Mr. Michael Sherman has come off the big screen as an extra in “The Dark Knight” and into the classroom as the new video production teacher at PV.  

About ten years ago, one of his friends had saw an ad for the need of extras for a scene in the movie. They went on a summer day and had to wear heavy clothing for the shot. There, he got a glimpse of the director as well as some of the main cast. However, his movie career was short lived, with his only role being in “The Dark Knight.”

This year, Sherman is teaching four video production classes and one advanced video production class. Sherman wants his students to “make work that in ten years they can look back at and be proud of.”

Now that he is at PV, he would like to use the new video production equipment to form a video production club or Pascack Period course which would consist of students filming school events. He would also like to introduce a 15-minute morning announcements video made by his students for the school to watch, as he did at Raritan High School, where he worked before coming to PV.

“I’m very excited to be here,” he said. “I hope students who are interested in film can hang out and do stuff; I don’t have to have them as a student.”

His passion for video production was fueled in high school as it was one of his favorite classes, and it was there that he decided he wanted to become a teacher. 

“Just being able to reflect on my whole career as a student and the teachers I had, I wanted to do the same,” Sherman said. “Now I am, and it’s awesome.”

After his movie gig, Sherman taught at Raritan in Hazlet, New Jersey and was a substitute teacher in Long Island.

Sherman grew up in New York and went to Sanford H. Calhoun High School. He wasn’t the only one in his graduating class to make it to the big screen, as Lindsay Lohan graduated alongside him.

Sherman isn’t the only addition to the PV faculty this school year. Also joining the PV community are Moriyah Squitieri, Natalie Burd, Andrea Padelsky, Joanna Katz, Allan Martin, Virena Rossi and Karry Spano.

“I’m looking forward to a long career here,” Sherman said.