Veteran broadcast journalists will join forces in hopes of helping Filipino teachers in becoming broadcasters as part of the new method in teaching.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers and educators are forced to find other methods in teaching because face-to-face classes are still prohibited. Online classes are encouraged as well as the use of television in teaching that’s why teachers are being trained to become broadcasters.
The Department of Education has called on teachers from different parts of the country and there are already 300 teachers who passed the audition in being teacher-broadcasters.
Journalists from GMA Network, TV5, and ABS-CBN network will mentor the 300 aspiring teachers. Some of the journalists include Jessica Soho, Korina Sanchez, Luchi Cruz-Valdes, Karen Davila, Arnold Clavio, Kim Atienza, Kara David, Sandra Aguinaldo, Abner Mercado, Atom Araullo, Jacque Manabat, MJ Marfori, and Paolo Bediones.
Paolo Bediones will be the one to lead the mentoring for the journalists who will share their knowledge as broadcasters to the 300 chosen teachers. He will be backed up by Luchi Cruz-Valdez who will help him as the one assigned as the senior trainer.
It has been a while since Bediones has been away on television but he will be back to work as a mentor to several veteran broadcast journalists. Paolo explained on Cabinet Files that he volunteered to put together the mentoring team to help the teacher-broadcasters effectively conduct their teaching through television.
“One of the modalities of the DepEd in its Distance Learning Program is television, so Undersecretary Alain Pascua came up with DepEd TV where the learners can have an education while watching TV,” he said.
“I volunteered to put together an extensive training program for the public school teachers who will be chosen to be Teacher Broadcasters so they can better adapt to their new medium of instruction,” he added.
He mentioned that he got help from his fellow journalists in creating the team in connection with the DepEdTV.
“Together with Luchi Cruz-Valdes, Gin de Mesa of the PCOO, and Marge Natividad, we crafted a training program for on camera and production work involved in DepEdTV,” he said.
Bediones explained that the teacher-broadcasters will have to learn to create and edit their content for their television broadcasting with the aim of producing 130 episodes per week.
“Teachers have to learn how to write their own script, shoot, edit, and produce their episodes for television,” he said.
“We gathered veteran broadcast journalists from the major networks who also volunteered to serve as mentors, tackling specific aspects of being a broadcaster, such as Jessica Soho, Korina Sanchez, Karen Davila, Arnold Clavio, Kim Atienza, and many more,” he added.
“An unprecedented 130 episodes a week will have to be produced to cover the major subjects of all grade levels,” he further added.
While teachers are busy preparing the teaching modules for the students, Bediones said that he is also preparing modules that are intended for teaching the teachers in the concepts of being a broadcaster.
He also praised all the teachers for their efforts to provide the education for students despite the pandemic.
“Saludo ako sa mga magagaling na teachers natin who have put in so much effort and passion in this. The hard work for them has just begun and they embrace the responsibility,” said Bediones.
Education Undersecretary Alain Pascua explained that the search for teacher-broadcasters for the DepEd TV was a hard process as the teachers went through extreme training and workshops. There were thousands of teachers that volunteered but only hundreds were accepted.
It can be remembered that during the broadcast test run of the DepEd TV, netizens bashed the content for incorrect information.
However, Education Secretary Leonor Briones assured that several precautionary measures were made to ensure that the incident will not happen again.
