Local PBS station enriches teachers' lessons for students
by Kate Slaboch, Outpost staff
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Reno's PBS station, KNPB Channel 5, held their fourth annual National Teacher Training Institute (NTTI) Workshop on February 12-13, 2000. There were 116 local teachers in attendance to learn how to integrate technology into lessons for their students.
Teachers heard keynote speaker Bryan Bauer of Iowa Public Television's Interactive Media team, and attended sessions led by master teachers who have been instructed in the use of technology in the classrooms. All twelve master teachers are from northern Nevada and are trained by experts from Thirteen-WNET New York, a PBS station that sponsors NTTI workshops.
"NTTI workshops strive to give teachers strong content within the context of educational technology," said master teacher Carl Meibergen. As a teacher at Hidden Valley Elementary School in Reno, Meibergen has been a part of the workshops since they came to Reno.
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Meibergen's favorite lesson that he has taught at NTTI was from the 1999 sessions, entitled "Wooden Ships…" (Meibergen is a self-professed Crosby, Stills and Nash fan). Like all lessons that are taught at NTTI, this lesson used the Internet in the lesson. Meibergen explained it as "… involving students in a scenario of stowing away on a ship and then needing to use the Internet… to track the ship's location, course, speed…" All lessons are geared towards certain ages of students, and this particular lesson was geared towards those in grades 6 through 9.
NTTI workshops are held at 29 public broadcasting stations throughout the country. They strive to teach teachers how to integrate video clips (and other technology like the Internet), into their lessons for math, science, and even a few english lessons. According to Ronda Clarke, KNPB's Public Information and Education Specialist, "The days of putting in an 8 millimeter film, telling a class to watch it, leaving the classroom and coming back in an hour are over. Teachers need to know how to actively involve students in their lessons."
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Clarke explained that the majority of the teachers who attended this year's sessions - 92 of them - were from elementary schools throughout the northern Nevada region. "We get a lot of teachers who come back every year, but the lessons are always new each year, and we always look for new people," she said. There is also college credit available for attending the NTTI workshops, Clarke says, for either undergraduate or graduate level work.
Each teacher received a binder stuffed full of NTTI's special brand of lessons - including Nevada standards, the future of digital television, and over 20 specially-designed specific lesson plans with attached worksheets and details. These lessons were prepared by the master teachers and feature many interesting projects, such as making paper by recycling other products, and learning about physics by building models of roller coasters. Many of the projects feature PBS programming, such as "Bill Nye, the Science Guy," "Discovery," and "Scientific American Frontiers."
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PBS Cyberschool http://www.ibm.pbscyberschool.org PBS Electronic Field Trips http://www.pbs.org/fieldtrips PBS Instructional Television http://www.pbs.org/itv PBS Mathline http://www.pbs.org/learn/mathline PBS Scienceline http://www.pbs.org/scienceline PBS Teacher Source http://www.pbs.org/teachersource Understanding and Using the Internet http://www.pbs.org/uti
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posted March 6, 2000
Copyright 2000 Nevada Outpost
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