Sunday, August 15, 2004

Helping Children Succeed from Birth to School

Since April 2002, Georgia Public Broadcasting has been part of the Five Star Alliance for Children, a consortium made up of the state broadcasting networks from Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi and designed to share best practices in early childhood development with parents, caregivers, and teachers. The primary project currently being undertaken by the alliance is the Birth to School initiative, which comprises Right From Birth and Going to School, two special video series developed by Mississippi Public Broadcasting and based on the research of internationally recognized child development experts Drs. Craig and Sharon Ramey.

Right From Birth features twelve thirty-minute episodes that help parents and caregivers to better understand the stages of development through which children pass from birth to until 18 months of age. The series is broken into three sections. The first four episodes address emotional and social development in infants and discuss issues such as brain development, people skills, learning and intelligence, and point of view. The fifth episode examines seven essential principles for positive child development, which include encouraging exploration, mentoring, celebrating, rehearsing and extending new skills, protecting, guiding and limiting behavior, and communicating. The sixth through eleventh episodes examine the successive developmental stages from birth to 18 months, such as establishing trust, discovering the world, and a becoming social being.

Going to School, which is designed for the parents and caregivers of children ages three to five, picks up where Right From Birth leaves off and assists with the preparation of children for successful entry into school. The series begins with an examination of responsive care-giving and a review of the seven essentials for positive child development. Once the essentials have been covered, Going to School shows parents and caregivers ways they can help children to learn and practice the essentials during their daily routines both at home and at preschool. Information about how to choose a quality childcare program as well as learning opportunities such as English as a Second Language is also available. Finally, the series offers tips on how to establish successful communication with schools and teachers regarding a child's education.

For more information or to order VHS copies and support materials for Right From Birth or Going to School, visit the GPB Education website at www.gpb.org/peachstar and click on the Original Programming icon.

Friday, August 13, 2004

Satellite Startup Tips

1. If you've lost power to the Chaparral unit over the holidays: First, power the Chaparral back on and tune the television to the channel used to view the Chaparral output. Ensure the satellite channel chosen is R7 AMC-3, Channel 14. Next, press the SAT/TV button on your Digicipher so that the SAT/TV light is lit in the display. Additionally, the green Signal light should lit in the display. GPB Education programming will now be visible on the television set.

2. If your dish has been moved from AMC-3: First, press the satellite selection button on the Chaparral remote. Now scroll up or down using the up and down arrows in the center of the remote until R7 AMC-3 is located. Ensure that R7 AMC-3 is highlighted and press enter. When the "dish is motion" display disappears, press the time button on the remote and confirm that the dish is pointed to R7-14. Channel up or down with the channel bar to select channel 14 if is not the channel displayed. See instructions above to receive GPB Education programming.

3. If the site has a green signal light and NO video:
Contact the Convergent Media Systems Helpdesk at 800 877 -7805.

If you have any additional problems operating your equipment that are not mentioned here, or if these solutions do not work for you, contact the help desk at (800) 877-7805.

Saturday, August 7, 2004

GaETC Moves to November

GaETC, the Georgia Education Technology Consortium, is making a change to its annual conference! After several years of holding their annual conference in March or April, the board of directors has chosen to change to a fall conference. Georgia Public Broadcasting is a regular exhibitor and session presenter at the GaETC conference, sharing new programming, services, and training offerings; this year we'll see you November 10-12, 2004 at the Macon Centreplex.

The GaETC conference is open to all educators with an interest in technology and education. There is no membership list and no dues required to attend the conference. Vendors and presenters from across the country attend GaETC to share a variety of strategies, ideas, and success stories for integrating technology into the classroom. Georgia Public Broadcasting is planning to present two workshops this year - one on integrating video streaming into the classroom and one on advanced multimedia classroom lessons and tools.

Are You Logged In to GPB's Video Streaming?

As this new school year begins, we want to remind you of a great teaching tool you have at your fingertips - Georgia Public Broadcasting's video streaming service. Over 22,000 video clips, ranging from five seconds to several minutes and spanning all grade levels and subjects, are free for you to use with your students. For those of you who have discovered the ease and versatility of our video streaming site, we want to remind you about our username and password protocols.

Each school in Georgia has a unique username and password for use by faculty and staff. For copyright purposes, we ask that you not freely distribute the username and password to your students, such as printing it on a class syllabus or assignment. Your username should consist of your school system name (county or city), as well as your school's four-digit DOE registry number. Your password should be your school system's three-digit DOE system number. If you are not sure that you are using your school's assigned username and password, please call us at 1 (888) 501-8960 to confirm it. The primary reason we urge all schools to use their assigned login information is that it allows us to keep accurate records of who is using the video streaming service, and how much. This informs us in our training initiatives, allows us to troubleshoot problems at the system or even building level, and provides us with accurate data to justify continued support for offering video streaming to Georgia teachers.

