MontanaPBS programming to support students learning at home, educators returns Sept. 8

As schools balance in-person and distance learning, MontanaPBS will launch a fall Learn at Home curriculum of educational programming and provide corresponding free digital resources, all intended to support families and educators during the COVID-19 pandemic. The new schedule begins Sept. 8 and continues through Dec. 18.

As part of its efforts, MontanaPBS will dedicate its daytime weekday schedule to educational programming provided by MontanaPBS and the Montana Office of Public Instruction that is aligned with Montana state school standards. The 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. weekday schedule includes specific blocks of time for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade levels and covers subjects including language arts, social studies, science and math. The regular MontanaPBS primetime schedule is not affected by this change.

“We have spent our summer learning from and reflecting on our spring Learn at Home initiative so we could bring back an even better version of the program this fall," said Nikki Vradenburg, director of education at MontanaPBS. “We’re very honored to provide educators and families around the state with free online and over-the-air resources to support their learning endeavors this fall, in whatever form that takes.”

MontanaPBS has curated corresponding free digital content for the Learn at Home programming to better support teachers navigating this new learning environment. Aligned to the same Montana content standards and topic areas as the broadcast service, MontanaPBS has created and shared the following free resources for teachers:

• Distance learning webpage: MontanaPBS has published a webpage that will include the weekly broadcast schedules (with embedded links in each PDF that point to free digital resources), as well as articles and activities created and/or vetted by the MontanaPBS education team, other public media organizations and other trusted education partners. Visit montanapbs.org/learnathome.

• Digital media collections: View and download full resource collections on PBS LearningMedia that correspond with the TV broadcast schedule. Collections include curated media and lesson plans, which are sorted by grade level and subject area. Visit montana.pbslearningmedia.org.

• Unplugged learning menus: MontanaPBS created learning menus for kindergarten through 12th grade students to be used for home learning. All of the learning menus feature activities that do not require technology or an internet connection. These menus can be downloaded from the distance learning webpage at montanapbs.org/learnathome.