January 2008

Program Descriptions

February 2008

Jauary 2008

FEBRUARY 2008 CABLE PROGRAM DESCRIPTIONS

Action Algebra – Action Algebra is aligned to the 8^th grade and Algebra 1 Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, which are tested on all three high school level TAKS. This program will feature Algebra's use in styles, pleasures and rewards of being involved in music. Art Osborne, better known as “Mr. Bandman, is an award Winning published Author, Composer and an Educator living in Dallas, Texas. (Sunday 8:30 a.m. & 5:30 p.m., Monday – Saturday 5:30 p.m., Wednesday & Sunday 11:30 a.m., Thursday 7:30 p.m.)

Beliefs & Visions– Discusses issues and events important to parents, students and the community hosted by Board President Manuel Rodriguez Jr. (Monday 12:30 a.m. & 8:00 p.m. {Spanish}, Tuesday 7:00 p.m., Saturday 9:00 a.m. & 9:30 p.m., & Sunday 7:30 p.m.)

A Biography of America:

• The Sixties – The Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and Watergate; Lyndon Johnson, Stokely Carmichael, Fanny Lou Hamer, and others of the era. (Monday 11:00 a.m.)
• Contemporary History – The last quarter of the twentieth century, with a discussion of the difficulty of examining contemporary history with true historical perspective. (Tuesday 11:00 a.m.)
• The Redemptive Imagination – A discussion about the intersection of history and story with Professor Miller and novelists Charles Johnson (Middle Passage), Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha), and Esmeralda Santiago (America's Dream), with a closing by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (Wednesday 11:00 a.m.)

Black History Month Recognition:

• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - Houston ISD students compete in the 12^th Annual Gardere Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition. (Monday 9:00 p.m., Saturday 2:00 p.m.)

Career & Technology – (Tuesday 9:30 p.m.)

Clearly About Learning – This program is focusing on HISD's CLEAR Curriculum and how it benefits learning in the classroom. (Saturday 8:00 p.m.)

Colonial Williamsburg Series: Rebroadcast of electronic field trips exploring our early American heritage. Watch as they rediscover the secrets of the 18^th century builders. (Sunday 9:00 p.m.)

A Conversation with our Superintendent - Superintendent of Schools Dr. Abelardo Saavedra talks about the challenges and plans for the future of the Houston Independent School District. (Wednesday 7:30 p.m.)

Discovering Psychology

• The Behaving Brain – The structure and composition of the brain: how neurons function, how information is collected and transmitted, and how chemical reactions determine every thought, feeling, and action. (Monday 10:00 a.m.)
• The Responsive Brain – How the brain controls behavior and, conversely, how behavior and environment influence the brain's structure and functioning. (Tuesday 10:00 a.m.)
• The Developing Child – The nature vs. nurture debate, and how developmental psychologist study how both heredity and environment contribute to the development of children. (Wednesday 10:00 a.m.)
• Language Development – The development of language, and how developmental psychologists hope to discover truths about the human mind, society, and culture by studying how children use language in social communication. (Thursday 10:00 a.m.)
• Judgment & Decision Making – A look at the process of making judgments and decision, how and why people make good and bad judgments, and the psychology of taking risks. (Friday 10:00 a.m.)

Dogan Elementary Spark Park – Spark dedication former counselor member Eleanor Tinsley in attendance. The principal welcomes the new community spark park. (Monday 11:30 a.m., Saturday 12:30 p.m.)

The Earth Revealed: This series shows the physical and scientific processes that shape our planet. From earthquakes and volcanoes to the creation of sea-floor crusts and shifting river courses, this series offers stunning visuals that explain plate tectonics and other geologic concepts and principles. Follow geologists in the field as they explore the primal forces of the Earth.

• Birth of a Theory – (Thursday 11:00 a.m.)
• Plate Dynamics – (Friday 11:00 a.m.)
• Mountain Building – (Saturday 11:00 a.m.)

End of the Day Gourmet – Co-Production by ARAMARK Food Service & Houston Independent School District Chef Robert Maccarone shows parents quick nutritious and creative meals for their families. (Sunday 12:30 p.m., Friday 11:30 a.m.)

Exploring the World of Music: An Introduction to music with a global perspective. Which shows how elements such as melody, rhythm, and texture can create an infinite variety of sounds and serve as expressions of culture? The featured artists perform music from around the world, including American jazz, gospel, and rock, and traditional music from Bosnia, the Caribbean, India, Ireland, Japan, and West Africa. Produced by Pacific Street Films and the Education Film Center.

