feature stories

Give your students a taste of the Big Apple

by Dorothy Callaci

Feb 1, 2007 11:01 AM

For Avril Wenderoff’s 4th-graders at PS 24 in the Bronx it was the ultimate learning experience: the crunch and bite of the pickle, the creamy smoothness of fresh mozzarella, the sweetness of the halvah.
“They were out of their neighborhood, in another time and place,” she explained. “smelling, touching, tasting and seeing signs in so many different languages.”
They were on a field trip. Their study of immigrant New York suddenly springing to life as they walked the streets of Chinatown and Little Italy; saw the old tenements, the sweatshops and the mosque that became a shul and is now a school; and they all but heard the sound of pushcarts on Hester Street.
“It makes it real for them,” Wenderoff explained. “They love it and they don’t mind the walking.”
She was describing the Big Onion Walking Tour, just one of the many off-the-beaten-path trips she takes classes on each year.
The Big Onion program — which offers 25 different tours, custom-made to your curriculum needs and led by history graduate students with teaching experience — is just one of many, many possible adventures to enable public school students to explore and experience a wider world.
The great wealth of museums of all kinds here in New York — the Tenement Museum ties in perfectly with the ethnic neighborhood walking tour — and the great educational opportunities they provide are “totally underutilized” according to Barbara Ellis, a staff developer for Region 6. “This is the culture capitol of the world and our kids don’t get to see enough of it.”
A veteran field-tripper, she was also enthusiastic about field trips to the Children’s Galleries for Jewish Culture at 515 W. 20th St., Manhattan, which she said is “not only standard’s-driven, interactive and a natural bridge for writing, but fun! Students’ writing always improves after a field trip because they have something new to write about.”
The “small, intimate environment for grades 2-6 at this learning lab,” she said, allows students to, among many other things, become part of a family’s discussion about whether to leave one country for another and what to take and what to leave behind. Students get to understand that “people are people around the world.
“It’s a scholarly experience that provides multi-sensory experiences for long-term memory,” she added.
There’s really something for everyone. “Bodies,” the exhibit at the South Street Seaport exhibition center that attracts 50,000 visitors annually, is a perfect destination for science classes. The Skyscraper Museum’s current exhibit, “Giants: The Twin Towers and the 20th Century,” is certainly very timely.
Then there are zoos, historical societies, technology programs, botanic gardens and scores of other venues throughout the boroughs to enrich the curriculum.
With the arts on the minimalist to nonexistent side in schools these days, teachers in New York can make up for that lack because they have the treasures of the world at grades 2-6 at this learning lab,” she said, allows students to, among many other things, become part of a family’s discussion about whether to leave one country for another and what to take and what to leave behind. Students get to understand that “people are people around the world.
“It’s a scholarly experience that provides multi-sensory experiences for long-term memory,” she added.
There’s really something for everyone. “Bodies,” the exhibit at the South Street Seaport exhibition center that attracts 50,000 visitors annually, is a perfect destination for science classes. The Skyscraper Museum’s current exhibit, “Giants: The Twin Towers and the 20th Century,” is certainly very timely.
Then there are zoos, historical societies, technology programs, botanic gardens and scores of other venues throughout the boroughs to enrich the curriculum.
With the arts on the minimalist to nonexistent side in schools these days, teachers in New York can make up for that lack because they have the treasures of the world at their fingertips: theaters, art exhibits, concert halls and dance programs of every genre. Thousands of New York City students at every level have never had a peek into that magical world. Field trips make it possible to bridge the divide, broaden their horizons and, hopefully, their futures.
Spend a little time on the Internet and discover the possibilities — possibilities that most often include teaching guides and materials that enhance the experience.