The Eye of the Hurricane is back in the highlighting department! For our Spring Edition, we also highlighted the New Castle Sr. High Social Studies Department. These teachers spend a great amount of time teaching students about History, Civics, Economics, World Cultures, American History, History of Law, and many more courses here at New Castle. We hope you enjoy the interviews and getting to know a little bit more about our awesome Sr. High Social Studies Department.

Sr. High Social Studies Teachers:

Mrs. Beck

Mr. Peluso

Mr. DePorzio

Mr. Stefano

Mr. Mancino

Mr. Bongivengo

Mr. Shaftic

Mr. Mancino

Q #1: When did you begin your teaching career? How long have you been teaching Social Studies? 

Mr. Stefano- The year 2000 – 22 years

Mr. Peluso- I began my teaching career in 2003- 19 years

Mr. DePorzio- I began my teaching career in the Fall of 2002. I have been teaching Social Studies for 18 years. 

Mrs. Beck- I began to substitute teaching in the Spring of 2005, my first year in my own classroom was 2007-2008. I have taught Social Studies for 14yrs.

Mr. Shaftic- I began teaching as a substitute in 1998. I was hired full-time @ NCASD in Sept of 2001. I have been teaching full time for 21 years

Mr. Mancino- I have been teaching for about 17 years

Q #2: Where did you begin your teaching career? (1st Year)

Mr. Stefano- New Castle High School

Mr. Peluso- New Castle High School (Old High School)

Mr. DePorzio- I began my teaching career as a permanent substitute at Ben Franklin. I did a year of teaching woodshop. I obviously was not allowed in the shop with the power tools so I spent a year teaching things like how to use a ruler and how to budget vacation and household bills. 2 years later I was hired as a full-time Social Studies Teacher. 

Mrs. Beck- I was a substitute for 2.5 years before getting hired at New Castle

Mr. Shaftic- I started my career as a substitute teacher at the Union Area School District with an emergency certification.

Mr. Mancino- My first job was at the IU4

Q#3: What do you like most about teaching Social Studies?

Mr. Stefano- Discuss with students the connections between classwork and the current world.

Mr. Peluso- Making connections with my students 

Mr. DePorzio- I love history and learning how events of the past shape the future. History tends to repeat itself. I also like seeing how previous generations changed and adapted to technology or the lack of.

Mrs. Beck- Talking about the crazy facts and interesting things that happened in the past.  Helping students to understand how and why things happened and how they still affect our life and culture today.

Mr. Shaftic-  I love the ability to interact with my students and make an impact on their lives. I also like the satisfaction of contributing to the community where I was born and raised. Mostly I enjoy teaching students how to gather information and make decisions based on events of the past. Our history is a valuable roadmap that can show us the best route to take in life if we just take the time to look at it.

Mr. Mancino- I find teaching social studies very interesting, especially in New Castle. I believe the Social Studies department is a great group of people.

Thanks for reading Canes!