Meet the Teacher
Hello!
Thank you for your interest in my background, but most importantly, to parents, thank you for entrusting me with your children on a daily basis, and to students, thank you for being in my class! I have a deep commitment to helping young people develop a greater awareness of themselves and the world around them. The Media and Communications curriculum that I teach includes Media Literacy, Written Communication and Public Speaking Skills, Sustainability, Digital Citizenship, Cyber Safety, and Mindfulness.
I received my Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism from New York University, my Master of Arts in Teaching from Manhattanville College, and my Middle School Extension certification from Pace University. I hold New York State Certification in Childhood Education (grades N-6), and Generalist in Middle Childhood Education (grades 5-9).
In 2019, I became a PBS Certified Media Literacy Educator.
After focusing my college years and early career on print and broadcast journalism, I've spent the past three decades bringing the personal computer revolution into the business and education environments, teaching both adults and children productivity and creativity tools. Nine of those years were joyfully spent at CET, when, in 1997 I began a computer technology education program for 1st through 5th grades.
In 2006, seeing a pressing need for media literacy education at the middle school level, I developed a curriculum that drew on all my previous experiences in the media, technology and education worlds to provide a comprehensive three-year course that helps children experience, analyze and create mass media products in order to understand their society and how it oftentimes exploits them.
On each of my grade level web pages, more information can be found regarding the specific contents of each year’s curriculum.
Since 2012, after becoming a Mindful Schools certified Mindfulness educator, I have enjoyed introducing Mindfulness training to PVC students, faculty and staff.
I have also enjoyed:
working with my colleagues to create curriculum and refine our vibrant Advisory program
founding and advising PVC's PRIDE Club for five years; I continue to be committed to fighting discrimination and providing my students with safe spaces
helping to organize the three annual film festivals celebrating students' creative film-making talents
In addition to teaching in the Croton-Harmon School District since 1997, I have taught summer sessions in middle school teaching methods as an adjunct at Pace University, and I have published several articles in Educational Leadership magazine on the various aspects of my work:
What’s Relevant for YouTubers?
Educational Leadership Magazine, ASCD, March 2008
Educational Leadership Magazine, ASCD, March 2009
Educational Leadership Magazine, ASCD, Dec/Jan 2010-2011
Educational Leadership Online, ASCD, Feb 2011
R U Safe? article reprinted in the following books:
Annual Editions: Educational Psychology, 11/12, McGraw-Hill
Annual Editions: Educational Psychology, 10/11, McGraw-Hill
Keeping the Whole Child Safe, Scherer, M., Editor, ASCD, 2010
Educational Media and Technology Yearbook, Volume 35; 2010
Blog post: Bridging the Digital Divide: A Student Film Festival on Digital Citizenship by Johanna Mustacchi for The Good Project, a research unit of Harvard Project Zero.
I am a member of the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE), and was featured in October 2015 as their "M-Passioned Member."
GLSEN 2019 Leadership Award
On May 16, 2019, I was honored to receive a 2019 Leadership award from the Hudson Valley chapter of GLSEN, a national organization that helps schools create safe spaces for all students, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. The award recognized my advocacy for LGBTQ youth in our schools and my role as our school's PRIDE Club advisor. I am thankful to my students and colleagues who nominated me and am thrilled to donate the award money to the PRIDE Club's activity funds.
In my more than two decades in education, my experiences as an advisor for our PRIDE club have impacted me more deeply and emotionally than anything that came before. Each day, as I strive to live up to a pin I wear on my ID lanyard that says “Fierce Ally,” I worry that I’m not doing enough. I can never know, for example, what it feels like to be trapped in the wrong body, as several of my students have expressed to me.
I will continue to work hard at being a fierce ally and provide the safe spaces and opportunities our youth need in which to speak their truth, which, in middle school, may change and evolve and that’s okay. I will continue to educate myself and others about the LGBTQ community and the unique challenges this community of youth face in our schools.
Love is Love.
Contact Ms. Mustacchi: johanna.mustacchi@chufsd.org