video

Here is a brief video of myself.  I shot this on a flip camera that I held out in front of me, which was a little challenging.  It's really weird to watch yourself on camera!

This is a picture of Monticello.  In the foreground is the famous Mulberry Row.  With just over 200 people living at Monticello, there was always something going on.

Virtual Field Trips are an outstanding way to integrate technology into your classroom.  They provide images that cannot be found in a textbook and engage students through several learning processes.  Since I fancy myself as a history buff, I chose to use the Monticello virtual field trip.  The link is  http://explorer.monticello.org/.  ( I also really liked http://www.monticello.org/)  I also chose this trip because I think that history is a subject area that can benefit greatly from field trips.  With the current financial crunch in education, virtual trips allow students the opportunity to “visit” locations from the comfort of their classrooms.

The site provided some wonderful pictures of Monticello as it might have looked during Jefferson’s time there.  I really liked the way you can move yourself around Monticello and the site provides a short commentary on each location.  The brief narrative includes some additional pictures and some background information.  One of the biggest challenges as a teacher is sparking an interest in the material from your students.  Virtual Field Trips, and this site in particular, are a great way to do that.

These trips to Monticello obviously tie into the American History curriculum.  They can be used to cover a wide variety of topics, including the presidency, slavery, independence, economic and social status, trade, and the manufacturing of goods.  However, teachers can also easily expand on Monticello to study the culture of the time.  For example, included on the two sites are pictures and discussions about the clothes and diets of the times.  Gender roles and the importance of education are also discussed.  The possibilities for different things to discuss are endless.  The trip to Monticello on this site is so detailed, allowing the teacher to use it to cover a multitude of topics. 

VFT’s are a great way to allow your students to experience many places and time periods in the world.  One challenge to the VFT that I was thinking of as I was viewing several sites was the logistical problem of including every student.  This is a case where I think each student should have a computer.  If that was possible, you could have each student visit a different part of Monticello and develop their own presentation to deliver to the class. 

School Report Cards

For my comparison of NJDOE School Report Cards I chose to examine Teaneck High School and Bergenfield High School.  I grew up in Teaneck(although I did not attend Teaneck High) and I currently live in Bergenfield.  The two districts had a lot in common, but there were some glaring differences. 

One of the first differences I noticed was the length of the school day, with Teaneck clocking in at 6 hours, 40 minutes and Bergenfield registering 6 hours, 55 minutes. I know fifteen minutes a day might not sound like much, but that adds up to one hour, fifteen minutes a week. Thinking back to my classroom days, I would have loved to have had that extra fifteen minutes a day!

One of the facts that I found surprising was the results of the HSPA test.  The results in both districts were almost identical for the Language Arts test, with both districts right near 76% for proficient.  The thing that jumped out at me was the Math proficiency results.  Bergenfield had 61% of their school scoring in the proficient range while Teaneck only had 50% of their students scoring proficient.  Since so much of the other data seemed similar, I would have thought that this range would have been closer.

Another thing that surprised me was the information concerning the AP classes and exams in the districts.  Bergenfield has 25% of students in 11^th and 12^th grade participating in AP classes, while Teaneck only has 9% of their 11^th and 12^th graders enrolled in AP classes.  Upon first glance at the amount of students that scored a 3 or higher on the AP exam, I was shocked to see how many more students in Bergenfield had achieved this than in Teaneck.  However, when I studied the report cards further, I noticed that just about every student in an AP class in Bergenfield took the AP exam, which was not the case in Teaneck.  Although Teaneck had around 80 more kids enrolled in AP classes than Bergenfield, they only had 96 students take the AP exam compared to 235 in Bergenfield.

Most of the other information on the report cards was pretty comparable.  I think the report cards provide a nice basis for comparison, but I don’t think they tell the complete story of a school district. 

Introduction

Hello everyone, my name is Jason Schlereth.  Sorry for the late posts, I have been having difficulty with blackboard and of course, enrollment services at St. Peters!  I am currently pursuing my Masters of Education degree with a concentration in Administration.  This is only my second course in the program and my first online course.  I completed my undergraduate work at William Paterson University with a degree in History and a concentration in Elementary Education. 
I began my career teaching fifth grade in a public school for two years before moving on to Immaculate Heart Academy where I am the Director of Athletics, the Head Swim Coach and the Head Lacrosse Coach.  I am looking forward to learning new ways to integrate technology into classrooms.