• Form-Shape – (Monday 9:30 a.m.)
• Composers and Improvisors – (Tuesday 9:30 a.m.)
• Music and Technology – (Wednesday 9:30 a.m.)

Fine Arts Friday – Performances by HISD school children. (Monday-Friday @ 1:00 p.m., Friday 11:15 p.m. & Sunday 1:00 p.m.)

Fun-A-Licious Kid's Club– Positive Pre-K thru Third Grade lifestyles in HISD. (Saturday 9:30 a.m. & Thursday 11:30 a.m.)

The Habitable Planet:

• Atmospheric Pollution – Once released, air pollutants react chemically with each other under solar radiation to become even more dangerous secondary pollutants, A Company in the Northeast U.S. tracks the emission of pollutants at street level, while an international long-term study follows plumes of pollution from Mexico City across the continent and beyond. (Monday 11:30 p.m.)
• Earth's Changing Climate –Tropical glaciers are the world's thermometers; their melting is a signal that human activities are warming the planet. A California project tries to predict whether natural ecosystems will be able to absorb enough additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in the next 50 years to mitigate the full impact of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. (Tuesday 11:30 p.m.)
• Looking Forward: Our Global Experiment –Earth's essential systems are being stressed in many ways. There are many tipping points in the environment, beyond which there could be serious consequences. Will human ingenuity, resiliency, and cooperation save us from the worst outcomes of our global experiment. (Wednesday 11:30 p.m.)

HEB Tele-Ventures – Locally produced in cooperation with the Houston Museum of Natural Science, which exposes students to the wonders of science, and how it relates to their lives.

• Art Journeys – (Thursday 11:30 p.m.)
• Curing & Caring – (Friday 11:30 p.m.)

HISD Career & Technology: The Rice School – CATE is design to empower students with the academic & technical skills needed to strengthen the economic and the social foundation of Houston and beyond. This program focuses on the wide variety of careers students can embark upon graduation. (Monday 6:45 p.m.)

HISD News Today - Daily activities, events in HISD schools are featured. (Monday - Sundays 8:00 a.m., 12:00 Noon, 6:30 & 8:30 p.m. also Monday-Thursday 11:00 p.m., Tuesday 12:30 p.m.)

HISD Perspectives - A magazine of current activities in the Houston Independent School District (Monday 7:00 p.m., Friday 8:00 p.m., Sunday 7:00 p.m.)

HISD Sports – A new thirty-minute weekly sports program highlighting local schools produced by Terry Burdick of Internet Athletics and the HISD Athletic Department. (Wednesday 8:00 p.m., Saturday 1:00 p.m. Saturday 9:00 p.m., Sunday 11:00 a.m., Tuesday 8:00 p.m., Friday 12:30 p.m.)

HISD Success Stories - People and programs that are making a difference... the inner-workings of what works in HISD. (Sunday 8:00 p.m.)

Houston City Jazz Kids – Students from Davis High School Feeder Pattern ages elementary, middle & high school perform from the jazz greats together. (Saturday 11:30 a.m.)

HSPVA: Performance by the High School for Performance and Visual Arts students'.

• HSPVA Mariachi – (Monday 11:15 p.m., Thursday 6:45 p.m.)

Inside the Global Economy:

• Trade: An Introduction – Why nations trade and what determine trade's basis and direction. Case studies: IBM's computer production in Japan; Australia's mineral export boom and domestic car production. (Monday 2:00 p.m.)
• Protectionism vs. Free Trade – Tariff and non-tariff trade barriers and the beneficiaries of protectionism. Case studies: French agricultural subsides and conflict in the Uruguay Round; voluntary export restraints on Japanese cars into the US. (Tuesday 2:00 p.m.)
• Trade Policy – Subsides, regulatory policies, import-competing, and export-promotion. Case studies: Airbus; the Chilean wine industry. (Wednesday 2:00 p.m.)
• Labor and Capital Mobility – The mobility of capital, labor, and technology, including what drives and inhibits labor migration. Case studies: guest workers in the Netherlands; Mexican immigration to the U.S. and maquiladoras. (Thursday 2:00 p.m.)
• Multinational Corporations – How capital moves, transfer technology, and the surrounding controversies. Case studies: investment by Ericsson in Hungary; a comparison of Smith-Corona and Brother. (Friday 2:00 p.m.)

Kennedy Center for Theater Arts – Performance and discussion centered on the arts and the classics. (Saturday & Sunday 4:00 p.m.)

