Sunday, October 7, 2001

Unitedstreaming.com Website Now a Reality for Georgia Educators

In September 2001, PeachStar and United Learning announced a partnership that would allow Georgia classroom teachers to access educational video assets instantly via the Internet. As of October, Georgia educators may now find online more than 10,000 video clips from an excess of 1,000 different programs drawn from the video repositories of both PeachStar and AGC/United Learning. PeachStar program offerings currently available through this video streaming project include all of the episodes from the Georgia Stories and Count On It! Series, with more programs being added each day.

The unitedstreaming.com website is password protected and these resources are available exclusively to Georgia public school educators and students. Each school media specialist has been given a username and password to access the site.

Saturday, October 6, 2001

Presenting PeachStar's New Staff

The PeachStar team is pleased to welcome the addition of the following people to better serve Georgia teachers and students.

Chrissy Bramhall, Instructional Support Coordinator

Chrissy is the mastermind behind the ongoing redesign of the PeachStar website. She is using her Master's Degree in Information, Design, and Technology to create PeachStar's first ever on-line Program Guide, which will enable teachers to get the most up-to-date program information every day! With Chrissy's help, PeachStar is creating a more user-friendly website that will make it easier for teachers and students to navigate their way around to find the information and services they need. If you have any thoughts or suggestions about how our website could serve you better, feel free to contact Chrissy.

Gwen Clayton, Administrative Assistant
As Administrative Assistant, Gwen works with the Division Director to ensure that the division's budget is in place to allow PeachStar to bring Georgia classrooms all of the goods and services we provide each day. If you participate in any projects with PeachStar as a consultant, you can contact Gwen with questions about payment. Along with Jascenda Pasley, she will help you with any questions you have about what PeachStar has to offer.

Marilyn Dent, Traffic Assistant

Marilyn came to PeachStar from the Dekalb County School System, where she served as a media clerk. Before that, she worked for ten years in traffic and operations at WPBA. Marilyn will assist the rest of the Instructional and Technical Support Team with the daily tasks of satellite traffic and operations. She will be responsible for identifying programs for air and working with engineering to make sure that they broadcast via satellite to Georgia classrooms on time. Additionally, she will manage the PeachStar video repository and assist callers with their Video on Request needs.

Phyllis Grant, Elementary Education Project Manager
We are very excited to welcome Phyllis to our team of Project Managers. Phyllis, who holds a Master's Degree in both Elementary Education and Supervision and Administration as well as a Leadership Degree, will devote all of her time and energy to the specific needs of elementary educators. As an elementary school teacher, you will contact Phyllis anytime you want to schedule a PeachStar training, need assistance with the development of lesson plans to accompany PeachStar programming, or desire to learn how to integrate multimedia into your classroom. These are only some of the ways in which Phyllis is ready to serve Georgia educators; contact her directly with any needs you have for your elementary classroom.

Jascenda Pasley, Office Assistant
Jascenda will be the new voice of PeachStar customer service for teachers and media specialists. She is the first one you will speak with when you call PeachStar for assistance with scheduling, programming, ordering, or anything else you may need. Jascenda has been familiarizing herself with all of the services that PeachStar has to offer Georgia educators and will be glad to help you with all of your PeachStar needs!

Thursday, October 4, 2001

PeachStar and CWK Network Bring Character Education into Georgia Classrooms

In an exciting endeavor to address the state-mandated character education requirements for Georgia schools, PeachStar Education Services, a Division of Georgia Public Broadcasting, and CWK Network Inc. have announced a joint partnership that will serve the needs of students and teachers across the state. (PeachStar is known across Georgia for providing high quality educational resources that enrich, inform, and support the Georgia learning community. The Connecting With Kids Network (CWKN) is known nationally for being a leading creator of the very kind of educational and reality-based broadcast programming PeachStar airs in Georgia classrooms).

In 1995, the Georgia State Legislature passed a bill mandating a comprehensive character education program to be developed beginning with the 1996-1997 school year. This "character curriculum" was to assist school children with character development as it related to particular character words such as citizenship and diligence. During the Programming Acquisition Project held at the Georgia Public Broadcasting facility over the spring of 2001, PeachStar discovered CONNECT! through the help of Georgia teachers. CONNECT! is a new offering from CWK that teaches character education according to the very same principles envisioned by both the Georgia legislation and national standards for character education in the classroom.

Beginning in September 2001, PeachStar began airing the first nine episodes of CONNECT!, geared toward students between grades 9-12. The series will air in blocks every Monday through October and will address the following character words: Caring/Compassion, Citizenship, Convictions, Courage, Diligence, Fairness/Justice, Perseverance, Self-Control, and Trustworthiness. In addition to the video component, CONNECT! offers interested schools complete course materials including teacher and student texts, integrated lesson plans, on-line activities, and assessment tools. PeachStar and CWK want to help classroom teachers from schools that have chosen CONNECT! to serve their character education needs to understand and implement the curriculum. To that end, PeachStar and CWK, with the support and assistance of the Georgia Center for Character Education, will offer more than nine day-long trainings across the state to familiarize teachers with the programming and curriculum materials.