This series, aimed at adult learners, features programs on the elements and principles of three art forms assessed in Kentucky schools: dance, drama, and music. Rather than focusing on teaching strategies, the programs are designed to enhance teachers’ content knowledge in the arts. Rich in hands-on activities and entertaining video segments, they feature practicing artists and arts educators at all levels. The series was produced in collaboration with the Institute for Arts in Education sponsored by the Kentucky Center.

Length: 3 programs; 90 minutes each
Audience: teachers, all levels

The Arts II: West African Dance is a 60-minute professional development seminar designed to deepen teachers’ general knowledge of dance, an assessed art form, as well as their knowledge of West African dance. Professional artists Harlina Churn-Diallo and Yaya Diallo introduce the elements of dance while providing step-by-step instructions for the Mouwa dance. Other topics include warm-ups for dancers, connecting music and movement, choreography, and the cultural meaning of dance as a celebration of unity.

Audience: teachers, all levels

Choreographer, dancer, and teacher Katherine Kramer presents an overview of Latin dance for educators. Working in a dance studio, Katherine and participating dancers and drummers demonstrate some of the dance traditions of Cuba; how the dances and music are related; and the vital role of the claves, simple percussion sticks, in organizing both the music and the dance. Basic exercises that can be incorporated in the classroom are also included.

Audience: teachers, all levels

Elizabeth Jewell, KET Distance Learning humanities instructor, presents professional development seminars designed to deepen teachers’ own understanding of two topics in the humanities: the neoclassical era of the 1780s and the development of modern dance.

Length: 2 programs; 90 minutes each
Audience: arts and humanities teachers, all levels

In this eight-part professional development series for high school dance, music, theater, and visual art teachers, fellow teachers from arts magnet high schools and comprehensive high schools across the country demonstrate their practices and discuss their goals, methods, and experiences. The programs examine how general principles of good teaching are carried out in teaching the arts at the high school level, exploring seven specific principles in depth.

The Art of Teaching the Arts is part of the Annenberg Media collection.

In this two-part KET professional development seminar, education consultant Gary Phillips provides advice for teachers and school administrators on how to help students facing economic or personal obstacles to learning.

Length: 2 programs; 90 minutes each
Audience: teachers and administrators, all levels

A 60-minute interview with Dr. Asa Hilliard III, professor of urban education at Georgia State University, on the topics of multicultural education, valid assessment, teacher training, and the interactions between teacher expectations and student achievement. Hilliard provides valuable information for teachers and administrators who are committed to finding ways to close achievement gaps between groups of students and shares examples of classroom strategies that have been effective in helping at-risk students achieve.

Well known for his work in assessment, multicultural teaching strategies, child development, and teacher training, Hilliard is the author of more than 200 articles, books, and research reports.

Audience: teachers and administrators, all levels

Kati Haycock, executive director of the Education Trust, uses national data to show that, on average, low-income and minority students receive less effective teachers and are placed into low-level classes. Her 90-minute presentation charts the drastic effects of low expectations on student achievement and demonstrates how to evaluate data measuring student achievement and teacher effectiveness.

Audience: teachers and administrators, all levels

Kentucky Principals, Leading by Example showcases the outstanding work of the Kentucky Department of Education in partnership with Kentucky Colleges of Education and the Educational Professional Standards Board to reform principal preparation programs and create environments for principals to be the instructional leader in their schools. This panel discussion with noted practitioners and higher education representatives explains the relationship between student achievement and principals as instructional leaders. In addition, authentic classroom video features Kentucky principals using the School Administration Manager (SAM) program, implementing schoolwide reform in literacy instruction, and distributing leadership so teachers also are empowered to serve as instructional leaders.

This project is part of The Principal Story outreach campaign, which is made possible by a grant from The Wallace Foundation, a source of ideas for improving school leadership.

This professional development series for school principals on improving student achievement in mathematics and science addresses the specific issues faced by administrators. Taped in schools from Maine to California, the programs explain recent research on math and science education practices, describe the impact of state and national standards, discuss varied teaching approaches, show new curricula in use, and compare effective models of staff development.

Principles for Principals is part of the Annenberg Media collection.

