Teacher of the Year 2022-2023

Welcome back on our road forward! I am so excited to be back, as we look to start the school year back in person and better than ever! This year promises to hold new challenges, obstacles, and adventures... but we are all in this together. I hope everyone had a relaxing, fun summer. As you can see, our African American Student Union bulletin board is all ready to go for the start of the 2021-2022 school year. Let's make this the best year yet and like the mythical phoenix, we will rise from the ashes!

Welcome back... well virtually! I am so excited to be back, regardless of how "back" looks. This year promises to hold new challenges, obstacles, and adventures... but we are all in this together. Whether we come together in person or virtually, we must all be there for each other. As you can see, our African American Student Union bulletin board is all ready to go for the start of the 2020-2021 school year. Let's make this the best year yet and like the mythical phoenix, we will rise from the ashes!

George Washington showed up in my 7th grade class today to preside over our cabinet meeting! Students rap battled as Hamilton and Jefferson on specific topics. The cabinet than voted at the end who won the debate!

My 6th grade class working on our Boston Massacre invesgation lesson! Students became members of the Boston Police Department. 4 groups rotated to 4 different stations collecting evidence: Exhibit A a crime scene, Exhibit B primary source eye witness accounts, Exhibit C Paul Revere's engraving, and Exhibit D a 2 minute clip from the TV show John Adams. Students spent 10 minutes at each station writing evidence down in their packets to determine if this event was an act of murder or simply self defense.

Our Social Studies class and African American Student Union celebrate Black History Month with these bulletine boards!

The African American Student Union, along with Ms. Leslie from the Matawan Public Library and Mr. Gross our media specialist, celebrated critically acclaimed African American author Jaqueline Woodson. Ms. Woodson gave a lecture at The College of New Jersey on Wednesday October 16th, reciting passages from her novels and talking to the students about being an African American writer. Our students watched her presentation, received free copies of some of her novels, and created black out poetry. Our students loved picking pages from books and creating silly, thought provoking, or even melancholy poems. Many of our students got up in fron of their peers to recite their poems. We now have our poems proudly displayed on our AASU bulletin board located in the 8th grade wing!

On September 17, 1787, delegates from the 13 colonies converged to birth the laws that still govern our great nation today: The United States Constitution. On September 16th and 17th, 2019, our 7th grade students got together and survived a Constitution Escape Room planned and implemented by myself and my amazing colleagues: Mrs. Baumert, Mr. Bloss, and Mr. Grigoli. In groups of 4, students navigated outside and between the 2 Social Studies classrooms to solve 4 clues about the U.S. Constitution. Students had so much fun working together and learning about this extremely important living document. We the people... survived the Constitution Escape Room!

Welcome back! I am so excited to get this new school year underway. While we miss our now 9th graders, the African American Student Union has doubled in size this year with some amazing new comers. Our beautiful bulletin board is proudly being displayed in the 8th grade wing for all to see! We have many exciting events in the works and I am looking forward to an amazing year. Stay tuned!

In honor of Memorial Day in May and Flag Day in June, the African American Student Union bulletin board proudly presents Salute to Service. We are featuring African Americans in the military both past and present from all different branches. To all of the veterans out their and those that lost their lives fighting for our country and this flag, thank you for your service. We salute you!