Playlist: Amanda Thieroff's Portfolio
Featured
The ROYGBIV Diet
From Amanda Thieroff | 08:34
My buddy Sean and I decided to embark on a challenge: the ROYGBIV diet - spending a week eating only one color of food per day, according to the colors of the rainbow. What initially seemed like a fun experiment ended up getting tricky, as we reached the end of the spectrum and discovered just how few blue edibles there are out there...
- Playing
- The ROYGBIV Diet
- From
- Amanda Thieroff
My buddy Sean and I decided to embark on a challenge: the ROYGBIV diet - spending a week eating only one color of food per day, according to the colors of the rainbow. What initially seemed like a fun experiment ended up getting tricky, as we reached the end of the spectrum and discovered just how few blue edibles there are out there...
Read, Read, Read
From World Vision Report | Part of the Stories from the World Vision Report series | 05:35
Almost half the population of Haiti can’t read or write. January’s earthquake destroyed 80% of the schools in and around Port-au-Prince. So, many children may not be back in school when classes resume in November. But a non-profit program has sent so called “readers” out to various camps around Haiti to read to displaced children. From Port-au-Prince, Amanda Thieroff has the story.
- Playing
- Read, Read, Read
- From
- World Vision Report
If you air this piece, please include a back announce saying "This piece originally aired on the World Vision Report." or "This piece came to us from the World Vision Report."
Rebuilding Art in Haiti
From World Vision Report | Part of the Stories from the World Vision Report series | 05:30
Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world, and it’s been wracked with political turmoil. Even the recent elections were marred by allegations of fraud. But art has always been one of Haiti’s shining achievements. Thousands of pieces of Haitian art were lost in the earthquake almost a year ago. Now there’s a move to help Haitian artists start over. Amanda Thieroff reports.
- Playing
- Rebuilding Art in Haiti
- From
- World Vision Report
If you air this piece, please include a back announce saying "This piece originally aired on the World Vision Report." or "This piece came to us from the World Vision Report."
The 'Courage' to Graduate
From Learning Matters | Part of the Paul Vallas in New Orleans series | 07:30
Khalil Osiris’ “Circle of Courage” is one strategy the Booker T. Washington middle school is using to try and help students stay out of trouble and pass their classes. But how much can sitting in a circle and talking really help?
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- The 'Courage' to Graduate
- From
- Learning Matters
At Booker T Washington Middle School in New Orleans’ recovery school district, Khalil Osiris is doing things a little bit differently. In his “Circle of Courage” class, students share their problems, concerns and desires with one another. One common desire? To get out of middle school and move on, at long last, to high school. Booker T is an alternative school that caters to students who have had trouble succeeding in a traditional school environment; many students at Booker T are 16 or 17 years old and are still performing at an elementary school level.
Osiris’ “Circle of Courage” is one strategy the school is using to try and help students stay out of trouble and pass their classes. But how much can sitting in a circle and talking really help?
Hide and Seek
From Salt Institute for Documentary Studies | 06:06
Geocaching is a high tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices.
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- Hide and Seek
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- Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
In the state of Maine, there are almost 5,000 hidden treasures to be discovered. Mike Marino is a geocacher who takes the sport pretty seriously. He finds it hard to make it through a day without stopping here and there to hunt for a cache. He even holds a nationwide record for hiding the greatest number of caches in one day: 125. Follow Mike through the streets of Portland as he hunts for hidden treasure, and find out what makes a geocacher do what they do.
The Great Stephan
From Salt Institute for Documentary Studies | 05:16
Steven Cornish loves magic. He goes by “The Great Stephan,” and he performs as a magician in Lewiston, Maine.
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- The Great Stephan
- From
- Salt Institute for Documentary Studies
He considers himself a professional, performing 12 different shows with different themes (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Wizard, etc.) It’s a tough market in Maine, but he manages to stay afloat, working a separate full time job completely separate from magic, and going out, every weekend if he can, to perform for whoever is willing to watch.
Detroit: paying the piper, calling the tune?
From Learning Matters | 05:18
Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb was brought in to fix a school system that's a big mess. But who's paying his salary? Private foundations that support charter schools.
Detroit Public Schools are in crisis. Students are failing to meet national standards. The system is over $300 million in debt. Allegations of corruption run rampant throughout the system. You might even call it an emergency.
Michigan’s governor actually brought in an Emergency Financial Manager to deal with the situation. His name is Robert Bobb, and he’s got a lot of critics – especially DPS employees who fear that Bobb has an agenda to turn all of Detroit Public Schools into charters. Why might they think this? Well, foundations that support charter schools are paying almost one third of Bobb’s salary. Just what is Bobb’s agenda for the Detroit Public Schools?
