Every morning, every day Mr. Daniel Rispoli comes to school at 7:30—to first of all, make sure that the whole school can see the schedule for the day and, second of all, to control the TV channels that the community sees.
You’d expect a teacher, or Media Technician like Mr. Rispoli, to say he likes to have some time to himself when getting home after spending all day surrounded by kids, but no. “I have a little son right now,” Rispoli said. “Every single time I walk through the door, he just smiles and runs and comes up and hugs me.” While his favorite thing to do is spend time with his family, working with kids is another passion of his. “I would say working with the students” is the best thing about working here, he said.
Rispoli controls multiple channels in the control room at THS: there are two channels, Channel 2 and Channel 77, the latter of which goes out to the community. To add to that, there are five message boards. Rispoli plans on dedicating one to events, the slides of which are created by students in the Media/Television/Video (MTV) class. There are more slides on music, and specific classes that the teacher wants the students to see during the day. Mr. Moger, the MTV teacher, is responsible for uploading the slides to the events page.
Rispoli really enjoys watching the freshmen grow up to be seniors, and watching how much they’re able to learn, evolve, and improve. “Well, I enjoy working with kids. And if I could give off any video knowledge to them that would be the biggest accomplishment,” he said. That is his favorite thing about working at THS—not getting to pursue his passion of editing videos and making the schedule but helping kids and guiding them through their high school careers.
Contrary to what most people would think, Rispoli didn’t always want to be a technician. As a kid, he didn’t know what he wanted to do; however, he has always enjoyed studying the technology department. “I didn’t actually go into college knowing what I wanted to do. I went undeclared because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do,” he said. During college, halfway through his sophomore year, he realized that he was pretty good at video editing and doing video work, and he started to excel in it. Over time, he took more and more classes about it, and eventually he got a certification for it, and he graduated with a major in digital filmmaking.
After university, Rispoli started his first job in technology, a position at MSG Varsity, which isn’t around anymore because it was bought out. His job in this company was filming high school sports. He would interview athletes after games, and then, afterwards, he was responsible for making sure that it was same-day delivery, similar to a journalist except it was only sports related, and he also had to film them and edit the videos. “So if I had a game at, say Bergen Catholic, Monday night, I was expected to have the game edited by Monday night and make sure it was sent on time every time,” Rispoli said.
Overall Rispoli is an inspiring person. It is obvious that he enjoys working with and teaching students. For individuals who are interested in learning more about Daniel Rispoli, he is starting his own class very soon. “Starting in early October I will have my own students,” he said. “It’s a transition class, and it will probably end at the beginning of June. It’s always period five, and always on Mondays and Fridays.” This class will be very similar to what students are learning in Mr. Moger’s class, which is MTV, except they would be going in-depth with video editing. It’s clear that Mr. Daniel Rispoli is a shining example of what a teacher’s values should be.
