We at Brooklyn Connections are gearing up for our 8th year reaching out to local schools, teaching research skills and learning about local history. With an exciting two-year, $400,000 grant from the New York Life Foundation and additional generous funding from The Morris and Alma Schapiro Fund, David and Paula Weiner Memorial Grant, The Hearst Foundation, Inc., Tiger Baron Foundation, and Epstein Teicher Philanthropies, we can continue our efforts of teaching authentic historical research to students around Brooklyn!
Students at PS/ IS 163 learned about transit history. They wrote and performed a play about their research findings!
Thanks to our generous funders, Brooklyn Connections will be able to expand in several important ways:
*Additional staffing will allow us to serve an impressive 32 partner schools.
*Connections educators will continue to write lessons and curricula that are Common Core and AASL aligned.
*Each partner school will receive a collection of Brooklyn history books, maps and other materials, ensuring that research can take place in the classroom.
*A pilot program for selected Brooklyn Public Library branches to introduce a mini-Brooklyn Collection.
*Targeted outreach campaign to reach underserved neighborhoods including Bedford-Stuyvesant/ Weeksville, Brownsville, Canarsie, Cypress Hills, East New York, and Spring Creek.
*Connections staff will organize two teacher open houses and several free teacher workshops that will focus on developing research skills in the classroom and local history. These sessions will be open to all New York City educators.
Teachers touring the Brooklyn Collecton
*Presentations at local and national conferences including the National Council for History Education in March.
*We will work with Pratt University to provide professional development opportunities for MLS students.
*The completion of an 8-module social movements curriculum funded by the David and Paula Weiner Memorial Grant.
If you are a teacher, school administrator, parent or other education-minded Brooklynite who is interested in bringing Brooklyn Connections to a classroom near you, please check out our website. We are currently accepting applications for partner schools for the 2014-2015 school year.
This blog post reflects the opinions of the author and does not necessarily represent the views of Brooklyn Public Library.
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