Life Through a New Lens
From Learning Matters | Part of the Paul Vallas in New Orleans series | 03:57
One actor from the cast of the new HBO television show "Treme" is doing more than just acting.
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- Life Through a New Lens
- From
- Learning Matters
Treme cast member Ameer Baraka does more than act on set. He also mentors 16-year-olds David Quinn and Jermaine Morgan, who, like Baraka, ran into trouble with the law early. Baraka hopes to expose the teenagers to the world of production work in New Orleans as an alternative to crime. “If I could clone myself to the 100th power, it would work,” he says.
Winning The Race
From Learning Matters | Part of the Race to the Top series | 05:27
Back in December, Delaware’s Deputy Secretary of Education Dan Cruce said his state would be winning the Race to the Top money. He was right. But what's next?
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- Winning The Race
- From
- Learning Matters
Back in December, Delaware’s Deputy Secretary of Education Dan Cruce said his state would be winning the Race to the Top money. Absolutely. Recently, it did - $100 million for Delaware public schools. So, how did he get his team across the finish line? And more importantly, what is Delaware going to do now that it won?
Game Day
From Learning Matters | Part of the Race to the Top series | 03:15
Sixteen finalists left in the Race to the Top. Competition is fierce, and the announcement of who will get the funding is rapidly approaching. How are the competitors feeling as they step into the arena?
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- Game Day
- From
- Learning Matters
Sixteen finalists left in the Race to the Top. Competition is fierce, and the announcement of who will get the funding is rapidly approaching. How are the competitors feeling as they step into the arena?
Finding a Voice in New Orleans
From Learning Matters | Part of the Paul Vallas in New Orleans series | 05:06
Deputy Superintendent Michael Haggen discusses how new programs are helping students in New Orleans' alternative schools develop a voice.
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- Finding a Voice in New Orleans
- From
- Learning Matters
Deputy Superintendent Michael Haggen discusses how new programs are helping students in New Orleans' alternative schools develop a voice.
A Big Change in My Life
From Children's PressLine | 06:49
In an ESL class, everyone is new to the country. They're learning a new language, new customs... But what's it like to learn English in a class where everyone - except you - speaks Spanish?
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- A Big Change in My Life
- From
- Children's PressLine
10th grader Jennifer Addo immigrated to New York from Ghana in 2009, and grew up speaking Twi (pronounced "Tree") - a traditional West African language. She now attends the Coalition School for Social Change in East Harlem, New York - a neighborhood where more than half of the population identifies as Hispanic.
How 'America's Toughest High School' Turned Itself Around
From Learning Matters | Part of the Paul Vallas in New Orleans series | 08:18
Walter L. Cohen H.S. in New Orleans, LA was once called one of the most dangerous schools in America. Not anymore.
Two years ago, students at Cohen roamed the halls instead of attending class, and the vast majority of its students didn’t graduate. The situation was so bad that National Geographic made a documentary about Cohen, calling it America's Toughest High School. This year, Cohen graduated 93% of its seniors, students serve as “ambassadors” to the school and study to become doctors and nurses. What is Cohen doing right?
The Impact of IMPACT
From Learning Matters | 13:01
What happens when a 24-year veteran teacher is suddenly rated "ineffective" and loses her job?
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- The Impact of IMPACT
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- Learning Matters
75 DCPS teachers were fired this summer under the new teacher evaluation system, IMPACT. Learning Matters producer Amanda Thieroff spoke with Claudette Carson, a former elementary school teacher in the DC public schools about teaching, IMPACT, and what she’s doing now that she’s been terminated.
Struggling to Rebuild
From Learning Matters | Part of the Lessons from Haiti: Schools after the earthquake series | 04:38
Most Haitian schools suffered at least some damage in the January earthquake. If they weren’t completely flattened, they’ve since been deemed “structurally unsound.”
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- Struggling to Rebuild
- From
- Learning Matters
Some schools set up benches outside and hold classes in the open air. But then, space becomes an issue; schools that once served 500 students may only be able to accommodate, say, 100. And all of this, of course, applies only to kids who went to school in the first place–less than half of Haiti’s youth went to school before the earthquake, and that number has plummeted now that so many families have lost everything.
Read, Read, Read!
From Learning Matters | Part of the Lessons from Haiti: Schools after the earthquake series | 07:52
A group of readers heads out to tent camps around Haiti to read to children displaced by the earthquake.
- Playing
- Read, Read, Read!
- From
- Learning Matters
UNESCO estimates that 1 in 5 adults worldwide cannot read or write. In Haiti, that number is even higher. Forty-four percent - nearly half of the population of Haiti – remains illiterate, and since the earthquake in January, schools have collapsed, and many children won’t be going back to school when they reopen this fall. But a non-profit program has sent so called “readers” out to various camps around Haiti to read to displaced children.