Challenges & Lessons Learned
Over its many seasons, Arthur has worked with a number of partners. In developing these relationships, the Arthur team has constantly challenged itself to be a better partner -- to say, "Here's what we think; what do you think?" Working with a wide range of partners, the team has learned to bring partners in early in the process and to build meaningful, reciprocal relationships.
It can be difficult to maintain communication and relationships with multiple target audiences, especially given shrinking resources. To address this challenge, the Arthur team has chosen one or two target audiences each season and kept its efforts focused. The long-term impact is cumulative.
Teachers face many challenges in the classroom, including teaching to meet standards, ensuring that children test well on standardized tests, and keeping students engaged -- all within a limited timeframe. Our challenge has been to create materials that are doable in the small windows of time teachers have available. This has meant creating materials that complement and support the curriculum and the standards, while engaging and motivating students and providing the content they need to know.
The Arthur team learned early on that Arthur's popularity means that resources are in constant demand. Each season, they have received so many requests for materials, from both current and past seasons, that they began to make all Arthur materials as evergreen as possible. This makes the materials useful beyond their normal shelf life. All eight seasons of Arthur resources are still being distributed.
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