About

I teach, or have taught, English, Honors English, English as a New Language, and a suite of Mass-Media courses at Penn High School, a Blue Ribbon School in northern Indiana. I began my tenure in 1998, and have been advising the Penn News Network since 2001.  You can find us at work everyday at pnn.phmschools.org.

In my role as the teacher & adviser, I manage the television studio, advise the Penn News Network (PNN) organization, make professional development films, and help teachers and students mass-communicate better. As an ENL teacher, I have helped multilingual students gain skills in English as well as help their teachers differentiate their curriculum to accommodate new-language-learner needs. As an English teacher, I offer students instruction in reading literature, writing to learn and to show learning, speaking formally, listening to voices in context, and collaborating to build understanding and knowledge.

television program and all the work that goes into it provides a great mechanism to teach language & communication.  Project-based learning is not just a buzzword in the PNN Studio and newsroom, but a way of life.  Every story is a project, and students work in teams to tell those stories.

A lot has changed since 2001. I took over an already-successful program with just one class, so I recruited students and added two more.  With that group of students, we broadened the curriculum to include hands-on learning modules as well a more theoretical curriculum in developing individual media literacy.  We were also making the move from an analog production to digital, and that provided its own project-based learning opportunities.

In the Seminar in Film Literature class students make independent films.
In the Seminar in Film Literature class students make independent films.

By 2005, I introduced the Seminar in Film Literature and Recording Arts Class in a new lab, and through that class we made independent films such as music videos, PSAs, mini-documentaries, and short narrative films. That year we hosted our first of nine film festivals. Since then, we have added a telecommunications class, which is a production class that focuses on shooting daily segments for students, teachers, and the administration.

During some summers, the PNN Studio stays in production by hosting a media camp.  The media camp uses a cross-age mentoring model to allow for current PNN students to work with middle-schoolers both in the field and in the studio.  The media camp is a week-long news cycle where students are shooting stories in the field Monday and Tuesday, editing Wednesday and Thursday, shooting and posting a news show on Friday.  Sometimes the camp takes place in South Bend, and other years it returns to Penn High School.

In addition to teaching students…

I also work with teachers on a couple of different projects.  Foremost, as an ENL teacher, I host professional development sessions on how to differentiate one’s classroom to help multilingual learners.  As a hobbyist, I also like to work with teachers in using digital technology. I have taught graduate classes in productivity software, web design, and instructional technology integration.  Currently, I work with teachers in using learning management systems such as Canvas, by Instructure.  I help them design blended classes that allow them to meet their students more effectively.

Throughout the years I have produced films for educators as well.  For more information or to get in touch with me, please use the contact form on this page.

Kevin McNulty teaches digital storytelling and makes the occasional professional development film for the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation.

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