Montana PBS education team launches graduate teaching assistant program to expand resources for educators

From MSU News Service

BOZEMAN — Three graduate students from Montana State University and the University of Montana have joined Montana PBS for the 2021-22 school year to create original digital content for pre-K through second grade teachers and students to be published on PBS LearningMedia.

The new venture for Montana PBS will allow the graduate teaching assistants to work with the Montana PBS education department to conduct an assessment of educator needs across the state and determine the content needs of teachers and students in pre-K through second grade. The graduate teaching assistants will then create original digital content to meet those needs.

“Our projected outcome of this program is to have these students develop a new collection of eight or more free media resources — videos, images, interactive lessons — aligned to state and national standards to be published on PBS LearningMedia for preK-2 teachers to use in their classrooms,” said Nikki Vradenburg, director of education at Montana PBS.

The teaching assistants are Alec Nehring, who is pursuing a master’s degree from MSU in educational leadership; Grace Weikert, who is pursuing a master’s degree from MSU in natural history filmmaking; and Jordan Parker, who is pursuing a master’s degree from UM in early childhood education.

The program is made possible through a collaboration between MSU, UM and the Friends of Montana PBS.

To learn more about Montana PBS LearningMedia, people can visit http://montana.pbslearningmedia.org .