A new video podcast series releases its second episode this week to elevate the conversation around education transformation in South Carolina. Dropping on Feb. 17, this episode of the ElevatED4SC vodcast series focuses on teachers’ stories that illustrate the importance of meeting students’ academic, emotional, behavioral, social and emotional needs.
ElevatEd4SC, launched Feb. 3, features success stories illustrating how education transformation is already happening in some South Carolina schools. Viewers and listeners can also learn about what other states are doing to meet similar challenges and find out what a whole child, cradle-to-career approach to education would look like.
ALL4SC is the producing partner for the vodcast series. ALL4SC – Accelerating Learning & Leadership in South Carolina – is a University of South Carolina initiative advocating a whole child approach to education. Other partners in producing the vodcast series include UofSC’s College of Education, UofSC’s College of Information and Communications, and Tri-County Cradle to Career Collaborative.
“We have some of the best whole child approaches in our midst right now. We just don’t have a system of whole child education in South Carolina yet, nor does any other state for that matter,” says Barnett Berry, a regular ElevatED4SC contributor, ALL4SC founder and UofSC research professor in the College of Education. “We need to work on this.”
In this episode, two ElevatED4SC regular contributors explore stories from SC teachers that illuminate the need for education transformation. The stories are powerful vignettes illustrating challenges students deal with beyond the classroom, while simultaneously showing how teachers play an important role in students’ development beyond their academic needs.
Contributor Christina Melton, veteran educator with more than 28 years of experience ranging from classroom teacher to district superintendent, shares some of these teacher stories on the video podcast. She reads one South Carolina teacher’s words stating that it is the responsibility of educators “to respond to the whole child. It doesn’t matter where they start, it’s our responsibility to take them forward from where they need to go.”
Berry and Melton also discuss a recently released paper for the International Summit on the Teaching Profession that Berry wrote to address how teachers lead in classrooms and schools around the world.
The video and audio versions of the series are available on YouTube, ITunes and Spotify, and more information on the vodcast can be found at ElevatEd4SC.com. Two 18-minute episodes will be released monthly.
The series host is Roshanda Pratt, a broadcast journalist with 20 years of experience and a trusted voice on local television, radio, and podcasts. In each episode, regular contributors engage with guests who will include students, classroom teachers, policy makers, parents, and business and community leaders.
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