He or She?

Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman

2009-02-17T13:14:00.000-08:00

FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman is a children's television series on PBS during the PBS Kids GO! block of educational programming. It is a game show/reality show parody that is hosted by an animated anthropomorphic dog who dispenses challenges to the show's real-life contestants. Premiering on May 29, 2006, the show has since completed three seasons. On May 23, 2008, PBS announced that FETCH! with Ruff Ruffman would premiere season three on September 29, 2008.

GENERAL MAXIMS: By which to regulate the instructor's practice in instruction-Amos Bronson Alcott

2009-02-15T05:32:00.000-08:00

1. To teach, with a sense of accountableness to the profession
2. To teach, with reference to eternity
3. To teach, as an agent of the Great Instructor
4. To teach, depending on the Divine Blessings for success
5. To teach, as the former of Character, and the promoter of the collective happiness of Man
6. To teach, to subserve the great cause of philanthropy and benevolence
7. To teach, distinct from all sinister, sectarian and oppressive principles
8. To teach, with charitable feelings toward all rational and animal beings
9. To teach, distinct from prejudice, from veneration of antiquity and from excess of novelty
10. To teach, to improve the science of instruction and of mind
11. To teach, duty appreciating the importance of the profession
12. To teach, awed by the clamours of ignorance, yet governed by the dictates of wisdom
13. To teach, nothing from subservience to custom
14. To teach, with unremitted solicitude and faithfulness
15. To teach, appreciating the value of the beings to whom instruction is given
16. To teach, regarding the matter as well as the manner of instruction
17. To teach, that alone, which is useful
18. To teach, in imitation of the Saviour
19. To teach, by exact uniform example
20. To teach, in the inductive method
21. To teach, gradually and understandingly, by the shortest steps, from the more easy and known, to the more difficult and unknown
22. To teach, by the exercise of reason
23. To teach, illustrating by sensible and tangible objects
24. To teach, by clear and copious explanation
25. To teach, by a strict adherence to system 26. To teach, by simple and plain unambiguous language
27. To teach, by short and perfectly obtained lessons
28. To teach, by encouragement 29. To teach, but one thing at the same time
29. To teach, but one thing at the same time
30. To teach, interestingly
31. To teach, principly a knowledge of things, not of words - of ideas, not names
32. To teach, by consulting in the arrangement of lessons, that proportion of variety which is adapted to the genius and habits of the young mind
33. To teach, by keeping curiosity awake
34. To teach, nothing that pupils can teach themselves
35. To teach, as much as possible by analysis
36. To teach, by exciting a laudable ambition for excellence, guarding against its opposite
37. To teach, endeavouring to make pupils feel their importance by the hope which mankind placed in their conduct
38. To teach, endeavouring to preserve the understanding from implicit belief, and to secure the habit of independence of thought and of feeling
39. To teach, endeavouring to invigorate and bring into exercise all the intellectual, moral and physical powers
40. To teach, attempting to associate with literature the idea and perception of pleasure
41. To teach, attempting to induce the laudable ambition of progressive improvement
42. To teach, by consulting the feelings of scholars 43. To teach, with animation and interest
44. To teach, by furnishing constant, useful, and as much as possible, pleasing employment
45. To teach, -.1 treating pupils with uniform familiarity, and patience, and with the greatest kindness, tenderness and respect
46. To teach, by cultivating the collective happiness of the school
47. To teach, by consulting the collective happiness of the school
48. To teach, by persuasion, not by coercion
49. To teach, by comparison and contrast
50. To teach, by allusion to familiar objects and occurrences
51. To teach, without indolence and discouragement
52. To teach, pupils to teach themsleves
53. To teach, by intermingling Questions with instruction
54. To teach, with relation to the practical business of Life
55. To teach, eneavouring to fix things in the understanding rather than words in the memory
56. To teach without bringing pupils in comparison with one another, or touching the spring of personal emulation
57. To teach, with reference to habit
58. To teach, with Independence

The Electric Company

2009-02-10T19:33:00.001-08:00

The Electric Company was an educational American children's television series that was produced by the Children's Television Workshop (now Sesame Workshop) for PBS in the United States. PBS broadcast 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons, from 1971-1977. After it ceased production that year, the program continued in reruns from 1977-1985. CTW produced the show at Reeves Teletape Second Stage in Manhattan.

Word World

2009-02-10T19:01:00.000-08:00

WordWorld is a computer-animated cartoon series produced by WTTW Chicago, Illinois for PBS Kids, funded in part by the United States Department of Education. It is targeted at Nursery school age children, with their main goal being to "inspire a love of words and reading."
WordWorld won an Emmy for "the best main title sequence in daytime television programming."

