NorthJersey.com (The Record) Feature Article

As 1.4M students return to school, N.J. education faces a year of profound change

Today I was featured in feature article on NorthJersey.com (the web version of the The Record) showcasing our first day of school in Ramsey. While the article highlights some challenges and concerns that public schools across New Jersey are facing, it is rewarding that my classroom can serve as a bright spot.

​I regularly express my gratitude for being able to teach a subject that I am passionate about, without having rigid standards and testing to hold back the innovation and creativity of the students. Additionally, this begins our journey in my newly redesigned classroom. It will be awesome to see the impact that this new learning space has on my students.

In Ramsey, some 85 miles north of Trenton, teachers were focused on balancing basics and state mandates with experiences for students designed to pique their curiosity and develop critical thinking skills.
At a computer technology class at Smith Middle School, students gathered around high tables where they were introduced to the tools they would use during the class. The eighth graders took turns building projects with snap circuits, creating designs for video games and plugging alligator clips into a lump of Play-Doh to turn it into a controller for an online piano.
The goal, teacher Robert Kalman said, was to get the students to use the tools in a goal-oriented way, to create and build and solve problems. He was there as a “facilitator” helping to guide students as they explored and learned on their own.
Principal Andrew Herre said the school strives to meet state academic mandates while also getting students involved in different subjects and projects. “You’re held accountable to the State of New Jersey, but also to students and parents, so you have to find balance,” he said.