MTSU’s Center for Educational Media Supports ‘Difference Maker’ Educators on This Month’s ‘Out of the Blue’

Laura Clark, director of MTSU’s Center for Educational Media, was featured on this month’s “Out of the Blue” episode to discuss how the center supports educators in the university’s College of Education, across campus and in the larger pre-K-12 community across the state.

The mission of MTSU’s College of Education, which houses the center, is to prepare education students for the “difference makers” they will become in the classroom, administration and beyond, and the center has been a key piece of supporting this work.

“We do media production on site, we do it virtually, we are a professional development center and event center,” Clark told Andrew Oppmann, host of the university’s monthly TV magazine show and MTSU’s vice president for marketing and communications, during her segment. “We’re primarily a supporter of the work of educators through media.”

The center has created and hosted in-house professional development, known as the PK-12 Collaborative at MTSU, since 2017, and now offers multiple training opportunities every year for teachers of English Language Learners, school counselors and special education teachers. Through outreach to the educator community, Clark and center staff identified educators in these roles as high needs: they often felt isolated — some areas only have one of them per school or entire district — and could benefit from the connection and support these collaboratives could provide.

Next month, the center will host a Summer Academy for educators in these areas onsite at their professional development center in the Ned McWherter Learning Resources Center at 1558 Military Memorial Drive in Murfreesboro.

Those interested in attending should visit the center’s website at https://www.mtsu.edu/cem/ for dates and other details or email Jenny Marsh, center coordinator, at Jenny.Marsh@mtsu.edu. Recordings will also be available to view on the website.

In addition, the center partners with professional and regional organizations to host in-person, virtual and hybrid events.

Clark wrapped up the episode saying she is most proud of her team and the authentic, relevant professional development they have created in response to teacher needs.

“Teachers need all the help they can get,” she said. “I am happy to use the unique resources we have here to deliver that to teachers and to give them all the help we can give.”

“Out of the Blue” is MTSU’s monthly TV magazine show and is available anytime on the university’s YouTube channel, the True Blue TV channel, Roku, Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV. It also airs on Murfreesboro cable Channel 9 daily at 6 a.m., 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.; NewsChannel5+ at 3:30 p.m. Sundays and on other cable outlets in Middle Tennessee, so check local listings.

It is also available as a podcast on iTunes and Google Play.

Watch previous episodes of “Out of the Blue” at https://mtsunews.com/out-of-the-blue