By the age of 18, one in four girls and one in six boys will be sexually abused. And teachers—along with other school personnel and mental health workers—are required by law to report suspected child abuse. Promise Not To Tell?, a three-part series produced by KET in partnership with Prevent Child Abuse Kentucky, the Kentucky Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation Services, provides vital information for teachers about this difficult and important issue.

Promise Not To Tell? features teachers, counselors, administrators, mental health and law enforcement professionals, and adult survivors sharing insight and advice on dealing with child sexual abuse, from the first suspicions through reporting, the legal process, and the aftermath of reporting the abuse. The three 20-minute programs can be viewed as part of a faculty-wide training on the issue of child sexual abuse or used as a self-study by individual teachers.

The monthly USDOE Satellite Town Meeting brings officials from the U.S. Department of Education together with teachers, administrators, and parents to discuss national issues in education, from provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act to the latest research on effective teaching practices. The programs emphasize how parents and schools can work together to help every student achieve his or her full potential.

Why has excessive weight gain reached epidemic status among Kentucky children? And what can each of us do to help in our families, our communities, and our schools? This one-hour KET panel discussion on childhood obesity prevention shows how parents and children can adopt healthier eating and exercise habits and describes how schools can make school lunches more nutritious and attractive.

Dr. Wayne Tuckson, a practicing physician in Louisville and host of the Kentucky Health series, moderates the discussion. The panel members are Janet Tietyen, Ph.D., R.D., an associate professor in the University of Kentucky Department of Nutrition and Food Science; Janey Thornton, director of child nutrition for the Hardin County Schools; Anita Courtney, a registered dietitian with the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department and coordinator of the VERB program; and Dr. Joan Griffith, a pediatrician and director of TEAMS (Teens Enjoying Active Management Systems) at the Kentucky Clinic in Lexington. Also featured are Megan Pollack, a 5th grader at Central Elementary School in Wingo; her mother, Tracy Pollack; and members of the Graves Elementary cross-country team and their coach, Noel Coplen. Noel is also the director of the Graves County Health Department.

Topics covered in the discussion include

• the scope and impact of the problem of childhood obesity in Kentucky
• the effects of obesity on children’s overall health and academic performance
• changes in our culture that have affected how children play and eat meals
• the role of the media in the problem and in potential solutions
• the role of physical education in schools
• school lunches
• how parents, communities, and schools can address the problem

In addition, the compelling, personal stories shared by Kasey Roberts and Megan Pollack show how each child’s decision to change her lifestyle has affected her family’s choices on meals and physical activities—and how those choices have led to success.

These KET-produced programs address topics related to physical and mental health and development in children and teenagers. They combine advice from expert panelists, roundtable discussion, and question-and-answer sessions with audience members. Many were originally produced as live call-in programs.

Links to resources related to each topic, along with a complete list of past programs, are available at the series web site.

These professional development videos from classrooms around the country illustrate effective instruction and assessment strategies for teaching foreign languages. The featured teachers model interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes of communication while integrating concepts of culture, comparisons, connections to students’ lives, and the importance of community into their lessons. The language classes featured include Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Italian, Latin, Russian, and Chinese. All videos are subtitled in English and are appropriate for teachers of any language.

Teaching Foreign Languages K-12 is part of the Annenberg Media collection.

This professional development workshop from Annenberg Media is designed to help middle and high school mathematics teachers improve the way they teach 16 topics found in most Algebra I programs.

Expert writing teachers and consultants join Kentucky Department of Education Associate Commissioner Starr Lewis for a discussion of the elements of quality teacher/student writing conferences. The panelists respond to videotape footage of writing conferences at all grade levels and discuss the strategies teachers use to make the most of them. The examples illustrate that writing conferences do not have to be time-consuming, planned events that occur only after a student has written a draft. Rather, effective conferences can be spontaneous and quick, can occur at any stage of the writing process, and can even be whole-class or small-group activities.

Length: 4 programs; 30 minutes each
Audience: classroom and English/language arts teachers, all levels

This Annenberg/CPB professional development series offers advice for high school teachers on teaching writing, including issues such as preparing students for high-stakes assessments and dealing with differently abled students. Classroom video from around the country shows teachers helping their students grow as skilled and effective writers and teachers and students working together to create writing communities. Professional writers share their work processes, from initial concept to publication, and comments from researchers, theorists, students, and teachers provide additional real-world context.

