Race & Place In Bay Ridge

 When discussing the topic of slavery, students often infer that there was no slavery in the north. Even adults do not want to believe that the north had slaves, and that those in New York City were always opposed of slavery. This was not the case. There were slaves in the City as well as in the area of Bay Ridge. When introducing this topic, it can be shocking to students and even their parents. It is important that when teaching the topic of slavery, that the teacher presents the facts and accurately portrays the experience of slaves. As always, the topic should be age appropriate for the students in the grade level. 

 When looking at local history, it is important to understand the Europeans who influenced the area. For the area of New York City, the first major European presence was Dutch. In looking at Dutch New York, students can understand the names of various places as well as why certain things exist in New York City. This lesson can best be placed with the Unit of Study that focuses on New York State History. This topic is super beneficial to those lessons that discuss the Dutch presence in the area. The topic also helps to bring the Revolutionary War and English influences that also led to the creation of the area we know today as Bay Ridge. Some of these topics seem so abstract or distant from the minds of young students, but by bringing attention to events that occurred close to the area that the students attend school in can help build their understanding of history and especially local history.  Another great resource for this topic would be the Center for Brooklyn's History we...

 When looking at the history of a specific place or location, it is best to start from the very beginning. It is also important in Education to recognize the impact and contributions of Indigenous peoples in the area, and bring light to their presence. Much, if not all land in the United States was once occupied by Native American tribes before the arrival of the Europeans.  Much of New York States curriculum in the Social Studies content focuses on the roles of Native Populations in the history of the United States, as well as a special concetration on the tribes located in New York State. An example of this would be in the New York State 7th grade Social Studies curriculum that states  "7.6 WESTWARD EXPANSION: Driven by political and economic motives, the United States expanded its physical boundaries to the Pacific Ocean between 1800 and 1860. This settlement displaced Native Americans as the frontier was pushed westward. (Standards: 1, 3; Themes: ID, MOV, TCC, GEO)" 7...

 It is important that before diving into a subject, that the audience has an idea of what you are talking about. That is why the first step in looking at local history would be to identify the area you are looking at, and creating a baseline of factual information. For a classroom setting, this would be a beneficial point to create a pre-assessment to properly gauge the prior knowledge of the students. 

 My name is Maeve, and I am a senior at St. Francis College. I am an Adolescent Education Major with a concentration in history. I plan to become a history teacher in either a junior high or high school setting. Over the course of my time at St. Francis College, I was exposed to wonderful classes and experiences that allowed me to develop a deep interest in local history. Being in Brooklyn, I was able to visit and learn about the rich history within the borough. In learning about the history of Brooklyn, I decided to focus on the small neighborhood of Bay Ridge. Instead of just sharing information about the neighborhood of Bay Ridge, I decided to make a guide of helpful ways to teach this material to students in their social studies classes. Students deserve to know about the neighborhood in which they are going to school and living in. In the New York City Department Of Education, there are focuses on New York State as a whole, but little room in the curriculum for individual neig...

This blog will be a great resource for those who are looking to teach local history to students. The information provided can be differentiated to any grade level. In this project, I have researched, evaluated and gathered information on the local history of my hometown, Bay Ridge Brooklyn. In doing this, I was able to identify three tools that greatly increased my knowledge of the relatively small neighborhood of Bay Ridge.  It is very important that students have the opportunity to explore and understand the local history of the area they live in or where they go to school in. So often social studies and history teachers are expected to educate their students on global events, or events that happened in the United States, with little emphasis on what was occurring in their local communities. For students, history and social studies classes can contain such abstract and foreign ideas. Student often question what the purpose of learning these concepts is, and how it can relate to t...