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"LEADER" On-line: Vol. 10, No. 1 |
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Here’s a change of pace: The Guilford County, North Carolina, Superintendent of Schools is encouraging students and their parents to watch television. But it’s not just any TV show that the school system is promoting; it’s Active Parenting TV. Guilford County issued a challenge to its school system: Find educational programming that will aid our community in raising responsible children. As Broadcast Production Manager for the educational access channel GCS School Zone, Tahira Stalberte led the effort.
She began her research with several requirements that she knew the program had to meet. She needed a video series that would appeal to both parents and students and that would provide them with tips for dealing with issues such as discipline, substance abuse and self-esteem. She also needed to consider that the Hispanic enrollment of Guilford County Schools had increased by 50% over the past five years. In an effort to get all families—whether they spoke English or Spanish—involved, the videos needed to be available in both languages. When Stalberte found Active Parenting Publishers, she felt confident that its video-based programs could satisfy these requirements. She chose the Active Parenting Now and Active Parenting of Teens video series in order to provide programming relevant to students in grades 1 through 12, and she purchased the rights to broadcast both the English and Spanish editions in order to “reach out to Spanish-speaking parents.” Each broadcast consists of six 30-minute programs covering issues such as “Sidestepping the Power Struggle,” “The Magic of Family Meetings,” and “Effective Discipline.” Guilford County began broadcasting Active Parenting videos on GCS School Zone Channel 2 in January of 2005, and the program is still going strong. Each month, a new 30-minute video airs back-to-back in English and Spanish versions twice daily. Publicity has been key in making the broadcast program work in the
community. At the beginning of each month, the school system issues
a press release announcing which video will be featured that month and
when it will show. The Superintendent’s weekly e-newsletter generates
additional publicity by including an article about the most recent broadcast
video once every month. With a subscriber base of 8,000 county employees
and potentially thousands of additional readers, the e-newsletter has
been instrumental in the broadcast program’s success. |
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Reprinted from Leader magazine. |
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