SCETV is excited to kick off the new year (HELLO, 2021!) with a great new opportunity for educators: media literacy professional learning cohorts! From January through June, we’ll be piloting our first cohort group, learning how best to structure future cohorts and working out credit details. In the summer, we look forward to offering on-going cohorts as part of our professional development suite of services.
Why media literacy?
“In today’s multiplatform environment, media literacy, like social-emotional skills, is a necessary foundation for all other learning.”
—Sara Schapiro, Vice President of Education, PBS
“Media literacy is not taught in one lesson or even one unit. It is a series of small steps that takes the students on a journey of empowerment to become active citizens in the digital world.”
—Mariana Garcia Serrato, Middle school STEM teacher, PBS Certified Media Literacy Educator
Media literacy, teaching students how to think critically about their roles as media consumers and creators, is for all kinds of educators: classroom teachers, coaches, librarians & more. It’s for any educator who wants to help students navigate the many online sources of information that come across their feed. It’s for educators who want to help students not only analyze and understand the media but know how to create media and communicate in today’s digitally-driven world.
Thanks to Covid-19, you and your students are likely already incorporating many forms of media in your classes; media literacy knowledge and skills will help your students and you do it best.
About the cohorts
During the pilot, made available with grant funding from PBS, participants will be guided through learning a variety of media literacy principles and earning at least 4 of the 8 micro-credits offered in the PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification by KQED program which recognizes PreK-12 educators who demonstrate their ability to teach students to think critically about media consumption and creation. The insights gained in the pilot cohort will help us determine a winning structure to assist educators in future cohorts.
All educators in the pilot cohort and beyond who complete the full media literacy certification will be eligible for opportunities to partner with ETV, including sharing their or their students’ work through ETV’s various platforms (blog, social media, YouTube channel, Carolina Classrooms show, and more).
Get involved now
You don’t have to wait for a ETV cohort to get going on building your media literacy skills. KQED offers free courses to help you start learning the principles and skills involved to earn the PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification.
Start applying those skills and engage your students in projects like these:
PBS American Portrait
A national storytelling project that asks people all over the country to submit their stories by responding to thought provoking prompts. Find related lesson plans and more on PBS LearningMedia.
*Watch the PBS American Portrait series airing on ETV each Tuesday in January starting January 5, 2021.
Youth Media Challenges
Youth Media Challenges are standards-aligned media making projects designed to get your students writing, producing and sharing media with peers from around the country — and, in some cases, on public media stations. The five current challenges, including Engineering for Good and If Schools Could Dance, range across multiple content areas and each come with ready-to-use curricular supports.
For more information, contact us at 800-277-3245 or etveducation@scetv.org.
