This summer, PBS KIDS has focused on literacy with 10 weeks of themed programming. SID THE SCIENCE KID “Get Up & Move Week” will kick off on August 6 and feature the following episodes:
“Slide to the Side” – August 6
“Sid’s Super Kick” – August 7
“Get Up & Move” – August 8
“Sid’s Amazing Lungs” – August 9
“Must See TV” – August 10
Watch all week, August 6 – 10, 2012 at 10am.
On April 19 the school districts of Spring Hill, Park Hill, Hickman Mills and North Kansas City came together for a “Lunch & Learn” held at KCPT. Lunch was furnished as the school district representatives learned about the many educational services that are provided to teachers across the area.
Did you get a chance to meet Elmo and Ernie on January 19th? These Sesame Street favorites made an appearance at the Meet & Greet hosted by KCPT before the Saturday morning performance of Sesame Street Live. Your local public television station is your source for Elmo, Ernie, Abby and so many more! Look below for your photo and stay tuned in to KCPT for the latest episodes. Post your photos and help all of your Facebook friends to find their way to Sesame Street!
Every week some 95,000 area students bring their studies to life with KCPT’s digital learning services. Our PBS LearningMedia™ is a great resource for students and educators and brings together the best of pubic media digital content from award-winning programs like NOVA, Nature, FRONTLINE, American Experience, and Sid the Science Kid. KCPT acts as the connector between this outstanding innovative digital content service and the educators and students at area schools.
Gary Brock, KCPT’s Director of Education, represented KCPT at the PBS LearningMedia™ Summit at PBS in Arlington Virginia last month. Sarah Hayden, second grade teacher from the Longfellow Elementary School in the Kansas City Public School District accompanied Gary. Sarah will work with KCPT to create workshops throughout the metro to promote the service to other schools.
Another educational initiative of KCPT is Raising Readers. The Martha Speaks Reading Buddies program now includes six high needs elementary schools in the greater Kansas City Metropolitan area. Currently 700 children are involved with the mentoring program. Fourth and fifth graders become Big Buddies and kindergartners and first graders become Little Buddies. During the ten sessions the Big Buddies mentor their Little Buddies by watching special Martha Speaks programs, playing games, writing in journals, and reading books together. The Little Buddies get to take the 10 books home allowing these high needs children to begin building a library and a love of reading.
KCPT hosted an early childhood workshop for area teachers last month. The Family Conservancy trained the teachers in advanced skills to be used to address the high needs children they work with on a daily basis. KCPT hosts four of these workshops each year and has over 40 in attendance at each workshop.
As you can see, KCPT is more than just television. We have a broad reach in the community to help inside and outside of the classroom. Great content plus great teachers plus great training equals life long success!
If you would like more information about our educational services, please visit our website at kcpt.org.
Click here to join me as a proud member of KCPT.
Wednesday evening, May 23, former KCPT board members and long time friends gathered at the station to celebrate the launch of Ed Matheny’s book, The Audacious Rise of KCPT. The book celebrates 50 years of KCPT history.
Copies are available at The Kansas City Stores on the Plaza and in Union Station.
Get ready for BIG fun when the Pteranodon family decides to take the Dinosaur Train to meet some of the biggest dinosaurs on earth during “Big Big Dinosaur Week,” four all-new episodes premiere Monday – Friday, August 13 – 17, 2012 on PBS KIDS. During their adventure, they meet Allie Alamosaurus, an enormous, long-necked sauropod with huge legs, and Denise Diplodocus, who has a heck of a neck! When they journey through the time tunnel to the Jurassic Period, our adventurers use the mighty whipping tail of Apollo Apatosaurus as a bridge during an action-filled treasure hunt. Finally, they meet up with their old frined Arnie Argentinosaurus, who has grown too big to ride on the Dinosaur Train any more. Tiny and Buddy arrange with Mr. Conductor for Arnie to be the first big dinosaur to ride on the new Dinosaur Train flatbed car!
Watch Monday – Friday, August 13 – 17, 2012 at 11am.
Although they joke about shutting the windows and blinds in the small conference room at Académie Lafayette’s K–2 campus, the dozen administrators, board members and witnesses at the annual lottery for admission take confidentiality very seriously.
