Southern Oregon PBS Teacher Community Program
About
In 2017, Southern Oregon PBS (then SOPTV) became one of five stations in rural areas across the U.S. to become part of the PBS Teacher Community Program. Our local pilot initiative aims to build media arts educator community in Southern Oregon, connect local media arts educators, find media arts opportunities for their students, and discover ways to collaborate with Southern Oregon PBS around the shared goal of improving learning outcomes for local students. Southern Oregon PBS brought educator Ben Garcia on staff as a Teacher Ambassador to lead this effort and help address local media arts educator needs. Thus, Southern Oregon PBS TCP is working hard to support local students, teachers and media arts educators in the Rogue Valley in ways that are authentic and effective through:
- 1|1 and small group media arts professional development (PD) training
- Weekly media arts training with elementary and middle school students
- PBS Kids ScratchJr PD training and class takeovers for local elementary teachers
- PD Workshops relating to the use PBSLearningMedia.org
- Monthly digital storytelling PD workshops for local teacher leaders
The vision of our TCP program is that it finds long-term funding to continue these efforts well into the future so we may build a regional media arts professional learning network, which will motivate media arts educators to collaborate outside of their silos as they help to elevate the voices of their local students, teachers and families of students. To learn more about previous education resources that Southern Oregon PBS produces or promotes to this day, please check out Brain Bowl, Student Showcase, and PBS Education resources.
Get Involved
To learn more about SO PBS Teacher Community Program’s goal of becoming a local leader in media arts education, and how you can support this vital effort, please contact:
Ben Garcia
SO PBS Education Manager
PBS Teacher Community Program
bgarcia@sopbs.org
541-200-2056