Monday, January 7, 2002

Lawmakers: Bringing the Capitol into Your Classroom

Presented in a news-style format, Lawmakers weaves live footage from the House and Senate floors, interviews with policy makers, citizen reactions, and newsroom discussion together into a complete hour of current events education. Since Lawmakers airs every evening throughout the legislative session, it offers your students the most up-to-the-minute and in-depth coverage of state legislative activity. This program would prove most beneficial in specialized courses on government and policy as it demands a certain amount of knowledgeability about legislative terminology and current legislation.

In addition to airing weekdays from 7-8 PM on GPTV, Lawmakers is now streamed live online at www.gpb.org. All shows for the upcoming legislative session will be archived online. This technology will allow students to call the video programs up on demand by date, making detailed information about legislative events available 24 hours a day. The Lawmakers website also offers several links to other Internet sites that your students will find useful for exploring state government.

Take a moment to watch an episode of Lawmakers and discover how much GPB has to share with your students. Ask your media specialist to record Lawmakers for your class everyday or make special arrangements to record the show on days when key pieces of legislation are being discussed.

Tuesday, January 1, 2002

Are You Ready?

Help Your Students Get Ready to Learn

On October 27,1992, Congress enacted Public Law 102-545, known as the "Ready to Learn Act." The purpose of this legislation was to improve school readiness by expanding the production and distribution of educational and instructional video programming and supporting materials for preschool and elementary school children.

The Ready to Learn (RTL) Service of the Public Broadcasting System (PBS) is an initiative designed to address this legislation and help our nation move towards the goal of all children starting school "ready to learn." PeachStar Education Services of Georgia Public Broadcasting is solely responsible for bringing RTL programming to the state of Georgia. The Ready to Learn Service of Georgia Public Broadcasting represents an active, community-based approach to helping young children begin their educational journeys through the following efforts:

* A daily line-up of children's programming, especially designed to meet the needs of preschool and school age children.
* A strong literacy component - including the distribution of PBS Families magazine and First Book, a program to distribute books to children who may not otherwise have them.
* Statewide conferences and regional seminars/workshops.

If you are interested in scheduling a workshop or training, please contact: Phyllis Grant, Elementary Project Manager, at (404) 685-2572 or pgrant@gpb.org.