Two Faculty Members Earn PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification by KQED

George School faculty members Meredith Baldi ’01 and Scott Seraydarian ’90 recently earned PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification by KQED.

To earn this certification, Meredith and Scott demonstrated expertise in teaching students to think critically about their role as media consumers and creators and training other teachers to do so. PBS Certified Media Literacy Educators have demonstrated mastery with evaluating, creating, and sharing media effectively to support their own learning, designing and implementing instruction, and assessing student learning of those same skills.

Meredith and Scott earned eight micro-credentials to demonstrate expertise in, and commitment to, teaching students to produce media that matters and to think critically about their role as media consumers. Benefits of this achievement include the possibility of collaborating on conference presentations with PBS or delivering professional development sessions on their behalf. Micro-credentials range in topics from demonstrating teacher-made media to teaching students to critically analyze and evaluate media, to understanding and teaching privacy laws, to assessing student made media.

“I am excited Meredith will be able to share this new expertise with her Producing Peace and IB Global Politics classes,” said Head of the History Department, Ben Croucher. “Meredith, in her role as director of professional development, is modeling ‘best practices’ for her colleagues. I’m grateful she is so invested in the most current pedagogy for her discipline.”

“Scott is a master communicator, using his professional film-making and published written work to create lasting impacts,” said Mo West, Head of the Arts Department. “In combination with his passion for service and peace-making, the experiences he and Meredith offer students will have an effect that will hopefully reach far into the future and assist in making our world a better place. These teachers understand how to reach and motivate their students where they live – in the world of media. And that is where change can begin.”

Both Meredith and Scott recently traveled to Greece where they continued to explore how storytelling, both historically and through digital media, has the capacity to support social justice and develop empathy and compassion. The trip was made possible thanks to the Majzlin fund.

PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification by KQED was a 2020 EdTech Awards finalist in the Badging & Credentialing category and received a 2019 Award of Excellence from Tech & Learning magazine. Learn more here.