MPT Foundation Inc.

MPT Foundation Inc.

CHARITY STORY
MPT Ready to Learn Workshop
Photo Caption
Caleb Sears participating in The Ready Jet Go!

MPT Ready to Learn | Local Impact
MPT, along with our Community Collaborative for Early Learning with Media partners, are engaging with families in the Forest Park neighborhood of Baltimore in new and exciting ways! These incredible partnerships are strengthened by stories of success and impact that demonstrate how, together, we support early learning with meaningful interactions.

The Sears Family

Devon searched for summer learning activities to engage her 4-year-old Caleb’s love for science. She needed a program that welcomed his younger sister and fit Dad’s busy work schedule. It was important to her to find “something to do that’s entertaining and educational.”

Playful Learning
Devon received a text from her local children's librarian to join MPT’s free workshop series for families with young children. The Ready Jet Go! Family & Community Learning (FCL) series at Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore's Walbrook community, offered meaningful learning by teaching core science concepts through video, game-play, and hands-on, space-related engineering design activities. She knew that she found her answer!

Family Engagement
The Sears Family was over the moon to blast into space with Ready Jet Go! and MPT as they engaged in playful learning to design spacesuits, build moon rovers, and launch rockets. Together, the family celebrated their accomplishments during the 4-part FCL series. As parents, Devon and Rob were able to encourage Caleb's sense of discovery and see his scientific thinking in action.

Enoch Pratt Free Library

Enoch Pratt Free Library is quickly becoming a media mentor in Baltimore's Walbrook community. MPT's partnership with the library builds capacity and helps expand engagement and outreach programming with Family and Community Learning (FCL) workshops.

Listen to what library staff say about the FLC workshops:

“I love that it has the rigor of the science experiment or art project or social studies exploration with the warmth of a book club or a playdate with friends and home extensions. It’s a wonderful confluence of print and digital media, learning and playing, education and fun, school and home, parents and children - wonderful dynamics at play.”

“The FCL’s that we’ve introduced at Walbrook have been so well received and have been such a great template for family engagement and have strengthened our partnership with the community as a trusted place to provide quality programming. We are keen to bring this model to other branches.”

CHARITY VIDEO
MPT Ready to Learn Workshops
Transcript

[EXTERIOR OF A NEIGHBORHOOD BRANCH OF THE ENOCH PRATT FREE. A SIGN ON THE SIDE OF THE BUILDING SHOWING SEVERAL PEOPLE DANCING AND PLAYING INSTRUMENTS READS “FREE TO BMORE”. OTHER EXTERIOR SHOTS OF THE LIBRARY, INCLUDING VERTICAL ENOCH PRATT BANNERS AND THE FACADE OF THE BRANCH, A ONE-STORY RED BRICK AND GLASS BUILDING.]

CORNELIA BECKETT:

In the 21st century in Baltimore the library is of course about books and media but it’s so much more than that.

[SHOT OF HEATHER YOST HELPING CHILDREN AND PARENTS WITH ART ACTIVITIES. A POSTER ON THE WALL WITH THE MPT AND PBS KIDS LOGO ON IT READS “FAMILY & COMMUNITY LEARNING”.]

As media mentors MPT strengthens us in that regard.

[CORNELIA BECKETT SPEAKS TO CAMERA IN FRONT OF STACKS OF BOOKS. HER TITLE “PROGRAM SPECIALIST, ENOCH PRATT FREE LIBRARY” APPEARS NEXT TO HER.]

In the library we’re experts at readers' advisory- we can point you towards books.

[AN MPT SPECIALIST SITS A TABLE FULL OF OF PRINTED MATERIALS- INCLUDING SOME BASED ON THE PBS SHOW MOLLY DENALI- AND SHOWS CORNELIA BECKETT HOW TO USE THEM.]

MPT can say we have this fabulous app, it's educational, it's vetted, in fact why don’t we explore it now together?

HEATHER YOST:

[HEATHER YOST SPEAKS TO CAMERA WHILE FUN ACTIVITIES OCCUR BEHIND HER. HER TITLE “EARLY LEARNING PROGRAM SPECIALIST, ENOCH PRATT FREE LIBRARY” APPEARS NEXT TO HER.]

The MPT partnership with the Family and Community Learning Workshop through the Ready to Learn initiative has been a great partnership with the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

[CHILDREN WATCHING A PBS KIDS SHOW PROJECTED ON A LARGE SCREEN. LUNCH AND ACTIVITY BOOKS ARE IN FRONT OF THEM.]

[CHILDREN BEING SHOWN HOW TO USE AND USING INTERACTIVE COMPUTER TEACHING GAMES ON HAND-HELD PADS THAT ARE CONTAINED IN BRIGHT BLUE FOAM CASES WITH BIG HANDLES.]

We've had families come in to eat and play and learn and explore…

[A YOUNG BOY GOOFS FOR THE CAMERA WITH A PAIR OF PAPER TUBES TIED TOGETHER WITH YARN TO MAKE PLAY BINOCULARS.]

CORNELIA BECKETT:

[PARENTS DEEPLY INVOLVED WITH READING STORIES AND MAKING ART WITH THEIR KIDS.]

We can tailor it to the strengths and needs of individual communities to even more closely foster that sense of parent/child learning.

Working with MPT has meant… the world to me.

[GROUP PLAY WITH PARENTS, CHILDREN, AND CORNELIA BECKETT HAVING FUN TOGETHER.]

It's built confidence in families working together.

[SCREEN WITH SOLID BLUE COLORED BACKGROUND. THE MARYLAND PUBLIC TELEVISION LOGO COMES ON (THE LETTERS “MPT” WITH THE PBS EMBLEM OF TWO OVERLAPPING STYLIZED HEADS CONTAINED WITHIN A CIRCLE). THE PHRASES “BE CURIOUS”, “BE INSPIRED”, AND “BE SUPPORTIVE” APPEAR UNDER IT IN SEQUENCE.

It's meant that a really mutually beneficial partnership has been built among two really important Maryland cultural institutions.

MPT Foundation Inc.
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60868

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