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WHRO Public Media Launches “VA TV Classroom” in Response to School Closures

WHRO Public Media will broadcast teacher-led classroom instruction aligned with the commonwealth’s academic standards into homes across the state beginning Monday, April 13.

WHRO Public Media along with its sister public media partners worked closely with the Virginia Department of Education to create “VA TV Classroom” to provide instruction to students in grades K-10 who are unable to access other distance learning options due to a lack of high-speed internet.

“VA TV Classroom” will air instructional content from 1-3 p.m., Monday through Friday.

“I would like to thank Blue Ridge PBS, VPM, WETA and WHRO Public Media for providing this resource for students while schools are closed as part of the commonwealth’s strategy to slow the spread of the coronavirus and protect public health,” Lane said. “It is nothing short of amazing that these public media stations were able to create ‘VA TV Classroom’ and schedule its launch within a month of the governor’s initial order to close schools.”

The “VA TV Classroom” on-air schedule is as follows:
• K-3 instruction airs from 1-2 p.m. with Standards of Learning-aligned content provided by WHRO Public Media. “Learn to Grow with WHRO” segments will be 15 minutes in length and led by teachers.
• Grades 7-10 instruction airs from 2-3 p.m. with SOL-aligned content provided by WHRO Public Media focusing on Earth Science and Algebra 1.
• During the week of April 27, “VA TV Classroom” will add a special hour from 3-4 p.m. called AP Prep Week, with content provided by Virtual Virginia in collaboration with WHRO focusing on a different AP subject each day. The hour will include two 30-minute segments.

“WHRO is proud to be a part of ‘VA TV Classroom.’ WHRO actually stands for Home Room One,” WHRO President and CEO Bert Schmidt said. “WHRO was created nearly 60 years ago as a way to bring the classroom into homes via the TV. Much of our educational instruction is now created digitally, but knowing so many students now don’t have access to our online resources, we were thrilled to bring this important instruction back to our air.”

“VA TV Classroom” can be seen throughout the commonwealth on the following channels:
• WHRO – WHRO World: via antenna 15.2, Cox 107 & Verizon FiOS 460
• VPM – VPM Plus
• Richmond area: via antenna 57.1, Verizon FiOS 24 & 524 (HD), Comcast 24 & 797 (HD), DIRECTV 57, DISH 57 & 9392 (HD)
• Charlottesville area: via antenna 41.2, Comcast 265 (HD) & 1146 (HD)
• Shenandoah Valley: via antenna 51.2, Comcast 9, 798 (HD) & 1042 (HD)
• WETA – WETA PBS Kids: via antenna 26.3, Comcast 266, Cox 801, Verizon FiOS 472, RCN 38
• Blue Ridge PBS – SWVAPTV: via antenna 15.2, streaming services Blue Ridge Streaming and Project Southwest on YouTube, Citizens Cable 82, Cox 107, Comcast/Xfinity 264, Lumos 17 (Shentel, Bedford, Covington, Glade Hill, Radford, Rocky Mount, Rustburg, Wytheville: 157)

“I believe that ‘VA TV Classroom’ will make a tremendous difference this spring as schools endeavor to provide continuity of learning for students, especially in communities where online learning is a challenge,” Lane said. “This programming builds on the long-standing partnership between VDOE and public television to support teaching and learning across the state.”

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About WHRO Public Media
Owned by 21 Eastern Virginia school divisions, WHRO Public Media also delivers online educational and new media services to 286,000 students and 25,000 educators per month. WHRO’s digital course offerings and resources including eMediaVA are available free to all: https://digitallearning.whro.org/. Since its founding in 1961 to support education, WHRO Public Media has employed creativity and technology to serve the residents of Eastern Virginia in its mission to educate, inform and entertain viewers and listeners of WHRO’s four public television and six public radio stations. “VA TV Classroom” can be viewed on WHRO World which broadcasts to all homes in Eastern Virginia and is available over-the-air at Channel 15.2. It is also available on Cox 107 and Verizon FiOS 460. More information, visit whro.org.