What can you do when the mere mention of poetry elicits groans from students? This 90-minute KET professional development workshop provides positive strategies that help students (even the reluctant ones) develop poems while promoting a better understanding of the characteristics and types of poetry. Featuring Starr Lewis of the Kentucky Writing Program and high school teacher Dewey Hensley, the seminar explores such topics as teaching students to distinguish between concrete and abstract language and to use precise descriptive words, comparing the process of revising poetry with the process of revising prose, and assessing poems written by students.

Audience: secondary English/language arts teachers

Presenter Dewey Hensley, a teacher at South Oldham High School, offers a detailed approach to teaching secondary students to write short stories in this 90-minute KET seminar. He explores methods for generating ideas and characters, developing characters, setting up conflicts, plotting, creating leads, establishing point of view, and revising. Other topics include the components of short stories, keeping a writer’s notebook, descriptive writing, and crafting dialogue.

Audience: secondary English/language arts teachers

In this three-part KET professional development series for science teachers, University of Kentucky geology professor Dr. Frank Ettensohn explores how the diverse geology of Kentucky’s many regions influenced each area’s history, geography, and culture—particularly people’s ability or inability to use the land. From the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River beds, the series looks at each region of the state from the perspective of geology. Ettensohn is joined by Terri Koontz, a science teacher at Lexington Traditional Magnet School.

Length: 3 programs; 90 minutes each
Audience: science teachers, all levels

Three KET professional development programs for high school science teachers explore the natural resources found in Kentucky through visits to geological points of interest around the state.

Length: 3 programs; 30 minutes each
Audience: secondary science teachers

A 13-part professional development series from Annenberg/CPB designed to update teachers of high school biology on recent advances in the field and on the current research methods and tools that are leading to new discoveries. The programs feature interviews with scientists involved in ground-breaking research as well as detailed animations that provide a micro-level view of techniques such as mass spectrometry and microarray analysis.

A four-part KET professional development series designed to give teachers a deeper understanding of Kentucky history before the Civil War and the quest for freedom of enslaved African Americans. In each 30-minute program, a noted scholar leads teachers to a deeper understanding of this topic and its relationship to Kentucky’s Core Content in four areas: Kentucky history, Kentucky geography, culture and society, and arts and humanities. Extensions for further inquiry tied directly to the Core Content are provided for each program, and Kentucky social studies teachers model extensive use of technology.

These seminars are designed to complement and enhance classroom use of the 60-minute KET documentary Kentucky’s Underground Railroad—Passage to Freedom.

Length: 4 programs; 30 minutes each
Audience: social studies and history teachers, intermediate and secondary levels

Given the critical shortage of certified special education teachers, the special education paraprofessional—whether known as a classroom aide, an instructional assistant, or a paraeducator—plays an increasing critical role in serving the needs of both special education students and their schools. This six-part KET professional development series, produced in partnership with the Interdisciplinary Human Development Institute at the University of Kentucky, defines and explore the various roles of the paraeducator working with special-needs students: as a member of the instructional team, as an instructor who teaches new skills and collects progress data, as a connector to other students and to the community, and as a personal-needs assistant responsible for the student’s physical well-being.

Length: 6 programs; 30 minutes each
Audience: Programs 1-5: special education paraeducators, all levels; Program 6: special education teachers and administrators, all levels

The number of children with autism has increased dramatically in recent years. These two programs examine the issues surrounding autism—signs to look for in early development, effective early intervention programs, and strategies to help children with autism achieve in school. Renee Shaw hosts.

About Autism is a 2005 KET production.

This two-part KET series brings together Kentucky experts, service providers, educators, and parents to discuss such topics as entering the special education system, the legal rights of students with special needs, and planning for the transition from high school to the real world. The programs provide information valuable to both parents and teachers of students with disabilities.

The first program, which addresses special education resources in public schools, is for educators at all levels as well as parents of special-needs children. The second program, on helping these students make the transition to life after high school, is designed for high school juniors and seniors who are facing this challenge as well as their parents and teachers.

Your Child with Special Needs is a 2004 KET production. Renee Shaw hosts.