Teaching Tolerance is one of my FAVORITE websites, and you’ll likely see it pop up on the blog pretty often. They have tons of great stuff. While it is aimed at classroom educators, most of it is super adaptable to the Club context, plus they have a lot of excellent learning tools for staff.
While browsing through their webinars, I found one called “How PBS’ ‘Arthur’ Resources Support Prosocial Behavior and Critical Theory” and I was like
The webinar introduces the Arthur Interactive Media Buddy Project which was developed by PBS Learning Media. It is a cross-grade buddy system and includes a five-unit curriculum with a comprehensive educator’s guide designed to use with students in grades Kindergarten through Fifth grade. It uses characters from PBS’ Arthur, which many of your Club members are likely familiar with, and is focused on encouraging kids’ social, emotional, and character development. It looks like a neat program, and I think could be adapted pretty easy to the Club. It could be a great way for your Torch Club members to interact with the younger kids. I know as an Education Director I was always looking for programming for my 5-8 year olds, and I would have loved to have this!
You can access the recording here, and see all of their webinar options at http://www.tolerance.org/webinars. (Unfortunately within the webinar, the video clips they show don’t work, but you can find them all at the AIM Buddy project website.)
One cool thing Teaching Tolerance does is that they offer certificates when you complete their webinars, which are great to keep to show professional development if you have a year-end review at your Club!
Thank you for sharing!
It is such a great resource! I hope people find it useful 🙂