Looking at Learning Again: This series encourages you to analyze existing theories about how children learn, as well as your own belief's, and then examine how those beliefs might influence your teaching.

• Behind the Design – (Monday 3:00 p.m.)
• Mathematics: A Community Focus – (Tuesday 3:00 p.m.)
• Conceptual Change – (Wednesday 3:00 p.m.)
• Infusing Critical and Creative Thinking – (Thursday 3:00 p.m.)
• Algebra and Calculus: The Challenge – (Friday 3:00 p.m.)
• Learning to Listen – (Saturday 3:00 p.m.)

Telling Stories: Performance and discussion centered on the arts and the classics.

• D. Meyers - (Sunday 9:00 a.m.)

Math-A-Letics – A fun and exciting mathematics program designed to help K-6 students understand mathematical concepts. (Monday – Sunday 5:00 p.m., Thursday 7:00 p.m.)

Meet the Author – Noted authors share their approach to research, writing and publications. (Sunday 10:00 a.m., Thursday 8:00 p.m.)

My Math Plus – (Friday 7:30 p.m., Saturday 8:30 a.m., Wednesday 12:30 p.m., Tuesday 9:00 p.m.)

NASA Education Hour – (Monday – Friday 4:00 p.m., Saturday 10:00 a.m. & Sunday 3:00 p.m., Saturday & Sunday 10:00 p.m.)

NASA Programming – A variety of shows including daily launches and educational studies. (Sunday 10:30 a.m., Saturday- Sunday 11:00 p.m.)

News Writing:

• What is News? – Examines how journalists determine what the public needs and wants to know. (Monday 6:00 p.m.)
• Hard News Leads – Shows the power and process of the summary lead in newspaper, broadcast, and PR writing. (Tuesday 6:00 p.m.)
• News Writing Language & Style – Explores print style-from the AP to Rolling Stone magazine-focusing on accuracy and detail. (Wednesday 6:00 p.m.)
• Developing and Organization of a Story – Deals with the use of the inverted pyramid, hourglass and circle story shapes. (Thursday 6:00 p.m.)
• Dealing with Sources – Illustrates how to interview sources and work quotes into a news story. (Friday 6:00 p.m.)
• Good Writing vs. Good Reporting – Essential issues such as accuracy, objectivity, fairness, and credibility are discussed. (Saturday 6:00 p.m.)
• Beat Reporting – Covers the wide variety of journalism career opportunities, with glimpses into the various “beats,” as well as general assignment and wire service reporters. (Sunday 6:00 p.m.)

Out of the Past:

• New Worlds – The Age of Discovery 500 years ago revealed a broad range of cultures, from the vast empires of the Aztecs and the Incas to roving bands of hunter-gatherers. This provided irrefutable evidence that cultures, like biological species, have evolved independently and on a global scale. (Monday 10:00 p.m.)
• The Hearth – Examines how enculturation and economic cooperation have shaped the homes and families of people, past and present. Remains of houses at archaeological sites and footage of family life in traditional cultures provide a glimpse into what family life must have been like. (Tuesday 10:00 p.m.)
• Artisan & Trade – Explores the link between economic and cultural evolution. Hunter-gatherers and early agriculturalists had simple divisions of labor, but today people make a living in many ways. The proliferation of occupations and the extreme economic interdependence of today are the result of increasing job specialization, causing society to continually undergo restructuring. (Wednesday 10:00 p.m.)
• Signs & Symbols – Unearthing and interpreting the signs and symbols that define us as a species can be challenging yet revealing. From deciphering ancient scripts to understanding status symbols, archaeologist use ancient and modern examples to reconstruct the meaning of the symbols they find. (Thursday 10:00 p.m.)
• Power, Prestige & Wealth – Postulates how and why powerful groups or individuals have managed to control vast holdings from ancient times to the present day. The different methods archaeologists use to study how rulers gain and keep power are examined. (Friday 10:00 p.m.)

Planet Earth:

• The Living Machine – Plate tectonics, one of the most important discoveries of the 20^th century, is explored at such sites as the erupting Kilauea volcano and the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean in the submersible craft Alvin. (Wednesday 9:00 p.m.)
• The Blue Planet – perhaps the last great unexplored frontier on earth, the oceans reveal major new revelations as detected by scientists aboard the space shuttle and submerged to the depts. Of the “middle ocean” to view rare life forms. (Thursday 9:00 p.m.)
• The Climate Puzzle – Scientists piece together an unfolding mystery-what caused the ice ages, how Venus's greenhouse effect may have parallels on earth, and what Antarctica's eerie ice rivers demonstrate. (Friday 9:00 p.m.)

