MHS Social Studies Teacher/ Boys Cross Country Head Coach & Track Assistant Coach Email Phone: (262) 363-6200 x25227 Twitter: @MattScherbarth Hello!
My name is Matt Scherbarth and I am excited to teach your children this year and honored to serve the same school district in which I received my education. It is an honor to teach at my alma mater. I currently teach US history, AP US history, technology and society (online), Student Government and criminal justice at MHS. In addition to the courses I currently teach, I coach cross country , mock trial, and track. I also serve as the faculty co-advisor to M-Club and as faculty liason for MHS’s participation as a Gilder Lehrman Institute affiliate school. I received my Bachelors of Science (Political Science and International Relations) from UW Madison and my Masters of Arts (Political Science—Political Psychology and Foreign Policy) from The Ohio State University.
Criminal Justice is a semester long elective course at MHS that is designed to serve the needs of both those students contemplating a career in the CJ field as well as those seeking additional opportunities to take social studies classes at MHS. The course is structured as a survey of the three components of the criminal justice system—law enforcement, the courts, and the correctional system—and is taught with a special emphasis on the manner in which the American CJ system protects individual rights in each of these three components.
US history is a year long required course for juniors at MHS that helps students discover our shared past as Americans while learning the skills necessary to become good ‘consumers’ of history. History is much more than an endless collection of names and dates. Done well, history involves the application of analytical skills to ask probing questions of the past and hopefully yield answers with relevance to the manner in which we live today. In this, students at MHS are fortunate to have access to the unparalleled resources of the Gilder Lehrman institute, whose primary sources we frequently use in class for analysis and study.
AP US history departs from its ‘regular’ version in its focus on a broader expanse of time (we study back to pre-Columbian America in AP) as well in its focus on preparing students for the Advanced Placement examination in May. AP US history is taught as a college level survey course in American history with the aim of both providing students with the knowledge they would receive in such a course as well as the study skills they will need for post-secondary study. While AP US history is a rigorous course, it is a perfect opportunity for students with a passion for history to ‘practice’ college-level study before they leave the walls of MHS.
Technology and Society is an offering within the IT academy certificate program that encourages students to study the manner in which technology (especially information technology) has affected and has been affected by the society in which it has been developed. To a very real extent, students have grown up in and currently live in a world that is rapidly being reshaped by technology. Tech and society is an academic study of this transformation and hopefully the development of a personal roadmap for how to handle this revolution.
In all of my classes, I focus on working with my students to build skills and knowledge that will encourage success both within and outside of school. Content knowledge gained in my classroom is certainly important, but at the end of the day the disciplines we practice with in order to be intelligent consumers of this knowledge will prove most beneficial.
Daily Schedule
Class Homework and Activities
AP US History: available via Google Classroom
US History: available via Google Classroom
--US history available through Clever (Student and Family login at MASD)
Username: scherbarth3
Password:ushistory
Criminal Justice: available via the link on the left of this page
Technology and Society: all resources available via the link on the left of this page and at https://masd.instructure.com