video clip or a photograph showing us how you inspire your students. (Be sure to have the video or image ready before you click “Enter Now.” *Innovations using PBS content are a plus, but not required.)

What is the deadline for entries?

• The PBS Teachers Innovation Awards runs January 25th through March 12th.
• Winners will be announced April 5, 2010 and winning entries will be featured on the PBS Teachers web site.

Click on the following links for contest rules and FAQs.

I am sharing this information about PBS Teachers LIVE! Webinars and Innovation Awards as a paid consultant to PBS but honestly believed that PBS resources were fabulous well before I started working for them. PBS logos are courtesy of PBS.