For those of you who have not yet had a chance to explore our video streaming to see how easy it is to integrate into your classroom teaching, please contact us at 1 (888) 501-8960 to schedule a training. GPB Education staff will be happy to visit your school or school system to conduct an orientation and to provide you with ideas on how to integrate this powerful tool into your teaching. In addition, look for sessions and workshops at state conferences, including COMO in October, GaETC in November, and discipline-specific conference throughout the school year.

Friday, August 6, 2004

"ECONOMICS OF EDUCATION" PRESENTATIONS UNDERLINE NEED FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS

Georgia Partnership, Chamber of Commerce Join to Tell Important Story

When many people think about public education they are often focused on individual students or school performance and achievement. But there is another critical area often overlooked. The economic prosperity of Georgia is inextricably linked to the state's education system.

The Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce teamed up earlier this year to offer 12 regional presentations highlighting the "Economics of Education." These seminars were presented to local business leaders, educators, government decision makers and interested citizens.

Dr. Stephen Dolinger, the Georgia Partnership's president and key presenter at the sessions, explained that when audiences see the facts they are both surprised and alarmed at how economics and education go hand-in-hand. "Academic achievement, or non-achievement as the case may be, does impact the state's economy and ability to attract business," he said.

As an example, the presentation looks at Georgia's high school graduation rate of approximately 60 percent. Dolinger points out that it is hard for any state to reach its greatest potential if nearly half its children are not completing high school.

Using U.S. Census Bureau figures, the "Economics of Education" presentations explain that in 2001, non-graduates earned $9,000 per year less than high school grads and $30,500 less than college grads. The annual income for non-high school graduates is $19,434. Compare that to high school grads at $28,343 and four-year college graduates at $49,985.

How does this impact our communities and state? Here are some facts:

* Higher per capita income would lead to a higher demand for goods and services produced or offered in the community;
* Higher demand in the retail market leads to higher demand in the wholesale market.

The effect is an increase in the region's economy which fuels prosperity.

As George Israel, president of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce said, "The business community understands that a strong education system is simply the best way to ensure continued economic growth and vitality for the state."

Be sure to watch the special airing of The Economics of Education, a taping of one of the 12 presentations made across the state to learn more about the impact education has on the state economy. It will air on Channel 430 at INSERT TIME. For more information about the Georgia Partnership and its economics initiatives, contact Bill Maddox at 404-223-2464 or billmaddox@mindspring.com.

Sunday, August 1, 2004

GPB Recognizes Georgia's Best and Brightest

From January 19 until March 19, 2004, Georgia Public Broadcasting was pleased to host the Tenth Annual Reading Rainbow Young Writers and Illustrators Contest. The contest challenges children from Kindergarten through third grade to draw upon their verbal and artistic abilities by creating their own picture storybooks. This year, more than 500 students from all across the state participated in the contest, making 2004 the most successful Reading Rainbow contest for Georgia to date.

GPB collaborated with the Education Departments at Clark Atlanta University and the University of Georgia, which offered over 50 students from their teacher education program to conduct the first round of judging. The final round of judging, conducted by seasoned artists, educators, and librarians from throughout Georgia, took place here at the Georgia Public Broadcasting facility in Atlanta in April. We would like to congratulate the following students on their winning submissions:

Kindergarten
1st Place - Moriah Grace Zuckerman - "Hubble and His New Pal"
2nd Place - Vishnu Kaushik - "The Blue Dragon"
3rd Place - Caleb Lawen - "The Kid Who Saved the Farmer from the Big Giant"

First Grade
1st Place - Claire Jirasevijinda - "The Red Magic Hat"
2nd Place - Nicholas Foster - "The Dog Who Could Drive A Car"
3rd Place - J.R. Tinker - "The Dragon's Battle"

Second Grade
1st Place - Hardi Shah - "Missing Piece of Cake"
2nd Place - Brittany Baggett - "The Wandering Kitty"
3rd Place - Brittany Denise Hoell - "Brittany's Adventure to Pluto"

Third Grade
1st Place - Lauretta Zhao - "The Cloud Eagle"
2nd Place - Hannah Wiggins - "Blondie's Mystery"
3rd Place - Megan Kelsey Tabler - "A Snowy Day"

GPB held a celebration on May 22, where each of the winners was invited to read his or her story for an audience of fellow contest winners and family members. Prizes for winners included $50 Barnes and Noble gift certificates for first place winners, $20 gift certificates for second place winners, and 10 gift certificates for third place winners.

You may see the first place winners' stories, which will go on to represent Georgia at the national contest level, by visiting our website at www.gpb.org.