Blog posts by Todd Florio

Museums and the Common Core: What's Your Role?

Todd Florio

Last Tuesday, Brooklyn Historical Society hosted the New York Museum Educators Roundtable (NYCMER) in an event dubbed “Museums and the Common Core: What’s Your Role?” The event was open to NYCMER members and the public and the audience wound up being museum educators from across New York and beyond. Common Core refers to the new Common Core Learning Standards which are being rolled out by the State of New York and the NYCDOE.

The night began with an…

Ex Lab Preps Students for College

Todd Florio

As the Ex Lab students put the finishing touches on their exhibit, Christina Valdez took a moment to share some of the ways working on Ex Lab has helped her prepare for the challenges of college. Thanks, Christina! Open to the Ideas of Others Working on Ex Lab

My name is Christina Valdez I am a senior at Cobble Hill School of American Studies. This is my third year in Exhibition Laboratory (“Ex Lab”) and this year’s exhibit, Inventing…

Inventing This Year’s Ex Lab Exhibit: People, Stages, Progress

Todd Florio

This spring, BHS's fifth annual Exhibition Laboratory after-school museum studies program is underway. The fourteen participating high school students are hard at work co-curating BHS's newest exhibit. A few of the students wanted to give you the inside scoop on what it's been like to work on the project. It's my pleasure to introduce guest blogger, Brooklyn Technical High School junior Neil Alacha. Thanks, Neil! Inventing This Year’s Ex Lab Exhibit: People, Stages, Progress…

Was it standard to have gun racks in libraries in 1959?

Todd Florio

Ever since Chela mentioned offhand at lunch the other day that the BHS library had once had gun racks, my imagination was captured. I once helped move insanely heavy boxes of muskets in our storage and wondered where and when they'd been on exhibit. Well, thanks to the "Random Images" button in our online photo search of the John D. Morrell collection, an image popped up which quelled my curiosity.

I highly recommend searching around in those…

Back to School / Web Tools for Teachers

Todd Florio

I'm always happily surprised by how web savvy many of the teachers I work with are. As computers make there way into more and more classrooms, a huge pool of resources is at our fingertips. Here's a great list from mashable of some of the applications that are available for tech-minded educators: http://mashable.com/2009/09/07/web-apps-teachers/ My favorite is called "Footnote" and it features links to millions of primary source documents. The navigation bar which puts things in chronological order and…

Secret Bookstore on Montague

Todd Florio

Book-loving staffers at BHS were  sad to see Heights Books move off Montague Street a few months ago. Though still nearby at 120 Smith Street, it's a little far to walk during lunch. Luckily for those of us in the know, there's a tiny little-known "bookstore" hidden inside of the Housing Works Thrift Shop at 122 Montague.  Okay so our savvier readers probably already knew about this "secret" spot, but, as Biggie says, "if you don't know, now you know." I was mostly inspired to write this…

Studio in a School - Teachers' Workshop

Todd Florio

Last week, Studio in a School brought teachers from PS 255 in Gravesend to BHS for a professional development workshop. We looked at primary source documents in the BHS library and exhibits, then created exhibition boards for the classroom.
The teachers were great, and very interested in the subject matter which was slavery and abolitionism in Brooklyn.  I…

Oral History in the Classroom at PS 27 in Red Hook

Todd Florio

Sady and I took a trip down to nearby Red Hook to teach 4th graders at PS 27 about oral history. We played clips from BHS collections and discussed them with the kids, who were learning about Weeksville, Bed-Stuy and the African American experience in Brooklyn. The kids were quite excited when we told them that the workshop would end with them conducting interviews that would be saved in the BHS collections for perpetuity (We didn't use the word perpetuity with the 4th graders.).…

BHS Breaks 100 Followers on Twitter!

Todd Florio

In an effort to get the word out about our events, exhibits, and educational programs, (and to better connect to today's diverse communities), BHS started "tweeting" on twitter.com a bit over a week ago. In that short time, we have amassed over 100 followers! (Those are people who are signed up to see our updates.) It's great to see so much interest in BHS on the internets. If you're a bit of a technophobe or just not into twitter, don't worry. You don't have to sign…

Font of Knowledge

Todd Florio

I just discovered this excellent article about lettering on Brooklyn architecture by Paul Shaw on the AIGA website. BHS's original 1881 lettering spelling out "Long Island Historical Society" is included along with dozens of other great lettering in Shaw's article. Check it out! http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/lettering-grows-in-brooklyn

     

Brooklyn Vets Share with Teachers

Todd Florio

Last Thursday, BHS hosted a particularly rich teacher workshop on Vietnam and oral history. Part of one of the wonderful "Teaching American History" projects that BHS collaborates on, this day was particularly wonderful because of the contribution made by a panel of veterans that spoke to the participating educators. The personal stories related by the vets really brought a new level of understanding and investment for the educators which augmented what we…

It's Happening in Brooklyn!

Todd Florio

BHS's exhibit, It Happened in Brooklyn, has been drawing great attendance from NYC public school kids. You may not have known that BHS education staff was part of the Task Force that developed the Scope & Sequence curriculum guide used by Social Studies teachers throughout the city. It Happened in Brooklyn was designed to directly link up to what the kids are learning in class. Kids love the big map on the floor and the musket, but they're also fascinated by the slave bill of sale for a transaction that happened right here in Brooklyn.