Home
!Hola, Miss Rosa! Florida teacher Jennifer Pena is one of the new PBS KIDS hosts debuting this week. Read the Q&A, then check out the video teaser.
How did you go from being a certified teacher to one of the new hosts for PBS KIDS?
After teaching for a few years in the Florida school system, the door of opportunity opened for me to continue my acting career. I decided to leave the classroom and focus on acting full-time. I eventually ended up bringing my two loves together when I started to teach acting classes and workshops to teens.
I was thrilled when I heard about the opening on the PBS KIDS preschool destination. Not only did my experiences as both a teacher and a professional actress provide the perfect background for this role, but I also grew up watching PBS’s children’s programs and have been reliving the experience with my niece.
One goal of having you as a new host is to help kids explore new cultures. Why do you feel this is so important — and how do you plan to do it in such short chunks of time?
Exposure to new cultures helps children grow, open their minds and learn about the world around them in a really exciting way. On the PBS KIDS preschool destination, we’re taking kids on a journey.
To get lessons across to this age group the content needs to be age appropriate and use repetition. Each segment teaches the curriculum theme of the day and Miss Lori, Mr. Steve, Hooper and I work together on delivering each theme. For example, when we focus on the weather, we each have a different role in sharing this lesson with kids, be it through an interactive song, dance or other activity.
What feedback have you gotten from the kids you’ve acted with on the segments so far?
It was an amazing experience, seeing the kids run out of the studio to their parents to share what they just learned! They were so excited that they could now count to ten in Spanish or that they learned how to say words in Spanish. Those were great moments.
Many parents want their kids to grow up speaking more than English, but aren’t bilingual themselves. Any suggestions for how they can encourage (or teach) another language at home?
I suggest making learning another language a family affair by learning the language with your child. It will encourage kids to try new things because Mom and Dad are learning also. It will also create a time for bonding - each night the family can sit together and learn something new. Great moments of discussion, interaction, and fun can be had learning a new language. I grew up in a Spanish-speaking home so I had a great deal of exposure to Spanish from my family. At school, it was much more limited so it became a special bond we had within our family.
Which kids’ shows, in your opinion, do a good job of encouraging diversity or teaching another language?
Many kids’ shows are incorporating bilingual education and diversity, but this isn’t the first time PBS KIDS has used Spanish. PBS has been reaching out to this growing audience for years with shows like Sesame Street , Maya & Miguel , Dragon Tales, Between the Lions and Jay Jay the Jet Plane that have incorporated Spanish words and phrases while also portraying positive images of these cultures and teaching children about different customs. To me, just knowing that kids have access to a variety of shows that teach them to open their minds is amazing!
Watch the PBS Kids video teaser .
Filed under General
