About Mr. Schwartz

I grew up in Highland Park and graduated from Highland Park High School (sorry Warriors...)  I attended Cornell University where I received a BA in History and a BFA in Art. My teaching career began in 1995 while serving as a fellow on a social service program based in Israel. I taught at a boarding school for at-risk youth and new immigrants and in the inner-city of Lod, an industrial city where I taught at an Arabic language school, as well as a Hebrew language school. Just a few years later I received a Master’s in Communication from Stanford University and I launched a career in the television field. For about five years I worked in New York and I served as a producer on many feature-length documentaries that aired on various networks, including MSNBC, HGTV, Bravo, Court TV, and others. 

Shortly after 9/11, I decided to return to the classroom for a variety reasons, and I received an MA in Social Studies Education from NYU. I began teaching immediately in New York City at a wonderful magnet high school affiliated with CUNY's Baruch College. As my wife and I were starting a family, we decided to return to the North Shore. Following that move I taught at Lane Tech High School in Chicago and at Barrington High School. I have been incredibly fortunate to serve on the faculty at Deerfield High School since 2008, teaching Honors World History, WDHS (Media Production), Deerprints (print and online journalism), and serving as an instructional technology coach.  I can say with complete certainty that I saved the best for last!

Outside of the classroom I remain dedicated to being a teacher-practitioner and I continue to produce feature and short documentary films independently, from the writing stage to directing, filming, and editing. My last film, Mashed Media (2010), aired on WTTW-11 (Chicago PBS), screened in numerous film festivals, and is currently distributed by Films for the Humanities and Sciences. 

I am thrilled to be back teaching Honors World History, the combined DHS Media course, working with our various teams on instructional technology, but most importantly, I could not be more excited to work with the outstanding students here at DHS. Here's to a great 2014-2015 school year!