College and Career Readiness, the Arts, and the Whole Child
The Applied Arts and Careers Technology department at Monroe Township High School is designed to appeal to the senses and needs of children beginning the transition into adulthood and the professional arena. Broken into five content clusters, this department aspires to meet the needs of our students in a rapidly changing technical society, without compromising the need to provide Monroe’s learners the opportunity to design, apply, and interpret the personal and collective expressions of our society’s artists. In addition, our students will acquire the skills necessary to be a highly functioning and productive member of 21st century society.
Business and Career Preparation
Monroe Township High School’s business cluster is known across the region as having one of the region’s most comprehensive and effective programs. With 13 course offerings, two nationally recognized extra-curricular clubs (DECA and FBLA), and dynamic work-placement program (Senior Option), our students are leaving high school equipped with the occupational and employability skills that 21st-century employers are demanding. In response to the request from the NJDOE to our state’s schools to improve career and technical education, our department designs its curricula to center on the tangible and intangible skills that are needed in our modern, ever-evolving professional arena. MTHS holds an articulation agreement with Middlesex County College, which provides students pursuing a business major an opportunity to enroll in collegiate-level business courses. In addition, this department has recently begun offering AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics to its students.
By authentically infusing modern technology into unit design, students enrolled in our school’s business courses are privy to the practices and procedures they can come to expect in a professional setting. Instructors are also in regular collaboration other content areas within the department and the school to provide our students with practical and meaningful learning experiences.
Family and Consumer Science
Family and Consumer Science education at Monroe Township High School provides students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes to perform competently for their present and future roles. Activities require students to utilize information to apply knowledge; rather than simply recall the theories and findings of others, and to transform information into desired behavioral outcomes. Through performance, students acquire competencies, which enable them to contribute to, rather than depend on, society. The aim of our Family and Consumer Science program is to guide students in their search for clarification of personal identity and development; as well as to empower them with the skills to thrive as individuals, family members, and productive members of our ever-changing global society. Students enrolled in our FCS programs can engage in programs ranging from International Cooking and Gourmet to Fashion Merchandizing and Design. Our FCS program also facilitates the Falcon’s Next Pre-School, which connects students with children in the community; providing them with unique learning opportunities.
Students that are entertaining pursuing a career in education are encouraged to enroll in our Teacher Mentorship Program, which provides learners with the unique opportunity to work alongside our district’s instructional staff for first-hand exposure to the duties of a 21st-century school teacher.
Music
Monroe Township High School’s renowned music program blends creative exploration and expression with rigorous instruction, performance, and competition. Our award winning programs offer a numerous course offerings appealing to the diverse and unique talents of our students. Our courses provide students with authentic learning experiences that coincide with the opportunity to showcase their skills through performance. Instrumental and choral programs address music theory, technique, and performance, in addition to engaging the students with significant community involvement. Students involved in instrumental music can participate in symphonic band, wind ensemble, percussion ensemble, and our jazz ensemble. Our choir program offers a mixed chorus, men’s chorus, show choir, women’s chorale, and acapella groups.
Students within the our music program will have the opportunity to participate in our nationally recognized marching band, qualify for region and state groups, and attend conventions that further expose aspiring musicians to a career or advanced education in the performing arts. High achieving members of our department are celebrated in Tri-M Honors Society. The department also offers AP Music Theory to our students.
Industrial Arts, Engineering, and Careers Technology
Technology Education teaches students about the nature of technology and the human-designed world. Technology Education is also becoming a significant part of the general curriculum in many schools throughout the country and throughout the world. Our primary goal is to develop the technological literacy and capability of all students at Monroe Township High School so that they will be better prepared for life in a technological society. Technology education will focus on the methods, tools and knowledge that are used to achieve a technological solution. In addition, Technology Education at Monroe Township High School will explore technological systems; and the social, environmental, and economic consequences of technological development.
Our Industrial Arts programs provide students with the traditional instruction necessary to prepare for trade skill-oriented careers; coupled with the implementation of modern tools used in the 21st-century workplace. Students can learn the fundamentals of working with construction technology, digital technology, and computer software utilized by many of today’s highly functioning engineering firms. As a Project Lead the Way certified school, students who complete our engineering course sequence have the opportunity to earn college credits and transcript waivers.
Students interested in media production have access to a fully functioning television and graphic design studio. Utilizing resources found in the modern-day workforce, our curriculum design requires our students to learn the functionality and techniques associated with the effective use of professional equipment. Collaboration across content areas provides students with career training that will ease their transition into the workplace.
Visual Arts
The Visual Arts Program at Monroe Township High School is designed to foster sound visual, emotional, and aesthetic values necessary to appreciate culture and beauty in the world. Furthermore, it not only teaches the retention of facts and the mastery of artistic skills and techniques, but also enhances the capacity for achievement of academic knowledge and the attainment of personal development by teaching critical thinking skills. These skills shall enable students to anticipate and strive for the attainment of even more complex knowledge.
Like all of our programs in the Applied Arts and Careers Technology Department, Monroe Township High School’s Visual Arts Program assists in the development of the "whole" student in preparation for entering the society in which we live. Through strategic curricular design and professional collaboration, our faculty places a strong emphasis on highlighting the importance of art applications throughout the professional arena. Lesson design and execution lends itself to cross-curricular projects