Are you looking for a way to expand your teaching methods but cannot invest the time to travel or take a class? Do you need a way to structure some on-site staff development activities at your program? Check out Annenberg Media resources. Annenberg produces videos for professional development, and teachers can use them in a group setting or alone. Annenberg describes their products as follows:

"Workshops and courses are appropriate for preservice and inservice teachers, and are targeted to specific curricular areas and grade levels. You will find training in content areas as well as supplemental video practice libraries that give a 'fly-on-the-wall' view of real teachers in real classrooms."

Annenberg distributes their programs to schools and nonprofits through their own digital satellite channel called the "Annenberg Channel." They also make them available, on-demand, on their Web site. This means you sit in front of your own computer at any time of the day or night and select what you want to watch. How flexible is that? You an also purchase materials. (See specific information at the end of this article.)

Participation in workshops and courses is free and teachers can download the accompanying print material from the Web site at no charge. You do have to register for the workshops and courses, but there is no charge; participation is free. Accompanying print material is also free and available for downloading from the Annenberg Web site. If you want graduate credit, there is a "reasonable cost" involved.

Find Out More
If your program wants to purchase Annenberg materials for its resource library, order them through the Web site, www.learner.org, or call 1-800-LEARNER.

A Sample of Free Annenberg Workshops and Courses

• Engaging with Literature
• Developing Writers
• The Arts in Every Classroom
• The Economics Classroom
• Essential Science for Teachers: Life Science
• Insights Into Algebra
• Learning Math: Data Analysis
• Learning Math: Measurement
• Learning Math: Number and Operations
• Statistics and Probability