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Learning at Home | Week of 3/15 – 3/19

Take advantage of this week’s Learning at Home broadcast schedule – great for students engaged in hybrid or distance instruction, and families looking to spend some extra, quality time together!

After watching these fascinating programs, explore the PBS LearningMedia and web resources to learn more.

Highlight of the Week

Shakespeare Uncovered: “Julius Caesar” with Brian Cox
Tuesday, March 16, 2 PM

Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” is a play that upholds liberty against tyranny. But what is tyranny? And who decides? Shakespeare doesn’t make it simple. In order to preserve the freedom of the Roman Republic, Julius Caesar, an “over-mighty” leader, is assassinated by Roman Senators led by Caesar’s friend Brutus. Caesar wanted to become an emperor. Is Brutus a traitor or a great hero and defender of liberty? Brian Cox explores how “Julius Caesar,” for many years, was seen to represent the American experience: the birth of a Republic. The play explores how easy it is for a free republic to fall into corruption. More than that, the play challenges us to think about who or what to trust and what values we want to live by — and to look inside and wonder how well we even know ourselves.

Learning at Home
Week of 3/15 – 3/19

Monday, March 15

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Short “i” in Little?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Code without a computer, make groups of objects equal, breathe deeply, read “Big Papa and the Time Machine,” review short I, o, u, w, j, y, and v.

1 PM: Shakespeare Uncovered: “Much Ado About Nothing” with Helen Hunt

“Much Ado About Nothing” is one of 13 plays that Shakespeare set in Italy, a country that was warm, sensuous and inviting for any 16th-century Englishmen writing about lovers. Claudio and Hero are the conventional lovers, too tongue-tied to speak to each other; Beatrice and Benedick are the skeptics, too busy insulting each other to realize how much they are in love. Hunt explores this exquisite comedy of comparison and contrast, as well as what the ultimate “ado” about “nothing” really means.

2 PM: Shakespeare Uncovered: “The Merchant of Venice” with F. Murray Abraham

Shakespeare probably never met a Jewish person. Three centuries before “The Merchant of Venice” was written, England became the first country in medieval Europe to expel its Jewish population. Abraham addresses the ubiquitous anti-Semitism that characterized Europe in Shakespeare’s time. Comparing Shylock to the stock Jewish villain of the day, the episode looks at the efforts over the years to interpret him as both villain and victim.

Tuesday, March 16

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Environment Starts with Short “e”!

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Travel around the world, learn about addition and subtraction, read “Enemy Pie,” blend and decode short e, qu, x, z.

1 PM: Shakespeare Uncovered: “Measure for Measure” with Romola Garai

“Measure for Measure” takes an astonishingly timely look at sexual morality, hypocrisy and harassment. Shakespeare asks us to “measure” the price of liberty against the moral and social cost of libertinism. It’s a play about vice, the law and sexual corruption at the highest levels and, for nearly two centuries, it was considered too racy to be produced on the English stage. Garai explains why there is no light-hearted happy ending in this play, but something much darker and more complex — truly a sexual tale for our time.

2 PM: Shakespeare Uncovered: “Julius Caesar” with Brian Cox

Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” is a play that upholds liberty against tyranny. But what is tyranny? And who decides? Shakespeare doesn’t make it simple. In order to preserve the freedom of the Roman Republic, Julius Caesar, an “over-mighty” leader, is assassinated by Roman Senators led by Caesar’s friend Brutus. Caesar wanted to become an emperor. Is Brutus a traitor or a great hero and defender of liberty? Brian Cox explores how “Julius Caesar,” for many years, was seen to represent the American experience: the birth of a Republic. The play explores how easy it is for a free republic to fall into corruption. More than that, the play challenges us to think about who or what to trust and what values we want to live by — and to look inside and wonder how well we even know ourselves.

Wednesday, March 17

12 PM: Let’s Learn – What Sounds Do You Hear in Question?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Learn about number bonds and what makes you unique, read “Llama Destroys the World,” blend and practice short e, qu, x, and z. 

1 PM: Shakespeare Uncovered: “The Winter’s Tale” with Simon Russell Beale

A “winter’s tale” was Jacobean slang for something fanciful and unreal — a campfire story. Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale,” written during the period 1609-1611, is classified as one of his late romances. This is a play driven by passion and obsession, by the uncontrollable jealousy of King Leontes, who recklessly rejects his wife’s love and accuses her of an affair with his old friend. The play’s second half, something of an idyllic comedy despite the stark and brutal first half of the play, returns the people Leontes thought he lost through one of the greatest theatrical coups of all time — a magic trick that uses no magic. Beale shows that in this play Shakespeare offers something for which everyone longs: to reverse time, to make amends for an irreversible mistake.

2 PM: Shakespeare Uncovered: “Richard III” with Sir Antony Sher

Shakespeare’s Richard III is one of the most infamous villains of all time — and one of the most relished. Sher explains how Shakespeare created both a loathsome and brilliant manipulator, as well as a real man. Shakespeare’s history play is at least as much play as history. They hinge on character, on strength and on frailty, and explore what humans will resort to in order to achieve power. While historians still debate the merits and vices of the real King Richard, there is no truly reliable evidence that he was the villain Tudor historians described; but Shakespeare’s character is larger than life and for this reason stands for all times.

Thursday, March 18

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Can You Hear the Short “e” in Level?

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Learn to use spatial language, make non-dairy ice cream, read “My friends,” segment sounds and review short e, qu, x, and z.

1 PM: Shakespeare’s Tomb

Historian Dr. Helen Castor explores the mysteries surrounding Shakespeare’s burial place. Will the first-ever scientific investigation discover why his tombstone’s only inscription is a curse against any man who “moves my bones?”

2 PM: Bard in the Backcountry

From first read through to final performance, this program takes a behind-the-scenes look at a summer of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks and tells the story of Shakespeare in Montana. Meet professional actors, some veterans and some fresh out of school, who have their lives changed by the people and places of Montana.

Friday, March 19

12 PM: Let’s Learn – Word and Hand Both End with “d”!

“Let’s Learn” helps children ages 3-8 with at-home learning. Play math games, learn how to use a compass rose, read “My Brother Charlie,” blend/decode words ending with d, f, l, s, and z.

1 PM: Articulate | Feminist Fatale, Matthew Neenan, Modigliani, Luis Cruz Azace

Carsie Blanton uses an old musical form to help change the way women are perceived today. From a very young age, life has been a dance for choreographer Matthew Neenan. Amedeo Modigliani died a broken man, but his art has endured. Cuban-American artist Luis Cruz Azaceta reflects on modern society’s great tragedies.

1:30 PM: Poetry in America: N.Y. State of Mind

Multi-platinum hip hop artist Nas has a global reputation as one of the greatest emcees and lyricists in his contemporary art form. But what about within the history–and canon–of American poetry? Learn alongside host Elisa New as Nas, music executive Steve Stoute, scholar Salamishah Tillet, and a chorus of hip hop heads, rappers, and fans break down the breakbeats and rhymes–and explore the searing vision–of Nas’s iconic track “N.Y. State of Mind.”

2 PM: America Reframed: Saving Brinton

History teacher Mike Zahs uncovers a trove of 19th century showreels of one of America’s first motion picture impresarios, William Franklin Brinton. Zahs sets out to restore these showreels and present them to today’s audiences. In this portrait of an unlikely Midwestern folk hero, SAVING BRINTON offers a meditation on the legacy of illusionist Frank Brinton, and the magic of living history.