Positively Parents - Produced by the HISD Department of Parent Engagement, the series is designed to strengthen the relationship between parents and the schools. Marybelle Perez will acquaint parents with the various avenues of involvement available throughout the year. (Wednesday 7:00 p.m., Saturday 7:00 p.m.)

Power of Place:

• One Earth, Many Scales – Lost in Space? Geography Training for Astronauts- Preparation for a NASA Shuttle mission provides context for introducing key issues in physical geography and human-environmental interaction. Globalization and Revolt-Why do the forces of globalization seem to draw some place closer together and cause other to pull farther apart? (Monday 10:30 a.m.)
• Boundaries & Borderlands – Twin Cities, Divided Lives – A Single Mexican mother's daily struggle for survival introduces us to concepts of relative location and geographic regions. Operation Hold the Line-The U.S.-Mexico borderlands from a unified cultural and economic region with qualities of both nations. (Tuesday 10:30 a.m.)
• Super-nationalism and Devolution – Strasbourg: Symbol of a United Europe-The city of Strasbourg is one locus of power in an increasingly supranationalist Europe. Slovakia: New Sovereignty-Since Czechoslovakia separated into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, how have the Slovaks fared? (Wednesday 10:30 a.m.)
• East Looks West – Berlin: United We Stand-Berlin is now capital of a reunified Germany and a symbol of a more unified Europe. But the integration of East Berlin requires urban reorganization and economic expansion. Poland: Diffusion of Democracy-Strategies for spreading democracy through Poland required a decidedly spatial approach. (Thursday 10:30 a.m.)
• The Transforming Industrial Heartland – Liverpool: A Tale of Two Cities-Can European Union investment and the growth of service industries turn the tide of economic decline? Randstad: Preserving the Green Heart-Small, crowded Netherlands strives to maintain its transportation connections while preserving dwindling green space. (Friday 10:30 a.m.)

Region Focus –This is a new program, produced in both English and Spanish will highlight schools and activities important to the Region Offices. (Tuesday 7:30 p.m., Thursday 12:30 p.m., Saturday 7:30 p.m.)

Reporté de HISD - A discussion of programs of interest to Spanish-speaking parents (Monday 7:30 p.m., Tuesday 11:30 a.m., Friday 7:00 p.m.)

Rice/HISD Elementary Model Science Lab – Elementary teachers throughout the district learn methods to engage their students in the science classroom. Calibration between Rice University & HISD. (Monday 6:45 p.m.)

Science Faction – Hands on science lessons for all ages. (Tuesday –Friday 8:15 a.m. & 12:15 p.m., Monday –Thursday 8:45 p.m. & 11:00 p.m.)

State of the Schools 2008 – A presentation by Superintendent Dr. Abelardo Saavedra to the Community. (TBA)

Teaching Reading K-2:

• Becoming Readers and Writers – In Shelia Owen's kindergarten class, all students are “readers and writers from day one.” WE see them listen and respond to a story about pumpkins, create sentences using the word wall, and chant a poem on the letter D. Guided by Ms. Owen, they write a group account of the pumpkin life cycle, and then work independently on their writing. (Thursday 9:30 a.m.)
• Writer's Journal – In John Sinnett's kindergarten class, routines and classroom management techniques provide a consistent structure for learning. The students, many of whom are from Asian countries, focus on “what good readers do.” They learn “what good writers do” as Mr. Sinnett guides them through independent writing in their personal journals. (Friday 9:30 a.m.)

TEKS PE – Produced by the Texas Education Agency on physical fitness. (Tuesday & Wednesday 6:45 p.m.)

Telling Stories: The Kennedy Center visits with Walter Dean Myers, award-winning writer of books for young people. (Sunday 9:00 a.m.)

U.S. Department of Education – (Sunday 2:00 p.m.)

Wildlife Explorers: An exciting adventure through wildlife discovery.

• Mammals – (Tuesday 11:15 p.m.)
• Birds – (Wednesday 11:15 p.m.)
• Reptiles – (Thursday 11:15 p.m.)

World Tour of Language: Learning beginning Spanish and Japanese.

• Japanese Lessons 11-15 – (Monday – Friday 8:30 a.m.)
• French Lessons 11-15 – (Monday – Friday 9:00 a.m.)

Comcast Cable channel 18; Phonoscope channel 76;

TV Max channel 96; Suddenlink Cable channel 18
(check your local listings)