WVPT is one of five public television stations in Virginia dedicated to providing instructional television programming and services to the public schools of the Commonwealth. These services have been supported by the people of Virginia since 1974 through funds allocated by the Virginia General Assembly.

Instructional Television (ITV) is a mainstay of WVPTs outreach to the K-12th grade education community in the Shenandoah Valley and Piedmont Regions of Virginia. ITV is programming designed specifically for classroom use, which correlates with national and state education standards, and offers opportunities for segmented viewing. Most ITV series come with teachers guides that assist teachers in integrating programming into lessons and curriculum. ITV is also the centerpiece of the National Teacher Training Institute at WVPT, a yearlong training project that helps teachers to learn effective strategies for using video and the Internet as integrated, strategic and creative tools for teaching and learning.

The ITV programs and series on WVPT were selected for their instructional design and for the positive evaluations of classroom teachers, media specialists, and administrators. The collection includes programs addressing virtually every curricular area at every grade level. As with any resource, their effectiveness will be determined by the way in which they are used by you, the professional educator. ITV programs and series come with particular copyrights for off-air recording and use. Please click here for details

Professional Development

Workshops are provided to teachers and staff in the K-12 schools in the WVPT service area. Please visit our Professional Development page for more detailed information.

Utilization Services
Assistance and instruction designed to aid teachers and staff in the most effective use of instructional television is available from WVPT, free of charge (for schools and divisions in the Shenandoah, Virginia region). Services are available o­n a group or o­ne-to-one basis. For more information, contact the Educational Services staff at WVPT.

Technical Services
Technical advice, service, and some repairs are available from WVPT, free of charge (for schools and divisions in the Shenandoah, Virginia region). Requests for technical services should be made through your representative to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

WVPT4learing.org Newsletter
September through May, WVPT publishes a monthly newsletter. The ITV Newsletter features informative articles o­n ITV series, technological trends, and other information of interest to educators. This digital newsletter is available under the Quicklinks tab on our homepage.

Rescheduling
If you need an ITV program rebroadcast, there is some unscheduled open time built into the WVPT ITV broadcast schedule. Contact your building level ITV coordinator, your RSCPC representative, or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We will accommodate requests o­n a first-come, first-served basis. Rescheduled programs will be announced each month in the ITV Newsletter.

Block Feeding
WVPT broadcasts entire series in blocks in order to facilitate the recording of programs for later viewing and for tape library formation. Consecutively numbered programs in o­ne series are aired mostly in two-hour blocks to accommodate schools using 2-,4-, or 6-hour record modes (SP, LP, or EP). For broadcast schedule information, search the ITV database for a particular program and check the broadcast schedule provided.

Cuing Numbers
To facilitate location (cuing) of a specific program among the four to thirty programs usually recorded by schools o­n o­ne tape, a number is broadcast in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. For ITV series, the cuing number corresponds to the episode number within the series. For other single programs, the number indicates the orginal position in the block.

Teachers Guides
Virtually every ITV series or program has a companion teachers guide. Guides for NEW series are automatically distributed to schools in August from the RSCPC representative and are usually circulated from the school library. Additional guides are available from the Educational Services Department at WVPT and may be ordered through school and division ITV coordinators. In a growing number of cases, teachers guides may also be available in downloadable form o­n the Internet. To find out more, access materials through our online search.

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