PBS LearningMedia Quick GuidePBS LearningMedia contains more than 30,000 educational resources, all aligned with state and national educational standards. Because PBSLM is user friendly, it’s easy to find resources for any subject or grade area and build lessons/assignments and presentations. The guide below is meant to give some of the basics. If you would like more information, contact your Education Consultant who is ready to help https://www.ket.org/education/contact/ and can do free workshops/PD at your school as well as free workshops for students.

Signing UpEducators Though you do not have to sign up to search in PBSLM, you must have an account to use the many functions. Accounts are free, and it’s quick and easy to register. To sign up, go to https://www.ket.org/education/pbslearningmedia/ and beneath the sign-in button in PBSLM (to the left of the page) click on “Sign up for FREE now!” then on “Sign up.” Follow the easy steps, click “Register,” and you’re done.

Students Students also sign up for free at the following web address: https://ket.pbslearningmedia.org/student/signup/. They only have to give their first names and are prompted to create user names and passwords. (Teachers can see students’ user names when viewing assignments.) When students click on assignments, they will automatically show up in the teacher’s assignment list. Easy! NOTE: Teachers can see what the student sees at any time by clicking on Student View in the Dashboard; to get back to Teacher View, scroll to the bottom and click on Teacher View.

NOTE: The Class Rostering is a new feature and still in development, so is not listed on this hand-out.

Searching: Two Options

1) By Standards : If you have specific educational standards that you are trying to meet, click on “BROWSE STANDARDS” in the box near the top-left of the page, just beneath the PBSLM logo. Searching here allows you to find all resources that support a given Standards statement. Now you can search by Type of Standard & Document, Grade Level, and/or Keyword. Once you make your choice(s), click on the Standard to find the applicable resources.

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2) By key word or phrase : Click in the Search box (to the right of the Browse Standards box) and type in what topic for which you need resources, such as butterflies or “butterfly metamorphosis.” You can then refine your search by choosing grade level(s), Subject Area, and/or type of resource (video, document, etc.). Subject area is helpful in ensuring you get the types of resources you need; for example, if you searched the word “butterflies” and don’t want Humanity resources such as paintings of or poems about butterflies, you would want to select Science as your Subject Area.

The Dashboard Educators with accounts will have a Dashboard near the top of the page, which is a drop-down of helpful items (some will be mentioned below). “When in doubt, DASHBOARD.”

Saving Resources When you find resources that you like, you can Favorite them by clicking on the heart outline so that it turns red. These resources will now be listed in Favorites, located in your Dashboard. Choose Favorites for your list, which you can then Sort as you wish.

Organizing ResourcesOnce you have Favorited items, you can create Folders to organize them. You can have as many folders you wish. You might have a folder for each subject, each grading period, etc. You can create a Folder then add Favorites, or just go to your Favorites list, check the little box to select, then click on “Add to Folder.” You can also add to/subtract from a folder or delete it entirely.

Productivity Tools for Teachers Tools make it easy to create engaging student assignments, personalize learning, and track student progress. There are 4 tools: Lesson Builder, Quiz Maker, Storyboard, and Puzzle Builder. Each tool has a 1-3 minute video tutorial/demo as well as a detailed FAQ (frequently asked questions). When using any Tool, always click that you have read the Privacy documents then Save. Sharing: Each item created in Tools will have a URL (web address) to allow you to share with anyone. Assignments/lessons, quizzes, and puzzles will also have an Assignment Code (such as dog1234) that students enter and then are taken straight to the item.

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Lesson Builder ~ Here you create a lesson/assignment that you can easily assign students, share with substitute teachers, etc. Click on “Create Lesson” then title the lesson & add instructions (if you wish). Next you add Slides, as few or as many as you wish, to make up the assignment, and you can choose from 3 types: Media (video), Questions (quiz), and Text (document).

Quiz Maker ~ Creating a quiz is just like creating Questions in Lesson Builder. You choose the type of question: multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank or short answer questions.

Storyboard ~ Storyboards are like virtual bulletin boards and can be used by teachers to organize an in-class lesson or assigned to students to have them practice doing research (in a safe, no-ads environment) and organizing their own presentations. Storyboards are also excellent for STLP competitions. To use Storyboard, you simply drag-and-drop content to the provided template, which can consist of Media (video), Text (document), and Clip Art. You can use PBSLM resources or bring in your own from your devices. See some student examples at http://ket.pbslearningmedia.org/shared/54555/4483566/. NOTE: Students cannot start Storyboards on their own; you must assign one by clicking on Storyboard then Assign Storyboard.

Puzzle Builder ~ Here you can create crossword or word find puzzles for students. With the Custom option, you can change how simple or complex the puzzle is. Here is a sample student puzzle created by a 4th grader to go along with her presentation on the deep ocean; the teacher printed the puzzle for the class: http://ket.pbslearningmedia.org/student/code/bear5998/.

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Teacher Support Materials ~ Many PBSLM resources have Support Materials that can include lesson plans, writing prompts, interactive games, etc. To see this material, click on a resource and look beneath it as shown in the example below:

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