Introductory Letter

January 2024

Dear Parent(s)/Guardian(s),

Hello.  I am Mike Gargiulo, the new Technology Education teacher at Walt Whitman High School.  Over the summer, I worked with the administration to establish Basic Auto Care, Design & Drawing for Production (DDP), and Small Engine Repair which are the new Technology Education electives at the high school.  These new electives were made possible by your vote to extend the high school schedule to a nine-period day. I am excited to be a part of this wonderful opportunity.  This semester will be the first offering of these courses.

Although I am new to your school, I am familiar with teaching high school.  I have eighteen years of teaching experience and an additional fourteen years of related experience in public school education.  Throughout my career in education, I have had experience teaching students in grades six through twelve in different school districts on Long Island.  I look forward to working with your child this year.

Throughout this semester (and school year), students will use a minds-on/hands-on approach to learning in our activity-based curriculum.  I hope that each student will find something to love within the class.  One of the best parts about Technology Education is that the skills and lessons learned in class may be carried beyond the school walls, and that exposure to technical content is provided at an early age.

As part of my home-school communications plan, I will be making extensive use of email, Google Classroom, and the Infinite Campus Parent Portal to communicate with students and parent(s)/guardian(s).  Most documents will be distributed and returned using the features available within Google Classroom.  This approach will save a lot of paper, eliminates lost/misplaced papers, and it will allow everyone to have records of assignments and their submission dates.  Using the Infinite Campus will allow me to communicate each student's academic status in real-time. It is very important that you and your child review my Google Site, which is located on the Walt Whitman High School website.  The webpages contain information about each class, grading, extra help, and much more.

I am excited to be your child’s Technology Education teacher.  If you have any questions or concerns about the content of this site or throughout the semester, please email me at mgargiulo@shufsd.org.

Sincerely,

Mike Gargiulo

PS Please understand that the return of the physical copy of this letter, which was sent home with our child for signature, is your acknowledgement that you have reviewed this Google Site.

PSS for a full copy of the Introductory Letter sent home with the student for your signature, please click on this link.