• Parade of Programs
• Weekly Program Schedule
• Series Teacher Guides
• Teacher Previews
• Continuing Education

• Surf Report
• World Language Assessment
• democracy it is!
• Into the Book
• Tracks
• Wisconsin Studies Programs
• Wisconsin War Letters
• Sound~Waves Radio Contest

• Interconnect 2.0
• ECB Liaison Services
• Ordering Teacher Materials
• Tape Dubbing
• Datacasting
• Education Staff
• Recommended Sites

In this September 2008 issue:
Wisconsin Election Resources | World Language Assessment | Tiedemann: Gets In the Mode!
PBS Teachers Connect | MARC Records | Access, Analyze, Act | DTV Explained | News Archive

With countless hours of Radio, TV and Internet election advertising dominating the airwaves, we provide facts and tools to help you and your students examine this deluge of campaign ads. The 30-Second Candidate: A toolkit for analyzing campaign advertising features downloadable worksheets and lesson plans, all of which are indexed to Wisconsin Academic Standards.

Students will learn to separate the "30-Second Candidates" from the real candidates!
Check out the website!

Nothing about the issues facing the candidates and American voters in 2008 is black and white, and issues affecting our youth are at the forefront of almost every debate. With these You Decide activities, students can explore both sides of an issue, put their own critical thinking to work, and discuss pros and cons with classmates. In the end, perhaps your students will ask different — and better — questions than those presented here: www.kqed.org/w/youdecide

Address American History and Civics standards and help your students participate in the election process with these elementary and secondary resources from PBS Teachers. Invite your students to share their opinions, track candidates and explore issues with new Web-based tools, many of them already available at WisconsinVote.org. www.pbs.org/teachers/vote2008

And for your youngest students, KidsVote, and Kids Win! Wisconsin students from kindergarten through third grade will get a practical lesson in democracy by participating in Wisconsin KidsVote 2008.

This mock election allows younger students to cast a ballot for characters from their favorite PBS Kids shows! After the votes are tallied, WPT will broadcast a full day of programming featuring the winning candidates.

The students get a taste of what voting means, and it gives them a chance to see the results of the electoral process. E-mail kids@wpt.org for more information! www.wpt.org/kids

With a new school year underway, the Education Services division of the ECB is proud to
announce the release of our most recent professional development series, World Language Assessment: Get in the Mode!

This seven-part series was developed due to a need for professional development resources for teachers of world languages. Specifically, this series assists teachers of world languages in developing and implementing the best strategies for assessing student learning.

Each of the seven programs emphasizes different elements related to assessment. Content for each series includes a framework for approaching assessment, an overview of performance guidelines based on state and national standards, and methods for improving efficiency.

Teachers of world languages from around the state took part in the development of this series, and were instrumental in shaping the c ontent of each program to fit Wisconsin Model Academic Standards. Each episode features a teacher in a classroom covering lessons or doing an assessment that meets the episode’s objectives.

Each episode concludes with an interview with the teacher in that segment and a World Language Summative Assessment Professional who will provide feedback and insight into each lesson.

This new professional development series will be broadcast on Wisconsin Public Television (WPT), and also will be available on-demand over the Internet. DVDs will be available for purchase from the ECB. Visit http://explore.ecb.org/itv/ for information on air dates and times for World Language Assessment: Get in the Mode! For more information visit the series Web site at: www.ecb.org/worldlanguageassessment.

How long have you worked in the field of education?
Since 1979. I have taught German language and culture at all ages and levels in Milwaukee, Madison, and Minnesota. I added my school library/media specialist qualification in 1988 and worked at Tomahawk High School and O’Keeffe Middle School before becoming the district cataloger.

How did you learn about the ECB’s new series, World Language Assessment: Get in the Mode?Chad Reuter posted a request to the Wisconsin Educational Media & Technology Association (WEMTA) listserv, noting the ECB’s preference in having library media people on the teacher development teams for original series.

How have you been involved with the development of World Language Assessment: Get in the Mode?
I attended every monthly meeting when the majority of discussion, development, and decision-making occurred. On our own time, some team members were videotaped in their classrooms or as classroom interviewers for the series. Team members also viewed early cuts of the video segments and provided feedback via Internet, and developed discussion questions and other support materials.

What do you feel are the strengths of this program?
I looked forward to every development team meeting because of the incredibly high quality of the team members! That shines through in the video segments as well as the support materials: this is truly an outstanding collection of best practices in world language assessment. In addition, the philosophy toward assessment, and the conceptualizing, planning, and activities themselves, are clearly NOT just world-language applicable. Any teachers looking for ways to expand their assessment skills, especially outside of “teaching to the test,” should be able to say, “I can do that, I just have to …” in response to numerous examples in the series.

As an educator, do you feel your experience contributing to the development of this series was valuable? First and foremost, I value the inspiration and education I got from meeting and working with top teachers and others in education from around the state. I was exposed to different practices, different thinking, and especially leadership from administrators, DPI, and production staff that made me want to contribute as much as I could!

PBS Teachers Connect is an online community of teachers exchanging ideas, resources and instructional strategies on the integration of digital media and technology.

Become a member, and you can receive:
Exclusive Content from PBS! Be the first to see previews of new PBS programs and access teaching resources exclusive to PBS Teachers Connect members. Save Classroom Resources With PBS Teachers Connect, you can save and tag classroom resources you find on PBS Teachers.

Discussions on Media and Technology Connect with teachers who use PBS resources – and soon, program producers and local stations – to share ideas and innovations. Discount at ShopPBS Just by signing up, teachers will receive a 10% discount on your next purchase at ShopPBS for Teachers. Visit www.ecb.org and click on PBS Teachers™ and join PBS Teachers Connect today!

Information taken from www.pbs.org/teachers/connect/create-profile-1/.

This is an elections-related curriculum that PBS produced in partnership with Temple
University's Media Education Lab with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Election Collaboration. The curriculum includes a rich collection of standards-based readings, discussion questions and lesson plans for students in grades 7-12.


These are complemented by three video modules for teachers and an interactive political personality quiz for students. These materials are designed to promote students' media and information literacy skills and civic engagement through the use of social media tools created by public media partners, including American Public Media's Idea Generators and Select a Candidate, Capitol News Connection's Ask Your Lawmaker, KQED's You Decide, NewsHour/NPR's Election Map, and NPR's Get My Vote. We hope that you enjoy the curriculum and will share it with teachers in your community.

The curriculum is available online at: http://www.pbsteachers.org/vote2008/blueprint/
Download copies of the print guide from the Act page