Brewster Teacher Wins PBS Innovation Award

• Name: Matthew Schnitzler Occupation: Seventh-grade English teacher
• School: (WMS)
• Accomplishment: Revolutionarynews.com; one of several second-place winners in this year's PBS Teachers Innovation Awards (click here to view his entry)
• Key to Awesomeness: Dedication, thinking outside-of-the-box

Schnitzler has been teaching English at WMS for the past four years, but one thing has always bothered him: A lack of excitement from students when it came to writing. This year he decided to incorporate other subjects into his students' assignments, in the hopes that the interdisciplinary approach would spark some interest.

While the students were learning about the Revolutionary War in history class, Schnitzler had them write articles in his class about the historical events. He added one more factor to the mix — multimedia — and organized their work into an online newspaper called the "Revolutionary News."

“A piece of paper and pencil is boring now," Schnitzler said. "The students live in an online world and it’s more interesting to bring their own world into the classroom."

Schnitzler admits to being a fan of the PBS teaching website, a place he often visits for lesson plans. He credits the site for the writing and reporting lesson he taught for the assignment, which he then organized into newspaper format using the blogging software WordPress.

“Each student can create their own accounts with their own login and submit their work," he said. "Some students were even assigned roles as editors so they can manage the website themselves."

And the idea paid off. Students became very involved with the assignment, some writing more articles than required. As the website continued to develop, Schnitzler’s wife noticed the PBS website was searching for innovative teachers, and suggested that her husband submit his idea.

The contest called for a video submission about the lesson plan with a brief description of its purpose and outcome. Previous Innovation Awards winners and PBS Teacherline course facilitators acted as the judges, choosing the winners based on their level of creativity and student engagement. Kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers from across the country submitted their ideas and the judges sorted through dozens of selected winners into first and second prize categories.

Schnitzler was one of the 38 teachers awarded in the second place division. He will receive a PBS gift basket that includes award-winning public broadcasting programs and a variety of other teaching tools. He will also be invited to work with PBS to create programs that encourage innovative teaching nationwide.

“He is hard-working, ethical, and intelligent and holds himself and his students to a high standard of learning," Principal Michelle Gosh said. "We are lucky to have him in Brewster, and especially at Wells Middle School."

Schnitzler continues to search for effective techniques in his own classroom and is still overseeing the progress of the award-winning assignment. Revolutionarynews.com is now an interactive website which continues to develop and Schnitzler has every intention of keeping the assignment in his teaching curriculum for future students.