Maryland Public Television Receives Early Childhood Funding
As part of our effort to showcase public media projects and provide examples of successful funding and partnering initiatives, the Grant Center newsletter will highlight one station initiative each month. This month, the story is from Maryland Public Television (MPT). Their Early Childhood project demonstrates a successful partnership with a state department of education and a commitment to filling a need in their community.
After leveraging a series of Ready To Learn grants from PBS and CPB over the last decade with a strong partnership with the Maryland State Department of Education, Maryland Public Television developed an Early Childhood project that is now funded by a Child Care Development Fund grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as initial support from a CPB Early Childhood Statewide Planning Grant. The project expands MPT’s Thinkport, a one-stop web-based resource for educators, parents, students and community members that is a project developed by Maryland Public Television with assistance from the Center for Technology in Education at Johns Hopkins University. The Early Childhood Education section of Thinkport, called Think Early Childhood, is dedicated to the work of early childhood educators and child care providers in preparing children for school success.
On the Think Early Childhood website, MPT has compiled activities related to PBS shows in seven different early childhood learning categories: Language and Literacy, Math, Music and Art, Physical Skills, Science, Social Skills and The World Around Me. Each activity meets a different state curriculum requirement that is described on the website. Early childhood educators can use Think Early Childhood to create lessons that effectively integrate public television programming and other multimedia and technology.
In addition to classroom resources, Think Early Childhood provides professional development resources for child care providers and early childhood educators. The website includes links to Maryland-approved online training organizations, as well as PBS Teacherline Raising Readers courses. To their professional development section, MPT is planning to add self-facilitated courses developed in partnership with the Maryland State Department of Education for child care center aides and directors and family child care pre-service modules.
In September, Elmo, in collaboration with MPT and the Maryland State Department of Education, promoted Think Early Childhood and the PBS Raising Readers program at one of Maryland’s early child care and education centers. By combining their expertise in multimedia and education with Maryland’s need for curriculum and professional development resources for early childhood educators, MPT has expanded their reach within the state and continued to cultivate relationships at the Maryland State Department of Education.