Super Why!

2009-02-10T18:56:00.000-08:00

Super Why! is a 2007 CGI animated show developed by Angela C. Santomero, co-creator of the Nickelodeon popular pre-school kids' show Blue's Clues, and Samantha Freeman Alpert, a former executive at Nick. The series airs on PBS Kids in the USA, Nick Jr. in Great Britain and Kids' CBC in Canada, and is aimed at children from ages 3 to 6 and teaches critical reading skills such as the alphabet, spelling, pronunciation, writing, phonics, and word usage, and is produced by New York City-based Out of the Blue Enterprises and Toronto-based DHX Media through its Decode Entertainment division.

Barney and Friends

2009-02-10T18:45:00.000-08:00

Barney & Friends is a 1992 children's television show produced in the United States aimed at preschool children. The series features the title character Barney, a purple anthropomorphic Tyranosaurus Rex who conveys learning through songs and small dance routines with a friendly, optimistic attitude.
The show has been criticized for its lack of educational value: "his shows do not assist children in learning to deal with negative feelings and emotions. As one commentator puts it, the real danger from Barney is denial: the refusal to recognize the existence of unpleasant realities." However, studies conducted by Yale researchers Dorothy and Jerome Singer have confirmed that episodes actually contain a great deal of age-appropriate educational material, calling the program a "model of what preschool television should be."

Between the Lions

2009-02-03T23:12:00.001-08:00

Between the Lions is a PBS Kids' puppet show designed to promote reading. The show has won seven Daytime Emmy awards between 2001 and 2007. The target audience is children 4 to 7 years old.Between the Lions focuses on teaching reading and a love of books to young children in a fun, informative way.

In addition to teaching basic reading, pronunciation, and grammar skills, Between the Lions also strives to promote a general love of reading in its viewers.Some Between the Lions episodes also deal with larger episodes related to literary matters: How to handle the scary parts of a story, for example, or the fact that it's okay to be a little sad if something bad happens to a character that you like in a book. It also shows how children can use books as jumping points for their own imagination. Above all, every character on the show expresses a contagious enthusiasm for reading, with the underlying message being "Reading is cool".

Bear in the Big Blue House

2009-02-03T19:16:00.000-08:00

Bear in the Big Blue House is a television program for young children produced for the Disney Channel by Mitchell Kriegman and The Jim Henson Company. The program taught simple life lessons by following the title character and his puppet friends as they went through their day.
The gentle, soft title character of Bear addresses the kids at home directly, talking to them as if they were all his close friends. Bear in the Big Blue House was created for the very young, teaching concepts like shapes, gravity, helping, seasons, and even toilet training. Joining the ever-curious Bear are an assortment of woodland creatures — excitable lemur Treelo, headstrong mouse Tutter, peppy otter twins Pip and Pop and imaginative little bear cub Ojo — all of whom help illustrate the day’s lesson. At the end of every episode, Bear goes out on his balcony to talk about what everyone has learned with his friend Luna, the wise moon. He then retires to bed with a great big smile.

you can find related videos on the following website: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=bear+in+the+big+blue+house

Here is an example:

Schoolhouse Rocks

2009-02-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

Schoolhouse Rocks! is a series of animated musical educational short films that aired during Saturday morning children's programming on U.S. television network ABC. Topics covered include grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and politics. The series aired between 1972 and 1986, and infrequently during the 1990s and 2000s, with new shows created between 1993 and 1996 until its cancellation by ABC in 2001. (You can read more about this series by clicking "Wikipedia-Schoolhouse Rocks" under the category "He cares about Everything" on the right.
Here's the URL for youtube playlist:http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=79458ABAFA7F5AF3

And here are some example episodes:

Martha Speaks

2009-02-03T18:16:00.000-08:00

Martha Speaks is an animated children's television program based on the 1992 children's book of the same name by Susan Meddaugh about a dog named Martha (voiced by Tabitha St. Germain), who is owned by ten-year-old Helen Lorraine (known in the books as Helen Finney). When Helen feeds Martha some alphabet soup, the soup travels to her brain instead of her stomach resulting in her ability to speak. The show focuses on synonyms and vocabulary, with each episode featuring an underlying theme illustrated with key words.
So far 20 episodes have aired. You can get access them through clicking the following URL.
http://pbskids.org/martha/videos/e07_s13_caper.html

Here's an example available on youtube.