:History, Hollywood & Literacy

Michele Bonadies

1. Teaches at Suffern High School for the last eight years

2. Was looking to teach something different

a. Wanted to find a way to interest students in history  in a non-text book/traditional way

b. Stole the idea from the history channel, but have created a chronological, thematic course focusing on Historical content covered in 9-12, while also continuing to focus on research skills and recognition of truth both on the Internet and in Hollywood.

Jacqueline Keane

1. Bachelors of Arts with a Major in History and Secondary Education from Providence College.

2. Master’s In Education with a focus on Instructional Technology at Framingham State College.

3. A degree in Educational Administration at SUNY New Palts, New Paltz NY.

4. Taught history/language arts at Wareham Middle School in Wareham, MA for four years.

5. Moved to Suffern where worked as an Instructional Technology Facilitator for three years before returning to the classroom to teach Freshman Writing Seminar and Global Studies.

6. Recently published her first book, Internet-Based Student Research: Creating to Learn with a Step-By-Step Approach,  which introduces to teachers, administrators, and technology coordinators a new approach to learning and infusing instructional technology into the curriculum. (http://www.linworth.com/publishing_books.cfm)

7. She has also written and contributed many articles to educational journals including Technical Horizons in Education and Library Media Connection.

8. Freshman Writing Seminar (FWS) is a unique course that focuses on introducing incoming freshman to all genres of writing. In addition to working with the students on their writing, FWS develops students information literacy, visual literacy and technical literacy skills.

Michele and Jackie

We have been working together over the last five years in an attempt to carry the information literacy, visual literacy and technical literacy skills the students develop in Freshman Writing Seminar inot other areas of the curriculum. Their initiative has been extremely successful in Michele’s new “History vs. Hollywood” class. This unique approach to learning has helped the sophomores and juniors not only better hone these new skills but it has also helped them better prepare for the Global Studies Regents and American History Regents in June.

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