The lottery system started five years ago when Académie Lafayette began receiving more applications than they had space for students.
“It’s bittersweet- It’s unpleasant- Those would be two adjectives I would use,” said Heather Royce, Académie Lafayette’s K–2 principal.
Académie Lafayette administrators, board members and witnesses at the annual lottery prepare to draw 46 names of kindergartners out of a wooden box.
Of this year’s 136 applicants for the 2014 kindergarten class, there is space for 46. This is the space available after siblings of current students, any children of staff and “re-instated students”, or students who were picked during the previous year’s lottery, but whose parents decided to delay kindergarten for another year.
Admission at Académie Lafayette primarily happens in kindergarten because of its French-immersion curriculum.
“We’ve consistently had about 175 applications received during the open application period for the last three years,” said Katie Hendrickson, director of communications and admissions at Académie Lafayette. “This year we’ve received 30 more applications, so the interest in the school is growing and has grown steadily.”
Enrollment in charter schools in Kansas City and St. Louis has grown in the last decade according to the Missouri Department of Elementary & Secondary Education (DESE).
Missouri Public Charter School Enrollment from the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Charter schools were first permitted in Kansas City and St. Louis in 1998 to give parents alternative school options because the public schools in both cities were struggling.
Académie Lafayette was founded in 1999 as the first charter school in Missouri.
In June of 2012, Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon signed legislation allowing unaccredited school districts and school boards in accredited districts to apply for a charter school charter with DESE.
DESE Communications Coordinator Sarah Potter said it’s not yet clear how this legislation might impact the number of charter schools in the state.
“I’m not sure that we’re going to see more charter schools,” Potter said. “I think there is hesitancy with sponsors because there is more accountability.”
This increased accountability includes new standards for reporting academic performance and transparency of school finances to the state.
Académie Lafayette, which is sponsored by the University of Central Missouri, is looking at possible expansions.
“We are full already in this building,” Royce said. “We opened this building in August, really at capacity with six kindergartens, six first grades and six second grades.”
Letters to families letting them know whether or not they have been selected in the lottery will be mailed March 15.
“I ask families to have a plan B, but I don’t know exactly where they go [if they don’t get in],” Hendrickson said. “This is a painful and sad day, because we know that we have the chance to really accept students and help them go a certain direction with their education, and it’s really sad to see this whole other group of kids that we’ll never meet.”
Get your picture with Buddy from Dinosaur Train and take the Dinosaur Train Discovery Tour through Sea Life Aquarium! On the self-guided tour, you’ll learn about the prehistoric ancestors of sharks, crabs and more.
Buddy will be at Sea Life Aquarium on Saturday, January 26th from 10am to 3pm. Tickets for admission to the aquarium are required and can be purchased through Sea Life Aquarium’s website. It is highly recommended that you purchase your tickets online and in advance of January 26th.
Randy Mason sits down with Black & Veatch’s Staffing Program Manager Shelly Arnett to discuss how this Kansas City-based, global engineering, consulting and construction company’s mentoring program is getting area students excited about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). KCPT has partnered with Black & Veatch to start a tutoring program for fifth-grade students at Santa Fe and Dobbs Elementary in the Hickman Mills School District, hoping to inspire the students to pursue careers in science-related fields.
Last week, the National Council on Educating Black Children (NCEBC) hosted their annual convention at the Westin Crown Center Hotel. The NCEBC is a non-profit organization whose mission is to reinstate academic rigor and relevant teaching, improve the assessment of such instruction, and prepare the African-American learner for effective participation in a competitive global society.
Approximately 600 educators from across the United States and over 250 middle and high school students from Greater Kansas City attended the NCEBC Convention. The event featured discussions by both local and national education experts.
The Local Show shares some excerpts from the panel discussion: “Creating a Sense of Urgency to Increase Black Male Achievement: A Call to Action.” Among others, the panel included Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Chris Nicastro and the Council of Chief State School Officers Executive Director Gene Wilhoit. The NCEBC also recognized high achieving urban schools and individuals who have made significant contributions to urban education, and amongst the distinguished awardees was University Academy, founded by Tom Bloch, Lynn Brown, and Barnett and Shirley Helzberg.
