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James Puliatte at Fort Lee High’s 2011 graduation

By Brent Hannify July 6,2012

A Conversation with a 21st Century Teacher

James Puliatte teaches business classes at Fort Lee High School in New Jersey. He’s quick to point out he is underthe age of 30 and cringes when someone calls him “sir.” He has developed a reputation on campus as the residenttech expert and contributes to the school’s modern methods for educating teenagers.

Tech Staff Developer … Wait, what?

FLHS experienced some budget woes and cutbacks in therecent past but the school was not deterred from its goal ofintegrating technology into its classrooms. Instead of dealingwith the high cost of sending teachers to workshops to learncertain technology, the school named Puliatte its “tech staffdeveloper” and gave him the responsibility to bring teachersup to speed on the usage of certain technology in an effort tomodernize the school.

“When I tell people my title I get blank stares. So I just saythat I teach teachers how to use technology.” Puliatte sayshis first job is being a teacher but his side-job involvestraveling around the school and getting to know members ofthe staff who wish to learn more about computers and theinternet. He is one of the school’s young guns, teaching theold guards the tricks of the digital age. “One teacher I got toknow pretty well told me she did a video podcast with her fifthgraders. I looked at her and said jokingly, ‘A podcast? Youcouldn’t turn your monitor on a year ago!”

Fort Lee High School uses a web-based student information system called PowerSchool developed by PearsonEducation. Puliatte facilitates workshops on the system and also arranges for private video tutorials for teachers on acase-by-case basis. He records and narrates himself using the program so the teachers can see how it’s done.

Puliatte also devised a survey that he distributed around campus shortly after taking up his new post. “I askedteachers two years ago about what technology they wanted to use and then I took that data and created a catalogueof my own workshops,” he said. “Instead of sending 20 teachers out to professional workshops and have the districtpay for the fee, which is usually $100 to $150 per person, they would pay to just send me. Then I would bring what Ilearned back to the school and incorporate it into my own workshops.”

Flipping classes and teaching while crippled

Puliatte flipped his accounting class halfway through his last semester of 2011-2012 school year and his studentsresponded well to it. He was drawn to a popular infographic about flipping the classroom, read up about the conceptonline and decided to try it out for his students.

“Students do for homework what they normally would have had for classwork and vice versa,” he said. “I use theeducreations iPad app to create a video of what would have been our class lecture, they watch that for homework,and then we have class discussion the next day and work through the problems and examples. I found this led to a

Screenshot from Puliatte’s computer during a Skype session with hisaccounting students.

much more active learning environment and it got the kids more involved.”

Joy Cho was one of Puliatte’s student’s last year. She graduated from FLHS last year and is bound for Rutgers, NewBrunswick to study business in the fall. Cho says Puliatte’s flipped classroom gave her a good idea of how hercollege classes would work, and spoke to her friends in college who described their classrooms as being similar toPuliatte’s. She commented on her fellow students learning at home and watching the videos that Puliatte would puttogether. “I think what motivates people to do the work at home is being on the same level during class time,” shesaid. By arranging his class in this fashion, Puliatte was able to be more present to his students during sessions.

Another one of Puliatte’s students is Brittany Perone, who is about to start her senior year at FLHS. “I learn more withhis techniques and all the technology than I do in a boring classroom with a chalkboard,” she said. “I also feel moreproductive because I could go over the lesson again if I missed something or didn’t get it.”

Puliatte recounted a time when he was out of school forseveral weeks due to ankle surgery. He taught two studentshow to set up a laptop with a projector and Skyped with theclass from home three times a week. At the same time, thestudents were in a Go-to-Meeting-style chat room, and hegave them quizzes using Google forms. He was able to usescreen sharing, post polls and talk with students individuallyall from his own home.

“It was very cool of him to take the time out to teach us alesson while he was crippled,” Joy Cho said.

Always teaching, always learning

During the school year, Puliatte gets up at 4:30 everymorning. He walks his dogs, makes coffee, and then sits infront of the computer managing the high school’s varioussocial media accounts and browses the Twitter feed,collecting links and ideas from other educators about usingtechnology in the classroom as part of his morning routine. He uses Scoop.it, a social board for educators, to collectarticles and links to bring to school for lessons. He hops on Pinterest, Tumblr, and Facebook, scouring the internet forinnovation and bright ideas. By this time it is 7:15 and school starts in 15 minutes.

“Luckily I live about eight minutes away from the school,” he said.

James Puliatte is a perfect example of a 21 st century teacher. As the school’s resident tech expert he contributes tothe education of the entire campus, and as a social media and web guru, he is constantly finding new and excitingways to teach students.

“I always have the kids take a survey on me near the end of the semester. It really helps shape the rest of the year interms of what will be effective and what won’t. And I also have them give me a letter grade,” he said. “I got straight Asand one B+. There’s always one …”

Brent Hannify

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