PBS Wisconsin Education leverages the power of media to
spark curiosity and encourage discovery. With content and
professional learning designed for educators and students in
early learning spaces through 12th grade we bring the
world of PBS to Wisconsin. The work starts with PBS Kids. We
are proud to participate in the National PBS and CPB Ready to
Learn initiative, which is designed to advance school
readiness for children ages two through eight. We've been
connecting with local partners to facilitate PBS Kids
programming focusing on critical thinking,
informational text, and everyday literacy, and career
explorations and collaboration. We've even developed novel
programming for Ready to Learn right here in Wisconsin and
it's being scaled nationally this year. And the best part,
our community partners in the Beloit Learning Neighborhood
are now facilitating their own PBS Kids Learning Events. We
also expanded from Beloit to reach other parts of the state
with PBS Kids-centered learning by hosting trainings, ed camps
and other professional learning events that promote creativity,
collaboration and social emotional learning. And, we're
doing this with early learning partners in the state. As early
learners age up, PBS Wisconsin Education creates innovative,
original classroom media for learners in upper elementary,
middle and early high school with a focus on social studies,
science and the arts. We currently have eight original
classroom media collections made right here in Wisconsin
which are purpose-built for youth learners. Resources span
from videos and animations to games, books with read-along
supports, educator guides, digitized primary sources,
interactives and more. This year, we launched The Look Back,
a series for students that explores artifacts and their
context to learn about eras from Wisconsin's history. The
collection is hosted by historians who model an inquiry
process and tell the story of their findings as they go. We
also worked hand in hand with members of the Stockbridge-
Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians to create
Electa Quinney, Mohican Teacher and Mentor for our Wisconsin
Biographies collection. Community advisers and content
contributors from the Tribe helped us accurately tell the
story of their community, from their forced migration to
Wisconsin to the legacy of education that keeps their
traditions alive today. Two new musicians joined the lineup of
Re/Sound: Songs of Wisconsin, our general music collection, which
is made in partnership with the Wisconsin School Music
Association. Jazz vocalist Marcya Daneille and Electro Soul
Hip Hop artist Klassik joined the collection, which features
musical compositions and interview videos discussing
art, cultures, and identities. This collection infuses
relevant musical genres into general music classrooms. And, our middle
school science collection, Meet the Lab, gained a new story this
year called Climate Trackers which shows how scientists from
an eco-meteorology lab on the UW-Madison campus use
measurements to tell the story of climate change and inform
decisions that will shape our future. Students get to meet
the scientists who work in the lab and then they learn why the
research matters with a story based on a Wisconsin farm. All
of our collections are created with extensive collaboration
from educators, community members, historians,
scientists and other advisers to ensure that our content is
accurate, inclusive and responsive to teacher need. We
share not only our locally produced content, but also
content from across the PBS system using PBS Learning Media
and our local hub for learning about Wisconsin First Nations.
All of the resources are supported by professional
learning events that we design for educators to help
them activate the media. By high school, PBS Wisconsin
Education is empowering students to make their own
media and be critical consumers through our Youth Media and
Media Literacy initiatives. Wisconsin Hometown Stories:
Youth Media is our program that explores local history and what
it means to be part of that history and community with high
school students in Wisconsin. The program focuses on
historical inquiry and media literacy skills while also
exposing students to video production. This year, we
worked alongside students and their teacher from Beloit
Memorial High School in a Latino Studies class. Learning
to critically analyze media is a core component of the Youth
Media program and we also facilitate other media literacy
trainings for teachers from early learning through grade
12. PBS Wisconsin Education creates unique classroom media
and relevant professional learning experiences to spark
learning for children across the state and at all ages.