Veteran education leader joins Blue Ridge PBS
( Roanoke, Va.)-Rose Martin, Ed.D., former Craig County Public Schools superintendent and visiting professor at Virginia Tech, has been chosen as the new Director of Education Services at Blue Ridge PBS. Martin, who began her new job on July 6, will lead the station's education services department.

"We're excited to have Rose join our team. Her professional experience and understanding of education issues will be a great help here at Blue Ridge PBS, as we continue to support teachers and students with new technologies, programs and services," said James Baum, station President and CEO. "Meeting the education needs in our communities was a primary motivator behind the founding of Blue Ridge PBS in 1967, and it is still a vital part of our mission today."

Blue Ridge PBS provides a safe, trusted environment for innovative on-air, online and on-site learning for more than 200,000 schoolchildren and their teachers each year. Nearly one third of the station's broadcasts are for children, including long-running favorites like "Sesame Street" and new productions like "Dinosaur Train." But Blue Ridge PBS is more than television, offering teacher training workshops, instructional media, Ready-to-Learn reading programs, adult literacy assistance, and many more resources, including on-line tools.

"As an educator, I understand and respect the importance of the relationship we share with our communities and believe in the commitment to enrich the lives of others with trusted, quality programming," said Martin. "We are living in a time of educational opportunity. As we create and deliver high quality, content-rich online offerings, the world becomes our classroom. That is exciting."
 
Martin said her goals include taking a fresh approach to highlighting the great work going on in schools across our region. She also wants to offer educators a platform to learn about and use emerging technologies and mobile content, specifically exploring and developing strategies for using educational games, simulations, and apps with students. Additionally, Martin plans to expand professional development opportunities, virtual content, and enrichment activities available to educators.

"At the end of the day, I want to inspire hope and confidence in education," Martin said. "Making an educator's job a little easier because of convenient access, quality content, and innovative ideas will improve teacher quality, enhance student learning and ultimately result in achievement."

Martin will replace Linda Pharis, who is retiring after 16 years at the station. "Rose will be a great leader in Education Services;" Pharis said. "She will be able bring school leaders the message about the services at Blue Ridge PBS."
 

Erase these Recorded ITV Programs
Below are the series we've dropped from our schedule this year. Teachers/media specialists, please erase copies.

Cellular Respiration
Chemical Equilibrium
Electricity
Electrochemistry
Electron Arrangement & Bonding
Geologist's Notebook
Integrated Science: The Environment
Life By The Numbers - Highlights
Natural Phenomena
Reading Rockets 101 - 105, 201
(the rest are still available)
Religions of the World
Sketches of the World

Resources free from Blue Ridge PBS
Personal Finance:
BizKid$, nominated for two daytime Emmys, BizKid$ is a complete toolbox for students Grades 3-8. A rich website accompanies this series, where kids teach kids about money and business. A hotlink takes you to our broadcast times. Lessons are also in Spanish.

PBS Teachers has 26 separate lesson plans which include media tools/elements. Lessons developed for all grades are grouped age-appropriately, by keywords "Personal Finance."

STEM Resources
PBS Teachers-STEM Education Resource Center: www.pbs.org/teachers/stem  Science, Technology, Engineering and Math for Grades PK-12

PBS Teachers -The Gulf Oil Spill/ The News Hour. www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/features/us/jan-june10/oil_04-30.html. Also: wsre.org/OilSpill/teachers-students-kids.asp
 

PBS Kids websites:
Cyberchase- the only math series for school-age kids using broadcast, web and educational outreach to impact millions nationwide. pbskids.org/cyberchase/ 

Design Squad archived programs from past seasons plus 27 engineering challenges for your classroom. Funded by NSF and others. www.designsquad.org/teachers 

Dragonfly TV website was featured at the 2009 Institute for Advanced Learning and Research Conference. Dragonfly TV's website has interactive multimedia that will teach you about nanotechnology. Teachers guides: pbskids.org/dragonflytv/ 

Can't find media to support a lesson? Tell us what you need, we'll do our best to find it asap.

 

Blue Ridge PBS Education Services works for you under a contract with
the Virginia Department of Education, in partnership with our region's
42 Virginia school districts and the other regional Virginia instructional stations.
We thank you for your support!
2010-2011
 

To access Virginia iTunes U content:

• Start the iTunes application
  (or download the iTunes application)
• Click the iTunes Store link
• Click on the K-12 link under iTunes U Quick Links
  (in the upper right corner)
• Select the Virginia Department of Education link

Blue Ridge PBS, Radford University and other stations are adding content to Virginia's I-Tunes U. If you are a producer of instructional or professional development content that should be showcased for students and teachers, please submit your content on a DVD with a self-addressed stamped envelope. The vetting process will be done by a panel of educators. If accepted you will be asked to sign a release form. We appreciate your generosity in participating in this 21st century learning process!

SHARE THE SKIES
Virginia Department of Education

*Robert H. Tai, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education, suggested in a recent Washington Times interview "There is a strong connection between children's visions of what they see themselves doing as adults and what they actually end up pursuing when they are adults."

In short, for students to aspire to be scientists and engineers, educators must help them understand what scientists and engineers do in daily practice. Students need opportunities to learn science by doing real science. Virginia's Share the Skies is the nation's first statewide initiative that enables students and teachers to study astronomy in real time during the daytime without leaving the classroom. This innovative project allows students to access and control research-grade telescopes to explore the night skies of Australia entirely over the Internet using a standard Web browser. Students can capture digital images of deep space for further study. The project has been implemented through Virginia's unique network of instructional technology resource teachers (ITRT) in collaboration with the New Mexico Skies observatory and Virginia Tech.